Huns and Dr. Beeker may sound like a combination of a fourth century Mongol warlord and a Jim Henson creation, but this musical group is just two local guys who love to play music for any audience, large or small.
Their unusual stage name stems from nicknames, Huns being Jon Hunsbusher, and Dr. Beeker being Eric Erickson, who got the name from a cartoon character when he was in kindergarten.
The nickname stuck like glue with Erickson, who graduated from kindergarten quite some time ago.
The musicians grew up on the same block in Burlington and had music in their blood as long as they can remember. They knew of each other back then, but due to a three-year age difference, didn’t really know each other in school.
“I believe around first grade, he threw out a box of comic books,” Erickson said, pointing at Hunsbusher. “I grabbed them out of his trash. They were good comic books.”
How did the duo go from sharing old comic books to playing together? Fast forward, or reverse, to 1978.
“Huns was playing a jam session down here at the Brickyard,” Erickson said. “It used to be called the Killshot Lounge. It had an open mic stage, and a racquetball court. Music was happening in this area back then.”
They decided then to start a band. Huns and Dr. Beeker were officially together and toured the Midwest for almost five years, playing colleges and bars.
The musicians said they really liked playing colleges because of the crowds, and played covers in the beginning.
“Back then, we started with playing other people’s songs,” Erickson said. “We played Simon and Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, the Beatles, and the Moody Blues. Those groups taught us a lot about harmony – those guys really sang. I think we tried to find the heart of their music as well.”
They went all over the Midwest, even up to Michigan and Minnesota, in an old Ford van.
“It was an old E150 with a four on the floor. We even made it to Michigan in the wintertime in that thing,” Hunsbusher said. “It was a lot of fun.”
With all that touring, the guys saw some pretty hairy stuff go on, including a robbery that happened while they were on stage, unbeknownst to them.
It was at a Ground Round Restaurant, and the performers were walking stage when the cashier said she had just been robbed.
“I didn’t believe her, until she started to cry,” Hunsbusher said.
They even played a show the day after John Lennon was killed, in 1981.
“We weren’t sure to make it a tribute show or not, but we just played a normal set,” Erickson said.
Although they stopped playing together in 1982 to pursue starting families and “getting a real job,” Huns and Dr. Beeker were far from over – they made a large commitment to each other by marrying sisters.
“That’s going well – after all these years, we’re still married to the same people,” notes Huns with a laugh.
Being married into the same family meant that the two-man group was always in close contact, and their musical creativity was merely simmering on the back burner during the hiatus.
“We still kept jamming and hanging out as friends and family members, but it was about a year and a half ago when we decided to get a little more serious about it,” Hunsbusher said.
The guys got back together and started writing songs and playing them for people around Burlington, and the response was good.
“People really liked it,” Hunsbusher said. “We had old fans come out to see us, and they couldn’t believe we were playing again. It was like a family reunion.”
Now, the duo is primed to once again ignite the local music scene with the release of their first CD, “The Middle of Somewhere.”
Huns and Dr. Beeker recently held a kickoff concert at CATHE, the center for art, technology, health and entrepreneurship in Burlington.
“The songs are coming. I mean, they’re really coming,” Erickson said. “Every time we get together to practice, we’ll have something new. I think more new music is coming now than it has ever before.”
They practice about two to three times per week at their studio in Burlington, and have bright aspirations for the future.
“Our hope now is that we can quit our jobs and do this full time again, but given our responsibilities that we have now, I don’t know if that’s possible,” Hunsbusher said
“We just love the hell out of music,” Erickson said. “We just get together and practice, and have so much fun.”
The new CD, which was recorded in Lake Geneva, is a mix of acoustic guitar harmonies and vocals.
“We tried to keep that guitar harmony throughout the whole CD,” Hunsbusher said. “But we didn’t want it to be just two guys playing guitar, so we produced it a little bit with other instruments. We didn’t do too much, there’s some drums we added, some electric guitars, and some other instruments.”
The guys are currently looking to branch out to playing in Milwaukee in the future, and would, above all, love to just continue to play music.
“I think that if you try to be a hit, it’s going to sound like you are trying to be a hit,” Hunsbusher said. “The best thing to do is just to do what you do, and be yourself, and be the best that you can. If it happens, it happens. People that will like it, will like it.”
“The Middle of Somewhere” can be purchased online at www.cdbaby.com, and is available for download through Itunes at www.apple.com/itunes/music.
Further information can be found at www.hunsanddrbeeker.com.
Perfect Harmony