Megan Boyer (vocals and guitar)
Megan Boyer started singing and playing guitar around Mid-Missouri at the ripe old age of 16. Her introduction to the blues was her father’s copy of John Mayal’s “Turning Point” and since then, she’s been in love with acoustic blues. If you haven’t caught a performance from this big-smilin’, big-voiced, big-hearted, fearless front-woman, you are in for a real treat. Megan is a natural-born blues ‘n roots singer and guitarist guaranteed to rock the house and delight audiences.
Jimmy Steffan (guitar and vocals)
Jimmy Steffan grew up playing rock and roll in Central Missouri back in the late Sixties and Seventies. He started tuning in to the blues music scene in the mid-1980s. Jimmy played in Park Place's "Blues Night Band", in "The Benders", and in "Parkinglot Slim's All-Stars". (He even paid some dues as "The Belairs" fourth-string soundman!) Steffan went on to own and operate a Columbia MO recording studio, "The Wildlife Room", where, in addition to recording Nighthawks' front man Mark Wenner's "Mama Tried" record, he cut many tracks of original blues and roots music.
Tim Shields (bass)
Tim Shields entered the Mid-Mo music scene as the bass guitarist for the legendary Jolly Brothers Band ('76-'79)When they disbanded he joined the KC Blues Band who shared the stage with many blues legends like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. In the early '90s he joined Camp/Harlow with former members of the Jolly Brothers and Jimmy Harlow and Greg Camp. Tim returned to the Mid-Mo blues scene in '06 after a friend invited him to a MO Blues jam. Tim is known for his legendary, smooth bass style and his ever-smilin', warm personality.
Megan Boyer Band Information By Jimmy Steffan 2-29-08
October of ’07 it was, when I logged onto comomusic.com, ISO of some fresh, new talent in the Columbia, Missouri area, with whom to play a few tunes of a roots ‘n bluesy nature. I was fortunate enough to find one interesting classified ad posted by a certain Megan Boyer, who was also ISO of the same. Having a modicum of talent (but being neither fresh nor new), I took a chance, and a few days later Megan joined me for a music session in a classic 1967 den (complete with wet bar) at my home in the Hulens lake district. We uncased our Taylor acoustics, Megan pulled out a few bluesy cover tunes by Janis Joplin and Ma Rainey, and within a few bars of her vocals on “Turtle Blues”, I figured we might just have a pretty cool little act in the making. Megan and I rehearsed twice weekly over the next couple of months, and by the turn of 2K8, we’d worked up a couple of sets of tunes that paid homage to not only some favorite blues artists, - chiefly among them Bay Area blues-belter Janiva Magness – but to Sixties and Seventies roots-rock pioneers like Delbert McClinton, Doug Sahm, The Flying Burrito Brothers and the above-mentioned Ms. Joplin. After getting our “gig legs” under us with a show last December at Simma Down, we figured it was time to find some rhythmic support in the proverbial “bottom end”. Enter Mr. Tim Shields on the bass guitar; a Missouri “legacy” musician of Jolly Brothers Band and K.C.’s Camp-Harlow Band-fame. Tim's awesome talent fit in perfectly with our musical sound, but also, importantly, his cool, fun-loving personality resonated with a goal of having a positive-vibe, down-home rollicking good time; playing our songs together and making music for the people.Another gig at Simma Down in January introduced our trio sound to “an adoring public”. Now that the crew is assembled, I’m bustin’ at the seams with pride to be a musical brakeman on The Megan Boyer Band Express , as it rolls on down them well-traveled tracks; continuing to develop new material (including a few original offerings), promoting the act, playing gigs at “Simma”, Jazz, and the nostalgic Rocheport General Store, recording at Mansion Studio, and sittin’ in with friends at jam sessions from “The Store” to downtown Columbia’s renegade nightspot, The Blue Fugue. And as for the big-smilin’, big-voiced, big-hearted, fearless front-woman of the band, Ms. Megan Boyer, all I can say is that if you haven't caught a performance, you are in for a real treat, Folks. This “newest sensation across the tri-county area nation”, IMHO, is a natural-born blues ‘n roots singer/guitarist guaranteed to rock the house and delight audiences from, well, one end of the tri-county area to the other and beyond!Throw into the mix the sixty-odd years of solid musicianship and dedication to the craft, represented by Mr. Shields and myself, and The Megan Boyer Band might just be one helluva train to ride from Bluestown to Rootsville. As my old friend, Park Place doorman and martial arts instructor, the late, great, Mel Brown used to say,“It’s like DAT!”
