Prairie Wind

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES…

ALBERT MANI - bass
For Albert, Rock and Roll began when Jimi Hendrix took the stage. As a lad, Albert was intrigued by Jimi’s screaming 1969 Stratocaster, and inspired Albert to jump on the electric guitar craze. Albert’s formative days were spent listening to guitar legends: Clapton, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Richie Blackmore, and Santana.

When, at the age of 18, Albert and his mates decided to form a rock trio, Albert was somewhat surprised to find himself drawn to the electric bass. Since then, Albert has refocused his musical influences, listening to Stanley Clarke and Larry Graham for the funk grooves, John Paul Jones for the rock bass feel, and Level 42’s Mark King for the slap bass riffs.

Albert uses several basses to achieve different feels and tones as the music requires, including a ’69 Fender Jazz, a ’92 long scale Fender Jazz, a 5-strinng TRB Yamaha, and a 6-string signature JP Yamaha. A Yamaha B-100MKIII head bi-amped through Peavey fuels his Trace stacks.

RICK MCCLELLAN – guitar and vocals
Fade in . . . a Springfield, MO family gathers around their black and white Zenith television on a Sunday night early in 1964 to watch the Ed Sullivan show. Ed introduces a four piece rock band from Liverpool, England that catches a small boy’s eye. They sing “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and he is never the same again . . . Fade out.

Later that same year a four piece band was formed in the same town by Rick (Ricky at the time), his sister, and two friends. This band of second and third graders rocked away the hours in the alley behind their house under the name of the Insects covering Beatles tunes from their cartoon series. It was in these formative years that Rick developed his lightning speed, accuracy and creativity on the air guitar.
The rigors of elementary school, junior high and a couple of house moves put music on hold for Rick (note the name change) until the early seventies when new sounds came across his portable GE AM/FM radio. The hard driving acoustic sound of Jim Croce, tasty licks of James Taylor, heartfelt lyrics of John Denver and rock-the-house-down sound of Elton John pushed Rick into his first guitar purchase at age 16, a Conn six string acoustic. Along with pianist and lifelong friend Rodney Reeves, music and a little bit of magic happened in talent shows, city parks and living rooms across Springfield.

Fast forward to the early 1980s. Music lessons from former Crayon’s lead guitarist Brent McCann lead to an appreciation of classical guitar as well as a new found love of the Beatles music. Classical music led to several appearances at music competitions, weddings, coffee shops and other events in the Kansas City area but the flame of rock music still flickered. In the early 1990s, the opportunity to join a work-place band “Diamonds in the Rough,” appeared and the metamorphosis continued in small town bars and corporate events. Rick learned to love the finer aspects of electric guitar distortion playing “Gimme All Your Lovin’, Bad Case of Lovin’ You, Play that Funky Music White Boy” and many others through the late 1990s when the Diamonds called it quits.

Rick has played in Kansas City church worship bands for the last six years and is currently playing acoustic guitar at Johnson County Christian Church in Overland Park, KS. Prairie Wind gives him the much needed outlet for rock and pop music. Rick’s main ax is a Taylor 514ce along with a Gibson Les Paul Standard double cutaway. If the tips are big enough, you might get him to play air guitar.

BRET OVERHOLTZER – drums
Born in Dodge City, Kansas, named after Bret Maverick, and raised in the lush loess hills of south-western Iowa, Bret has a solid mid-western mindset combined with the suppressed wanderlust spirit of a would-be biker rebel. Barely missing the heady psychedelic days of the ‘60s, Bret was influenced early by the Top-40 music that abounded on the AM radio band throughout the 1970s: Three Dog Night, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Guess Who, Elton John, Chicago, and Steppenwolf.

Bret was drawn to the drums at an early age, after finding an old snare drum in the attic of his grandparent’s farmhouse. When piano lessons didn’t pan out, Bret took up drums at the ripe age of 10, practicing on a plastic snare that he earned selling Christmas cards. Bret received his first drum kit in 7th grade and gradually learned the basics of rock and roll drumming by playing along with the radio and his meager selection of LPs.

High School brought participation in the school jazz band, and a change in musical influences to funk and fusion, including Tower of Power, Return to Forever, Weather Report, and the jazz standards. A brief stint as the drummer for the New Earthstone Band brought Bret back to the rock genre, playing covers of Led Zeppelin, Joe Walsh, REO Speedwagon, BTO, and Grand Funk Railroad. In college, jazz standards held the day, as Bret partic