Jacob Shije fell in love with the guitar when, as a four-year-old, his grandparents took him to the Roy Rogers Museum in California. It was this introduction to Country and Western music that eventually influenced his rockabilly style.
He cites his influences as Buddy Holly, Link Wray, Ritchie Valens, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and in general, the “British Invasion” bands. All notable for their guitar styles.
Jacob told us, “When I was about 16, I kind of just taught myself how to play guitar from this Beatles chord book that I found on sale at Borders. It had all Beatles songs I love so I figured if I'm going to teach myself how to play guitar, I wanted to learn from my favorites, so the first song I learned on guitar was A Day in the Life because that was the first song in the book.”
Jacob grew up in the Española area on the Santa Clara Pueblo around a family that either played in a band or listened to a lot of rock and roll on the radio. Jacob recalls, “On the weekend we listened to 98.5 on Saturdays and Sundays. We listened to Beatles brunch and then the Elvis hour, so those are probably my first memories of learning what a guitar was, and hearing guitar sounds, and I think that's kind of where I found the love of this 50s rock and roll and rockabilly.” When his grandfather passed away, Jacob inherited his Fender Stratocaster guitar.
Albuquerque City Lifestyle magazine recently checked out his show at the Rio Bravo Brewery with his band the Jacob Shije Trio featuring Royce Platero on drums and Tanya F. Nunez on upright bass. They had a high-energy rock and roll set that went over big with the audience, and Jacob exuded a cool rockabilly demeanor onstage.
Jacob also occasionally plays bass in the Levi Platero Band, an Indigenous blues group. Jacob says, “I’m the oldest out of all my siblings and I don't have any older siblings to look up to, so Levi is my Big Brother, and I think he kind of looks at me as his little brother too.”
Jacob’s mastery of the guitar has garnered him endorsements from several guitar and pickup manufacturers including Silvertone Guitars, Delaney Guitars, and Space Llama Pickups.
Jacob has a very active social media presence on multiple platforms that he credits for his growing audience. You can find his concert dates at https://www.jacobshije.com/
When I was about 16, I kind of just taught myself how to play guitar from this Beatles chord book that I found on sale at Borders.