Randall Zwart had never met Al Bowman, executive producer of the internationally known Los Angeles Music Awards (LAMA) in which he founded 25 years ago.

However, when the Lake resident and his fellow Randall Zwarte Band members were accepting three coveted LAMA awards Sept. 17, Bowman paid the group’s lead singer a compliment he soon will not forget.

“He said, ‘It has been 20 years since he has heard a CD start to finish that is all good,’” Zwart recalled, noting Bowman was talking about the group’s 13th album, Lucky Number 13, released in July 2014.

Thousands of Randall Zwarte Band fans agreed with Bowman, as they voted and made the longtime, nationally touring group the 2015 LAMA “Rock Artist of the Year.” The rockers also won two 2015 LAMA producer’s choice awards: “Outstanding TV Theme Song” for “Road to Sturgis” and “Career Achievement Award” for a rock drummer going to the group’s own Mike Mesey.

Now nearly a month after the LAMA show, the excitement has not worn off. Instead, the hardworking Randall Zwarte Band is utilizing the LAMA awards as fuel to keep growing the independent rockers toward even bigger success than they have already seen the last 20-plus years. For Zwart, their focus on building that future of the band rests in what Bowman told all 2015 LAMA recipients at the ceremony.

“Al said to … anyone who won an award, ‘these awards are your tools; use them,’” Zwart said.

Fans: RZB’s main tool

For the past 20-plus years, one of the Randal Zwarte Band’s biggest tool has been its fans.

Zwart’s clever and catching songwriting style and vocals for RZB has helped his band produce 108 singles, including some of its most popular hits “Lucy” and “Sturgis,” which is a song written for and now serves as the official theme song for the famous motorcycle festival, and recently honored with the LAMA award. Those tunes span 13 CDs and more than 1 million electronic downloads on iTunes and Touch Tunes electronic jukeboxes across the U.S.

With well-established, professional musicians such as Lake Area musician favorite and guitarist Baub Eis and legendary St. Louis-based drummer Mike Mesey joining the group last year, RZB’s Zwart and bassist Joshua Blasingame embarked on a 2015 national tour that saw thousands of fans at multiple shows.

Playing the North Dakota Music Awards and returning to their annual gig at the internationally known motorcycle event, Sturgis, the Randall Zwarte Band can see how immense their fanbase has grown and how it has spanned decades.

“Harley-Davidson signed a 75-year contract with Sturgis to be the official motorcycle of Sturgis, which they already were, and built a new stage, the Harley-Davidson Rally Point; we were the first to play there and that was pretty cool. We also played at a campground and in Rapid City during the event. The police estimated 8,000 people watching our show. The Kentucky Headhunters were playing down the street outside, too, and they had them at 3,000,” Eis said. “You see second generation Zwarte fans. Their parents raised them on the music and now these kids are showing up saying, ‘My parents listened to you guys my whole life.’ We are playing songs and the audience knows all the words to the songs better than I do.”

Zwart finds old fans touring along with the band to multiple shows, driving thousands of miles to hear their rock hits. He also finds after he’s driven thousands of miles, new fans making their presence known that equally leave him humbled.

Kurt Erick Zierlein, nationally known photographer who has captured historic shots of major rock bands such as Metallica, couldn’t help but gush over the Randall Zwarte Band.

As the group’s members stood in a dressing room of the historic rock club Whiskey a Go-Go in Los Angeles where the LAMA Awards show was held, Zierlein shared why we felt Randall Zwarte Band deserved the recognition they were out in L.A. to receive.

“He said, ‘You guys aren’t rock stars, you are rock heroes. You did it the grassroots the old-fashioned way,’” Zwarte recalled Zierlein telling the band.
From Missouri to L.A.

Zierlein’s comments resonate with Zwart and his bandmates, as they joined an elite group of alumni who have won a LAMA award. Bowman started the show in 1991 to give independent musicians a chance to be recognized for their accomplished.

“Bowman started LAMA to bridge the gap between independent bands and famous bands. There are bands out there working and they are just as good as anybody else, but they are not getting that recognition they need,” Eis said.

“Two weeks later, it really is setting in now. We are among (LAMA) alumni with, for example, Slash, Guns and Roses, Paula Abdul, Joe Walsh, Eddie Money, Jack Black, Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas. I get goosebumps telling you about it,” Zwart said, noting he also couldn’t believe they were in the same dressing room where legends such as The Doors, Van Halen and Motley Crue were before performances at Whiskey a Go-Go.

