About Me
Medicine Show was a musical fusion created by diverse talents and personalities. OSU, once acclaimed for being one of the nations top drinking schools was lauded as the home to a band of wannabe gypsy's that called themselves by the name of "Medicine Show". Everyone in the band claims to have been the originator of this pollymorphic entity but this was an assimilation of nature by the cosmos.
Donny Wood - Basist, lived in a house in Stillwater Oklahoma and needed a roomate. I needed a room so I moved in. I knew Don was a bass player from a band by the name of "Exit", in an even sleepier town in Oklahoma than Stillwater, called Bartlesville, where we both grew up. He says that I helped him get back into the music business but in actuallity I just drove him to get his bass out of the pawnshop. We went down to the popular bar with the hippies, called Willies. I think it might have been an open mic night or maybe it was a "Dos Guys" show. None-the-less, thats where it started. Brad James came in one night while needing a bass player for the band he was working with, "Low Skies" out of OKC comprised of Stillwater Veterans, Greg Morris, Nick Smith, Ricky McCord and Brad. I would sometimes watch the door but at the time I was mostly the bad element in the bar and the chauffer de la bassist. On an off night, and there were many of them, I had remembered that Scott Evans, a friend from High School was a guitar player. Don was really impressed with his playing and they started playing together, thus was the first step in fulfilling the act with many others that followed. Don and Scott got along famously and began playing together regularly. They got a gig at Willies for free beer and were soon playing the Two Frogs for free beer. Kenny Early was the next link in the chain who we all knew, but whose interests were a little on the darker side. Kenny was on board in no-time. Brad James came in one night on his way home from Breckenridge Colorado, where he played with a band by the name of "Buckwheat Groats". Don and I soon moved into a bar called Park Place, a converted house, and thats where shop was set up. The name Medicine Show was Brads brainstorm, named after the song "W.S. Walcott's Medicine Show" from the band "The Band". Not long after, Scott worked up a logo that looked like candy. Corey Mouser, a law student and jazz pianist, came in one night at Willie's and blew us away. Shortly after, he was on-board as well. This concluded the original forming of Medicine Show. There were many living room jams and and many a moonlit saucer-eyed night listening to this incredible chemistry that came from these, seemingly, average quirky people. Their popularity grew and as synchronicity has it, it doesnt surprise me.
There have been many who played with Medicine Show. During many of the Stillwater gigs we got to know Steve Anderson, who was a decent conga player and was able to keep up with the Hungry Kenny Early on drums. Things would soon change.
Corey Mouser and Steve Anderson left for Austin Texas and we interviewed a guy in Tulsa one night, named Steve Littleton. He was soon on board with the keys and Hammond Organ and became the new backbone to the band.
Jimmy Karstien, local Tulsa celeb and drummer for the infamous Tulsa legends, J.J. Cale and Leon Russell, to name a few, had to fill in for Kenny after he broke his arm while trying to teach himself how to snow-ski on one of our Colorado stints. Jimmy soon felt the chemistry and was along for the ride and the party. Kenny healed quickly and Jimmy would move to his clockwork time on Conga's. Kenny eventually quit because he got pissed off at Don (leave it to the rhythm section to get along) and we hired a local Stillwater guy named Eric HansEn, who was the best the area had to offer. Eric was kickass but very very very very young and very very very very very anxious to make his mark after playing the Austin club circuit. Eric was soon to go and find Jimmy Lafave's band out of Austin, and Kenny came back playing as strong as ever, after seeing Eric HansEn fill his shoes so easily. Kenny soon got a real job and started playing with Medicine Show's country cousins, The Red Dirt Rangers and Matt Martin sat in with the band for the remainder of the band's tenure. Keyboardists Bill Phillips, David Tanner, Jim Downing, Rocky Frisco and many others played with them before Brad decided to go his own way. Scott took the lead but we as a group, were ill prepared at the time to continue and our transportation was in pieces. Without transportation a band cannot function and Medicine Show, after 9 years, give or take a year, had collapsed from its foundation. We are all still great friends, and for a time most of us lived within the same 4 blocks of each other but no longer as a band. There were many friends that became family in this era, many of us found our wives during these years and many of us have lost friends and family alike since then, but still we carry with us, how fortunate to have all shared that magnificent chemistry and music with the folks who supported us and who let us into their lives.
Brad James - Guitar and Vocals
Scott Evans - Guitar and Vocals
Don Wood - Bass and sphincter phone
Kenny Early - Drums
Steve Littleton - Keyboards and Organ
Jimmy Karstien - Drums, Conga, and Percussion
Influences: Grateful Dead, JJ Cale, Leon Russell, The Allman Brothers, Clapton, Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Taj Mahal, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, The Band, The Cate Brothers, Government Mule, Red Dirt Rangers, Dick Sims, David Tanner, Rollo, Jimmy Lafave etc. etc.
"a full year of my godforsaken life was donated to the MedShow cause. LaFave and more recently McClure were/are the only projects I did for a much longer stretch than that.I will come to Tulsa and take a shit on your porch if you don't at least spell my freakin name right in the bio. It's HansEn...there ain't no mmmmBop in this MoFo." - Eric HansEn
"Like the morning sun we come and like the wind we go." -Garcia and Hunter
