Danged if you coulda known!
The gentleman rancher with the clipped white mustache once played violin with the Utah Symphony. The top-hatted gent with Z.Z. Top beard and sunglasses has seven kids. Clad in black chaps with Jim Bridger hair curling softly around his face, the Alabama singer look-alike punches guitar riffs instead of cows and is father to the young man dressed like an early Marlon Brando and brother to the Z.Z. man. And the wild guy with long black hair and beard who looks as though a chopped Harley is waiting outside the back door for a quick getaway - has 23 gold and platinum albums for songwriting, performing and producing.Together this motley crew is the country band Wasatch - for whom the term "bullet" was no doubt invented. Like the range of mountains the band is named after once shot into the air with volcanic energy, Wasatch the band is on the rise as well.
Named by Salt Lake City's alternative weekly, the Private Eye, as No. 1 Country Band, Best Local Cassette Release, Best Strings (Jim Shupe, fiddle), and Best CD/
Cassette Cover, (as well as placing in the top 10 for Best New Band, Band of the Year, Best Male Vocal - Tyler Green), the band has just been signed by a Las Vegas agency, GMA and two recording labels are vying for recording rights.
What is surprising, though, is hearing Sean Delaney say, "We're one of the few bands that I can guarantee you will get up and go to church on Sunday no matter where we are on the road!" The Wasatch performers are Mormons who do not smoke or drink.
Wasatch will be headlining at the Stateline Casino in Wendover from Monday, June 7, through Sunday, June 13. Gigs are lined up for Flagstaff and Sedona, Ariz.; Las Vegas, Laughlin and Ely, Nev. The group's dance card is filling fast with performances scheduled at the Tooele Arts Festival on Friday, June 4; Jakes High Country Dance in Orem on Saturday, June 5 (a non-alcoholic dance); Saddle & Spurs at Park West with the No. 1 bluegrass band, Country Gentlemen and at the Utah Arts Festival on Sunday, June 27, at 4 p.m.
Wasatch began about two years ago with brothers, Tyler and Jack Green. The Greens have been professional musicians for 18 years. The two have been the rhythm and lead section of many Utah bands: Steamboat, The Sloan Brothers, Rockin' Horse and the Lyndee Mueller Band, to name a few.
The Green brothers advertised for a singer and Sean Delaney accompanied a friend to give moral support at the tryout. Delaney gathered 23 gold and platinum albums as he worked on stage and in the studio with Bob Seger, Cheap Trick, Cher, Donna Summers, the Nylons, Helen Reddy and Jon Bon Jovi. Delaney's long working relationship with Paul Shaffer of the Letterman show led to Delaney's working with Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. He was the original choreographer and show director of the infamous rock band Kiss and produced Gene Simmons' solo album. Delaney says simply that he came back to Utah to "get well."
Just for fun, Delaney sang a few songs when his friend was finished. He played guitar so well that the Green brothers offered him the job. He told them that no way did he want to get back into the bar scene. "I didn't know any bands that didn't get high or stoned," Delaney said. "We don't drink and we don't do drugs," said Tyler Green. "We don't want to be a bar band." That did it. For in the midst of hard rock, Delaney always loved country and western music.
"Who's the best fiddler in Utah?" the musicians asked. Jim Shupe was the name that kept coming back to them. So the former Utah Symphony violinist and founder of the National Old Time Fiddlers Association came to audition. First thing that happend was Shupe ran into Delaney and mumbled to himself, "I've come to the wrong house. This guy is president of Hell's Angels!" But soon Shupe was on board as fiddler and the group lacked only a drummer. Several drummers had auditioned when Mike Green, Tyler's now-17-year-old son said, "I demand a chance!" Said Delaney, "He blew away every drummer we'd tried."
Wasatch has attracted a legion of fans. KRGO has been giving airtime to the Wasatch demo tape and fans gathered 1,000 signatures on a petition given to KKAT and KSOP radio to play the group's original music. Wasatch will be featured band at the Ogden Street Festival July 17 and will open for Diamond Rio in Evanston, Wyo., on July 31. A Canadian and European tour is in the works for August and September.
While there are many "highs" yet to come for this band, what happened on the afternoon of May 3 in Las Vegas is a sweet memory. "We were playing before agents from GMA. It took 45 minutes to set up and get on stage. We started with an empty room. By the second song the room was packed. When we were three-quarters through, people were six deep in the aisles. We got a standing ovation, did an encore and got another standing ovation," remembered Delaney. "You could feel the electricity crack across the stage!"