Me, My Brother and I Update!!!

Out of the blue, Bill e-mailed me in September 2004. He wishes to make clear that "while we might have been a cover band, NO OTHER GROUP AT THAT TIME AND PERHAPS SINCE HAS COMBINED THE MUSIC OF AL JOLSON, HARRY NILSSON, FRANKIE YANKOVICH, THE BEATLES, AND ELVIS PRESLEY, PLUS THE AMAZING MR. X AND PUT IT OVER IN A WAY THAT APPEALED TO THE GREAT UNWASHED MASSES THAT CONSISTENTLY POPULATED THE OUTBACK FOR SIX YEARS RUNNING." Can you say hyperbole? It's nice to know he hasn't changed much! Anyway, "Mr. X" was an obviously fake (which was supposed to make it funny) magic act we did at the Outback with Bill as Mr. X and Dan as his assistant, with me providing drum accents at comically inappropriate moments. Bill would be dressed in a sport jacket put on backwards and wearing sunglasses over which a blindfold would be placed (I think Jack used to reluctantly do this). Dan would go out into the crowd and have someone pick a card (usually an attractive young lady, go figure) and then give obvious cues to the chosen card that Mr. X would identify when he could remember the right cues. This bit didn't last long, but a few people enjoyed the campiness of it all.

Since we last were in touch, he as led a full life. He writes:

After "M,MB and I," I "retired" from the music scene, as far as performance goes (this has nothing to do with manager Marv or disco at the Holiday Inn), and continued writing and recording my demos in my home studio, which at that time was a Fostex Reel-to-Reel 8-track, a Yamaha synth, several guitars, a bass and a drum machine. That line up has changed significantly over the years, but I still hack around. I won first prize in The American Song Festival two years running for "Sponge All You Like" and then "One Way Street". Soon much of that writing stuff was pushed aside when I incorporated as an organizational planning and staffing firm, which I established in 1981 and from which I retired in 2001 when we moved to Naples, Florida from Riegelsville, PA (Upper Bucks County), where I was Mayor for several terms (this is called a run-on sentence). My business proved to be a success and if I continue living, things should be wonderful. In the meantime, my brother Dan and I had the pleasure of working with an old friend of mine, Dave Fox, on his song called "We're All A Part of It All", which won the Grand Prize in the Children's Category in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest of 1999. While my wife, Chris, and I lived in Riegelsville, I played Friday and Saturdays in a piano bar there for 10 years straight....had a blast doing mostly "Me, My Brother and I" type stuff (it's classic material and will outlive us all).

He also gave me an update of his most recent adventures. He continues:

Right now I'm performing under the name Billy McEvoy...never liked Aubel, but "Wild Bill" was okay. Anyway, doing a solo act, four nights a week at a piano bar and two other nights at country clubs...it can get l-o-n-g after a while. The piano bar already has all the equipment I need: a Kawaii Digital Baby Grand with hundreds of styles and accompaniments plus a built-in PA system with vocal harmonizer. I can do Everly Brothers and Beatles in two or three part harmonies and even some Mills Brothers stuff in four parts...it sounds VERY realistic and all I have to do is carry in my book of lyrics..a snap...no set up or break down...paradise! On other gigs I play a Korg 500SP with a Peavey PA and a Digitech Vocalmaster Workstation, so I can the same level of performance away from the piano bar. I've discovered some pretty talented people down here, two in particular that I hang with. Peter McGann, who played John Lennon on Broadway in Beatlemania, has become my best buddy and we jam all the time. Another is Cliff Williams, the bass player for AC/DC and we jam a lot because he's from Liverpool and loves the Beatles. So, I'm having a blast. Health is good...still jam with brother Dan (in fact, he's coming down here to play a New Year's Eve gig with me).

Dan is doing well, also, but he hasn't yet revealed as detailed a catch-up as Bill has, but says:

I still play from time to time, and keep in practice by playing along with "Vulture's Delight". Have a '78 Ric 2001 and it's a great bass----wish I had it in the Outback years but it would've been too much bass for the room. Still rockin in North Carolina and play/jam with brother Bill from time to time. Work doesn't provide an enlightening schedule for a frustrated rocker such as myself (alias: My Brother). Building my own cabinets for bass which is fun and I make them portable so I can throw them in the trunk of the car should I play 'on the road'. Don't have the 'power' to heft something as large as the old Standell I used to use. However, believe it or not, I had the two 15" speakers from that cabinet reconed and adjusted to 4 ohms and they crank like crazy. So, they're recycled---born in 1965 and still producing faithful bass tones!! Love those JBL's.

Anyway, it's great to be back in touch with both he and Dan. Bill still stays in touch with Jack, too. Below are some thumbnails that are linked to pictures Bill sent me from the Outback days. Just left click on one to see a larger image. Since the drumset is the one I bought in 1972 and I do not have a microphone, these were taken sometime around or before the winter of 1972-3, before our hiatus when Dan tried out for pro baseball. If anyone wants to get in touch with either Bill or Dan, e-mail me and I will forward your message.