Those goosebumps first appeared when the band found out they were nominated for the LAMA awards, with the “Rock Artist of the Year” going out to the vote of fans. In the summer, after RZB had a van issues in between gigs going cross country, drummer Mesey found out about the nomination. Even though Mesey has won a few awards in the past and has connections to the L.A.-based music industry, the LAMA award for “Rock Artist of the Year” was secured on what Zwart calls a captive audience.

“At Sturgis, we had 8,000 people in front of us. I said over the speaker, vote for us and that didn’t hurt. To be able to say, that during a live show and know your true fans are right there, we can make history,” he said.

Fans could vote as much as they wanted to during a two-month time period for awards like “Rock Artist of the Year,” paying $1 per vote. As Eis said, they started this policy about five years ago to show what fans would truly pay to see a band perform and are “commercially viable.”

“Hearing someone from Colorado buy 100 votes and fans coast to coast casting theirs, we had a shot of winning it. We realized we had a lot of fans,” Zwart said. “In playing to thousands of people over the years, whether it is a bar or big show, 2003 or three years ago, and have people look you dead in the eyes and said you guys are going to be huge, I wasn’t drinking the Kool-Aid. Then you see the sales with ½ million downloads of the Sturgis song alone … we are doing something more than anyone else in a rock and roll, lull the last few years.”

For now Lake-based residents Eis and Zwart, the RZB band did do want many musicians have not done in Missouri: walked the red carpet. At LAMA, the Randall Zwarte Band and their guests photographed, interviewed on television, and escorted like celebrities into the Whiskey a Go-Go for the LAMA ceremony.

“I didn’t know what to expect. It was crazy. I thought you get out of car and walk red carpet and go inside. It took us 10 to 15 minutes,” Eis said, continued to describe the first section of 20-plus photographers. “They were all saying, ‘Look over here,’ and half of us were looking one way and others looking another … It was trip really.”

However, in now only accepting the three LAMA awards and performing “Road to Sturgis” and “Lucy” during the ceremony, the Randall Zwarte Band was also able mingle and meet well-known celebrities at the event, such as 2015 fellow LAMA recipient and comedian Andy Dick and Joe Walsh. Eis was also excited to Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine in during a post-event party.

Now, with the LAMA awards as big tools at their disposal, RZB is ready to utilize it for future endeavors.

“We want to plan a local party to celebrate and thank our many supporters here at the Lake … (for example) Donny Larsen was passionate about the CD (“Lucky Number 13”) and also said from start to finish, he hadn’t heard anything like it in years. He was very instrumental in waking up some of the higher-ups in L.A.,” Zwart said. “If we throw out our song to a guy who owns 12 radio stations in Wisconsin, he may have a lot of songs to listen to. However, with ‘Rock Artist of the Year’ in our toolbox, he might listen to our song first and we can reach more people.”

Big sights set for 2016

The members of the Randall Zwarte Band continue to keep busy preparing for their 2016 national tour, with three big shows reaching thousands already slated. They also are picking up side projects and working for their businesses outside of the rock and roll arena.

For example, Eis continues to host “The Homegrown Show” on KRMS radio station every Sunday, and he is playing some side gigs with his locally-based Baub Eis Band. Mesey is preparing for the Oct. 18 release of an original version of “Johnny B. Goode,” in which Doobie Brothers legend Michael McDonald and David Sanborn have recorded and will be used in an upcoming documentary, “Johnnie Be Good,” about Johnnie Johnson.

While still riding the high of LAMA and the success of their “Lucky Number 13” album, all members of the band are also hard at work finalizing another handful of original rock tunes for a 14th album, which is slated for completion in February.

Zwart said many of his songs that he has written recently while living at the Lake have an “Ozark swagger,” such as “Stock Market Blues” or “West River Chill.” He said one song, “Gallows,” that will be featured on the upcoming album as a similar vibe.

Zwart also said they are also looking for a big national sponsor to book some large shows for their 2016 tour, and hopes that some legendary rockers may want to join RZB in cutting a killer rendition of an original hit, such as the Sturgis song.

