Bunker Sound Sessions

The Shakedown is more or less a glorified cover band. There are a lot of explanations for this, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Over the years, show after show, The Shakedown has evolved into a collective of musicians that I’m really proud of. Our goal is to reinterpret and breathe new life into classic music, all of it written by other seminal artists we know and love.

We play this music at special events like weddings, through our growing Tribute Series which started in 2015, and apparently a bunch of deceptively fun elementary school fundraisers, as of late. The Shakedown isn’t going to go out and write the next great American record, but we do take great pride in playing others’ songs at a high level.

With that said, for a long time we’ve wanted to capture the live feel of our performances in a studio, just to see what it sounded like outside of places like The Pour House or The Carolina Inn. Last summer, serendipity struck and we had the opportunity to perform for Steven Raets and co. at his wife’s birthday party. Their beautiful home in Chapel Hill is also the site of Bunker Sound, Steven’s impressive recording studio. If you’re a Triangle-based musician, you owe it to yourself to check this place out. I’m not a gear head, but it was a shock to all of us as we toured his studio.

Yes, maestro. Steven in his element.

Fast forward to this past winter and The Shakedown spent half a day recording some of our favorite covers in studio at Bunker Sound. Steven, we can’t thank you enough for opening up Bunker Sound to The Shakedown. Like most things we do, it was a hell of a lot of fun. For the videographers our there, Dustin ran the video side, in addition to covering his licks on guitar. Here’s the first of what we hope are many more Bunker Sound Sessions to come. Please enjoy and share: