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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 7, 1992                   TAG: 9202070269
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETH MACY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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LET US SAY THIS ABOUT THAT

You could've heard a guitar pick drop the last time Tim Shepherd did his shtick in the middle of his R&B-reggae show at Billy's Ritz.

Shepherd gave his five-member band a rest, donned a Richard Nixon mask and a dark suit and . . . read from Tricky Dick's 1969 presidential inaugural address.

According to show-goers, it was very weird. Very David Lynch. And like most Lynch productions, people didn't know whether to laugh or to get up and leave.

"I want to give people an entire experience rather than just music," says Shepherd, who was 19 in 1969.

The Roanoke-born singer-guitarist also works as an artist and photographer when he's not on stage - "kind of a Renaissance thing," he says. Shepherd and his band, The Stratus Seekers, will play again tonight and Saturday night at Billy's at 10. There is no cover charge.

Another political performance is on the agenda, though Shepherd isn't saying which lucky icon he'll pick next. He does say, however, that his shows are "5 percent an education, 10 percent absurdity, 25 percent social satire and 80 percent music."

True, that's 120 percent. But with Shepherd, anything's possible.

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