For the Randal Zwarte Band, they have big sights for 2016 and the LAMA awards just add that fuel to the fire. With already licensed RZB hits like “Water Party” utilized in all media for the largest marina along the Missouri River, they hope their national recognition can help promote the Lake Area and its other immense musical talent that calls Lake of the Ozarks home.

“It is so neat to put Missouri on the map and the Lake for something like that. This area is a huge melting pot of incredible talent … Grayson Wood, where are you going to hear a voice like that within 1,000 miles,” Zwart said, with Eis and Zwart chiming in on other talents such as Chad Graves and James Clay. “That is just to name a few. I’m just blown away. If this does anything for the area to draw attention to it and the immense talent we have here, that would be great.”

For more information about the Randal Zwarte Band, visit www.zwarte.com. - The Lake Today - Lake of the Ozarks

Back in the ‘80s, the band Zwarte was one of the biggest bands around the Midwest. They are probably known for their greatest hit “Sturgis,” an ode to the largest bike rally in the world, in Sturgis, S.D. All these years later, the main songwriter, guitarist and singer Randall Zwart released his thirteenth studio album—either as Zwarte or the Randall Zwarte Band—and it’s called … well … Lucky Number 13.

When you hear the opening riffs to “Come Along,” you just get a sense that this is real American rock ‘n roll. It’s warm, it’s uplifting, it has a groove you can dance or guzzle booze to. A comparison would be to a fast-paced Tom Petty hit. Yes, it’s THAT kind of good. Zwarte has a deep, gritty but welcoming voice, with a real storytelling delivery.

Here comes the blues on “Murder in the Badlands.” Although the band no longer calls South Dakota home, you can see the ties that bind are still alive. While the first song was warm, this one is all gloom, dark, sinister and cool as hell. The refrain “So I reach for my gun, and I make the call. One hand rises and one man falls,” you can figure out the kind of wild frontier justice story this song embraces.

Now, if you hear “That Girl” and don’t just immediately want to jump to your feet and celebrate somehow, you ain’t alive. It’s like ZZ Top and Todd Snider decided to write a song together. Again, the groove is immense, the lyrical rhythms are so easy to catch you’ll be singing along after one listen. It’s also funny, with lines like “I used to date his daughter, she’s way too skinny for me,” or “Did shots with the hangman, drank it from a Dixie cup.” It is by far the catchiest song on the Lucky Number 13.

Catchy is one thing, but Zwart goes back to his ‘80s hard rock roots on the seething “I’m in Trouble.” This is heavy, as close to Metal as you’ll get on the release. Again, his ability to write simple choruses that find root in your mind and won’t ever leave is highlighted by “I’m in trouble, I’m in so much trouble, I’m in trouble again … I fell in love again.” It’s tough to say it’s the best song on the album because there’s so much quality here, but it might be a three-way tie.

The band’s current single is “American Roads,” a great choice for a single but … it has SUMMER written all over it. It’s an anthem, like some kind of magic Bryan Adams found with “Summer of ’69.” Again, it sounds like a single but might have resonated better a few months down the road. No worries—it’ll still be a great song then. If this is your first taste of the Randall Zwarte Band, you’ll want to hear more, without a doubt.

It all wraps up on an acoustic-led, brooding composition “When You’re Strong.” Like most of Zwart’s themes, it’s about life, really an “everyman” theme. “I think you’ve had enough, it’s time I lay you down. From your first steps to your last, look how fast the time went past,” he sings. Yes, it’s a song about growing old and dying. It ends with the narrator coming full circle and singing about laying himself down. Kind of a sad way to fade an album out, and yet, it shows another facet to Zwart’s songwriting ability.

Lucky Number 13 is a stellar rock release. It is uncomplicated, straight-ahead American rock. The gents are going to be playing Sturgis this summer to bring back their biggest hit and have a new slew of songs to sling at the concert goers. The Randall Zwarte Band has released an album with no skip-worthy songs (although “Grandma’s Got a Tattoo” is goofy) and whether it’s “American Roads” or another single that brings them the attention they deserve, it’s hard to see them being a “best kept secret” for long.

