Patty Tuite & The Boilermakers - Biographies
Patty Tuite started playing in public in 1992, performing on her guitar and singing at open mic sessions in the Springfield, Massachusetts area. Her folk roots expanded into the blues realm, with influences from Etta James and Bonnie Raitt to Ella Fitzgerald and Debbie Davies. In 1997, Patty recorded her first CD entitled "Patty Tuite and Friends, Live at the Tic Toc", which included five songs she composed herself. Wanting to continue performing original songs as well as the blues, she formed The Patty Tuite Band in 1999. The band competed in the finals of the Connecticut Blues Society's Blues Challenge in 2001. By 2002, the band released Girls Night Out, comprised entirely of original material written by the band members. The Connecticut Blues Society included one of her original compositions on their compilation CD, Local Flavor, in 2003. That same year, WHUS radio released a station CD which included one of her songs as well. In 2005, the band once again made the finals in the Connecicut Blues Challenge. In 2007, Patty formed her current band, Patty Tuite & The Boilermakers. The band plays a mixture of blues, swing, jazz and classic rock 'n' roll, as well as introducing new originals into their repertoire.
Frank Busse, drummer, has been playing drums and singing professionally for more than 38 years, having started playing out at the age of 12. Growing up, his family life was musically oriented. He lived his early adult life on the west coast in California until 1981, playing at state fairs and festivals, cruise ships in San Francisco, and clubs from the Redwoods in the north to Cannery Row in the south. He was influenced by many of the rock bands of the '60s and '70s, such as The Beatles and The Who. He ventured into jazz and has played a wide variety of styles with the bands he's joined. More recently, he has been playing with "King Cake", an eastern Connecticut blues band. Frank has a solid voice for singing leads and has a talent for creating harmonies, which is being used extensively to enrich the vocals for the songs in The Boilermakers.
Tom "The Turk" Neilsen, bassist, has played the gamut over the last 30+ years: blues, gospel, jazz, R&B, country, folk, roots music, rock, classic rock, and originals in varying bands and venues throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts with some minor forays into Rhode Island. He lists as major influences Stevie Wonder's left hand, Jaco Pastorius, Marcus Miller, The 3 Stooges, Hopalong Cassidy, Arthur Godfrey and Raymond Chandler (just to name a few).
Bill Furey began playing guitar at age 13, influenced by Elvis Presley and a whole bunch of English guys during the "British Invasion". He really fell for the blues after hearing Michael Bloomfield. His interest in jazz began After hearing Miles Davis, he became interested in jazz; this led to his "discovery" of John McLaughlin, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green—the list goes on. Bill can accompany almost any song, be it blues, jazz, or rock 'n' roll, playing lead guitar with his tasteful licks. For the last few years, he has also been playing with Bruce John's "Eagleville Band", pleasing the crowds at outdoor festivals and clubs in Connecticut.