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Two-Bit Eddie ... Nashville's Premier Cover Band
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Band Bios
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Norm Rau - guitar, harp, vocals
junior's life:first musical experience was hearing " HELP" playing on the radio,it's been all
downhill ever since.first gig : kindergarten singing supercalifragil.....well i could say it then, i was a smash,
played for the door. guitar at ten, mom hated me ever since. second gig at 17-lack of promotion i guess - barn party in brentwood
tn. -got raided spent 4 hours in jail , no dough. 18 years old and lead guitarist for SORRELS PICKARD and UFOP
the house band at THE BRASS ASS on second ave. nashville tn. thats right THE SORRELS PICKARD star of HARD BODIES
movies. best pickard quote "son, a fat girl will do anything just throw her on the table and peel her like a banana and she
say nobody but you". highlight: doing sessions with ben keith. best keith quote"hey guys let's take a break, got any weed?"lowlight:
me trying to get leon russell thrown off the stage cause i thought he was a 2nd avenue drunk, well that night he was. we got
the door. next detroit city lead guitar and founding member of ONE OF THESE DAYS legendary underground motor city rock kings.
gigs ? hundreds. money-minimal, back to nashville with the Resistors, power pop gods and social climbers.
lots of gigs, lots of recording, played for the door. highlight: countless opening slots for REM at K.O. JAMS in murfreesboro
and at CANTRELLS in nashville. so many i cant remember. also Love Tractor and Jason and the Scorchers { WHO WE WERE MUCH
MORE POPULAR THAN }. moved to california and the Resistors became THE DAYTS. tons of blonde hair and harmonies. highlight:opening
slot for JOHN HYATT, THE BANGLES, SALVATION ARMY and more that i cant remember. lowlight: coming back to nashville to play
college circuit with THE DAYTS through local booking agents. money real good, career move real bad. band breaks
up and i play with P.O.W, EYE COMMITEE, and MERE IMAGE. highlight: opening slot for ADRIEN BELEW AND THE BEARS. pay-it
cost me. played with TOMORROWS WORLD for years and years or so it seemed. popularity great - money none. played with
DESSAU six years. toured u.s.a. and canada and loved it! carlyle records fifth column records rca recording artits.
pay -minimal experience-tons. highlight: recording with paul barker of MINISTRY and playing what seemed like a million
wonderful shows. next BIG RIFLE CLUB on hi-fi party records lots of great music-no dough. founding member of TWO-BIT
EDDIE SHOWBAND AND MUSICAL REVIEW, three years running and no end in sight. gigs a bunch - pay-it costs me....
 John A. Thomas (e) - bass, vocals
Born in Memphis, TN, reared in Clarksville, TN... He helped found Two-Bit
Eddie with Norm in 2001.
John played in various hard rock / psychedelic bands from 1967 - 1970 in Clarksville, TN.
Those bands included legendary gatherings of musicians playing under the names of The Sound System, Yellow
Kangaroo and Cuzin' Hog.
He moved to Memphis, TN in 1970 where he piddled around with a hard rock outfit
or two. He helped out at Betty Lou Studios, a local recording studio where he learned a lot about sound engineering. He joined a
group of musicians who became the studio band for Betty Lou and did a lot of sessions for local gospel and R&B artists. That
group also performed around town as Thumpin' Gizzard ... a pretty darn good R&B / Pop band who
played all the "hot clubs" around the Airways Blvd - Park Avenue - South Parkway (can you say Orange Mound?) area
of Memphis. They also headlined a summer tour of Church's Fried Chicken restaurants ... no, really! John went on to work
in a band that toured much of the country playing the tunes of one of the legendary Memphis Pop / R&B groups
of the middle / late 60's ... the name of the band isn't important and is best left unspoken to protect the innocent.
He
took the next 25 years off as he plied his trade in the wholesale / retail music biz. Then, in 2001, a phone call from
Rau ... the rest is, as "they" say, history.
Oh yea, unlike Rau, we always had a guarantee ... we never, " played for the door"...
are you kiddin', gas costs money, even at 23 cents a gallon!!
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Jim Dant - drums / percussion
Jim was born in Louisville Ky., he
acquired his first drum set at the age of 14 and by his eighteenth birthday was playing professionally with local recording
acts warming up such groups such as Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, Grateful Dead, Ted Nugent, Mitch Rider, MC 5, Amboy Dukes,
Harvey Mandel, and Billy Preston, just to name a few. By the age of 23, Jim began working with Billy Cox (Jimi Hendrix), recording
over 2 albums worth of material, and working with such groups as Steve Miller Band, Doobie Brothers, Rory Gallagher, The CHarlie
Daniels Band, James Cotton and ZZ Top. Jim has also worked with country recording acts, warming up Kentucky Headhunters, Exile,
Kitty Wells, Eddie Raven, Dan Seals, Moe Bandy, David Allen Coe and others. In
1985 Jim moved to Nashville, where he continued his career as a successful studio musician.
Jim has played on numerous master and demo sessions and national and local jingles.
