ABOUT SHAD: Shad was born in Hazel Dell, Wash., across the river from Portland, Oregon. His family moved to Wisconsin when he was 9. He started playing fiddle at 13 and joined his four brothers to form a family band. The band wrote its own tunes and played around Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa and Ohio. The Cobb Brothers played traditional bluegrass instruments but the style was more New Grass. After several years with the family band, he had an audition and got a gig playing in a country band. That job brought him to Nashville where he went on to play with country music star Mark Wills for three years. Later, after a stint with the Osborne Brothers, he spent time playing with Mike Snider, a banjo player/comedian who was a regular on the Grand Ole Opry. That’s how Shad came to John Cowan’s attention. John heard him on the Opry and before long invited him to join the band. “The music is exciting,” he says. “All the guys are virtuoso musicians. It’s different every time. You have total musical freedom which is both challenging and invigorating. All the guys will play stuff different every time. That’s fun. We get to explore different things whenever we step on stage.” FANS SAY: "Shad Cobb is one of the most amazing fiddle players you will ever hear. He has spent countless hours honing his craft, working for days, and years on end to create a sound that is unlike anything you will ever hear. In addition to just flat wearing out a fiddle, this man can play just about anything else you put in his hands! He has been known to pick up any instrument lying around "his little cabin home in the hood" and create the most beautiful music man has ever heard!" From jambands.com review of John Cowan Band show at Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte, NC, by Josh Klemons (Sept. 2007): “Lastly, he had Shad Cobb up there, a doctor on his instrument, playing the fiddle. Every one of these guys was great, but you simply don’t see musicians like Shad Cobb every day, or even every year. At one point Shad and John did a duet that was only vocal and fiddle. It was dedicated to John’s grandfather who had been a farmer and had fought the elements like his grandfather’s father and grandfather before him. He said that it was specifically about a tornado that had finally forced the closure of the family farm. John was the farmer and Shad was the tornado. While this may be a hard thing to describe, Shad and his instrument truly became the tornado: swirling energy, spinning uncontrollably and at times hurling debris in his path. One could close his eyes and see this epic battle between a defenseless man battling for his life and land against the forces of nature knowing that there is nothing he can do but pray and hope for the best. It somehow conjured images of “Great Gig in the Sky” by Pink Floyd. On Dark Side of the Moon, you hear that passionate voice battling the tornado, and here was that tornado personified in four strings and one killer player.” OTHER PROJECTS: Besides appearing on the album New Tatoo with the John Cowan Band, Shad also appears on the albums of many other artists such as the Mike Snider String Band, Frank Solivan II, Marty Raybon, The Little Grasscals: Nashville’s Super Pickers, Larry Stephenson, John Balch, Candace Randolph, The Village Singers, and Buddy Spicher .