The Bent Nails

The Bent Nails hail from Vancouver with a quirky blend of Blues, Roots and Country influenced originals and cover tunes. They’ve also been known to wander into Motown, Swing and Jug Band territory. Their sound has been described as Buddy Miller meets Dave Edmunds with the Wailin’ Jennys. Maybe with a dash of Lucinda Williams thrown in for good measure.

Originally formed in September ’05 to back up Desperate Measures (Sharon Craig and Shelley Stevens), their passion and openness to all genres of music really shines through.

Sharon Craig (lead vocals) got her start with the Sweet Adelines, where she developed her bell-clear vocal style and honed her showmanship skills. She’s an emotive performer who has been collaborating musically with Shelley since ‘98. Her credits include Flower Tea and Diesel, The Front Porch Singers and Desperate Measures (not the religious group!). Her influences include Celtic, folk, rock, and pop music.

Shelley Stevens (vocals, rhythm guitar, banjo) picked up a guitar and started singing at age 12, but it’s only been in the last 15 years that she’s taken it to the stage. A longtime student of vocal coach Judith Rabinovitch (Sarah McLaughlin), she’s an accomplished songwriter and harmony singer. Her influences include Hendrix, Clapton, Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris. She’s been obsessed with country blues for over a decade and lives for her yearly pilgrimage to the Port Townsend Country Blues workshops and festivals.

Andrzej Koczapski handles lead guitar, dobro, lap steel and pennywhistle duties. ‘Nearsighted Lemon Koczapski’ played clarinet and saxophone in high school, as well as bagpipes (briefly!) in a marching band. Then he discovered rock and roll. He worked his way through medical school playing guitar in dance bands and has performed in rock, country, bluegrass, folk, swing, blues, and latin percussion groups. He has an affinity for roots and world music and for the jump blues of Duke Robillard and T-Bone Walker.

Wayne Croppo keeps the vibe alive on keyboard, harp and vocals. He was born one wet mile from Motown and was raised on Soul and R+B. Then he heard Paul Butterfield. The rest is history.

Bryun Jantzen has been playing bass since he was 12. His early influences include 60’s rock and roll, The Beatles, the Eagles and Led Zeppelin. He’s also a closet songwriter. (We’ve outted him.) He regrets that he only discovered the Blues 15 years ago.

Lorne Craig took up drums fairly recently and filled in at a few gigs with us and well, he’s really grown on us. He heralds back to the Desperate Measures days with Sharon and Shelley where he was their lead guitar player. He’s also an accomplished singer, songwriter and designer who’s responsible for the look of our CD.

“The band sounded GREAT. I loved your selection of songs.”
“The harmonies that you had going on were amazing. “
“What a lovely groove you had….I am forever your devoted fan.”
“Very cool repertoire.”
“It was a high energy night. You sound great; I really like your repertoire.”