Gary Klebe of Shoes
Hello, My Name is Gary
A
s Shoes guitarist / vocalist Gary Klebe remembers it, he never really entertained the notion of cutting his first solo disc at the seasoned age of 73, as he’ s just done with the shimmering new Out Loud set, issued on the band’ s longtime personal imprint, Black
Vinyl Records. In fact, whenever he would stop to review its growing catalog of tracks, he would feel less assured, even more doubtful.“ So to be honest, I still wasn’ t sure that I would ever release it, because I just didn’ t feel quite right on my own,” he sighs.“ And even when I saw that I had a full record’ s worth of songs, eleven, I didn’ t know that anyone would really care about it, so I was just ready to give up on it and shelve it.” But fate found an unexpected way of calling his bluff.
The Zion, Illinois native knew it was possible to go it alone, while Shoes’ other two founding members, the brothers Jeff and John Murphy( on guitar and bass, respectively, and temporarily on studio sabbatical); Jeff had already put out his own solo project, Cantilever, back in 2007, with no snags compromising the next cohesive Shoes album, Ignition in 2012. And ever since its formation in 1974, he declares,“ Shoes were all I cared about— that was my Number One priority, and it is to this day. And after Ignition, I wanted to keep going with another album. But as time has gone on, it’ s just been harder for all of us to get together to do them.” And Klebe admits that this is partly due to their unique creative process— each member has grown comfortable privately writing three to five tunes, after which they finally get together to compare notes before combining them into one full-length record. But this time, he just kept right on composing, quietly pleased that he’ d stockpiled so much.
Eventually, news of his achievement reached Klebe’ s old Midwest buddy, Garbage maestro— and producer of Nirvana’ s classic Nevermind— Butch Vig, who asked to hear the Out Loud tracks.“ But I still didn’ t feel quite right being on my own,” Klebe says.“ I was almost ready to give up on it and just shelve it, so when we did another Shoes record, I’ d have a ton of stuff to choose from.” The keen-eared Vig strongly disagreed. He listened to the Merseybeat flourishes of“ Room to Breathe,” the rattlesnake rhythms of“ Wrong All Along,” the big crescendoed chords of“ No Afterglow,” an instantly-chugging“ Bridges Are Burned,” and the jagged riff of“ Shake Me”— every cut frothing with Shoes’ trademark fuzzy / sharp guitar and velvet-textured vocals( usually Klebe’ s airier voice combined with the fluffier tones of the. Murphy siblings; this time it’ s all just multi-ply Klebe, who sang all parts and played every instrument but drums, which were tracked in Nashville with John Richardson. And Vig had only one urgent suggestion: Why wasn’ t this sparkling power-pop masterpiece available for purchase yet?“ Butch really convinced me that I really needed to get it out and to do it for myself, if nothing else,” he says.“ Like, don’ t have any expectations— just have the attitude that you’ re doing it for yourself. So he seriously encouraged me to keep moving forward with it.” He also took the time to check in with his longtime Shoes-geek supporters at the Illinois Entertainer for a wideranging chat ….
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6 illinoisentertainer. com may 2026