Cyrus from Presidio Bay Ventures throws a great party for #WeLoveSF. Last year I met the mayoral candidates and the Shvo team. This year he had SF's DA in attendance in a power-pink pantsuit, plus lanky State Senator Scott Wiener, violence reducers Urban Playaz, and local icon Ghazi Shami of Empire Records, who, upon my insisting for a recommendation of which music of his company's to listen to on Spotify, suggested Shaboozey.
Cut to next morning. Click #Shaboozey and dive in.
The first song I picked was "Highway" and the twang guitar was pleasing to the ears of this groover entrenched in Terrapin Crossroads, CRB, Mother Hips, SF Jazz and Bay Area live music in general.
Next I tried "Horses & Hellcats" and the hints of slide guitar like Lebo or Dave Zirbel would play brought me into my country-rock comfort zone. The synthesizer rolling-drums took me back to crystalline pop of early Madonna - think "Where's the Party." And the slight reverb on Shaboozey's vocals gave this song a stadium quality like Cher, or Rick Mitaronda from Goose.
"A Bar Song" brings a little fiddle on the backbeat, and the upbeat hand claps make ya bounce. When the bass drum on the heartbeat joins in, I'm certain I'll see a grrrl "two-steppin' on a table, she don't need a dance floor." If, as he sings, "there's a party downtown near 5th street," then I wanna go.
Aha - this is why Shaboozey has tens of millions of listens. It's a delicious blend of country, synth pop and hip hop. Scenario-setting whistles from old Westerns are featured in both "A Bar Song" and "Highway." And behind the hip-hop that runs through all tracks, a spine of electro breakbeats like 90's NY's Jungle Sky or "Milkshake" by Kelis support his aural compositions.
His black cowboy persona is undeniably cool. The gif's of him smoking cigarettes in the back of a pick-up truck in a hilly, barren countryside in "Let it Burn" reminds me of the freedom in America's open spaces and of my own badass-ness in my 20's when I wildly traversed the USA. Oh to be out in the country!
Shaboozey's pop chords and production of layered rhythms are triumphant and uplifting. His voice is rich, gutteral, velvety and very pleasant coming out of a Bose speaker. He's alot of both country & hip-hop, blended with electro vibrations and danceability.
But the basic element of rhythm guitar is what set Shaboozey's music apart from other hip-hop I've heard. It's what struck me first in "Highway," and it stuck with me. I'm rapt with Americana music in the Bay Area, where the country-bluegrass-blues fusion birthed by the Grateful Dead is, frankly, endemic. Guitar-driven California country tunes by Scott Law, Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz, Tim Bluhm and Greg Loiacono, and Nicki Bluhm make ya dance, whether in moonlit fields, historic theaters or dive bars. So, it's perfect that Ghazi picked Shaboozey to suggest to me.
The soundtrack to the WeLoveSF gala was West Coast hip hop flavor, which was bemoaned by a European party friend who was missing his techno. And I didn't get my whirling dervish on like I would at a Brokedown in Bakersfield show. But the purpose of a gala isn't to dance like a fool. It's to be elegant in one's formal attire. To drink champagne. And to schmooze.
My night at WeLoveSF's gala was a success. I found a wellspring of country pop music to enrich my listening life, straight from the source. And that's a night to remember.
11/2/25