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**_Sleepy Doug Shaw - 360 Record Shop, Red Hook, Brooklyn, March 8, 2024_** _**/**__**Tubby’s, Kingston, New York, January 14, 2024**_ / _**WFMU Frow Show Tribute**_
Amidst the sadness of 2026, the recent, much-too-soon passing of Doug Shaw has to be one of the saddest things. I didn’t know him, but the overwhelming outpouring of love for the London-born/NYC-based musician over the past week or so tells me the world is a lesser place without him.
An underground mainstay, Shaw played with White Magic and Gang Gang Dance, but I only really became aware of him sometime this decade when my friend Michael Klausman recommended the Bandcamp-only live release _Sleepy at Tubby’s_, which completely blew me away. I remember listening at first and thinking: “Man, this guy is as good as John Martyn.” And then I remember listening again and thinking: “Man, this guy is _better than John Martyn!”_ Dazzling guitar work, beautiful vocals, an effortlessly cool vibe. An incredible talent.
Which made it all the weirder that Shaw didn’t really have an actual album that properly showcased that talent. His stuff was spread across various digital platforms in a semi-careless fashion. Fair enough — there was something effortlessly cool about that, too, a refusal to play the game by anyone else’s rules. Still, his legend seemed to be growing; there was a collab LP last year with Animal Collective’s Geologist, as well as a lengthy feature by Andy Cush in Hearing Things.
And apparently, there’s a proper album ready to go, a fact that is both heartening and depressing. Doug won’t get to enjoy the inevitable rave reviews and sold-out shows he deserves. The best that the rest of us can do is listen to the man’s music. His Highlife Bandcamp page is filled with brilliant stray tunes; the Roolin YouTube page just posted a terrific video from a Red Hook record store, which captures Shaw casting a spell for 50+ minutes, culminating in an absolutely heartbreaking cover of Neil’s “Old Country Waltz;” Kliked also shared a similarly terrific 2024 Tubby’s set, culminating in an absolutely heartbreaking cover of Robert Wyatt’s “Alliance.” And Jesse Jarnow paid tribute on WFMU a few days ago with an hour’s worth of loosies and rarities, giving a great overview of the Sleepyverse, which is expansive and entrancing.
