Shane Theriot

Early Life & Education

Theriot was born in Thibodaux, La, a small town about 60 miles from New Orleans. He was exposed to music at a very early age and began playing drums and guitar at 11. He also studied trumpet and piano and played drums in junior high school, as well as in his high school marching band. He is mostly self-taught except for some private study in classical and jazz guitar during high school.

Following high school, Theriot attended the Guitar Institute of Technology (now Musicians Institute) in Los Angeles. Guitarist Scott Henderson, an instructor there and (a member of the band Tribal Tech, as well as Chick Corea's band) recommended Theriot for a teaching position when Theriot was 20 years old.

As a performer

Theriot was first featured on Mark Varney's Guitar on the Edge CD series with an original composition, "In Between." In 1996 he began playing with The Neville Brothers, with whom he performed until 2003, touring nationally and internationally. During this time he also began working as a session guitarist. Theriot has released three albums as a leader since 2000: Dirty Power (2009), The Grease Factor (2003), and Highway 90 (2000).

Theriot has either recorded or performed with a wide variety of artists in virtually all styles of music including The Neville Brothers, Hall and Oates, Boz Scaggs, LeAnn Rimes, Beyoncé, Harry Connick Jr., Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Willie Nelson (he also makes an uncredited appearance in the movie The Dukes of Hazzard with Willie Nelson in band scene), Madeleine Peyroux, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave, Aaron Neville, Maria Muldaur, Larry Carlton, John Waite, Leni Stern, Zachary Richard, Steve Earle, Idris Muhammad, Blue Floyd, Marc Broussard, Slim Whitman, The Syn (with Chris Squire and Alan White of Yes), and Little Feat among others.

Theriot worked as the personal guitar instructor for Forest Whitaker and Nick Nolte for the 2010 road movie My Own Love Song.

As an Producer

Theriot has produced records for other artists including Ramsey Lewis (with Dr. John and Kung Fu), Jo-El Sonnier (The Legacy, which won the 2015 Grammy award for Regional Roots album and is currently co-producing Daryl Hall's upcoming solo record.

As an educator

Theriot taught guitar at the Atlanta Institute of Music (then GIT Atlanta) from 1991 to 1993 alongside Jimmy Herring (Allman Brothers, Widespread Panic). During this time he traveled and worked as a clinician for the Kaman Corporation, which included Takamine, Ovation and Hamer guitars.

He has written instructional columns for Guitar Player Magazine and has been featured in Guitar Player, Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician, Downbeat and Vintage Guitar magazine, among others. He has also done seminars for the National Guitar Summer Workshop and is a frequent guest at Musicians Institute campuses in Los Angeles and Japan.

Theriot has written instructional books for guitar players, including The Next Step: Creative Concepts For Improvising Guitarists (Atlanta Institute of Music, 1995) and New Orleans Funk Guitar^[8] (Alfred Publishing, 2000). He has 3 courses available from TrueFire. Rhythm Mojo, Solo Mojo and 30 Mojo Rhythms You Must Know.

As a clinician, Theriot has appeared as a guest instructor along with Dweezil Zappa and Lee Ritenour at the Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival.

As a film and television composer

Theriot has written music and jingles for MTV, Discovery Channel, A&E, CMT, VH1 and ESPN, including for the shows Sons of Guns and Anthony Bourdain's The Layover.

Shane's Podcast

In 2016 Theriot started a podcast entitled "The Riff Raff with Shane Theriot, a format where he "interviews and jams with musician friends and creative people". The first few episodes featured John Oates (Daryl Hall and John Oates), jazz great John Scofield and Meters bassist George Porter Jr.

As a leader