Happy Accident Leads to ‘Tim and Bob Show’

Kathy and Steve Feinstein & Mary Lou and Don Hymel only started playing professionally 5 years ago; all were in their 50s when they started.

The Tim and Bob Show consists of two married couples – Kathy and Steve Feinstein and Mary Lou and Don Hymel – all of us over 50. The band has been playing professionally in and around San Antonio, Texas for almost five years, in restaurants, wineries, private parties, corporate gigs, and fund-raisers.

Our repertoire is drawn primarily from the 1960s and 70s, but we play a wide range of styles that include songs written in the 1920s through the 2000s – including quite a few written by us. We concentrate on vocals, especially 2-, 3-, and 4-part harmonies, and our instrumentation is primarily amplified acoustic guitars. 

For the last two years, we’ve been lucky enough to have been selected as San Antonio’s best cover band, and our CD “Take It Outside” was voted San Antonio’s “best album” for 2009. All of these accolades came through readers’ polls conducted by the San Antonio Current. We were also Texas Music Coalition’s Artist of the Year for 2008.

There are many things that bring a band together, but I think there’s some credence in the argument that Steve getting his Taylor guitar stolen was a significant contributor. Steve was recording a CD of his original songs in the “cry room” of a local church. While taking part in the mixing, he put his guitar out in the hall and, when he went out to get it later, it was gone. Kathy knew that living with Steve when Steve did not have a guitar was not an attractive option, so she encouraged Steve to get a new Taylor.

Pickers will tell you that nothing makes them play more than having a new guitar, and that nothing improves the quality of their playing than … well, than playing more. So Steve improved and improved. In the meantime, I began to play a little with Steve. And, as I played more and more, I began to improve as well. Once I gave my usually neglected Yamaha to my grand niece and bought myself a new Takamine, Steve and I had both improved enough to actually play in front of people.

As is the case with most musicians, we performed first in church. Steve had played and sung on many occasions at the church. His guitar and his two huge Beatles compilation books helped him facilitate the church’s youth group for a number of years. Once we had played for the congregation and discovered that it wasn’t just us and our wives that liked our vocal blend, you might have thought that it would only be a matter of time before we took the next step. And we were actually building a repertoire of sorts.

One evening, the four of us were enjoying a pizza at an outdoor venue in Leon Springs, Texas. There was live music – a lone singer/guitarist was playing. Steve and I listened intently and made jokes about how “we were at least as good as he was.” After listening to us for a while, Kathy left the patio to go inside. When she returned, we discovered that she had not left for the expected reason; rather, she had secured us a gig.

All this was despite the fact that the owner had never heard either of us perform. Kathy can be persuasive. We were terrified. We only had about 20 songs we felt remotely comfortable doing in front of people, and we knew this would not get us through three hours. To “pad” the set list, and to give each of us a small break from the stage, we developed small mini-sets of “Steve alone” and “Don alone” songs.

While the audience reaction at this gig was good, we soon realized that just two guitars and two voices offered a limited variety to the listener. So we drafted in Kathy and Mary Lou, first strictly to create “spousal duets,” and then, ultimately, to explore the possibilities of multiple-part harmonies. In time, the women became percussionists and, most recently, Kathy took up the electric bass guitar.

Now we’ve played in all sorts of interesting locations, were artists in residence for a week in August 2009, performed on television, and helped raise considerable money for worthy causes. Our repertoire has grown to over 200 songs, our web site gets hits, and we even have our own bank account. In 2009 we performed 65 times – no mean feat when all of us have day jobs.

What’s the greatest benefit of making music when you’re over 50? For us, the fact that we know we are never going to California to get that big recording contract and go on a world-wide tour, allows us to concentrate more on the music, the audience, and the joy of hanging out with each other. Because we’re not dependent on the money from gigs to put bread on the table, we’ve put every dollar we’ve earned back into the band. This has allowed us to completely revamp our equipment, as well as record and press our CD without going into debt.

Steve and I have written more than a dozen songs, and enjoy that aspect as well. Not only is the band continuing to thrive, but Steve and Kathy have formed yet another group called Fein Tuned. This duo is perfect for those venues where there is inadequate room for four performers.

The Tim and Bob Show “has had many fathers” to use the vernacular phrase, but at least one of them was a lone thief who, in 2003, stole Steve’s favorite guitar.

Don Hymel
The Tim and Bob Show,
San Antonio, Texas