There is a new name in Canadian country music, but the faces behind it are well known in the community and the industry.
Drumheller’s Rob Shapiro and guitarist Darren Gusnowsky have been mainstays in the country music scene for many years, as the two out of the three that made Hey Romeo a radio favourite. Along the way, they collected several awards as a band and individually.
Together they have a new project called JayWalker. They have been working on it for some time and debuted on stage at the Canadian Final Rodeo back in November.
“CFR in Red Deer was fantastic, there’s always a great energy when you start something new. Darren embraced centre stage and we blasted out our new music, totally fun,” Shapiro told the Mail.
While they have both been busy, including touring with Aaron Goodvin, and other projects, they have been working on new music and last year were in Nashville.
“There are more songwriters, musicians, and producers per square inch in Nashville than anywhere in the world I’m convinced,” he said.
In August they released their first single called “Kickin’ Back on a Sunday.”
“We worked with a producer named Jeff Dalziel from Toronto who’s produced or recorded Brett Kissel, Dan Davidson, and Washboard Union,” said Shapiro.
He said “the inspiration for this new song came from the endless hours of touring on the road. On the way home, for our one day off, the question we would all ask each other was “what are you doing on your day off? ”Our reply was always “Just kickin’ back.”
The duo has been busy on social media pumping up the new single as they continue to work on their debut record as JayWalker
“JayWalker is a modern take on 90’s country that we love and with Darren singing it’s got a fresh sound to it,” said Shapiro. “We are working on an EP and just put our social media pages up, (JayWalkerCountry) please follow or like! And yes more content on those is coming as it just can’t be music these days. We’ve established relationships in media and the Canadian music industry and will work on getting them everything they need to get the word out on JayWalker.”
