Greenfield musician Joe Shelton, pictured at a past performance, has created a new concert series featuring local singer/songwriters. The National Road Music Series debuts at the H.J. Ricks Centre for the Arts on May 27, with three more shows to follow this fall.
GREENFIELD — Joe Shelton is a software engineer by day, musician by night.
The Greenfield man has been performing his brand of Americana and country/rock music for years, and is now bringing a new concert series to Hancock County.
The National Road Music Series — named for the Old National Road, or U.S. 40 — will feature local singer/songwriters like himself.
The concerts will take place at the H.J. Ricks Centre for the Arts in downtown Greenfield, which just happens to sit on the Old National Road.
The first show is slated for May 27, followed by one show per month in September, October and December.
“We focused on spring and fall dates because we didn’t want to interfere with the summer concerts out at Depot Street Park, which is really (Greenfield’s) premier summer venue,” said Shelton, who has lived in Hancock County since 2021.
The National Road concerts will be featured on Shelton’s podcast, Moonshine and Music, which will start releasing new episodes in June.
Shelton designed the National Road series to focus not only on local singers but songwriters who write their own music.
“As independent artists we’re often asked to play other people’s music, and that’s cool — I love playing Garth Brooks songs as much as Garth does — but I also want to put my own voice out there, and really enjoy giving other artists the chance to do that,” he said.
To that effect he formed a production company called Notlehs Entertainment, and has produced albums for Ray Hopkins and Sidney Page, a New Palestine native who now lives in Nashville, where she performs with a band called Reckless.
“I tend to gravitate towards musicians who have more of a message or an inspiration that moves me,” said Shelton, who loves impacting others with his own music.
“I really like that when people tell me, ‘Hey, I listened to your song ‘Shadows’ and it really helped me out in life. Those are the reasons I want to play for people. Music helps connect the universe,” he said.
Having been an independent artist for years, this marks Shelton’s third foray into promoting a concert series. He hosts an open stage night at Books & Brews in Castleton on Thursdays and plays there the first Friday each month. Before that he ran the Moonshine Circle concert series in Noblesville.
“It was a songwriters circle that we’d film and put those videos on our podcast,” said the 50-year-old musician. “We want to do the same thing with the National Road Music Series.”
Shelton got the idea for the National Road series in talking with his friend Tony Seiler, a local musician who played drums on one of Shelton’s albums, and who also owns the Greenfield Music Store.
Seiler now manages the Ricks theater, where he’s been busy booking a wide variety of regional and local acts and events.
“He said ‘You should do an original music series,’ and it just took off from there,” Shelton said.
A lifelong lover of music, Shelton grew up in Muncie and attended Ball State University, and played keyboards for a handful of bands.
After college he followed his musical aspirations to Nashville, Tenn., where worked in various capacities to create music videos for big-named musical acts.
He and his wife Sara moved back to Indiana to be closer to family when raising kids, and his musical career was essentially put on hold.
It got a fresh start in 2008, however, when his wife bought him his first guitar when he was 36 years old.
He most often plays solo acoustic music, but sometimes members of his band join in on a handful of shows each year. His first solo show was playing guitar at the Riley Festival in Greenfield, where he’s performed a number of times.
While he loves playing music, Shelton said he finds songwriting especially fulfilling.
“I’ve always been someone who likes to talk in a disorganized way — I just chatter on — but if I’m writing songs it forces me to focus and tell a story in a certain way,” he said.
One of his favorite song lyrics is, “For every song there’s a story and for every story there’s a song.”
“It’s kind of been my mantra,” he said. “I’m always looking for what the story is inside a song. I feel like all songs have stories to tell.”
Shelton produced his own album in 2017 and was working on his second when his brother passed away unexpectedly at the age of 53.
“I just thought, ‘Life is too short to not do this thing,’” said Shelton, who had long toyed with the notion of going on tour. With newfound inspiration, he decided to go “full force” with his musical aspirations by promoting his second album on the road.
The album, “The Americana Diaries” did very well, even landing a NUVO nomination for Album of the Year.
“Because of that I got to play a lot of shows,” said Shelton, who was invited to play the House of Blues in New Orleans.
“We made a music video down there and everything,” said Shelton, who relied on his video editing experience back in Nashville to produce his Music & Moonshine podcast, which rekindled his love for making and producing music.
Working remotely as a software engineer for General Electric has allowed him to tour all over the country, at dozens of shows each year.
He and his bandmates are keeping it local on Nov. 18, however, when they open for popular regional singer Jenny Devoe for the National Road Concert Series at the Ricks.
“Jenny and I went to college together at Ball State, so I’m really excited to play a show with her,” said Shelton, who said there’s a tight bond among local artists throughout Hancock County and beyond.
“We’re all kind of friends here. There’s a lot of community going on,” he said.
