Hard Times has hard time keeping a bass

A local band is playing the John C. Fremont Days Rodeo dance for the second time Friday, and it added its second attorney to the lineup.

The Hard Times Band now features attorneys Travis Bennington, lead singer and guitar, and Mary Ellis, who learned to play the bass to join the band.

“She had been running sound for us for a couple of years and we were running through bass players like crazy,” Bennington said. “She's lucky 13. We've been together almost eight years and gone through 12 bass players. She knew how to play piano and worked really hard to learn bass.”

Brook Morehouse of Fremont plays drums and Craig Kerns of Omaha rounds out the band on lead guitar.

The Hard Times Band is a “songwriters band” that plays alternative country and rock. Since the band formed in 2000, he said, it has never played another band's music live.

Their first few years together, the band did not play live shows, but worked on a record - “Songs You've Never Heard” - that was self-released two years ago. After finishing the album, the band played all over the state and songs from that disc have been played on radio stations around the country. They frequently play Omaha clubs and Council Bluffs, Iowa, casinos.

Bennington also said the band has received rejection letters from a couple of record companies, but they all had positive things to say about the band. A Nashville music producer has offered to produce a new disc for the band and they plan to raise the money for studio time through a fairly large summer concert schedule that can be viewed on the Web site www.hardtimesband.com.

“Everything I've written for the past couple of years has been alternative rock with country roots,” Bennington said, adding they are working on new tracks. “We have 25 songs to record.”

He said that disc likely won't be released until early next year.

The band will play six or seven new songs Friday night, he said. The Hard Times Band has been known to play up to 40 songs during their shows, which normally are four-hour. They start immediately following the 7:30 p.m. John C. Fremont Days Rodeo Friday, so they likely won't play quite as many songs.

Last year he said the band drew between 300 and 400 people to the rodeo dance.

“It's nice that it has a nice big dance floor for people,” Bennington said. “The bad thing is, it's so big it looks empty.”

The Hard Times Band was asked to play the Friday night beer garden at the state fair. From 9-11 p.m. every Thursday night, the band is hosting an “open mike” night at Tin Lizzy, 1682 E. 23rd Ave. N., in the Getzschman Center.

“There will be a couple of mikes and people can bring their guitars and play,” Bennington said. “We'll play about four or five songs and then let other people play.”

He said the band has received good feedback from the new material and looks forward to playing the new songs at the rodeo.

“I'm happier with the music we're making now,” Bennington said. “We've got some acoustic stuff, hippy jam band stuff, country - a little bit of everything.”

An event like the John C. Fremont Days Rodeo dance is a chance to earn new fans.

“We are something different,” Bennington said. “We're a songwriter's band. They're not going to hear the same stuff they hear everywhere.”

The show starts immediately following the rodeo. Admission is $2 with a rodeo ticket or $5 without a rodeo ticket. The band will play until about midnight.