Named in reference to a metaphorical hound-dog, Shep and Me is the experimental folk project of Matthew Himes. A next door neighbor once remarked that his singing voice sounded like that of a cat being strangled. Born of solitude and anonymity in Austin, TX in summer 2001 using two broken boomboxes, a portable AM radio and a hand-me-down ukelele. In the past decade Shep and Me has grown to embrace the use of slightly broken electronics, homemade tape loops, bamboo bells, analog synthesizers, gongs, drum machines, feedback and heavily processed sound, augmenting what might be considered traditional instrumentation in the spectrum of American folk music.