A post-grunge hard rock band out of Jefferson City, Missouri, Shaman's Harvest was formed in 1996 by vocalist Nathan "Drake" Hunt and rhythm guitarist Josh Hamler, who remain the core of the band, along with lead guitarist Derrick Shipp, and drummer Adam Zemanek..  The band has released six albums to date, with a combined 250 million plus streams of the band’s repertoire and sold over 100,000 albums and 415,000 singles.  They have toured with a who’s who in Rock, amongst whom are Godsmack, Nickelback, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Alice In Chains and Seether alongside others.

I'm a Live audio engineer with 30+ years mixing sound in clubs and arena's.
Current bands i mix are 
Dogs Of Society Elton John Tribute..
Big Love (Fleetwood Mac Tribute band)
Mr Blue Sky (A Tribute to ELO)..
Billy The Kid (Billy Joel Tribute band)
A sky full of stars (Coldplay Tribute)

Classically trained with a penchant for rock and folk.

Biography

     Jake Brookman started playing the cello when he was 9 years old and quickly realized that he had a passion for music. He played with the CASA Young People's Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, serving as Principal Cellist for both ensembles. While still in high school he won performance opportunities from competing in the young artist concerto competitions of the CASA Young People’s Orchestra, Alton Symphony Orchestra and the Brentwood Symphony Orchestra. Jake then went on to study performance at the Mannes College of Music in New York City with a scholarship.

     In 1992 shortly after his return to St. Louis, he joined The Suede Chain (a rock band from Champaign, IL) which would be the first of many bands that Jake has collaborated with throughout the years. He has performed with Cirque Musica, Idina Menzel, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Who, "Weird Al" Yankovic, as an extra musician with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Union Avenue Opera Theater, Winter Opera St. Louis. Jake currently performs with HämmerString, Mr. Blue Sky, Salt of the Earth, and The University City Symphony Orchestra. He also records and performs with various other local and regional artists.

     His cello teachers have included Susan Hampton, Beverly Field, Yuan Tung, Aleksander Ciechanski, Stephen Balderston, Robert Silverman, Peter Wiley and Paul Tobias.

​     Jake plays a factory produced Czechoslovakian cello from the 1920’s and uses Spirocore Medium Chrome Wound strings and Gustave Bernardel Rosin. When playing with amplification he typically uses a Fishman C-100 pickup, Line 6 DL4 and a SWR California Blonde amp. Although, for busking and gigs that require backing tracks Jake uses a Behringer EUROPORT MPA40BT portable PA system.

Artists that Jake has recorded with include Dana Anderson, Keller Anderson, Autoliner, David Becherer, Belle Starr, The Birthday People, JD Blackfoot, Boot Camp, Building Rome, Connibal Road, Ded Bugs, Earthsol, The Finn's Motel, Fragile Porcelain Mice, Gavin M., The Great Crusades, Tommy Keene, Kid Scientist, The Kinetic Console, Laurie McColley, Letter to Memphis, Javier Mendoza Band, Christian Moder, The Norwood Park All Stars, Leslie Nuss, Pat Sajak Assassins, Leslie Sanazaro, Salt of the Earth, Shaman's Harvest, Judson F. Snell, Jack D. Spann, Abigail Stahlschmidt, Jim Stern, The Suede Chain, Katie Todd, David Toretta, Vitamen A, Ptah Williams

The Great Crusades, 2014

Say what you will about this ragtag bunch of lifelong musical cohorts, but the Great Crusades can claim longevity, prolificacy, and a never-say-die attitude among its attributes. Like many of the bands they admire, such as the Jayhawks, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Kaiser Chiefs, the Great Crusades seem to be in it for the long haul—they keep writing outstanding tunes, pursuing new artistic directions, and playing mind-blowing live shows.

Vocalist/guitarist Brian Krumm gathered the current band members in Chicago more than 15 years ago, including collaborators Brian Hunt (bass), Brian Leach (guitar/keyboards), and Christian Moder (drums/keyboards). Krumm had released the band’s first album, The First Spilled Drink of the Evening, in 1997 while based in Champaign, Illinois, and moved north the following year.

