At only 19, Shrieve was the youngest musician to perform at Woodstock. He stayed with Carlos Santana for nearly five years before heading out to pursue his own career in 1975. He worked with three innovative rock bands: Automatic Man (with Pat Thrall) in 1976; Novo Combo, in 1979; and a one-off supergroup that included Neal Schon, Sammy Hagar, and Kenny Aaronson.

The rest of his work has been with a number of cutting edge progressive and New Age artists that includes Stomu Yamashta's Go (which also included Steve Winwood), Richard Wahnfried, and Klause Schulze. As an in-demand session drummer, he can be heard on recordings by Tina Turner, Joss Stone, Rob Thomas, Shakira, Sean Paul, and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler.