After 17 years hiding in the vault Andy Scheinman unlocks ‘The Original’.


“Scheinman just may mark the return of the American storyteller”—Bob MacKenzie, Sound Bytes

Scheinman presents smartly crafted, rollicking Americana tunes that explore personal experiences with compelling insight and honesty”—Michael McCall, Nashville Scene

His songs could play as either fiction or fact, They ring true because they speak honestly”—Michael Berick, No Depression


Andy Scheinman is a founding member of the award winning Jump Blues band Eight O’Five Jive. But well before Eight O’Five Jive came into existence he had a flourishing career as an Americana singer songwriter. With his solo debut ‘Make Amends’ under his belt, Scheinman reached out to award winning producer/songwriter/bluesman Colin Linden to produce his next batch of tunes. What came from those sessions were ‘The Original’. Scheinman was ready to bring these new songs to the world. With the album recorded, mixed, and mastered he was all ready to go. This was 2001 and the contracts with Tangible Music were signed, sealed, and delivered Every thing was right on track, but then the world changed in a day. After the events of 911, Tangible decided to shut their doors. “I just couldn’t focus anymore”, Scheinman said. “I’m from New York and seeing my town in turmoil and my label shut down I just decided I needed a break .”
15 years had gone by before Andy seriously got back into music. He never gave it up, and continued to play a few shows here and there, joined another group with his wife Lee Shropshire and continued to write off and on. “Lee kept pushing me to release ‘The Original’, but I always felt that if I wasn’t going to tour I didn’t see the point.”
In 2011 Lee persuaded Andy to form Eight O’Five Jive. The band has 2 albums to their credit. ‘Too Many Men’ 2015 and ‘Swing Set’ 2017 on the Red Rudy Too Tunes label. Both albums have garnered great reviews and hit number 1 on the Airplay Direct top 50 albums and Blues charts. They’ve won 4 NIMA awards, were nominated for a Blues Blast Magazine Award in 2015, took top honors 2 years in a row in the Nashville Blues challenge representing Nashville at the IBCs in 2016 & 2017 which earned them semi finalist spots both years.
Which now brings us back full circle to ‘The Original’. It was time to heed Lee’s advice and finally get these songs out to the public. ‘The Original’ is 12 songs that are laced with observations about life, humor, everyday struggles, and the always topical subject of love. Colin Linden put together one of the finest rhythm sections Nashville had to offer in Americana music by bringing in Dave Roe (Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakum) on bass and Bryan Owings (Buddy Miller,Shelby Lynn) on drums. The group was rounded out by the late legendary keyboardist Richard Bell (Janis Joplin, The Band), Ollie O’Shea on fiddle (Jim Lauderdale, Michael Martin Murphy), Vince Farsetta on Mandolin , Sean Patrick McGraw, and Lee Shropshire on background vocals.

Andy Scheinman started playing music at the ripe age of 7. In the mid eighties while living in New York City he formed the Alt Punk group The Astorians. The Astorians had a large cult following and opened for some of the top bands of the the day like The Replacements, The Del Fuegos, and Vernon Reid’s Living Colour. In 1988 Scheinman left the New York scene and made his way to Vermont where he laid down his guitar for a few years and focused on ‘plain ‘ol normal life’. Discovering a passion for Alt Country and Bluegrass music, he decided to get back in the game. The flood gates opened and songs just started pouring out which became the material for his first solo album ‘Make Amends’. Scheinman made the move to Nashville in 1995 to be closer to some of the best musicians in the country. Playing regularly in the clubs in Nashville, he became a fixture in the Folk/Americana scene along with artists Kevin Gordon, Tommy Womack, and Rod Picot all of who continue to have successful careers. “This was a great time to be in Nashville.” Scheinman says. “Billy Block had just started the Billy Block Show and he got many of us fledging artists into the spotlight. Americana music hadn’t really figured out what it was back then, but it was everywhere and it took folks like Billy and magazines like ‘No Depression’ to push it into the forefront. And then came the film ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou’ and I think everyone in the genre could sense that this was their time to make this music really viable”.
Scheinman toured a fair amount to support the album ‘Make Amends’. When it was time to record ‘The Original’ he had befriended Colin Linden and knew that Linden would be the right person to help with his vision of the album.