Now, the band members are putting the final touches on what will be their eighth studio release, Thieves of Chicago. The Great Crusades will join such respected label mates as the Bottle Rockets, Cracker, and Sons of Bill when Blue Rose Records (Abstatt, Germany) issues the album in Summer 2014, to be followed by a North American release. Boxing Clever Records (St. Louis, Missouri) will also release a limited edition seven-inch single featuring the Great Crusades in early 2014.

The band has kept a high profile since its last “proper” studio album, Fiction to Shame, was released in 2010 on Glitterhouse Records/Octane Recordings. That year, the band played a string of shows in Europe and the United States, to further solidify its now-legendary reputation as a live band that must be seen and heard whenever the boys pull into town. And much more was in store for the upcoming years.

In July 2011, Lakeshore Records (Hollywood, California) released “Who’s Afraid of Being Lonely?”, which featured “classic” songs from the Great Crusades’ back catalog. In October 2011, two of the band’s songs appeared in the season 4 finale of the HBO vampire series “True Blood.” The band performed in Europe and the United States in 2011 and 2012 and also recorded with Chris Estes (Adele, Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz) at Chicago Recording Company.

The Great Crusades are currently mixing their 8th studio album in Chicago with Grammy winners Brian Leach and Blaise Barton. The band has already confirmed shows in the United States and festival appearances in Europe for a Summer 2014 tour. This will be the band’s 20th European tour. In conjunction with the European tour, the Russian label GS Productions will issue a limited-edition digipack CD of the Great Crusades’ exceptional 2002 release Never Go Home, featuring the album in its entirety as well as unreleased demos, songs, and live recordings from the same era.

The Great Crusades, from the Beginning

The first Great Crusades album, The First Spilled Drink of the Evening, was released by Mud Records in 1997, and its sound and lyrics quickly created a cult following for the band. Rolling Stone’s David Fricke wrote, “The Great Crusades look at life through a shot-glass lens . . . mixing anger, muscle, and minor-key remorse like a roughneck Tindersticks with the bonus of a singer (Krumm) who’s got the tubercular pipes of Tom Waits and Axl Rose’s love child.” The album was reissued in Europe in 1998 by the German indie Trocadero Records, and the first of many European tours followed.

Damaged Goods was released by the venerated German label, Glitterhouse Records, in 2000, and by Checkered Past Records in the U.S. The critical accolades kept coming with praise from European and American press alike. Never Go Home (2002) saw the band reach a higher public profile when a tour of Germany, Austria, and Croatia was presented by Musikexpress magazine. In 2003, the band gained even more exposure as part of their appearance on the celebrated German television program, Rockpalast.

Welcome to the Hiawatha Inn (2004), Four Thirty (2006), Keep Them Entertained (2007), and Fiction to Shame (2010) followed, each featuring a fresh approach to the band’s sound. (The career retrospective DVD Key to the City was released in 2008.) The band continued to expand its fan base and further build its reputation as one of the most engaging, wildest live bands in the business. Along the way, the band shared the stage with a very diverse list of artists, including Gary Moore, Scorpions, 16 Horsepower, Broken Social Scene, Bottle Rockets, Steve Wynn, and Leningrad Cowboys.

 Influences

AC/DC, The Band, Richard Thompson, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Neil Young, Gallon Drunk, The Jayhawks, Replacements, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Leon Redbone, Webb Wilder, Morphine, The Smiths, Eric Burdon, The Pretenders, 16 Horsepower, Camper Van Beethoven, Thin Lizzy, The Ramones, Wall of Voodoo/Stan Ridgway, Uncle Tupelo, Nick Drake, R.E.M., The Pogues, Stray Cats/Brian Setzer, Leonard Cohen, Neil Diamond, PJ Harvey, Dwight Yoakam, Echo and the Bunnymen

Jake Brookman is following