The Sofa King Cool Band's guitarists are Anthony (Big Tony) Caldarelli & Simon (Dr Blues) Beeching. Tony began his professional musical career playing in Top 40 cover bands in his hometown of Harrisburg PA, but has played in a variety of musical genres in both live performances and studio work in Nashville, Minneapolis and the Pittsburgh area. Though Tony has played many genres of music from Bebop Jazz to Punk, his first love is unmistakably the Blues. Simon Beeching was briefly trained in classical music with the oboe, and now plays traditional and modern blues in conventional and slide styles. His repertoire includes delta and contemporary blues on resonator, six- and 12-string guitars. He has performed as a solo artist, and with blues-rock bands, including the acoustic ensemble Appalachian Plateau. Lending low frequency support is John Briney on Bass Guitar. A self-taught musician John started playing in garage bands at age 14. After playing in an Oldies band playing various weddings and small clubs in the Alle-Kiski Valley area, John joined a hard rock band with dreams of making it big. The band worked the PA, NY, OH, MD, WV club circuit and John hone his bass skills playing 4 to 6 nights a week eventually the band was opening for more famous local bands and later national acts such as UFO, Trooper, The Godz and Steppenwolf... After the drummer’s tragic and unexpected death related to a vehicle accident, the band folded and John returned to playing locally in the club/wedding circuit and played everything from Michael Jackson (sorry!) to Molly Hatchet, ABBA to ZZ Top, Glenn Miller to The Monkees...you get it! Later John played with a Southern Rock (Marshall Tucker, Molly Hatchet, Outlaws, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc...) band and straight Rock bands (Heart, Van Hagar, Rush, Jeff Beck, etc...) and then with various local Classic Rock/Oldies/Country bands before he brought all of this great experience to anchor the bottom of The Sofa King Cool Band.
Drummer Mark Allen got hooked on music when he saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show when he was 5 years old. After banging on pots and pans for the next several years he finally got a real drum kit and started taking lessons during his teenage years. After playing in a few high school bands he decided that he needed something more. After a move to Atlanta GA. when he was 20 years old...he scored a gig with his first audition and was on the road with a real working band. Needless to say he had to learn to grow up fast. Traveling the Southeastern U.S. in an old school bus and playing full time was quite the experience. Over the years he played many different styles of music with some amazing musicians and became a well rounded musician himself. But his first love was and still is heavy rock and blues. Also during this time he got some much needed studio experience. 10 years later he moved back to the area and got on the ground floor of an original heavy rock project. After many months of rehearsal they recorded their own album. With their album in the can it was a matter of time until they were signed to a record deal...or so they thought. This was the early 90's and they were told over and over again by many different record companies that rap was the next big thing and no one cared about unknown rock projects. And that was the end of that. Fast forward to 2008. After a number of years out of the business the urge to play got the best of him. So he spent all of that year in the basement going back to basics with some video instruction getting his chops back and learning something that he always wanted to do...play double bass. And here he is in 2009 in The Sofa King Cool Band ready to lay down some solid grooves. As Mark likes to say...He's Still Alive and Well.
Jessie (The Jessie) Rack is graduate of the West Virginia University's school of music, but you only have to hear her sing one song to realize that her vocal abilities come from her heart, not from a degree. A tremendously soulful vocalist Jessie it a fabulous addition to the band bringing the female vocals of the great classic rock and blues singers to life. Her mom thinks that she is Janis Joplin reincarnated. Once you hear Jessie sing you might agree that "mother knows best."
Influences
The Sofa King Cool Band is influenced primarily by: The Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaugn, Eric Clapton (Not Jeff Beck), The Rolling Stones, Z Z Top, Robert Johnson, Albert King, Freddie King etc.
Sounds Like
OUR SET LIST INCLUDES SONGS LIKE: Taking Care of Business (BTO), Sympathy For The Devil (The Rolling Stones), Gimme Three Steps (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Keep Your Hands to Yourself (Georgia Satellites), Running Down A Dream (Tom Petty), Rock And Roll (Led Zeppelin), Ice Cream Man (Van Halen), Can't You See (Marshall Tucker), You Can't Always Get What You Want (The Rolling Stones), Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison), Southbound (The Allman Brothers), Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (Bachman-Turner Overdrive),Voodoo Chile (Jimi Hendrix), Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry), Pride and Joy (Stevie Ray Vaughn), Honkey Tonk Woman (The Rolling Stones), One Way Out (The Allman Brothers), Cocaine, (Eric Clapton), Black Magic Woman (Carlos Santana), La Grange (ZZ Top), Ramblin Man (The Alman Brothers Band), Dreams (Molly Hatchet), Can't Get Enough (Bad Company), My Heads in Mississippi (ZZ Top), Born On The Bayou (CCR), Walkin' The Dog (Aerosmith) etc.
The Sofa King Cool Band has quickly established a reputation as great band that plays great Classic Rock, Blues Rock and traditional Electric Blues. The Allman Brothers Band, The Stones, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Eric Clapton . . . nearly everyone loves the music made famous by these legends and The Sofa King Cool Band brings it to life. Whether you like to dance or want to just sit and listen, come to a show and you'll have a great time listening to a great band playing "all the good stuff!
The Sofa King Cool Band was originally formed in the summer of 2006 as an acoustic group when Simon (who fronts the classic rock band The Longshots) & Tony (who is the guitarist for the blues band Blues Eyed Blonde) decided that it would be fun to have a low hassle group that would be ideal for smaller venues. Using acoustic, resonator and electric guitars in a two person format, Tony and Simon developed a show with enough variety to please almost anyone. So if the crowd likes Eric Clapton, or Tom Petty, or Modern English, or Johnny Cash, or CCR or Kid Rock, or Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Jimmy Buffett . . . well, we've made our point. Simon and Tony still do the occasional acoustic show.
The Sofa King Cool (Electric) Band was originally brought together to complete a studio project in September of 2006 (The project was put on hold when the owner of the studio was tragically killed in a vehicular accident). When the recording started the musical chemistry exhibited from the downbeat of the first song of the first rehearsal demanded that something further occur. The opportunity presented itself when Blues Eyed Blonde took a one year "hiatus" in November of 2006. The Sofa King Cool (Electric) Band was born and has, in a very short time, forged a great show of Classic Rock, traditional Electric Blues and screaming Blues Rock.
The Sofa King Cool Band's Friend Space (Randomized)
I really appreciate your support and helping spread the word - as a group we can really make a difference! Hope you are doing well and you have a great weekend!
Help support our troops by visiting the Military Troops Calendar Myspace page (on my top friends), www. militarytroopscalendar. com or my Myspace page and click the Paypal button. Proceeds go to the Fisher House, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and allow us to send the calendars to the troops serving overseas free of charge to thank them for their service to our country. Our goal is to send 17,000 overseas within the next couple weeks. Thank you for your support!
Thanks for the friend add! My husband and I are Navy vets, both of us with Search and Rescue, but he had the cool job of being a rescue swimmer and he served during Desert Storm - I joined shortly after. So we support the troops 110%! Hope I can get him out to a show soon! ;)
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