The Amazing Pink Things

The most "successful" of all the bands I was in, was The Amazing Pink Things (1985-1991). We were a 2-man, 2-woman comedy cabaret act that started performing in Seattle in 1985. By the time we called it quits in 1991, we had had 2 different baritones (originally Bob Kaiser, replaced by Bob Overman), 7 altos (in this order: Shawn Tordahl, Jayne Muirhead, Mimi MacLeod, Sandi Miller, Harrye Hayward, Maureen McKenna, Tricia Meier), one tenor (me, Dana Countryman), and one soprano (Tami Martin.)

I was the leader, musical director and chief songwriter. My (non-romantic) business partner was Tami Martin, who handled the lighting cues, choreography and continued the wild costumes that Bob Kaiser had originally designed.

We toured mainly on the West Coast, appearing in clubs, theatres and cabarets, including long runs in San Francisco (CA), Los Angeles (CA), Portland (OR), Ashland (OR), Anchorage (AK), as well as in our home base of Seattle (WA). We had a manager in New York City, who basically did nothing for us, except bring us to New York City, where we also performed.

We sang live to a pre-recorded tape, that I recorded 99% of all the parts for (keyboards, guitars, bass, drums, misc.), and we lugged our "band" -- our faithful OTARI 2-track tape recorder through airports all over the country.

Highlights of our career were:

• A 9-month run at Seattle's THE CABARET IN PIONEER SQUARE, where we had lines around the block for our shows.
• Quitting our day jobs, and heading off to California, where we performed for a year.
• Appearing twice on THE LATE SHOW (with Arsenio Hall) at Fox/Paramount in Hollywood.
• Palling around with TV stars Judd Hirsch and Clevon Little.
• Eating pizza with Fred Willard in between tapings of A&E's THE GOODTIME CAFE in San Francisco.
• Spotting celebrities in our audiences --- people like Freda Payne, Eric Roberts, Margaret Whiting, Dave Frishberg, Weird Al Yankovic and Doctor Demento... and again, Clevon Little, who seemed to show up at our shows all over the place, including L.A., San Francisco and NYC...
• Opening for country songstress Crystal Gayle at an outdoor concert at he Mondavi Winery in Napa, California.
• Getting recognized by an airline pilot at Burbank International Airport after one of our TV appearances.
• Appearing on radio's DINNER AT SARDI'S - hosted by Arlene Francis. Spotting Bert Parks in the audience. Standing at the bar with Jerzy Kozinski.
• Meeting our audiences after our shows, and making great friends all over the country.
• Appearing on many, many radio shows in many cities, where we usually sang our a capella version of the "Hallejujah Chorus" -- THE HAL AND LULU CHORUS!
• Getting out of our contract with the previously-mentioned NYC manager.
• Having the best audiences in the country, in believe it or not, Anchorage, Alaska!
• And for me, the real highlight was meeting Tricia, who was our final (and eleventh!) member of the group, who eventually agreed to marry me! (Silly girl!) Almost 12 years later, she's still hanging in there with me!

 Read some of our press quotes HERE!