Jeff Heiskell of The JudyBats - Your Next Favorite Band

This week we jump back to the 1990s to hear the story of The JudyBats with frontman Jeff Heiskell.  This band has an incredible catalog and they reached the charts so you will probably recall a track or two of theirs if you were in your teens or 20s at that time.  Or you might be a raving fan and can't wait to hear more about them.  And if you don't know their music at all, well...I'm kinda jealous, because you're about to find your next favorite band, just 3 decades later.

The JudyBats were founded when Jeff Heiskell and Ed Winters were playing together and heard a neighbors house playing music as well and ran in to the group of Tim Stutz, Johnny Shugrue and Terry Casper at a local bar in Knoxville, TN and agreed to start playing together.  They added Peggy Hambright and the took off as The JudyBats, finding success locally pretty quickly, then getting signed to Sire Records.  The first track they released was for a tribute album the label was putting out, and it found immediate success too.

I've really enjoyed the fact that we've been able to bring on bands and musicians from the 90s to share their stories and their music.  These are people who I was a massive fan of and never thought I'd get to speak with at all, let alone in some kind of legitimate capacity.  I enjoy bringing on the likes of The Samples, Wheatus, Tripping Daisy and this week's guest The JudyBats as their music is all so good it is still relevant today and worth your time.  It doesn't matter when good music was written and released, if it's awesome and you haven't discovered it yet, then that's all that matters.  Plus, with these bands, we get the complete picture of what it's like to find success, and then see it flicker and go out, which allows us to learn more about those aspects of the music industry and the story arc of the career.  It's certainly not all fun times and glamorous.  

And each of these have pushed through and continuing to create and perform, either under a new name and evolution, or still carrying the flag and moniker of the original.  Jeff now releases music under the title Heiskell and it is very good.  We wrap things by learning more about that and share a song or two.

So let's enjoy this insightful chat with Jeff Heiskell of The JudyBats as he's got great stories to tell!  And hope you enjoy the music whether you already knew them or if they're new to you.  Thanks for listening!

And big thanks to Dan Drago of 25 O'Clock Pod for joining on this one, as he was a fan of The JudyBats while listening to them on WBER from Joey Guisto, who helped me

As always, our hope is to bring you "your next favorite band". If you tuned in today because you already knew this musician - thank you very much! We hope that you enjoyed it and would consider following us and subscribing so we can bring you your #nextfavband in the future. And check out nextfavband.com for our entire catalog of interviews!

If you have a recommendation on who you think OUR next favorite band should be, hit us up on social media (@nextfavband everywhere) or send us an email at nextfavband@stereophiliastudio.com.

Thank you to Carver Commodore, argonaut&wasp, and Blair Crimmins for allowing us to use their music in the show open and close. It makes everything sound so much better!

Let’s catch a live show together soon!

#nextfavband #livemusic #music #musicinterview #musician #singer #guitar #song #newmusic #explorepage #instamusic #bestmusic #musicismylife #musicindustry #musiclife #songwriter #musiclover #musicfestival