Jon Shain, based in the heart of the Piedmont, Durham, NC, brings to his craft a wealth of roots influences and experiences from the road. While still in school at Duke University in the late ’80s, Jon joined a local blues band and had the good fortune of learning the Piedmont blues guitar tradition from two North Carolina bluesmen, Richard 'Big Boy' Henry, and John Dee Holeman. ' It was very cool as a 20 year old kid to be able to sit with these older men and watch their hands and listen to them sing and just absorb as much of it as I could. We were also backing them up electrically at festivals, so we could really check out how they played a crowd, too.'

In 1989, Jon started a group with a bass-playing friend, calling it Flyin’ Mice. The duo opened up for the likes of John Hammond and released their first album 'So Hi Drive' in 1991. When the time came to expand the group to include drums and another guitar player who also doubled on banjo, the band’s sound started to mix in vintage bluegrass influences in their songs. That lineup of Flyin’ Mice shared stages with Tony Rice Unit¸ David Grisman Quintet, Hot Tuna, David Wilcox, Leon Russell, Dave Matthews Band, and many others. The Mice released their second CD, 'Brighter Day' in 1994 and toured extensively over the next few years.Flyin' Mice broke up in 1996 after recording their third album, the aptly titled 'So Long'. Jon Shain and drummer Mark Simonsen splintered off to start a new band,WAKE. Where the Mice had incorporated many styles of roots music from bluegrass and blues to Celtic and Dixieland, WAKE came down more solidly on a folky country-rock foundation, providing an outlet for some of the softer, more thoughtful Shain songs as well as the more electric rockers. In 1997, WAKE released their self-titled debut which received airplay on more than fifty independent and commercial radio stations in the States and in Europe.

When WAKE broke up in the fall of 1998, Jon began work on his first solo effort, 'Brand New Lifetime', released in the fall of 1999. He played guitar, banjo, bass, lapsteel, and more in the studio. The new material brought it all back home. Maintaining strong roots influences from blues to bluegrass, the songs also reflected his growing lyrical maturity. 'Brand New Lifetime' garnered favorable reviews and radio airplay across the USA and internationally.

May of 2001 brought the release of Shain's second solo album, 'Fools and Fine Ladies'. Recorded in one week's time in Chapel Hill, NC, and utilizing Shain's regular sidemen, along with Red Clay rambler Chris Frank, Blues harmonica wizard Bill Newton, and vocalist Taz Halloween, the CD captures a very live feel and some of Shain's best songwriting and playing to date. 'Fools and Fine Ladies' has already received the best critical response in Shain's career to date. Here are some reviews. Shain is currently performing shows on acoustic guitar, and is often accompanied by former WAKE bandmate John Currie on dobro and by long-time friend FJ Ventre on upright bass as the Jon Shain Trio. Shain has recently shared the stage with the likes of John Hammond, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Jorma Kaukonen, Chris Whitley, David Olney, Peter Rowan, Tony Trischka, NRBQ, Donna The Buffalo, Pierce Pettis, Robbie Fulks, Bill Morrissey, the N. Mississippi All-Stars, and Jesse Colin Young. Recent festival appearances include the Eno River Festival, the Lake Eden Arts Festival, Smilefest, First Night Raleigh, the Berkshire Mtn Music Festival, Virginia Highlands Festval, and the Newport Folk Festival (accompanying Dana and Karen Kletter).