History of The Mockingbyrds

A Tribute to the amazing Byrds!

The Mockingbyrds began one evening in November, 2006, as former Dreambreakers Steve Candelari and Stephen Arthur were wrapping up a video shoot for another project. Stephen remarked, very casually, "You know, it would really be fun to put together a band to do nothing but Byrds songs."

The lightbulb went on over Steve's head, and before anyone knew it, he was on the phone to two other former Dreambreakers, bassist David Blassingame and guitarist Rick Ehrlich. The four met with acoustic guitars one evening the following week, and after trying a few harmonies, they realized that this could really work. Stephen was convinced enough that he even bought a new 12-string guitar! ("Really, I just went in to the store to buy some strings!" he says.)

In January percussionist Alison Zollars (formerly of Tesseract) was added to the mix, and now the sound was complete, just in time for their first live performance on Feb. 1, 2007, at Cosmo's Cafe in Houston.

Over the next year The Mockingbyrds played at many venues in and around Houston, including the large stage at Trader's Village, the Continental Club, a tribute to Bob Dylan at Dan Electro's Guitar Bar, and as part of an anniversary tribute to the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 (joined by Joe Romano and Susan Elliott, the jazz duo Mood Indigo, to temporarily replace Dave and Alison, who had another band commitment that night).

When Rick Ehrlich left the band to pursue other interests, he was replaced by Joe Baiardi of Houston's own Fab5. With this lineup the Mockingbyrds played as part of a benefit for fellow musician Bill Staat's at the Arcadia Bar on August 12, 2007, opening for The Chromatics, Strange Brew, and The Fab 5.

In 2009, Steve Candelari and Alison Zollars added guitarist Rob Schulman and bassist Bob Reichlin to play one set between The Hand Me Downs (Herman Kluge's band) and Picture Book at Dan Electro's Guitar Bar. Rob and Robert were not terribly satisfied with their Mockingbyrds experience and moved on to other things, so in early 2010 Clif Caskey joined the band on guitar, and soon after Robert McCorvey joined on bass. Clif had worked in various bands with Steve and Stephen, and Robert had played in Tesseract with Alison.

And it seems to be going well! You can find The Mockingbyrds at their regular every-other-Monday evening gig at Lynn's Longbranch Saloon in Houston (see the Schedule page for details). Hope to see you soon!