Mike Shaw
(1944- )
Inducted in 2000
As a young boy bassist Mike Shaw remembers watching the movie The Glenn Miller Story and saying that he’d like to have a band someday. And he did. Growing up in Litchfield, Minnesota and eventually working out of Willmar, Mike played with The Embers, The Defiants, Shaw-Allen-Shaw (two different recordings ended up as highly sought-after vinyl albums), and the band modestly-titled SHAW. Mike connected with virtually every other Southern Minnesota musician of merit- rock and roll and otherwise- while working in the music business. He made a music career selling musical instruments at a retail store in Willmar, booking and promoting bands at venues all over Minnesota, and in 1981 The Shaw Band was formed. The Shaw Band found themselves on the road to success “packing the houses” in which they play, still playing events and Fairs into the mid-2020s. The Shaw Band hold the record for Most Appearances of any rock band at the legendary Kato Ballroom of Mankato, Minnesota. Mike’s progeny can be seen as The Shaw Brothers into the 2020s.
