Howard was born on 26 January 1955 and raised in the Victorian coastal town of Dennington 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north-west of Warrnambool.

I guess, you know, singing at mass and singing at church were the first sorts of contact with that, and Mum would play the organ.According to Howard's younger sister, Marcia Howard, they were colloquially called, "The Von Trapp Family of the Western District", because they played and sang at local celebrations.

"Elder brothers and sisters brought The Beatles, Dylan and Van Morrison and countless other influences into my already crowded imagination.

After secondary education Howard moved to Melbourne, where he studied at Monash University for a year, before hitch hiking around Australia, busking and playing at folk clubs.

Their line-up was fluid, with Howard as the sole mainstay; Australian music journalist, Ed Nimmervoll, opined that it was "as casual and non-competitive as a country town compared to the Big City.

In May 1981, on a doctor's advice, Howard took a month's hiatus from performing and travelled to Uluru: I had come from this beautiful inspiring aboriginal tradition, and the contrast between that and this harsh reality of conflict with western world 300 kilometres away, it marked me for all time.

When he arrived in Melbourne, he had a new song for the group to record, based upon his experiences at Uluru, "Solid Rock".

[4][5][6] In September 1982 "Solid Rock", from Goanna's debut album, Spirit of Place (November 1982), was released as a single.

[6][9] Lisa Perry of The Canberra Times caught their local performance; she opined that they provided, "a night of solid Australian rock and roll...

The throaty vocals of keyboards whiz [Bygrave] rang clear through some very slick guitar work from leader Shane Howard and guitarists [Davidge] and [Harwood].

At a live performance, Stop the Drop (for nuclear disarmament), at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on 13 February that year, an ad hoc ensemble had Goanna joined by members of fellow Australian groups, Redgum and Midnight Oil, which recorded a live version of the track.

"[13] The Howards and Bygrave briefly reformed Goanna in late 1998, with a new line-up, to issue the group's third album, Spirit Returns, in November 1998.

[6] In the following year he formed the Shane Howard Band with Marcia, Curphy and Geia joined by a variable line-up: Amanda Brown, Peter German, Damian Howard (his youngest brother) on guitar,[3] Mick King, Roger Mason, Greg Pedley, John Watson, Bart Willoughby and Paul Worrell.

[18] Howard returned the favour when he and Black performed together with Liam O'Maonlai at the 1994 Port Fairy Folk Festival introducing her to Australian audiences.

In 2010 Howard released a new album Goanna Dreaming and toured nationally his band, featuring his daughter Myra Howard, Ruben Shannon (bass), Rory McDougall (Black Arm Band) (drums), John Hudson (guitar), and Amy Saunders, formerly of Tiddas.

In 2017, Howard and John Schumann (ex Redgum) wrote, recorded and released a single together, titled "Times Like These".

In January 2016, Howard was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the performing arts as a singer, songwriter and guitarist, to the recording industry, and to Indigenous musicians.