Tips about professionalism from Ike Sheldon

Windows Media Real Audio Podcast

About Ike Sheldon

The self-described wise cracker, vocalist and lead guitar player for The Wilders, Ike Sheldon was born outside a little town in southern Missouri called Phillipsburg. A childhood filled with diverse musical interests led Ike to college in Liberty, Missouri, where he “dressed funny and learned how to sing opera”. But even in the classical atmosphere of college, country music still spoke to him, when he would get homesick or blue, he would take refuge in a tape of country music he made from his folks’ records. After college Ike played in “nerdy pop” bands with Tom Livesay and “Country Giant” Jeff Clayton Brown. Eventually, jams sessions in Kansas City led him to team up with fiddler Betse Ellis and mandolin and slide guitar player Phil Wade. In 1996, they formed The Wilders along with bass player Nate Gawron.