PALESTINE —
Palestine’s Jokers Heart band will perform during the Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual banquet on Thursday.
“We are very excited and proud to play for the Rhinestone Roundup 2012 Annual Banquet,” Jokers Heart drummer John Brown said. “We feel that it will give us an opportunity to be heard by many people who may not normally get out and about to hear us.”
The sold-out banquet will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Anderson County Youth Livestock Pavilion on U.S. 287 North. The band will perform after the banquet, dinner and program.
“Hopefully, (those coming to the banquet) will wear their boots and won’t mind dancing in the dirt. We will know if we’ve done our job if people can’t sit still and have to dance,” Brown said.
Jokers Heart was formed toward the end of 2010 by married couple John and Pamela Brown and Steve Ray.
“We realized after sitting around picking that we needed to use our musical talents or we would lose our musical talents,” Brown said.
Band member Brian Walsh started his law practice in Palestine around that time. John Brown and Walsh had played in bands and gone to school together in Cayuga.
“Brian decided to join us and then Steve Ray remembered a guitar player — Chad Sparling — that could burn up the guitar. After we tracked him down through Facebook and other people, we were good to go,” Brown said.
The band consists of Ray (lead singer, rhythm guitar and harmony), John Brown (drums, harmony and lead sings on rock songs), Sparling (lead guitar, harmony and lead sings), Walsh (bass player), Pamela Brown (lead vocals, harmony and tambourine) and sound man Randy Bechtel.
“We decided on the name Jokers Heart because we’re always clowning, joking around and we pick real hard on each other, but music is in our hearts and is taken very seriously.”
In order to find music all ages could enjoy and dance to, the band plays top 40, older country, older rock ‘n’ roll and a little bit of reggae.
“We like to take songs and make them our own. We don’t try to play it exactly like the record; we put our own personality into each song. We easily feed off of each other’s vibes which makes it easy to play together,” Brown said.
Over the years, the band members have had experience performing with other bands. The band as a whole has opened for the Oak Ridge Boys.
In the past, Ray, owner of James F. Ray New and Used Cars in Palestine, has been involved with Painted Desert, Honor Bound and Ghost Riders. Individually, Ray has performed with Gary Stewart and opened for Kenny Chesney, T. Graham Brown, Eddie Raven and various others.
John Brown has been involved worked with the bands WW and The Sundowners in the 1980s. He and his wife, Pamela, own Residential Investments Inc.
Sparling has been involved with the bands Most Wanted and The Elektra Tones. He is employed by Custom Hose.
Walsh has performed with the bands WW and The Sundowners in the 1980s and Soul Hat in the 1990s. He has performed with Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison. He has opened for various bands in Austin.
Bechtel is employed at James F. Ray New and Used Cars in Palestine.
For more information about the band, visit www.jokersheart.com or e-mail joker@jokersheart.com.
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Jokers Heart Courtesy Photo
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Jokers Hear band to perform and Chamber event
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