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BILLY & THE BEERTONES
Review Award winners in both of their two years of existence, Billy and the Beertones started out at Bit By Bit Studios, gathering musicians from The Laurie Middlebrook Band, Rebel Cause, and The Healers. Co-part studio owners Robert Hausler and John Grundner held recording sessions along with bass ace Tom Randall and found the chemistry to show all the potentials of a great band in the making.
"Bob and I were kind of sitting in the studio if I remember this right (and) we'd been using Tom Randall as a studio bass player," said Grundner, during a phone interview this past week. "He was mentioning that he was getting done with The Healers and they seemed to be falling apart. He mentioned Dan Thorpe and I heard Dan Thorpe a few times and really enjoyed his voice." "Then we needed to find
a drummer and we found Tony Swartz first, but his hours and our schedule
wasn't compatible. We got together with Thorpe, Randall, Bob and I and Tony and
we decided, 'Let's put a group together that instead of doing the hits like
everybody else does plays music we want to play, when we want to play and if we
play--we play, if we don't-we don't. So far it's Country music was something simple they could all pull off immediately, thanks much in part to each member's previous projects. Over the past year the band has branched into pop, rock, jazz and a lot of blues. "We definitely were (more country)," added Hausler, also interviewed last week. "We backed up a girl from Roscommon for a couple of (shows). We'd been playing with Laurie (Middlebrook) and John (had) been playing with Rebel Cause, so we already had a real large base to draw from." "The first couple gigs we did, we didn't do as so much Billy and the Beertones. There was this girl called Tabitha James that we backed up. We had a lot of fun doing it, so we just decided to pursue it a little bit more in earnest as far as the whole band. All the guys were the same. That wasn't strictly country, but it was definitely more country based." Being all master session
players and having the multi-vocal and instrumental qualities among themselves,
Hausler chuckled at the thought of the early days of the band. Having Hausler on the multi-instruments, Grundner on keyboards/vocals and guitar, Thorpe as main vocalist/guitarist, Randall on bass, eventually Mike Williams moved in on drums, replacing Swartz just in time for their first shows as Billy and the Beertones. "Our first job out of the shoot was the Nor-East'r Fest in Mio last year," said Grundner. "That was our first paying job. Then we got asked back again for this year and we were the headliners for Friday night. I just talked to them and they want us back again next year and hopefully, we'll get the Saturday night slot which is their big night." "We had such a good response from that, that we really started to believe that it was a viable group--that there would be an audience for our unusual selection of material," added Hausler. "So then that was an evolution. And recently we started working on the idea of recording a CD because it just seemed like a natural progression. I guess we kind of just take things as they come to us." With up to four-part harmonies, multi-instrumentation, and an endless backlog of material, the music vets were positive about playing music they wanted to play, unlike many groups they played with in the past. "Mostly we wanted to do something that was kind of self-centered I guess, not popular driven," laughed Hausler. "(Basically) Just doing a lot of the songs that we all wanted to play, but never really had a format to do it in. Like the Jeff Beck tune (Freeway Jam). I've always wanted to play that with a band, but it's pretty hard to pull off in most environments. It was just a way to be able to do some unusual material and not feel constrained by trying to play Top 40 stuff." They've now gone into a
singer/songwriter area with a blues flavor feel to the music. "We wanted to highlight that more, so we changed the format of the whole band. The three of us, John and Dan and I, have all fronted bands. (So) John and I have taken more of a backseat as far as singers. We saw Dan as the primary vocalist, so we started building around that." "We're one of the unusual bands in the fact that you could come and see us and three months later come and see us and the set list would probably change significantly. We don't have our feet set in any really certain thing. We just let things evolve. So it's always going to change with us." As the band plans to record their debut CD, they have found themselves playing out more over the past few months then they originally intended. "I think that you'll see
us branch out," he added. "We already do a couple of jazzier numbers. Tom bought
an acoustic bass and I've always been a big acoustic player, so I think that
maybe you'll see us doing maybe a set of acoustic music mixed in with the rest
of our repertoire. And I definitely think that we'll be working in more original
material." There are a few major
dates coming up for Billy and the Beertones locally. With all the members aged between 43 and 53, this 'newer' group's current set-list includes everything from popular to fun and obscure. Adding more gigs and getting into the studio later this year is just a pinch of what is to come from Billy and the Beertones. "The vision evolves as much as anything else," said Hausler. "I don't think we've ever sat down with a clear plan. We've just kind of let things fall into place." "It’s just a band that likes to have fun, no matter what the musical format is. I think our sense of humor is as much an essential part of our group as our music is. We're able to keep it all in perspective." For more information on
all of the above check:
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