Derin Dow Band: News/Journal

As many of you know, performing live music in Los Angeles can be an expensive business. Many venues are pay-to-play, and band-mates must also be paid. Therefore, in order to continue to finance my original project, some of us in the DDB have decided to embark upon a side project called "Wayward Sons" - a tribute to the band Kansas. I've often been told that my voice sounds similar to Steve Walsh (lead singer of Kansas). Since most of us in the band love Kansas, we figured it might be worth it to give this idea a shot. Joining us will be Mark Keller on guitar, Steve Dempsey and Grant Cooper on keyboards, Jonathann Launer on drums/vocals, and Rick Sailon on violin. I'll be playing bass and singing. We'll be performing most of their best songs from 1973 to 1981 (pre-Elefante era). Rehearsals are set to begin in mid-September, followed by whatever gigs we can get. Looks like we'll be the only band doing a tribute to Kansas in the So. Cal area. Why not come on out and see us perform live one of these days? To receive show announcements, just type in your e-mail address at the top of this page where it says "Join the e-mail list" and click "join." Thanks! We hope to see you at a show sometime soon!

The DDB would like to welcome drummer Billy DiBlasi to the band!

2009 has brought about a new line-up that includes guitarist Rick Sailon and bassist Willy Andresco. Rick has performed with us on violin in the past at all of our acoustic shows, but now he'll be handling the duties on lead guitar and backing vocals. Willy comes to us via Argentina, and also plays with the Stony Curtis Band (Shrapnel). It's great to have such a positive vibe in the band and bandmates that share a common vision. Wish us luck!

Special thanks to guitarist Corey Little for his 4 years with my project. Your service has been much appreciated, and the DDB wishes you the best. Thanks also to drummer Jack Kelly who played with us since September of '08.

We hope to see you at a live show again soon.

Thanks to those of you who came out to see the acoustic version of my band open for Eric Johnson on Thursday 1/15/09 at the Brixton. We felt honored to share the same stage on the same night with Eric. Our set was well received by an enthusiastic South Bay crowd of about 400. Hats off to Rick Sailon for his outstanding contribution on the violin. People really seemed to like that element of our sound.

I was fortunate to meet Eric briefly outside the club after his show, which was awesome. He was very nice, gave me his autograph on the liner notes of "Tones," and posed for a photo as well. I was also able to give him a copy of my CD "Retroactive." Think he'll listen to it? Cool night.

I'd like to say THANK YOU to everyone who came out on such a cold night. Ambrosia was great, and it was a pleasure to meet those guys (again). They still sound incredible after all these years. As for my band, well, some of us were sick and couldn't sing very well, so for that I offer my apologies. We gave it our best shot despite the flu.

We did videotape the show, so we will be putting up some videos on myspace and/or youtube in the coming days.

Look for more show announcements soon, and again, THANK YOU for your support of my music and my band.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the AURA band reunion concert on August 2 in Madison, IN. Over 500 people were in attendance, despite the broken A/C and lack of parking. It was a night we will all remember for a long time. It was so good to see old friends, and to make a few new ones as well. To watch some videos from that crazy night, go to www.youtube.com and search under "Aura reunion". The video title "Aura reunion Darryl Hewitt" features Derin soloing on "Dreams I'll Never See" (the Molly Hatchet version of the Allman Bros. classic). Darryl does a great job on this one as well. More videos from that night will be posted on youtube in the coming days, including one with DD on lead vocals. Thanks again for coming out!

Derin will be participating in a reunion concert for a band called AURA that he was in back in high school. The band lasted from 1981 to 1988, and performed a lot of classic rock covers.

The concert will be held at the Moose Lodge on August 2nd at 8:00pm, in Madison, Indiana.
The musicians will be as follows:

Rusty Bladen - lead vocals
Derin Dow - guitars, vocals
Darryl Hewitt - guitars, vocals
Dave Wells - bass
Mark Bear - drums, vocals

Other line-ups will include:

Todd Brindel - guitars, vocals
John Canfield - bass, vocals
Warren Shacklette - guitars, keys
Bobby T. Sampson - bass
Berry Burleson - drums

Bring the kids and friends, and let's rock out to all those old tunes from the 70's and 80's. Hope to see you there!

Check out the Photos page for new pics of our acoustic set at the Universal Bar & Grill on Valentine's Day (2/14/08). Derin got a haircut, and somehow his voice sounded better after that. Who knew?

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy beginning to 2008! Let's hope this year is a good one. Hopefully, with a new president in the White House a year from now, things will start to improve in this country.

As for me, I'm embarking on improving my guitar-playing skills at the moment, taking lessons from Rick Sailon. I'm hoping to use what I learn from Rick to write more interesting songs in the future.

No shows are scheduled at this time.

No shows lately. Drummer Nick went on tour as a tech with the Black Crowes back in August. Saw them live on Friday night at the Grove (Anaheim). Thanks to Nick for getting us backstage! Great show.

New songs are in the works for my next album... hopefully to be recorded sometime in '08. Otherwise, just working, working, working at the day job.. trying to survive and keep the kids fed. Visit again soon for new news, and thanks to everyone for your patience. We'll play some shows again one of these days.

Hey everyone!
As you may have noticed, this website has changed. We hope you enjoy the new look and features of the site, brought to you with the help of HostBaby. You may now listen to clips of all the songs from the "Retroactive" album on the Music page. Give us some feedback and let us know what you think, okay? Thanks and visit again soon for show dates.