Genre: Rock

Band:
Randall Zwart-vocals, guitars
Baub Eis-guitars
Mike Mesey-drums
Joshua Blasingame-bass

Track Listing:
1. Come Along
2. Murder In The Badlands
3. That Girl
4. All In A Dream
5. There Goes The Preacher
6. I’m In Trouble
7. Good Deal Bad Man
8. American Roads
9. Open Your Eyes
10. Grandma’s Got A Tattoo
11. When You’re Strong

Online: www.zwarte.com

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.4/10 - Hard Rock Haven - Online Music Magazine

Randalll Zwarte had never met Al Bowman, executive producer of the internationally known Los Angeles Music Awards (LAMA) he founded 25 years ago.

However, when the Lake of the Ozarks resident and his fellow Randalll Zwarte Band members were accepting three coveted LAMA awards Sept. 17, Bowman paid the group’s lead singer a compliment he will not soon forget.

“He said it has been 20 years since he has heard a CD start to finish that is all good,” Zwarte recalled, noting Bowman was talking about the group’s 13th album, “Lucky Number 13,” released in July 2014.

Thousands of Randalll Zwarte Band fans agreed with Bowman, as they voted and made the longtime, nationally touring group the 2015 LAMA “Rock Artist of the Year.” The rockers also won two 2015 LAMA producer’s choice awards: Outstanding TV Theme Song for “Road to Sturgis” and Career Achievement Award for a rock drummer going to the group’s Mike Mesey.

The hardworking Randalll Zwarte Band is using the LAMA awards as fuel to keep growing the independent rockers toward even bigger success.

For the past 20-plus years, one of the Randall Zwarte Band’s biggest tools has been its fans.

Zwarte’s clever and catching songwriting style and vocals for RZB have helped his band produce 108 singles, including some of its most popular hits, “Lucy” and “Sturgis,” a song that now serves as the official theme song for the famous motorcycle festival and recently honored with the LAMA award. Those tunes span 13 CDs and more than 1 million electronic downloads on iTunes and Touch Tunes electronic jukeboxes across the United States.

With well-established, professional musicians such as Lake Area favorite and guitarist Baub Eis and legendary St. Louis-based drummer Mesey joining the group last year, RZB’s Zwarte and bassist Joshua Blasingame embarked on a 2015 national tour that saw thousands of fans at multiple shows.

Kurt Erick Zierlein, nationally known photographer who has captured historic shots of major rock bands such as Metallica, told them: “You guys aren’t rock stars, you are rock heroes. You did it the grassroots the old-fashioned way,” Zwarte recalled.

The members of the Randalll Zwarte Band continue to keep busy preparing for their 2016 national tour, with three big shows already slated. They also are picking up side projects and working for their businesses outside of the rock and roll arena.

For example, Eis continues to host “The Homegrown Show” on KRMS radio station every Sunday, and he is playing some side gigs with his locally-based Baub Eis Band. Mesey is preparing for the Sunday release of an original version of “Johnny B. Goode,” in which Doobie Brothers legend Michael McDonald and David Sanborn have recorded and will be used in an upcoming documentary, “Johnnie Be Good,” about Johnnie Johnson.

While still riding the high of LAMA and the success of their “Lucky Number 13” album, all members of the band are also hard at work finalizing another handful of original rock tunes for a 14th album, slated for completion in February.

Zwarte said many songs he has written recently while living at the Lake have an “Ozark swagger.”

For the Randall Zwarte Band, they have big sights for 2016 and the LAMA awards just add that fuel to the fire. With already licensed RZB hits like “Water Party” utilized in all media for the largest marina along the Missouri River, they hope their national recognition can help promote the Lake Area and its other immense musical talent that calls Lake of the Ozarks home.

“It is so neat to put Missouri on the map and the Lake for something like that. This area is a huge melting pot of incredible talent,” Zwarte said. “If this does anything for the area to draw attention to it and the immense talent we have here, that would be great.”

For more information about the Randall Zwarte Band, visit www.Zwarte.com. - News Tribune - Jefferson City

In 1991, the newly formed band Zwarte arrived in New York City to make its first album. With all the excitement of making rock-'n'-roll came a realization.

The band was broke.

Instead of sleeping in a hotel, where the establishment wanted an unheard of $200, the group slept in an extended cab pickup, which also boasted a topper. Seven guys - on the floor, on the seats, in the bed of the pickup - dreaming away in the parking lot at the Statue of Liberty. The next morning, excitement ran high when they discovered the monument's bathrooms had hot water.

