Music Style Electric Blues

Musical Influences Freddie King, BB King, Albert King

Similar Artists ZZ Top, Los Lobos, Various electric blues people

Artist History For twelve years the Creepers have been rocking Wisconsin and Northern Illinois with a passion for roots rock, blues and R&B music.The Creepers grew out of the need for a backup band at the new Silver Moon Blues Oasis in Darien, WI which opened in 1989. Chicago blues artists (guitarists, keyboardists, singers) would come up to the club and perform with the house band. One night, piano player Eddie-"The Professor"-Lusk, during a particularly speedy and rousing version of "Mustang Sally," introduced the gradually slowing backup band as "Ladies and gentlemen, The Creepers - the Blues Creepers."

Group Members Chainsaw Curtis-guitar,vocals; Johnny Bongo-Drums; Tom McDermot-bass

Albums Too Much Like Work('96) Pantloads of Fun('00)

Press Reviews Green Bay Press Gazette 3/9/00 Never one to like his music on the bland side, Curtis Rodeheaver puts a little something extra into the songs he plays. Rodeheaver likes the fact that he and his blues band, Chainsaw Curtis and the Creepers, do a iittle bit of everything. Performing both original and cover tunes, each of the band's performances tend to fluctuate, catering to music lovers of all ages. "We do things just a bit different," he said. When they take a ZZ Top song and turn it into a shufffle swing, the crowds usually respond by singing along. "I just like to take material that sometimes people are familiar with and twist it," Rodeheaver said. Rodeheaver, 47, moved from upstate New York in 1989 to open up a club called the Silver Moon Blues Oasis in Darien, a small town located about 15 miles southeast of Janesville. Having hosted jam sessions there with local musicians, he eventually put together a house band that backed up musicians from Chicago. After that, he and the musicians began playing elsewhere and he eventually left the club to persue other interests in 1993. "Basically I wanted to play more music and take a couple of months off," Rodeheaver said. From there, a demo tape was created and the booking of gigs on a regular basis became a full-time thing for Rodeheaver and the rest of the band. Rodeheaver and crew soon found their way to Green Bay. "Heroes was one of the clubs that started booking us right from the get-go," he said. For six years they have been playing Heroes Club like clock work almost every three months and will continue the trend Saturday night. "I love it (Heroes)," he said. "It is one of the best clubs we play because while I don't always see the same faces and it is very rare for me to recognize anybody that I've seen three or six months ago, the crowds are there specifically to hear the bands—and that reallymakes it nice." The performance is in support of the band's latest release, "Pantloads of Fun." under his own label, Toetown Tunes. Rodeheaver wrote all the songs for the album which has been out for just over a month. The rest of the band is comprised ofMichael Lucchesi on drums, Bruce Lockwood on bass and Keife Tomaino on gultar. Rodeheaver describes the latest release as "not strictly a blues album. There's a lot of diferent stuff on there. I think you'll find that it is accessible to a lot of people." Describing his signature style as "electric" his influences includeLos Lobos, Albert King, Freddie King, B B. King Steve Earle. "I like songwriters that write good songs," he said. "A lot of time these guys don't get airplayon the radio. Even a guy like Dwight Yoakam, who is probably one of the best songwriters on the planet, can't get his stuff played on country stations because he is too —country. I don't know." With this in mind, he believes that his and many other musicians songs are universal. "A lot of the stuff i write could easily be translated into a country vein if somebody wanted to twang it up a bit, but that's because the music is all connected. Blues, country and rock and roll - it's all connected."

Location Footville, WI - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).