For James Lane, his love for Baltimore, music, nostalgia, and art is anything but shaky. After eight years of rejections from Artscape, Lane will finally take the stage at Artscape 2025 with his band, The Shaky Experience.
He plans to donate 100% of the profits made from their merchandise sales to Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter (BARCS). Why BARCS? He feels it deserves the recognition as a nonprofit, and as an underdog — pun intended.
“I know the struggles of a nonprofit,” Lane told Baltimore Fishbowl. He led The Baltimore BNote, which was fiscal currency exclusive to Baltimore and used in a group of around 250 businesses in Baltimore City. “Working with over 250 local businesses of Baltimore City…I wore many hats… and I can only imagine how many challenges that BARCS has.”
Now that Lane can help other nonprofits in Baltimore, given the reach and platform of the Artscape stage, he’s excited to highlight BARCS for the work they do.
His band’s name, The Shaky Experience, comes from shakiness Lane has in his hands, which he has had since early childhood. His pediatrician noticed the pattern of his hands shaking beyond simply being a nervous toddler. After a period of testing, he was determined to have tremors in his hands, like a mild form of Parkinson’s disease.
“My hands have always been shaky,” Lane said. “They’re never not shaky. Coincidentally, I don’t really notice it anymore, because I feel like it’s such a normal part of my life.”
Lane’s life has hardly followed what one would consider a “normal” course, though. From a rough early childhood, including his mother passing away and his father being incarcerated, and his aunt adopting him out of a foster home to winning “The Price Is Right” while he was couch-surfing in California, Lane’s trajectory has been anything but typical.
A self-described “nostalgia nerd” of the 2010s “indies sleaze” music era, Lane remembers the old Baltimore spaces fondly, recalling places like The Copycat, the Bell Foundry, and The Annex, and the bands he would see there.
“Baltimore had so many great bands that I admired and aspired to be,” Lane recalled. “So, in 2010 my friend and I — more so me, I guess — created this band called The Shaky Experience. And…pretty much, we sucked. I would actually advise people not to see us at that time.”
They found places to play anyway and found it fun and exciting to perform at parties and warehouse spaces. Lane remembers people being open-minded about abstract “weirdo stuff,” which is how he describes the music they made at first. As they learned their instruments better (Lane plays guitar and sings), they started to spend more time on arrangements and melodies, and eventually their music became more pop-like. He describes their music now as “noise pop.”
“Basically, we’re a little loud, little chaotic, still, in some ways, kind of art punk or whatever,” Lane said, “but we, for sure, add an element of pop music within our sound now. So really, it’s a lot of catchy lyrics and focusing on interacting and engaging with the crowd as much as possible.”
Music stayed central to his life as Lane became community engagement coordinator at HI Baltimore Hostel, which closed in 2019. In that position, he would host showcases where local and touring bands would come perform for people staying at the hostel. That involved seeking underwriters, reaching out to bands, and connecting with people from all over the world on a musical level.
Lane and The Shaky Experience have released five studio albums and 1 EP, and performed at some larger music festivals, including the Underground Music Showcase in Denver in 2018; Adams Morgan PorchFest 2022 in Washington, D.C.; Santa Fe Portals Festival 2024 in New Mexico, and more. They’ve toured on both the east and west coasts.
Oh, and about winning the Price is Right? Yes, that’s real. It happened in 2014.
Lane was living on a shoestring budget, couch-surfing in California, working at whatever hostel in which he stayed if they let him, and he had the time.
“Yes, incredible experience, and I’m really grateful to have done it,” Lane said. “I won two trips. I won a fancy camera, some golf stuff… And I feel like it helped. I don’t know, it just really excited me to want to continue to do other things with my life. There’s just way more that I want to do. And I was just like, Alright, f*** yeah, if I can do this, maybe I could start building my life in a different direction.”
What was he wearing when he won? A Baltimore t-shirt, of course.
The Shaky Experience will perform at Artscape 2025’s Echo Stage on Saturday, May 24. Check the Artscape website for the schedule.
LOVE this! BARCS is such a fabulous cause for all the Baltimore paws! Thank you James Lane & The Shaky Experience! ❤️🐾