The band left New York City with its self-entitled debut, complete with the songs "Lucy" and "Easy Street." And with the songs in hand came recognition that spread to a regional level. Next came the road crew, and good gigs. It wasn't long until the band actually went home with more money than it spent.

It was a new Zwarte that walked into Bismarck's Salon 613 for a day of pampering - and in one musician's case, his first introduction to a salon - and, as the band emerges onto the national scene, new realizations.

The band is on fire.

The Randall Zwarte Band is a hybrid of the old Zwarte, which included current members Eddie Filarecki and Randall Zwarte, and Tom Chrz and George Welder of the former band, Junk. Randall Zwarte the man said the groups "duct taped" themselves together on Jan. 7, and there's been something new every day since.

"Out of a dozen years of playing, there's nothing like it going on," he said.

Chrz, the bassist, and Welder, the drummer, live in Bismarck. Zwarte said they represent "the tightest rhythm section" he's ever heard. Zwarte lives in Dell Rapids, S.D., and does part press relations, part gig-booking and sponsor-finding and all lead vocals. Filarecki, "the fastest guitar player this side of the Mississippi," resides in Sturgis, S.D.

The group stumbled on some good luck recently. While playing at the Daytona, Fla., motorcycle rally, Spike TV filmed their on-stage antics. Shortly after, the band's manager, Randy Ricci, got in touch with Jeremy J. Ford, producer of MTV's The Real World and Road Rules. Ford had always wanted to do a reality show highlighting the "behind the scenes" of a band's life, and Ricci knew just the band to do it.

The Randall Zwarte Band's every move is recorded on camera, Ricci wielding a handheld JVC and Ron Morin, a contractor for Ford, sporting a Sony and a tripod. The footage will eventually be compiled and edited and molded into "The Road to Sturgis," chronicling the band's journey from Daytona to the Sturgis motorcycle rally this summer. While the show is intended to be a movie, the worst-case scenarios are a series of reality shows or a video distributed by Blockbuster. Yeah, that's the worst-case scenario.

The guys congregate on Thursday nights to play through Saturday. Then they spread out to their different corners of the Dakotas, back to their day jobs. The Bismarck pair are both employed at Pride, Inc., Zwarte works with Ricci on promoting the band and Filarecki, fast-fingers himself, is a roofer. Just describing his work makes Ricci cringe.

"I have a lot of time on my hands," Filarecki said, "I figured I would get a really dangerous job and bug our management company."

Filarecki sipped white zinfandel wine at the salon, but said he's normally a whiskey drinker. "That'll come later," with the "blue collar, tax paying" fans who listened and sang and danced with the band at Borrowed Buck's Roadhouse on Saturday night. Some of whom, Zwarte said, can outdrink him. The band doesn't live up to the true biker-band standard, Zwarte said, but its song "Sturgis" has made it popular with the Harley crowd.

Bismarck is just part of the two-year touring blur for Zwarte. Unprecedented perhaps, Filarecki said. But they're happy doing what they like to do - "out on the road, wearing our boots, kickin' butt and rock-'n'-rollin'."

The members are doing what they like to do, with people they don't mind being with. Although Filarecki jokes that he stays as far away from the rest of the guys as possible - he ends up doing crazy things like getting his hair done and cut when they're together - he and Zwarte insist they're all very laid back. Obviously the case as the four succumbed to shampoos and massages before Saturday's show. Fate has done them a great favor, not only putting them within reach of their dreams but in getting the band together.


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Filarecki joined the original Zwarte unit near its inception when a member didn't show up for a couple of shows. At a show last year, Zwarte heard someone screaming out AC/DC near the dressing room. With Filarecki, Zwarte went to hunt down the man behind the voice. It was Welder.

When the original bassist and drummer departed the band - they were going in different directions, but it wasn't a messy breakup, Filarecki insists - Welder was a natural choice. And not just because of the voice. At his first live music show, a 12-year old Welder stole a Zwarte poster and put it in his room. He's wanted to be a drummer ever since.

The group has been blessed, Filarecki said, to have members that not only know their limits and their jobs, but members who add their own charisma to making music, to entertaining.

"With the lineup we have, I'm still waiting to find out what's the catch," Zwarte said. "It's just rock-'n'-roll, not rocket science."

