Virgil Shaw

Who is Virgil Shaw?

Virgil Shaw is an American singer-songwriter who currently resides in Portland, Oregon. Shaw grew up in Fairfax, California. He began his career in Arcata, CA in the late 1980s as a member of the high energy speed-pop band Brent's T.V. He later moved to San Francisco where he played in the band Dieselhed from 1992 to 2000. When Dieselhed disbanded in 2000, Shaw began to perform and record as a solo artist, sometimes with the help of his backing band that he named "The Killer Views". After a stint in New York City, in 2006, he moved to Portland, Oregon.

Shaw's first album, Quad Cities, was released in 2000 through Future Farmer Records. In reviewing the album, AllMusic's Kieran McCarthy described Shaw as an "heir apparent to country-rock founder Gram Parsons", and awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars. According to AllMusic's Stanton Swihart, Quad Cities is "loaded with amazingly rich, evocative songwriting". Shaw's second album, Still Falling, was released in 2002 through Munich Records. Swihart wrote of this album that "'[s]tunning' seems to be the word that has most attached itself to Still Falling, and with excellent reason", and awarded it 4.5 out of 5 stars.