Welcome...................and prepare to "salt-up" with the Chuckawalla Rhythm Kings! 

A bit about the Band:

Most of the tunes are rousing Irish singalongs in the manner of the Clancy Brothers and the Irish Rovers, but the band likes to show their instrumental prowess by trotting out the occasional jig or polka. A smaller portion of the music is from the folk music revival of the 1960s...reworked traditionals and compositions by Peter, Paul and Mary, Gordon Lightfoot and the like. Then there's the stuff that doesn't fit in any proper category...just following our collective nose to see where it leads. No purists here...just rowdy entertaining music.

A bit about the Band members:

Lori Stofft

Fiddle, Mandolin, Vocals

Day job: Marketing, The Sun.

Hometown:  Tucson, Arizona.

Musical beginnings:  Started playing school orchestra in 5th grade

Musical influences:  Prince, Queen, Alison Krause, Dire Straits, Bill Monroe

Astrological sign:  Libra – the balance point – even tempered, which is odd for a musician.

Other unprintables:  Plays in a band because it’s cheaper than therapy.

Favorite venues:  The Rockin’ Horse in Minot, North Dakota and the Stofft Backyard Bluegrass Bash in Tuscon

Claim to fame:  Once opened for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

LORI LIVE ON MAIN STREET! - December 25, 2004

Nick Bartlone

Accordion, Vocals

Day job:  Marine

Hometown:  Bessemer, Pennsylvania

Musical beginnings:  Started taking accordion lessons at age 9.  Stopped playing at age 17….too cool for the accordion.  Started playing again after meeting the Chuckawallas. 

Musical influences:  The polka king…..Frank Yankovich, Wicked Lester and John Cougar.

Astrological sign:  Virgo – the only zodiac sign represented by a women.......modest, shy.....just like Nick. 

Other unprintables:  Women love to touch his monkey. Plays birthday parties.

Claim to fame:  Played Vegas - Sang with the Earl Turner Band at the Excalibur Hotel.

Colby Girard

Guitar, Vocals, Rehearsal abuse

Owns:  Catamaran Media

Hometown:  Kelso, Washington

Musical beginnings:  Played brooms and tennis rackets as a child. Took up guitar at age 12, holing up in his room for days in an attempt to achieve spiritual oneness with Simon and Garfunkel.

Musical influences:  The Fleetwoods, Ricky Nelson, Dead Kennedys, Bettie Page

Astrological sign:  Leo - proud, generous, expansive, most likely to contract an STD

Words to live by:  "Screw Rogaine" "Learn your part, dammit!!"

Claim to fame: Whizzed off of the South and North Rims of the Grand Canyon

Patti Taitano

Vocals, Kazoo, Various noisemakers

Day Job:  Mom to Josephine and Abraham.

Hometown:  Elgin, Illinois

Musical beginnings:  Took piano at age 5, started playing French Horn age 10, took to singing shortly thereafter.  "Now I play guitar and piano badly and I’m tambourine-challenged."

Musical influences:  Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, Linda Rondstadt, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Jessye Norman

Astrological sign:  Scorpio with Saggitarius rising……..whatever that means.

Other unprintables:  Is a self-admitted polyglot (Jeg var udvekslingsstudent i danmark); survived Nashville.

Jon Knudtson

Bass, Banjo, Vocals

Day Job:  Surgical Services, YRMC

Hometown:  Left Spring Valley Minnesota in 1964 and never looked back

Musical beginnings:  Church choir and French Horn 1960

Musical influences:  Charley Poole and Dan Hicks

Astrological sign:  Hermione (The Muskrat)

Other unprintables:  "I once met a man who smoked banana peels with Alice Cooper.  By the way, I think we need to reconsider performing in drag."

What's a Chuckawalla?

Lori:  a semi-arid region of central Moldavia, populated mostly by large, brusqe teetolling teutonics.

Patti: Point that thing somewhere else.

Colby:  a wad of ripped, black pantyhose found behind Mocambo at 3 AM

Jon: A dance of the Yaquis, the red rocket akimbo of the Sonoran Desert.

Nick:  a chain of brothel houses throughout Southern Italy . 

Webster:  a desert lizard found mostly in Arizona, California and New Mexico.