WhatzUp - Heartland Art, Entertainment & Recreation

WhatzUp

Best Original Rock Band

28.89% Blue Moon Boys*

17.91% Wailhounds*

11.99% Fawn Liebowitz*

11.82% homeless j*

2.7% Vandolah*

2.03% Sirface, Tri State Killing Spree

1.35% Go Dog Go

1.18% Corporate Circus
1.01% Northern Kind

.84% Sfumato

.68% Blame It On Rio, Buttonhead, Sunny Taylor

.51% Big Dick & The Penetrators, Klubber Lang, Shelly Dixon Band, What If

Others with Votes:
The Beautys, Fat Ass, Jettingham, Mooncrickets, Octopussy, Pwince, The Rupert Bomb, Sad Boy Trouble, Second Sun, Strut Train, White Trash Disco, The Agency, The Chronics, Derrick Floyd Project, Fog, Forgiven, Hoochie Mama Get Down, The Humanity, Interfold, Jacob’s Well, Joey O. Band, Kevin Hiatt, Loose Change, Magilla’s “After Dark Band,” Nostalgia, Not My Kids, Pale Skeeter, Pop ‘n’ Fresh, Rosemary Gates, Sarin, Skuzzy Bogie, Tenfold Back, Tito Discovery

2001 Winner: Rosemary Gates & Wailhounds
2000 Winner: Blue Moon Boys
1999 Winner: Blue Moon Boys
1998 Winner: Blue Moon Boys
1997 Winner: Senator Dillwilly (now Jackie Fly)
* On the ballot

Wouldn't you know it. Two Whammys went to a band that technically is no longer a band, the once and future Blue Moon Boys. After working and touring nationally for nearly eight years, the Blue Moon Boys had enough juju left to win Best Original Rock Band and Best Live Band Whammys despite the fact they haven't played since January 3 (in Detroit) and despite the fact they no longer exist. Sort of.

“I tell people the Blue Moon Boys exist now more as a concept than as a fiscal reality,” said guitarist Kenny Taylor, who with singer Nic Roulette formed the beating heart of this rockabilly band.

The Blue Moon Boys always spent far more time on the road than they did in Fort Wayne, but their energy and musical expertise made them a perennial favorite here. They've won the Whammy for Best Original Rock Band every year except 2001, when it went to a tie between Rosemary Gates and the Wailhounds.

“Nic and I are still together but we don't have a rhythm section anymore. It just got too hard and too expensive to keep the Blue Moon Boys together as they were,” Taylor said.

And yet the band will keep popping up in different states and different countries, each time with a different rhythm section. Long-time rhythm players drummer Jamie Simon and bassist Jerry Sparkman amicably left the band after performing in Detroit.

For example, Roulette is planning to move to Austin this summer and Taylor will join him from time to time on southern tours with a “southern rhythm section.” Roulette may return to Fort Wayne, and the band will do northern tours with a “northern rhythm section.” The pair is scheduled to play a music festival in Ireland this spring, where they will play with an “Irish rhythm section.”

Interestingly, Taylor says he’s busier than ever these days. He’s been writing songs and performing with Chris Shaffer, formerly of Fort Wayne and The Why Store, and he performs Wednesdays at Ernie’s Hideaway.

“It’s a very strange feeling to win this award. I’m touched that we won, but was never so surprised. We’ve been gone so much, we didn’t know our fan base in Fort Wayne as well as we did in other cities,” Taylor said.

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