Life has been a rollercoaster ride since the band's Daytona show and since filming began. The group tries to think of a negative aspect, a moment perhaps caught on camera that shows how tense things can get when always on the go. But no one can come up with anything.

"How about we call you when we have our first down?" Ricci said.

(Reach reporter Angie Buckley at 250-8255 or angiebuckley@ndonline.com) - The Bismark Tribune

Local musician Baub Eis joins nationally-known Randall Zwarte Band for 2015 tour

Baub Eis is no stranger to the stage or studio.

The popular and well-known Lake Area-based guitarist has rocked numerous venues throughout the Lake and beyond with the Baub Eis Band. He’s competed in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, and builds custom guitars from scratch. He records his own music and other musicians’ original work in his high quality studio and interviews and publicizes local, regional and national acts through his successful weekly “Homegrown Show” on KRMS radio station.
After hearing Eis shred guitar on stage with his talented fellow band mates such as bassist KP Hauge, and drummer and vocalist John Marsi, audiences know they are in for an entertaining, bluesy, jam rock driven ride. For Randall Zwart, hearing Baub Eis live in concert prompted him to do more than just dance, applaud and cheer him on for more songs. It led him to a proposition: ask Eis to join his band.

“My exposure to Baub was first through his radio show … I was interested in getting him some of our music because we are releasing a single from coast to coast,” Zwart said, talking of the 13th CD, Lucky Number 13, his internationally successful rock and roll ensemble Randall Zwarté Band (RZB) release in July last year. “We tracked him down at a venue on the Lake. I show up and didn’t know which one Baub Eis was. There was a bunch of them on the stage meddling around. He had 4,000 foot pedals for all kinds of effects on the guitar, and I said, “You can launch a space shuttle off with all this stuff.’ He comes out of the van and I met Baub.”

Zwart’s brief conversation with Eis may have been humorous, but after listening to a few of his songs and guitar talent, Zwart was not laughing. In preparing for a national tour that promotes the epic rockers’ latest album and teases audiences with a 14th record in the works, Zwart knew he found a diamond in the rough for a new RZB musical line-up.

“To find out after meeting Baub and his talent and sound is in the top 5 percent of guitar players in the nation, are you (for real)? … I heard some cutting edge stuff with his guitar,” Zwart said. “Fast forward, he went to a couple of (our) shows and has become as passionate as you need in taking the next huge step involving (promoting the band through) iTunes, social media and (digital tune download formats). He is the perfect piece of the puzzle.”

Learning his ‘RZB’s

Since that fateful summer encounter, Eis and Zwart have continued to prepare for a Feb. 27 kick off of RZB’s 2015 tour at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City with longtime RZB bassist Josh Blasingame and fellow newcomer and credible drummer, Mike Mesey, who has played with Chuck Berry and Head East.

Eis started his involvement with RZB with helping them gain some radio play and publicity, helped out as sound man for a few shows and even did some managing for the band at a few concerts. When it came to preparing to play RZB’s original rock and roll music, Eis discovered there was a plethora of tunes to learn.

For the last 20-plus years, Randall Zwart’s clever and catching songwriting style and vocals for RZB has helped the band produce 108 singles, including some of its most popular hits “Lucy” and “Sturgis,” which is a song written for and now serves as the official theme song for the famous motorcycle festival. Those tunes span 13 CDs and more than 500,000 electronic downloads on iTunes and Touch Tunes electronic jukeboxes across the U.S.

“I am having to learn all the songs. Randall is a great guitar player, too, so we have to figure out where I am playing lead and he is playing lead. You get bands and they rehearse, they rehearse and they rehearse to play a show,” said Eis, noting that he and Zwart live the Lake Area, but their other members live in other parts of the state. “We have three or four practices, then we play a big show … We have to be ready, show up and play some rock and roll.”

For Eis, he has found utilizing a local venue, Go-Fast Betty’s in Osage Beach, and talented musician friends such as pub owner Daniel “Taz” Bergerson and Hauge as rhythm back-up has helped Eis and Zwart practice both old and new tunes before hitting the big stage in about a month. When he does get together with RZB, he feels the steady weekly practices at the Lake have helped make their main band practices stronger.

“We are all getting to know each other better now, and we have had some solid weekends of rehearsing. Every time we play, this gets tighter and tighter. We work out the bugs and chinks in the armor, mostly me,” Eis said with a laugh. “Having my band, we played a lot of cover songs, but now I’m having to go through and learn originals for the first time.”

