Bio

Vernal Shepherd has been an accomplished musician for most of his life. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Vernal developed a love for music early in his life. Starting at the age of six, he began to have a desire to master the bass guitar. Vernal also plays lead guitar, drums and keyboard. His unique style of playing the bass led to his starting his first band at the age of 15 years old. The name of that band was Light Touch. Vernal and the Light Touch band gained quite a following playing for block parties and eventually they began to play at local nightclubs culminating with a sold out performance at McCormack Place, one of Chicago's very popular convention centers. This success led the band to the release of their first album in 1982. Now a resident of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Vernal has had the opportunity to further his musical talents by being an active musician in his church and also a lead instrumentalist with the church's singing group. Vernal is also a record producer having produced several local rappers and poets with his original soundtracks serving as the background music to their spoken word form. Vernal also is certified in camera operation and video editing which led to the creation of Lee/Vern Productions. Vernal produced a television show titled "Get the Word Out" that ran for more than a year on the cable channels in Kalamazoo. This show was hosted by Vernal and his wife Lee Shepherd. Vernal launched his own record label VSJ Records in 2005. http://www.taltopia.com/VSJ722[link="URL"]