After two college Summers as a singing waiter at the Farmhouse Inn & Hotel in Blowing Rock, NC, John served as a U.S. Army MP in Pleiku, Viet Nam before turning to his other passion - flying. He flew for Eastern Air Lines for twenty - four years emerging as a management Captain and Chief Pilot before the carrier’s demise in 1990. He then flew for the medical outreach program of the University of North Carolina while studying at Duke University and was granted an MBA in 1992. Following a period of entrepreneurial exploration, he flew fire-fighting air tankers in Montana and the Western U.S. before becoming Chief Pilot for a firefighting contractor to the U.S. Forest Service in 2001.

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Based in New Bern, North Carolina, Shearer now performs as a solo act at various festivals, corporate events, concerts, workshops, club dates, and house parties throughout the region and beyond.

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He has won the Triangle Blues Society annual competition, headlined both the First Night Raleigh Blues Stage and Shaw University’s Blues Festival and at the University of North Carolina, successfully launched the Carolina Club’s “Acoustic Blues & Barbeque” series which enjoyed rave reviews.

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Shearer also has appeared as the Ghost of Christmas Present in Ira David Wood and Theatre in the Park’s (Raleigh and Durham) musical/comedy adaptation of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol for the past twenty-seven years. He does voice-over and radio work and has performed classically with the Greater Miami Civic Chorale and the Miami Bach Society Chorale.