We are the

New Shoes Blues Band

​

​

Dan Gorrell --- Guitar and vocals (founding member)

​

Dan is a native of southwest Ohio who lived in Louisville, Kentucky and Fresno before coming to the Bay Area in 2010. He started playing guitar as a teenager in numerous bands in Cincinnati and Louisville. After a long hiatus from performing he returned to stage work in 2008 and became a fixture in the Fresno blues scene, playing with some of that area’s most talented musicians. His early influences include Motown and many of the British blues guitarists. He has gradually gravitated toward the more blues-based southern rock bands and Mike Bloomfield's various adventures. He currently lives in Hayward and is convinced he was always a Californian — he just didn't realize it.

​

Steve Lopez --- Harmonica and vocals

​

Growing up in Sunnyvale, Steve picked up his first harmonica while attending junior high. While in High School in Sunnyvale, he heard Sonny Terry and Lee Oscar play the harmonica it was then he started to take the harp more seriously. As a member of The FOG, he recorded original music and the musical score for the short film The Last Glimmer. Steve has also played with the Country band Three on the Tree, Rock cover band Chain of Fools and the Firebird Blues Band. His music influences range from Big Band sounds to the Blues of Sonny Terry to the sound of the Bay Area Rock of the late 60's and early 70’s.  

​

Steve Schaefer --- Bass and vocals (founding member)

​

Steve grew up with classical music around the house, and after several years of clarinet, took up the guitar as a teenager. At 18, he bought a bass from a pawnshop that was promptly stolen, and didn't play much for a while. In 2003, during his son's guitar lesson, he spied a row of basses at the music store. At his wife's urging, he bought one as a birthday present, and began lessons. He began playing with Red Paint with three other music students, and after meeting Dan Gorrell in 2013, started playing the Blues with Tablues, then Fault Line Blues Band, and now New Shoes Blues Band. He also began upright bass in 2004 and spent 10 years with the Castro Valley Orchestra and has attended numerous chamber music workshops. 

​

Sean Donoghue --- Drums

​

Sean started playing drums in elementary school, then learned to play Swing, Big Band, and Jazz standards. In later years, he got into Rock, Grunge, and harder music of the era. Living in Detroit introduced him to the drummers of Motown, Funk, Soul, and R&B. Time in Tampa taught him a plethora of Southern and Classic Rock songs. On Guam, he was exposed to Island music and Reggae. At the time, he considered himself a well-rounded drummer. When Sean moved to the Bay Area, he went to a Blues jam where somebody called a shuffle--and he stunk up the room bad with his scattered beats. That was the beginning of his deep dive into Blues music, shuffles, and the musicians who knew how to play them. Sean fell in love with Blues music, the older the better, and the early Chicago drummers are some of his strongest influences. The Bay Area is also blessed with phenomenal Blues drummers who are willing to share from their experience, ear, and soul. Sean is still on a lifelong journey to become the best traditional Blues drummer he can.

​

​

The best is yet to come!

Please see GIGS tab for latest performance dates

​

​

​