Through learning his ‘RZB’s, Eis has found some of the older tracks allow him to showcase his guitar talents, such as his “new favorite,” “Speed.” Eis said the humorous tale of a girlfriend having to step up and win a race for her unfortunate drunk boyfriend racer allows him to shred on his guitar. However, the tight rock sound to RZB has also trained him to express his guitar style in a different, exciting way.

“With my band, we were more loose and more of a jam band; we had flux and flow. With (RZB) it is more strict and more regimented on how the song arrangements are,” he said.

Marketing for the future

For Zwart, bringing together a foursome of talented musicians with different learning curves of RZB has been not only awe-inspiring but also inspirational. He has found in living in the Lake Area for two years and with Eis’ blues and jam rock influence, new songs he has written carry what he calls a certain “Ozark swagger.”

“I wrote a song just the other day called Stock Market Blues, and it is written 100 percent to show Baub off on guitar. If somebody cues that up in six months on Spotify, they are going to get a Baub Eis face punch. Seriously, I can’t wait,” he said. “The recipe is the same (for his original tunes), except being at the Lake, I can loosely go around of a soulful feeling in the chord progressions or just throwing the chords back and forth. It has a more, cool Ozark swagger to it when I write.”

Zwart references a new song, “West River Chill,” that tells a story and illustrates his influenced Lake style, making the listener want to hear what happens and where the music leads him.

A few of those soon-to-be released teases will frequent the upcoming 2015 RZB tour, along with old favorites and eight songs from the Lucky Number 13 album released last year. Zwart said it is amazing to watch the new album’s digital downloads and Touch Tunes plays reach popularity among fans, and it is just as interesting to see ones they thought would not be as big make huge impressions.

“When I first gave Baub the new CD, I said ‘Murder in the Badlands’ is going to be the main single … When I saw him a few days later, he said, ‘Yeah, I love ‘Murder in the Badlands’, but your hit is ‘American Roads.’ And Baub is right again,” Zwart said with a laugh.

Both have seen digital download success, along with others of the new album such as “All in A Dream.” The digital marketing and its more “bang for your buck” kickback to the artists with digital downloads of singles and albums has helped RZB reach such prior success. It has also helped them focus their 2015 tour on not only publicizing their music for increased fan base but also merchandising of their products.

“To have a staple songs … that have had 1 million downloads on electric jukeboxes, it is a nice springboard to work from. It is still not the label. You get recognition with the label, but you also sacrifice with that,” Zwart said. “It is too late for anybody to run through the textbook music career of making the label and then going out. Advantage, us. We have that springboard, we have the massive fan base, and we have the best talent we can get on stage. With the social media, Spotify and iTunes, you just have to know the band’s name to get the product instantly.

“We know and have a feel for what sells and beginning to work with the best of the best musicians in 2015, they bring the song across a little more dynamic than it was even recorded.”

Feeling good about 2015

Eis agrees with Zwart that the tremendous digital play and merchandise at the shows will help RZB have a momentous tour this year. It helps form a base of immediate music in the hands of new and fans at their shows, within their favorite local hangout and anytime online.

With writing and recording a 14th album in the process of their tour preparation, they know taking their time and doing 2015 right only helps propel RZB’s continued success. It is also a reason why Zwart’s RZB has regrouped with its current ensemble of talent.

“This record will do everything any of us ever wanted if we do it right once … We can work this right once and never look back,” Zwart said. “It’s what we want to play as a band, with the new songs being deadly. We will be able to back up with the new album immediately and have one in the can, ready to take off the shelf whenever we need it.”

Zwart looks forward to performing all tunes, especially new ones like “West River Chill” with his new group on tour, as well as utilizing the musical haven and inspiring setting of the Lake to produce more original music.. Eis still plans on playing weekday summer gigs with Baub Eis Band and his continued guitar making and radio show efforts while at home from tour. Zwart and Eis see 2015 as a star year for RZB and for themselves personally.
“Where I know 2015 is good, is the record setting (for the tour) … We have a bunch of surprises for this tour; and it is going to be a lot of fun,” Zwart said.

For more information about the Randal Zwarte Band, visit www.zwarte.com. - The Lake Today - Lake of the Ozarks