Tab Tabscott, John Shubert and Friends

When Tab Tabscott was just 10 years old, he lived just down the street from Scotty’s Music Store in St Louis. Scotty, the owner, started and has hosted the National Pedal Steel Guitar Convention in St Louis for over 50 years now. Every day as Tab walked by Scotty’s coming home from school, he would stop in and look at the large selection of pedal steel guitars and dobros, as well as other instruments.

At 10, Tab talked his Mom into buying him a dobro and then later a pedal steel and he began going to the convention every year. Tab watched and soaked up licks from all the legendary pedal steel players like Buddy Emmons. After high school, he was in one of the first graduating classes with a degree in Bluegrass Music from South Plains College in Levelland Texas.

Tab then went to broadcasting school and became a professional disk jockey, starting out in St Louis and then later moving to Seattle in the early 1980’. His show "The Bobby Scott Show" was on Seattle’s Country radio station KRPM channel 77 AM. He formed a country band with some other DJs and some of the local top country musicians. They were called the 77th Calvary Country Band. His radio show was one of the most popular shows in Seattle at that time, largely because of his great booming broadcaster voice and incredibly funny witty humor.

Tab first met and started jamming with John Schubert at a bluegrass festival in Puyallup around 1983 or 84. Their friendship and enjoyment playing together led to a number of bands in which they both played in including Heart Strings, High and Lonesome, Floating Bridge, New Ground, Crossfire, The Palmer Sisters, Lonesome Ridge, Harley and The Flatt Heads, and most recently The Stray Dogs. Their band, High and Lonesome from 1986-1989 is still considered by many (including Earl Harding who started the famous Wintergrass Festival) to this day to be one of the best bluegrass bands ever to come out of the Seattle area.

Tab is now considered by many to be one of the greatest dobro and pedal steel players in the country. He went back to college in the early ‘90’s and got degrees in Computer science and music. Then he spent about 10 years working for Microsoft.

Tab moved to Vashon in 2001,where he began working with John’s construction company, Sunrise Builders Inc, later forming his own company Tabscott Construction. Recently Tab has moved to Tenino, but is still commuting to Vashon everyday to work.

John Schubert grew up in Reno, Nevada and finished his last two years of high school in Carson City, Nevada. John took an early interest in rock and roll after seeing Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan show in 1955 and Ricky Nelson on the show Ozzie and Harriet.

John took guitar lessons from one of the founders of jazz guitar, Carl Kress, in Reno in 1962 at the age of 14. Unfortunately, his heart was into rock and roll and not into learning jazz at that time. Dropping out would prove to be one of John’s biggest mistakes musically, because Carl died in 1965. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that John discovered a Pioneers of The Jazz Guitar album with Carl Kress, Lonnie Johnson and Nick Lucus (one of their fantastic recordings from the late 1920’s) that he realized just how much he could have learned from him and what an honor it was to have even known him.

After moving to Carson City in 1964, John formed a rock band in 1965 called Four More that lasted until he graduated in 1966. After one semester at The University of Nevada in Reno, John dropped out, got drafted and was sent to Vietnam. John didn’t play much music until getting out of the Army in 1970. He moved to San Diego and went back to college on the GI bill and got into playing bluegrass music while living there.

In 1972 he moved to Forestville California on the Russian River, continuing his college studies at Santa Rosa Jr College. Northern California was a hot bed of some of the greatest bands in the country and John hung out at some of the local hot spots, seeing many of the greatest bands on a regular basis, like David Laflame of It’s a Beautiful Day, Commander Cody, Asleep at The Wheel amd Taj Mahal.

He moved to Pullman,WA in 1975 and formed a bluegrass band called the Bottom Dollar Band and found a steady weekly Friday and Saturday 4 sets a night gig at a club called Rico’s, where he had some of the best bluegrass players pass through his band including Tony Ludiker.

John’s Bottom Dollar band was selected out of hundreds of performers to be on the 1986 Folklife Festival Album. John moved from Pullman to Vashon in 1986 and has played with Tab in all the bands listed in Tab’s bio.

Joining Tab and John for the show at The Red Bike will be the phenomenal and soon to be nationally famous, 18 year old fiddler Stephen Burwell from Maple Valley, on bass 40 year upright bluegrass bass legend, Al Hutteball from Enumclaw, soon to be nationally known and famous, 23 year old banjo monster Will McSeveney and one of the greatest mandolin players and truly great singers around, as well a well known player from a very successful bluegrass band called Runaway Train, Nolan Elwell from Buckley, Washington.

The mix of music we will be doing will be solid as a rock classic bluegrass ,and traditional pre ‘70’s classic country music. The level of performers that will be with us should surprise most of the Islanders who have not seen acoustic music done this powerfully. Plus Tab’s pedal steel and dobro playing are sure to be jaw dropping as he is truly an amazing musician.

Friday, October 5, 8:30 p.m. At the Red Bicycle, 17618 Vashon Hwy - 206-463-5959

All-Ages Show ‘til 11pm, 21+ After that. FREE COVER