Interview: Dan Edwards of THE RAYFORD BROTHERS

Dan Edwards started playing music as a kid in the Bay Area, but his big breaks came when he moved to So-Cal.

"I played guitar and standup bass in rockabilly bands," says Edwards. "I sat in with Ray Campi, Bill Bateman from The Blasters, Buddy 'Party Doll' Knox, and had the opportunity to go on tour with Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps!"

In the 90's, he formed his own a rockabilly trio called The Sun Demons (not to be confused with David Lee Roth's The Hideous Sun Demons). "Then about six years ago, I threw together this hobby band called The Rayford Brothers.

"The name is actually from a 'Twilight Zone' episode called Come Wander With Me with characters called The Rayford Brothers. Floyd Burney,'The Rock-a-Billy Kid' is the main character." Edwards borrowed that name for his record label.

As bandleader "Link" Rayford, he's adopted several band brothers over the years. "It started with a couple guys from work. Then I got Rufus on bass and Otis on drums. We had that lineup for a while, then Zander (on bass) and P.J. (on drums). Now we're going through another drummer transition."

All that hard work, flexibility and a viral video is finally paying off.

"About three years ago, we had a gig on Halloween and thought, 'Hey, let's dress up...what should we be?' We talked about being Universal monsters -- like The Wolfman, Frankenstein, and Dracula, but we didn't want to wear makeup.

"So I said, 'Hey, it'd be kinda cool to do the Batman '66 characters.' We found some cheap costumes on eBay...wore them and were gonna throw them away (when) one of our fan videos went viral and we started getting offers.

"Now we've got some gigs coming up in Utah and Arizona (Phoenix, Flagstaff). We've been doing Las Vegas quite a bit. We're getting a lot of offers in Texas and Colorado, so we'll probably start playing those states."

For a complete tour list, visit their Facebook Events page and click here to order The Rayford Brothers self-titled album featuring rock and roll, rockabilly and surf music.

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