Master recording sessions include Johnny Cash, legendary Jack Clement and critically acclaimed Dennis Cyporyn. Jim has worked with studio musicians such as Roy Huskey Jr. (IBMA instrumentalist
of the year), Bobby Woods, Joey Misculine (Michael Martin Murphy, Riders In The Sky), Marty Stuart, Bruce Bowden (Garth Brooks),
Tim Loftin (Delbert McClinton, Leroy Parnell), among others. Locally, Jim has worked with artists such as Mark Orr (Ky, Headhunters),
and performer/songwriter Alan Rhody (Alan has written hits for the Oak Ridge Boys, Lori Morgan, Rickey Van Shelton, George
Jones and many others). Jim has recorded in nationally known studios such as
Criteria (Miami), Full Sail (Orlando), King (Cincinnati), Fox (Pittsburgh), Suite 2000, Jack Clements Hotel and Recording
Spa, Mercury in Nashville, and Ardent Studio (Memphis).
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Stin Fox - Lead Guitars / Vocals
Now listen, I get cranky when I have to do
a re-cap and a bio is nothing more than a re-cap with a lot of name dropping. I prefer to just let my guitars do all the talking.
But a few facts won’t hurt ye, so here goes:
*Born and raised in Houston, Texas
within spittin’ distance of wild, wild Westheimer and arms length
from the famed ACA Recording studios, where some of the most famous Duke/Peacock label sides were cut. (I used to ride my bike over to the studio and watch Mr. Bill Holford do his magic)
*First musical memory – watching Lightnin’
Hopkins weave tales with an old beat up guitar at the original Alley Theater.
(as a youngster, I think I was just as fascinated by his gold teeth!)
* Got my first guitar at age 12 (an old nylon stringer
from Mexico) – stumbled onto the riff from “Satisfaction”
and have been hooked ever since.
*Countless bands, solo and duo gigs in Texas.
* Moved to Tennessee
in ’94 where I’ve learned to write a pretty decent song.
* Oh yeah – Spent 25+ years as a crusty ol’
sales and marketing executive in the music business working with everybody famous and almost famous.
* like I said up top, I usually like to let my guitars
do the talking, so come on out to a Two-Bit Eddie show and let’s do us some conversatin’!
ARNIE REED - keyboards, vocals
Piano
lessons age 6-16
J.E.B. Stuart High School, Falls
Church, VA (1960-64)
1959
first recording with sax player
1960
neighborhood jam bands
1961
The Cavaliers (big band)
1962
The Redlighters (first rock band)
1963
Chad Graham & The Echoes, The Tensions
1964
The Shades
College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA (1964-68)
1964-68
The Strangers (11 year-old Bruce Hornsby liked to watch us practice)
Summer bands
1965 The Posmen, who became The Royal Guardsmen and recorded the Top 10 hit “Snoopy versus
the Red Baron”)
1966
The Londoners
1967
The Fallen Angels
Washington,
DC metropolitan
area
1971
The Beefeaters
1972
Thaxton & Reed
1973-77
Inner Light (Played for Jimmy Carter’s Election Night celebration Nov. 1976)
1988-91
Mirage (classic rock)
1992
Recorded 2 albums with Rob Guttenberg (original folk)
1992
The Delta Project (Delta Blues)
1996
Straight Up (Country rock)
Nashville,
TN
1999
Ashley & Alexia (country rock – toured US)
2000 Leroy Van Dyke (Veteran country artist who had hits with “Walk on By” and “The
Auctioneer”)
2001-04
Ben Byler & The Rest
2007-08
IGOR, Surface Tension
2008+
Two-Bit Eddie
Arnie
was born in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC and lived and played in that area until the ripe old age of 52,
when he moved to Nashville, TN to try his hand at the Big Time.
Each
time he takes the stage in Nashville, Arnie thanks his mom
(rest her soul) for giving him piano lessons instead of guitar lessons. Big band
music on the radio inspired him while growing up in the 1950s, but it was the piano wizardry of Johnnie Johnson, who played
on many of Chuck Berry’s early hits, that gave Arnie the idea that piano could rock.
For 47 years he’s managed to keep a part-time music career going along with working a day job and raising a family. He began playing in rock bands in 1962, the year before The Beatles hit the U.S. market and hasn’t stopped yet.
Arnie
plays an Alesis QS-8 88-key weighted-action synthesizer together with a Roland VK-7 organ and amplifies them with a Roland
KC-150.
Fear not, this web-site is printed on acid-free paper that oddly enough creates no carbon foot-print so we don't have
to buy carbon off-sets from Grammy, Oscar & Noble winner, Big-Brother Al and his company.
You can also take comfort in knowing that no snail-darters and / or spotted owls were harmed in the preparation
of this site, that absolutely no trans-fats were consumed during it's preparation nor did we produce one extra molecule
of carbon dioxide because we never, never exhale.
Two-Bit Eddie...always environmentally sound.
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