The line up is ever changing in Mushroom land, but many old friends remain. As always, in the driver seat is drummer Patrick O'Hearn. While Patrick pounds the skins, right next to him on stage left is long time Mushroom percussionist Dave Mihaly, often found these days playing a drum set as well or sometimes a set of marimbas. (which often mistakenly get referred to as "vibes").
Mushroom wouldn't be Mushroom without another long time member Erik Pearson on guitar, sax, and flute. He also plays violin, but it's been awhile since we've seen one in his hands. Erik also has a smooth and sweet singing voice and we're hoping he'll start using it more.
Ned Doherty has been our bass player for awhile and at this point he's Brother Ned to the rest of us for his long time dedication. When he's not touring the country with his own rocking jazz band Om Trio, you'll find Brother Brian Felix at the keyboards. And we're pleased to announce a few new members, organ wiz Matt Cunitz is often playing with us now and if you're lucky, you might just see Matt and Brian together. Another new member of the team is trombone heavy hitter Michael Rinta (who also plays with our pals Brass Monkey).
And although he's not an "official" member quite yet, we're honored to have monster man Ralph Carney sitting in with us whenever we're lucky enough to play in his Mission district hood. Ralph will also be appearing on some forthcoming recordings of ours as well. And working her way back into the groove is our former keyboardist, now lead singer Allison Levy. We don't do too many shows with vocals - as we love our instrumental freedom, but whenever Allison's around, she's orking out some improv with us on stage.
Mushroom band leader, drummer, and producer Patrick O'Hearn never played bass with Frank Zappa or keyboards in Group 87, but some other Patrick O'Hearn did. Then again, have you ever seen both Patrick's in the same room at the same time? Neither have we!
Oh, and before we forget, our original guitarist (besides Erik of course) has returned from Brazil (where he was hanging with Picasso and Phil Manzanera). Tim Plowman played some "out-there" solos on our first few CDs and then disappeared. The former Slovenly guitarist is now on stage with us full time. It's good to have him back.
