Shaun Dougherty

Shaun was born into a family of musicians in Boston MA. His father John
Dougherty is an accomplished Jazz guitarist and also a graduate from Berklee College of music. He has recorded and performed with Kool and the Gang, Pat Martino, George Benson, Sam and Dave, Lou Donaldson and many more. Shaun’s mother Jean Dougherty is a classically trained organist graduating from St. Olaf. His sister Stephanie is a great vocalist that has done Rock, Jazz, Blues and now Country music. Shaun’s guitar journey started after seeing Billy Idol's video for ‘White Wedding’. ‘I asked my dad if he could show me how to play it and that was that’. I had never asked about music before and my dad said if I was serious we would set up regular lessons. So, I was all excited at the first lesson but we never touched ‘White Wedding’. Instead, we started working on the Jazz standard ‘Misty’. He said Rock and Roll is easy and that if I wanted a long term career in music, I should learn the Standards. 35 years later still play Misty and many other Jazz standards and make $ playing them but, I did learn every Billy Idol song and have had several great rock bands too! Shaun attended Berklee college of music and received his degree in Commercial Arranging with his principal instrument as guitar. After spending many years living in Boston and performing with his original rock band ‘Waking Ophelia’ (with his sister on vocals) and with his father in a Jazz guitar duo, he decided it was time for a change and Vegas was calling. Shaun lived in Las Vegas for 7 years and joined a great rock band called ‘The Day After’. They recorded 1 album and toured the SW region for 2 years. Eventually, Shaun moved on to form his own band called ‘Poison Polly’. As the musical climate was changing in Vegas (live music was being forced out for pre-recorded music), he decided to make a change and moved back to DE. Once in DE, Shaun began teaching guitar at The Grand Opera House for their ‘Arts Academy’. He then started the first ever after-school group guitar class at Cab Calloway high school and St. Marks High school.

Currently, Shaun is teaching full-time out of his home studio online through Zoom and in person, and continues to work on his original music including his second ballet ‘April and After’.