The Yayhoos
It's got to be fun, or they ain't doing it.
They're the Yayhoos.
It's got to be fun, or they ain't doing it.
They're the Yayhoos.
Specifically, they are Eric Ambel (founding member of the Del-Lords and Joan Jett's Blackhearts, lead guitarist of Steve Earle's Dukes), Terry Anderson (solo recording artist and songwriter whose tunes have been recorded by Etta James and Jo Dee Messina, among others), Dan Baird (formerly of the Georgia Satellites) and Keith Christopher (founder of the Georgia Satellites and bassist to Billy Joe Shaver, Tony Joe White and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, as well as many artists with two names, including Paul Westerberg and Todd Snider).
"All of our paths have been crossing since the 1980s," Ambel said. "We all got together (around 1993) to write songs for our solo careers. Then we thought it might be a good idea if we all went out on the road together to promote our solo records at the same time. It naturally turned into its own band."
A couple of years later, another songwriting session in Anderson's father's barn resulted in a collection of tunes that started making the rounds in music circles.
They called themselves the Yayhoos, which Ambel believes was Baird and Anderson getting the name of the popular chocolate soft drink (Yoo-Hoo) wrong.
"Bloodshot records got hold of it and started bugging us to release it," Ambel said. "We finally gave in, just because we got tired of making copies for our friends."
The result was "Fear Not the Obvious," which went over well, but the events of Sept. 11, 2001, "screwed up our tours," he said.
Undaunted, the Yayhoos trudged on and in the course of three weekend recording sessions earlier this year came up with their second set, "Put the Hammer Down," a collection of rollicking bar band tunes, mostly originals but also a couple of interesting covers, such as the O'Jays' '70s soul classic "Love Train."
The hardest part of being a Yayhoo, Ambel said, is simply coordinating everyone's contractual obligations in order to present a tour.
"Something like this is so against the mainstream and conventional wisdom of the recording business," he said. "We're so outside of it all we don't even try to conform."
The best part, however, is that because they all have solo careers and other bill-paying projects, they can keep the Yayhoos a project of joy.
"The whole band doesn't carry the baggage that other bands do," Ambel said. "We have a lot of fun. If we don't have fun, we don't do it, and that goes for our live shows, too. We don't push it too hard - because we're the Yayhoos."
