Dan Shelton began his professional music career at the age of sixteen when he formed his first country-western band in high school. On one occasion he was invited to sit in with Glen Campbell at Albuquerque's Hitching Post. Dan's band, the Westernaires, was good enough to be the warmup band when some of the more well known stars would pass through Albuquerque. In 1961 upon arriving at collage he started the "Organ Mountain Boys" a country music group that was very successful around the collage town of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
When he entered the Navy in 1962, he formed another country band aboard the USS Enterprise where he served for the next four years. His band backed up many of the well known stars that toured to entertain the service personnel both at sea while underway and ashore in the US, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. He accompanied Vicky Carr, Marylou Shaw and others.
He learned many of the finger-style techniques of Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed. While working in Central and South America, Dan became interested in the Brazilian rhythms of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Sergio Mendez, and began learning a variety of Latin and classical pieces.
Returning to Albuquerque, he studied classical guitar at the University of New Mexico. He has written and copyrighted several collections of guitar pieces.
He has played at clubs and lounges all across the continental U.S. and Hawaii, including frequent engagements at the Sheraton Hotel on Kauai,Hawaii.
During all this, he also had a 37-year career as a helicopter pilot, from which he recently retired.
His current projects include the production of his own digitally mastered CDs, which include his favorite pieces and some of his own work.
Dan plays a variety of styles, from popular "easy listening" tunes to extremely complex flamenco and classical music. His own original compositions can best be described as easy-listening guitar.
Soft Latin Nights was his first CD, featuring ten original pieces, followed by Soft Romantic Nights and Soft Dreamy Nights, collections of romantic tunes from the 1930s to the 60s. Lost in the Spanish Guitar was next. These are intricate classical and traditional pieces from Spain, South and Central America. His latest, Sound Painter is a moderate jazz CD.
The current CD he is working on will contain his own classical pieces and some if not all will also be found as videos on You Tube and other similar sites.