The Fender Benders have been an established band since 1990. They have played numerous festivals, concerts and private parties all over Kentucky and parts of Tennessee.
They have opened shows for B.B. King, Tower of Power and Neil McCoy just to name a few. As well as playing at the KenLake Blues Festival, Duncan Hines Festival, Owensboro BBQ Festival and many, many more.
They have been selected twice by the KY Blues Soceity to repersent KY at the 2006 and 2008 International Blues Challenge on Beale St. in Memphis, TN! The largest gathering of blues bands in the world!
The Fender Benders are primarily an R&B band that also plays the Blues and Classic Rock with the best of them. The Bowling Green, KY party band that will have you dancing all night long!
Our Bio's
Willie Smith/Vocalist:
The band features Willie Smith on lead vocals. He can invoke the soul of Otis Redding or sing the blues as well as Bobby "Blue" Bland. He has a presence that makes women swoon with only his voice and moves!
Willie is 64 years old, but you would never think so. He got his start in the church singing gospel hymns. At 15 years of age, he was heard by a sax player, Robert Phillips and was asked to start singing for his band, The House Rockers. They also did shows as "Push". They played gigs from Mississippi to Terre Haute, Ind.
One day, on the way back from playing a gig in Louisville, KY they heard another band playing a radio show that included Chris Hardesty and loved the sound! Robert found out who they were and they formed the Fender Benders!
Robert has since past on and Willie has kept singing with all his heart! Once you hear Willie sing you will never forget that incredible voice!
Willie Smith is the heart and soul of the Fender Benders and he keeps gaining a fan base every time he starts to sing! He has no intentions of stopping anytime soon and everyone of his fans hope it will last forever!
Steve Sanders, Guitarist/Backup Vocals
Steve started playing guitar at the early age of 10 and has been hooked ever since. With influences like Albert King, Albert Collins, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles, Lester and Earl, the Grand Old Opera, Led Zeppelin, The Stones and so many others. It fed the fire to be a great musician and that fire still burns today.
Steve joined his first band in the 8th grade called Shades of Grey. During this important period and through high school, Steve learned to play music the right way and even led him to play in the high school marching band!
In 1967 he honed his chops on local television shows in Louisville, KY on the Randy Archer Show and Bowling Green, KY on the Jim Kerson Show while still in high school. Soon after graduating he moved to Louisville, KY where he started playing in road bands playing all over the country. He also recorded demos for Falk Studios and soon signed with Triangle Talent Agency. He was well known as a great player and played with some of Kentucky’s best including The Epics, Tundra with musicians like Fred Cecil and Tommy Stribbing.
While working on a writing project with Adam Fields and recording as The Sander/Fields Project a long time friend Mark Johnson ask Steve if he would be interested in playing with The Fender Benders. After years of seeing the band play around the area, he jumped at the chance to join! Steve brings what the song needs and has become the musical director that the band has been looking for. Steve knows what to play and what not to play! That makes him the perfect fit in The New Fender Benders.
Andy Day, Keyboards/Vocals
Andy came to music at a very young age. While attending preschool at the age of 4, Andy came in one day and showed his mother all the songs he had heard that day in music class. It was on a one-octave piano that she had bought him at a 5 & 10-cent store. She was so impressed that his family bought a full size piano for his 5th birthday on the promise to never stop playing. He never has to this day.
Andy has played professionally since getting out of high school. He has played in every kind of band you can name. His desire to be a great keyboard player has paid off through the years. He took a break in the mid 80’s until the mid 90’s to concentrate on his business and family. Moving to Bowling Green, he was ask to play again and renewed his desire to play again. Having played with some of the best around, he met Steve Sanders and Mark Johnson and formed a lasting friendship and brought him to be a member of The New Fender Benders.
Andy restores log cabins and has a large family that he is very proud of. He is very family oriented and a great all around person.
Andy’s influence are wide ranging from Ray Charles, Floyd Cramer, Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elton John on piano and Greg Rollie, Jon Lord and Greg Allman on B-3. He has the chops and vocal talent to do his own thing, but being a part of the band is where he feels most comfortable. It’s all about playing the right thing at the right time and making the band sound right.
Mark Johnson, Bassist/Backup Vocals:
Mark is an original member of the Fender Benders, but left for a few years to pursue other musical interests. He returned to the band about 5 years ago after realizing how much he missed the magic of the Fender Benders.
He owns a new neon business in Bowling Green, KY. He is the only glass bender in Bowling Green and is starting to reap the rewards of being a needed commodity!
Mark learned to play bass by watching his stepfather play bass for country and gospel bands as a kid. He would help set-up, then watch him play and then help them tear down. He learned the music business, as well as how to play, by the time he was a teenager.
He has played many types of music, but that Motown sound was what made him the happiest! Grooving and playing in the pocket is what it is all about for Mark!
Chris Hardesty, Drummer/Backup Vocals:
Chris is also an original member that left the band for a while to play with the power trio, Supafuzz. Supafuzz was a force to be reckoned with, but he too found his way back to the Fender Benders.
Chris is one of the best drummers in the entire area! He plays in a very unorthodox method. He is left handed, but sets his drums like normal except the hi-hats are on the other side. He blows people away just by the way he sets them up, but once he plays the audience is even more blown away!
He also plays in a side band with Greg Martin of the Kentucky Headhunters. The band is called Rufus Huff and they play as Greg takes a break from the Headhunters and other musical projects. Luckily his passion is still with the Fender Benders though!
He is the groove machine behind the band! He is also the ears of the band! If something is not right with the song, he is the first one to hear it and knows what it takes to fix the problem!
Ryan Stiles-Baritone/Tenor Saxophone/Backup Vocals
Ryan started playing Alto Saxophone at age 11 in his school band. He quickly progressed on the instrument, and went on to win numerous awards in middle and high school, and was awarded a seat in the coveted KY All-State Band two years in a row. In high school, he found the rich and deep sound of the baritone sax and knew he was on to something. The baritone quickly became his instrument of choice.
After high school, he played in a few bands until he was accepted to the world famous Berklee College of Music, in Boston, MA. He went on to study under the award winning arranger, Fred Lipsius and leader of the "Woody Herman Orchestra", Frank Tiberi. Ryan was highly coveted as one of the few “true” baritone sax players, and this helped him excel in many bands in this prestigious institution where he also played with Jeff Coffin on several dates.
After returning home to Bowling Green, and playing with a few bands, he got the opportunity to go on a national tour with Guy Smiley Blues Exchange and had the privilege to play all over the country from New York City to Honolulu and most everywhere in between. After the tour, Ryan moved to Seattle, WA and began to collaborate with some of the most talented young jazz musicians in Seattle, but was ready to return home to Bowling Green, KY.
Now in demand in the area, Ryan has been lucky enough to play with some of the most talented musicians in Kentucky, among them the Fender Benders, which he became a permanent member. Ryan is very capable to play most any style, but loves to play the great Stax/Motown sound that he grew up listening to and makes him the happiest of all the styles that he has played through the years! The only baritone sax player in the area and plays it with the soul of all the greats!
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