Dr. Jon "The Hammer" Hamrick on bass, Wayne "Walk This Way" Walcoff, keyboards/vocals, Scott "JJ" Jeffries, lead guitar/vocals, Dan "The Boom Boom Man," drums, Joe From Chicago on blues harp/vocals and Cliff Stepp, rhythm guitar and lead vocals.
Influences
Chuck Berry, Stones, Beatles, Captain Beefheart, John Hammond, Jr., Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Zappa, John Hiatt, Jack Johnson, John Prine, Ryan Adams, Beck Hansen, Dylan, Cash, Beautiful South, Lovin' Spoonful, Elvis and Costello, Nick Lowe, Neil Young, BRMC, Wilco, Roger Miller, T-Rex, Tony Joe White and Creedence.
Sounds Like
What people in the audience have told me: "I thought I was hearing a Neil Young bootleg."
"You sound a lot of John Prine." "A couple of tunes I heard were totally Dylan."
"That song was like Dire Straits." "Man, I used to play bass with T-Rex on their European tours and you remind me so much of Marc Bolan." "Is that a Chirs Issak song?" It's all good. And like a pro once told me, "Yeah, we're all dreamin' of having John Hiatt's voice!"
In college Cliffs band was called, T.P. Waterhouse and the Electric Screen Door Salesmen. They played with acts ranging from Question Mark and the Mysterians (of 96 Tears fame) to the Shadows of Knight (Gloria), the 1910 Fruitgum Company and Joe Walsh's original band, The James Gang.
He later wrote blues tunes for the duet, Just the Blues, who were discovered in a New York club by B.B. King. B.B. got them signed to a record deal and produced their debut album.
While performing on the club circuit in southwestern Ohio, Cliff met a fellow singer/guitarist who, a few months later, co-founded the Pure Prairie League. Cliff became the manager and within the year RCA signed the group.
Cliffs tune, Country Song, was one of the first three songs they learned as a band.
Its featured on their first album, their live album and was later covered by various country rock and bluegrass bands. They went on to release 10 albums and had a series of hits including, "Amy," "Let Me Love You Tonight," Dance, and Two Lane Highway.
Cliff describes his shows as a mixture of, Blues, Ballads and Buffoonery. He performs solo, and with The Cliffnotes a 6-piece band.
The tagline for the band ("They get the party started!) was adopted after the 3rd time they heard someone shout it out at a gig.
