Royer's One Man Band
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Here is a list of people and bands I have played banjo or guitar with and/or recorded with:
Sorry, many of these links don't work any more, I need to go through this list and find new links
- Project Bluebird
Project Bluebird is a new album I worked on with My friend Nancy Pontius from Tucson
- Little Rabbit
Little Rabbit
This is my new old time band.
- The Resophonics
The Resophonics
This is the Bluegrass band I played with for years, we won The Boston Music Award for Best Roots Act 2004. Here are the albums we released:
The Resophonics - 2001
Wildflower Waltz - 2005
Last Long Winter - 2007
- David Rovics
David Rovics
Toured Denmark with David and recorded these albums:
Live at Club Passim - date?
We Just Want The World - 1998
The Commons - 2007
Halliburton Boardroom Massacre - date?
- Kris Delmhorst
Kris Delmhorst
I recorded banjo with the Resophonics on Kris's album Five Stories, 2001
- The Dave Foley Band
Dave Foley
Played a bunch of gigs with Dave Foley and Rich Holbrok, recorded an album with them but it's unavalible,
Dave Foley and the Moon Roosters - Welcome Stranger - 2001
- Alister Moock
Alister Moock
I recorded banjo on Moock's album A Life I Never Had, and have played several shows with his band and at a music series he puts on called Pastures of Pleanty
Pastures of Plenty WUMB Member's concert 2002
A Life I Never Had - 2002
- Slim Jim and The Mad Cows
Slim Jim and The Mad Cows
Country Fried Metal - 2002
Homebrewed - date?
Appetite for The Truckin' - date?
- Junk (Phyllis/Electric Caravan)
This was my first Rock band, lasted a long time, practiced a lot, played as much as the clubs would let us to empty rooms, and basically got sick of it
- The Road runners
Velvet Underground Cover Band... need I say more?
- Barely Bipedal
The most fun I've had in a band was with these guys from Tucson, I played banjo, and there were a bunch of other people coming in and out of the band, mostly played at parties and stuff
- Coliche Con Carne
Coliche Con Carne is sort of a amped up spin off of Barely Bipedal fronted by James Jordan, who is still doing the band
- The Bluegrass Mutaneers
A crazy loud "bluegrass" band fronted by banjo player Willie Wallace, I played Fiddle.
- The Titan Valley Warheads
I sat in with these Tucson bluegrass guys quite a bit when I lived out there, that was great, they can sing!
- The Resonars (Rock band I was in when I lived in Tucson)
TOP OF THE HEAP: I've raved before about The Resonars,(Matt Rendon-guitar, Eric Royer-guitar, OJ Moyer-Drums, Forest Dunn-Bass), a local band that has been severely overlooked by Tucson club-goers. Their blending of harmony pop vocals, folk, country, garage and rock influences makes them one of Tucson's best current bands, or so I've said before.
With the release of the band's Tripping In Your Coffin cassette, I'll take the praise one step further. I've seen and heard an endless string of groups in Tucson since my teen years, and after much thought I've come to this personal assessment: The Resonars are the most enjoyable, musically talented and creative rock musicians in Tucson from the past decade--and beyond.
While there are many fine rock bands in these here parts, The Resonars have simply become my current favorite. Save the hate mail, kids. I'm entitled to my opinion.
The foursome is getting ready to record new material for a four-song EP, hopefully to be followed by a full-length CD collecting tracks from the vibrant cassette release. The 14 song cassette is available at Zia Record Exchange and Toxic Ranch, so shell out $5 and judge the band's musical prowess for yourself.
For music fans on a budget, The Resonars will perform at 9 p.m. Thursday, July 6, 1995 during Kathy Key's excellent Tap Into Tucson radio show on KXCI, 91.3 FM. Their 45 minute set will include an interview and undoubtedly a few cuts from Tripping. While the aural quality of the "live" KXCI broadcasts is sometimes crude, The Resonars' ability should shine through.
(From Tucson Weekly July 6 - July 12, 1995)
- BIG JOE (Sat in on banjo)
self-titled
self-released
All the best salesmen have no-bullshit eyes. Forget what you see in movies and on TV, the slippery salesfolk who dazzle with flash and a line. The best deal-closers still rely on a firm handshake and a look square in the eye.
The music of Raleigh, North Carolina, band Big Joe, as rolled out on their 10-song debut, is rooted in that same kind of straightforward, no-hidden-costs approach. There's nothing fancy about their loud 'n' catchy guitar-led rock; the only frill in sight is the guest banjo of Eric "The One-Man Bluegrass Band" Royer, which duels with Joe Rechel's roaring slide guitar on "Long Time Comin'". Among the musical highlights are "Somehow", which brings to mind the muscular twang-pop tunes Mike Harrison contributes to the V-Roys, and "Road To Nowhere", the album's simple but undeniably catchy centerpiece detailing Big Joe's migration to Raleigh from Tucson, Arizona, by way of Nashville.
The lyrics penned by Eddie Taylor, the band's hurricane-voiced vocalist, are equally direct. Only love seems capable of driving Taylor to metaphor, turning him into a daredevil on the shout-along number "Evel" and an affection junkie on the 6-minute epic "Strung Out".
And not once do these guys push you to take the service contract.
--RICK CORNELL
(Review from No Depression Magazine)
- GILA BEND (sat in on banjo, and this album has me playing my very first version of the guitar machine during one of their songs, this is the first recording of the guitar machine)
Natureburger
San Jacinto
THIS AIN'T YER mama's Gila Bend--or at least, not the roots-rock Gila Bend that blazed through a live-to-two-track set several years ago and issued it on a German label as Kim Chee Cowboy (one which fans still try, without much luck nowadays, to track down in the record store bins). Mainman, vocalist and guitarist Loren Dircks, bassist Jim Blackhall, drummer Tom Larkins and "hi-strung guitar" player Al Perry are joined by a host of local notables (Craig Schumacher, Stuart Kupers, Neil Harry, John Convertino and Eric Royer), and the long delay between records suggests a lot of time spent working on things like songwriting, arranging, and just saying things the way you want them said. The tone of conversation can range from the frankly bizarre ("Sentenced To Roam The Urth," which is like a '50s ballad laced with surf and metal riffs--and don't overlook the fuzzed-out, lo-fi countrydelic tune tacked on at the end of the disc as an untitled bonus track) to the revved-up and reeling (the garagey "Ballad Of The Postapocalyptic Pig Farmer," featuring Who-style power chords, a terrific banjo part, and some hilarious lyrics), to the gently sentimental (the countryesque "Never Again" has sweet pedal steel murmurs and a bass line that thumps as assuredly as a lovesick fool's heart). Back in the saddle again for Gila Bend--and you can definitely tell your mama the news.
--Fred Mills
(from The Tucson Weekly)