ARTS ALIVE: Bill DeYoung Mad Beach Band Reunion Concert 6/16 @Palladium

Pete Merrigan, T.C. Carr and Vinnie Seplesky join Bill DeYoung for this edition of Arts Alive! For more than four decades, these musicians have been in the front lines of the Mad Beach Band, at one time the hardest-working, busiest and most popular group in town.

The guys came to the podcast studio to play a little music, to talk about old times and new, and to plug the band’s June 16 show at the Palladium Theater Side Door Cabaret, a benefit for non-profit Sunshine 96.7 FM RadioStPete's summer fundraiser. TICKETS HERE

A lot of Budweiser has passed under the John’s Pass Bridge since Merrigan, Carr, Pete Shackett and Harry Dailey crafted a winning amalgam of rock, country, folk and blues, a little Jimmy Buffett here, a little Willie Nelson there. And tongue-in-cheek original tunes. In 1970s and early-to-mid ‘80s beach bars, the Mad Beach Band on the stage always meant a raucous good time.

Merrigan and Shackett were the singing frontmen. Carr, in the ‘70s, was already a virtuoso on the harmonica, and Dailey was actually the bass player in Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band. While not on the road or the studio, he was in Madeira Beach. Playing in the Mad Beach Band.

Seplesky came aboard to take the bass chair during Dailey’s frequent absences.

Things changed over time. Shackett and Dailey departed, the band broke up and got back together, Merrigan got sober, other players came and went.  
There’s still a Mad Beach Band today. It includes drummer Tom Kennedy and guitarists Lenny Austin and Dave Williamson.  And Merrigan. And Carr. And Seplesky.

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