South Ridgeway Avenue

Even while working behind the scenes, Ken never stopped writing songs. In the last few years he has resumed his performing career, and audiences have enjoyed him at every stop on the road.

Over the years, Ken’s songs have appeared on other people’s albums, both major label and independent, but he has never recorded his own material until now. Finally, his album, "South Ridgeway Avenue", named after the Atlantic City street on which he grew up, is scheduled to be released in April 2003. "It took me a long time, and the help and encouragement of many friends, to make this album," he says. "The good news is that I’d built up a large catalog of songs, and so I had a lot of material from which to choose. Plus, I had help from some of the best musicians in the area."

The rhythm section of NJ’s legendary Stanky Brown Group anchors the band. Jerry Cordasco’s steady and creative drumming, and Rich Bunkiewicz’s outstanding bass playing create a solid backdrop for the highly personal, and often deeply moving songs about loss and redemption. "We’ve been friends for a long time, and that’s the best thing about playing together," Ken adds. "These guys know me. They know where I come from."

Recently the band added guitar player Herb Maitlandt to the lineup. "It was fate. We were recording the album in Jerry’s studio, and Herb moved in next door," Ken notes. In addition, Walt Stacey, guitarist with top NJ band Big Orange Cone, appears on the album, and Chris D’Amico of Daze of Rain adds keyboards and backing vocals.

"My music is about what’s been lost, both personally, and as a society, but it is also never without hope for the future, and the chance for redemption."

"I feel kind of funny telling people that I grew up on South Ridgeway Avenue in Atlantic City. The fact is that my grandparents had a house there, and I spent my first twenty summers in that house. I suppose the key phrase is ‘grew up’; because that’s where I think that I did all my growing. Those summers. That street. That town. The place where my memories live."

Ken Shane has decided to pay tribute to that time and place on his first album. Everything from the photos on the front and back covers, to the songs of memory and loss that fill the album is inspired by those childhood experiences. "It’s really about my grandmother. She owned that house. I’ve never been closer to anyone than I was to her. When she died a few years ago, I knew that I had to find a way to honor her memory. So I did what I thought I could do, which was to write these songs, to make this album. For her," Ken says.

"Atlantic City was a great town in those days, before gambling. I’ve heard people say that it was a dying city, but if it was, I never noticed it. When I visit now I feel all at once sad, angry, and bewildered by what has happened there since the big casinos took over. A lot of my songs are about those feelings," Ken adds. "There’s a lot of frustration in the knowledge that things will never be as they once were."

"I had written these memory songs, and I was ready to start recording. Then September 11 happened. I’ve thought a great deal about that day, as we all have. It’s clear that that tragedy is also about loss and redemption, although on a much, much larger scale. But the same frustrations emerge with the certainty that we will never be the same again."

"I also think that an artist has a responsibility to respond to important events. I was on vacation in Arizona that day. I was in a wilderness that couldn’t have been any further from New Jersey. I live less than thirty minutes from downtown Manhattan. My immediate reaction was that I wanted to be home. This was an attack on my home, on my neighbors, and I wanted to be with them. That’s where I belonged. Again, I did what I could do, which is to write songs. So, there are a couple of songs on the album that deal specifically with that terrible day and its aftermath."

"Despite all of the loss depicted on this album, I remain full of hope for the future," Ken closes.