Havana Taxi

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script type="text/javascript" src="http://hb.lycos.com/hb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ratings.lycos.com/ratings/lycosRating.js.php"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[//><!]]></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.lycos.com/catman/init.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-start.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-middle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-end.js"></script> <noscript> <img src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/img/common/ot_noscript.gif?rand=763034" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <iframe frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="728" height="90" src="http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&section=209094"></iframe>  </noscript> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=125 BGCOLOR="#AAAAAA" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03c467d1euxmic.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Kristi Singer</b></FONT><B>     </b><B>|     </b><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kristi Singer"><U><B>home</b></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hanson"><U>Hanson</U></A>   |   <B>Havana Taxi</b>   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Heart and Soul"><U>Heart and Soul</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id181.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hobex"><U>Hobex</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id221.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hall Oates"><U>Hall & Oates</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writing Samples"><U><B>Back to Articles</b></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=355 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Havana Taxi</div> <div> Classic rock tunes drive Havana Taxi</div> <div> By Kristi Singer</div> <div> <I>Star-News Correspondent</I></div> <div> September 26, 2002</div> <bR> <div> Sometimes you just want to hear something familiar to warm up your vocal chords. That's the art of the cover band. And if you're looking for a classic rock fix, Havana Taxi is the band for you.</div> <bR> <div> Vocalist/bassist Mark Weathers said that cover bands are appealing because they're all about having fun.</div> <bR> <div> "It's not really science – it's just having a good time, forgetting about everything and just going out and shouting along to the chorus to Sweet Home Alabama or whatever," Mr. Weathers said. "We're trying to be entertainers; we're not trying to be artists. That's really what it amounts to in this case."</div> <bR> <div> The entertainers – vocalist-guitarist Joey Blackburn, vocalist-keyboardist David Parish, drummer-percussionist Eddie Todd, vocalist-guitarist Chris "C Dub" Williams and Mr. Weathers – pride themselves in providing high-quality cover material. The band's four vocalists and two guitarists enable it to perform challenging cover tunes that a three-piece band wouldn't be able to accomplish.</div> <bR> <div> "The instrumentation that we have allows us to be more flexible and able to bring a more complete representation of the song," Mr. Weathers said.</div> <bR> <div> Havana Taxi covers classic rock, soul, dance and funk music mainly from the '70s including artists such as Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Rolling Stones, The Beatles and KC and the Sunshine Band.</div> <bR> <div> The band works hard to learn songs the "right way," Mr. Weathers said.</div> <bR> <div> "That doesn't mean we don't change songs from time to time. But we don't change them as an excuse for not learning them. We change them in a way that we think makes it better for a live environment. We try to play all the good parts; we don't have to leave out any of the good parts," Mr. Weathers said.</div> <bR> <div> Havana Taxi tries to cover a song close to its original recording but will sometimes add its own twists by extending endings or adding breaks and solos.</div> <bR> <div> "A lot of records just sort of fade at the end. Instead of stopping abruptly, it's sort of hard to do that in a live setting, so we've worked out endings that are different," Mr. Weathers said.</div> <bR> <div> Havana Taxi began about a year ago as an idea Mr. Todd had to form an all-instrumental band. After auditioning and going through nine bass players, Mr. Weathers switched from guitar to bass and brought in Mr. Williams to play guitar.</div> <bR> <div> As members joined, Taxi evolved into a classic rock cover band.</div> <bR> <div> All members have played in various local bands together over the years. Mr. Todd and Mr. Weathers played together in Nouveau Riche in 1980. Mr. Todd, Mr. Weathers and Mr. Blackburn played in a country band in 1993 called Desperado. Most recently, from 1996 through 1997, Mr. Todd and Mr. Weathers played in Tangerine. Havana Taxi is the first band all five members have played in together.</div> <bR> <div> "We focused a lot of our careers on original music. I generally don't like the idea of playing in cover bands, but this one is a little different because we're approaching it more from trying to be as good as we can be at what we're doing. We're trying to really take pride in what we do and do it as well as we can, and at the same time I can continue my songwriting as a separate thing," Mr. Weathers said.</div> <bR> <div> So, what is a Havana Taxi? Mr. Weathers discovered the term while reading a National Geographic article about Cuba. The story explained that all of the taxis used in Havana are 1950s American cars that the city kept running.</div> <bR> <div> "It's kind of an analogy for us – older people still out playing music and keeping it together," Mr. Weathers said.</div> <bR> <div> Log on to www.havanataxi.com for more information.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>