Matthew Shafer (born June 6, 1974, Uncle Kracker at NNDB, retrieved 2008-10-03 Mount Clemens, Michigan), better known by his stage name Uncle Kracker, is an American rock, country, and rap rock musician, most popularly known for his hit singles "Follow Me" and "Drift Away". His music was more rap rock-based at the start of his career before turning in a more country and Top 40 style music direction on later releases.

Biography

Shafer was raised in Harrison Township, Michigan. In 1987, with his brother Mike Shafer, he visited a nightclub in Clawson, Michigan where a turntables competition was occurring. His older brother was competing against a then-unknown musician, Kid Rock. Shafer then spent a lot of time with Kid Rock, and they became "best friends". In those times, he was mainly rapping. He is also known to have gone to L'Anse Creuse high school not the same high school, but in the same county as Eminem.. In 1994, Kid Rock asked Shafer to play turntables for his band called Twisted Brown Trucker. Shafer knew nothing of using turntables, because his brother was the experienced DJ, but still he agreed. He only performed at live shows at the time, until he began recording for Rock's album, Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp; Shafer was a featured vocalist on some of the tracks. He then began working on a solo album, but he continued being the DJ for Kid Rock. Upon the release of Rock's multi-platinum album, Devil Without a Cause, Shafer decided that it was time to release his first solo album, Double Wide, adopting the stage name Uncle Kracker.

Discography

Albums

Double Wide

Double Wide was Uncle Kracker's first solo album. Released on June 30, 2001, it peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 album chart and is Shafer's most successful and highest-selling album. The first single taken off the album was "Follow Me", which peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2001. The album spent the next ten months on the Billboard 200, and "Follow Me" also had a long chart run. His second single, "Yeah Yeah Yeah", failed to hit the Hot 100 chart. Double Wide was certified 2x Platinum on November 29, 2001. After this success, Shafer began to work on his second solo album.

No Stranger to Shame

After a great deal of touring to promote the first album, he began to work on a follow-up album. Entitled No Stranger to Shame, it was released on August 27, 2002. The album only reached #43 on the Billboard albums chart, but a hit single was released, a cover version of Dobie Gray's 1973 Top 5 hit, "Drift Away". Shafer's version of this song peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and it set a record for most weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, remaining atop this chart for 22 weeks. Other singles released from No Stranger to Shame include "In A Little While", which peaked at #59 on the Hot 100 and #26 on the Adult Contemporary charts. A third single was released, "Memphis Soul Song", but charted only on the Adult Top 40 at #35. The album was certified gold by the RIAA within a year of its release. Soon after this period, Shafer became good friends with country music star Kenny Chesney and toured for a few months with him.

Seventy Two and Sunny

After touring, Shafer began working on a third album which he called Seventy Two and Sunny. He had completely abandoned all rap from it, and moved onto a pure country sound. This may have been due to the fact that his most popular songs were all country hits, or because he began a great friendship with Kenny Chesney. The album featured two singles: "Rescue", which only charted at #20 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary singles chart but didn't chart on any other charts, and "Writing It Down," which did not chart at all. Shafer did have some success that year though when he was featured on Chesney's track, "When the Sun Goes Down", which peaked at #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and went on to achieve Gold status. Seventy Two and Sunny has sold about 200,000 copies. It peaked at #39 on the Billboard 200.

Happy Hour

Uncle Kracker is due to release Happy Hour sometime in 2009. The album was near finished when label reps decided to bring in Rob Cavallo to produce Happy Hour ( produced Kid Rock's mega hit Rock N Roll Jesus). The songs on the album were scrapped except for one song titled "I'm leavin'". Uncle Kracker and his brother, Mike Shafer have finished the writing process of the album. Uncle Kracker's brother said the songs cut from Happy Hour might appear on a rarities album later on. Go to Youtube to see a live performance of Kracker's new song Smile.http://www.answers.com/topic/uncle-kracker

Singles

Guest singles

Other appearances

Some of Uncle Kracker's songs have also appeared on soundtracks to films, including the song "Beak U Off" on the Osmosis Jones soundtrack, "Yeah Yeah Yeah"; which appeared at the end of Shanghai Noon, "Freaks Come Out at Night"; which appeared on the Scooby Doo soundtrack, and "Time After Time"; which appeared on the Clockstoppers soundtrack. As well as being featured in films, his music has also been featured in videogames, with the song "Keep it Comin" appearing on the soundtracks to Hot Pursuit 2 and Project Gotham Racing 2. Uncle Kracker also sang the theme song for X-Factor during their stint in WWE

References

External links

• The Official Website
• The Official MySpace
• Uncle Kracker at Rolling Stone

Krackers band

1974 birthsLiving peopleAmerican alternative musiciansAmerican country musiciansAmerican rock musiciansMusicians from MichiganAtlantic Records artists

Uncle KrackerUncle Krackerアンクル・クラッカー

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