Terry Quiett Band

Page 4
Rockin’ blues
By Jessica Bernhardt
Managing editor
They drove 28,000 miles
last year and performed about
100 times. They have fans
across the nation and their
songs are played worldwide.
The current lineup of the
Terry Quiett Band has been
together for two and a half
years. Terry Quiett, web
producer, started the band in
2003. Quiett, who sings and
plays guitar, performed for
several years prior to creating TQB. Quiett said he did
solo acoustic for a number
of years and put out two albums. He also was in a band
before that.
“I missed the interaction of
playing with other musicians
and liking the bigger, fuller
sound of a band setting and
that’s when I decided to put
a band together. The band
slowly morphed and became
much more a kind of blues/
rock kind of band. The blues
world seems to be embracing us pretty good. They’ve
been pretty accepting of us.
We’re not a traditional blues
band by any mean. We have
a lot of rock influences, a lot
of other influences that come
across us as well.”
Rodney Baker, maintenance supervisor, is also
known as Shotgun Rod. He
has been a member of the
band for five years.
Baker has been
performing since
he was 16
years old. He
has been with
Quiett for 13
years. Baker
said, “I’m
the drummer…the
Sunday
driver…
and the sound tech.”
The third member of the
band is bass player and
backup singer Aaron Underwood, Wichita resident.
He has been in the TQB for
two years. Prior to joining
the band, he played bass for
Travisty Theory out of Jackson, Miss. He also toured
with SevenDust.
Underwood said, “I have
been playing for about 14
years with moderate success and a few full time jobs
touring.” Underwood is a dietary manager at an assisted
living facility in Wichita.
The three traveled 28,000
miles across about 10 states
last year. Quiett said the
band has played in Kansas,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas,
Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa,
Kentucky and Ohio. “We
play all kinds of things,” he
said. “We play at a lot of
clubs and bars. We’ve also
played a lot of festivals and
opened for several artists.”
Traveling so much has an
obvious impact on the band
member’s home lives. The
band travels nearly every
weekend.
Baker, who is married
with children, said, “It affects my home life a lot. I
have three beautiful children
who are very understanding.
They see this as me trying to
reach a goal I have and I'm
trying to show them
that you can still
chase after any
dream you
have and to
never quit.
But I could
not play rock
star without
the support
of my wife
of 16 years.
She has been my
rock and been
there for me
in
every
way pos-
Feature
Dec. 3, 2008
Photos by Eloy Mendoza/Contributing photographer
Aaron Underwood, bass player, Terry Quiett, singer and guitarist, and Rodney Baker, drummer, have been playing
together for more than two years. The band will travel to Memphis to compete in the International Blues Society.
sible.”
Quiett also is married
with two children. He said,
“We perform almost every
weekend and it’s very hard
to juggle. There’s a lot of
travel time because we play
so far.”
Underwood said, “I think
absence makes the heart
grow fonder. Music has been
my best friend and taken me
on the best adventures. I really hope my boyfriend never
makes me choose. He likes
the space too, so it’s never
even come up.”
The band is motivated with
love for music, a sense of belonging and the fan base they
have accumulated.
Baker said, “It sure is not
the money or all the miles
we log in a smelly van. It
has to be the guys that I play
with. This is the best lineup I have ever played
with and the crowds
are getting bigger every time we go back
to a place. It's nice to have
people you don’t know come
to a show just because they
heard you on the radio and
liked the song they heard.”
Underwood feels the same
about the fans. He said, “We
have some really great fans
and friends all over the place
now and having people get it
is addictive.”
Quiett said the band has
been making progress over
the past couple of years.
“We’re getting a little
farther. We’re getting
more recognition. We
are getting bigger shows.
And the response to the
new record has been really
good.”
The band’s latest album,
“Cut the Rope,” was released
in July. Quiett said, “There
is an XM show that is syndicated through XM Radio
internationally that has been
spinning the record. The new
record has been getting a lot
of positive response.
“A lot of radio stations pick
us up. We’re on over
a dozen Midwest
terrestrial radio sta-
tions. One station in Maine
really likes us. We’ve been
in the top 20 for the past several months for their blues
program.”
On a local level, the band
won the 2008 International
Blues Challenge as part of
the Wichita Blues Society.
The band will be going to
Memphis in February to
represent Kansas in the National Blues Society. “We’ll
be competing with about 100
other bands from across the
world,” said Quiett.
From club to club and
show to show, the crowd
scene changes.
Auntie Maes in Manhattan
was Quiett’s favorite show
last year. “It’s downstairs
with horrible P.A., but that
place was packed. The en-
ergy was so good.”
Baker agrees that Auntie
Maes is one of his favorite
places to play. He also enjoys
playing at the Iron Horse in
Wichita Falls, Texas, and
The Walnut Room in Denver.
The group opened for Edgar Winter at The Cotillion
last month. Underwood said,
“I really enjoyed playing The
Cotillion with Edgar Winter.
We signed about 30 autographs that night.”
Quiett said, “It was pretty
exciting because I’ve seen
so many great bands at The
Cotillion so it was exciting to
be on the stage. That was an
honor just to get to play that
venue.”
Although they have fulltime jobs, all three members
have considered becoming
full-time musicians.
Underwood said, “If I
could, I would definitely take
TQB full time.”
Baker agreed. “I consider
being a full-time musician all
the time. But I would have to
ask my wife first.”
Quiett said, “It’d be great
to be able to have music be
the thing that pays all the
bills. Right now we’re just
trying to find that balance between what we’re doing with
our daily lives and home lives
and still trying to get out on
the road and get in front of
people and build fans.”
Jessica Bernhardt is a senior majoring in communication. You may e-mail her at
jessica.bernhardt@sckans.
edu.
Terry Quiett Band
Performance schedule
Dec. 5 – Grand Prairie Hotel/Grand Slam Bar
Hutchinson
Dec. 6 – Downtown Blues
Omaha
Dec. 12 – Auntie Maes
Manhattan
Dec. 13 – Brewdogs
Tahlequah, Okla.
Jan. 9 – The Cimarron Bar
Tulsa
Jan. 10 – The Cotillion
Wichita
Jan. 16 – The Port of Wichita
Wichita
Jan. 31 – Blayney
Kansas City, Mo.
Feb. 5-7 – International Blues Challenge
Memphis
You can buy the album “Cut the Rope” locally at Willoughby Music on Main St.,
on iTunes or at www.cdbaby.com/cd/terryquiett5