Dave BurlettI was born in Long Branch, New Jersey on September 5, 1963. My Dad at the time was a guitar player in ironically a country band playing all the popular clubs in the state of New Jersey. From the earliest days I can remember I always sang along with the music. Never sounded any good because to this day I cannot sing a note.
My sister who was 6 1/2 years older than me always listened to music and I can remember at an early age knowing the songs and the artists. At about 10 years old I remember hearing my first Eagles song. I instantly remember liking the music and mainly the harmony parts. As I entered junior high school my best friend got a guitar for his birthday. He was taking lessons at a local music store. We then met some other kids in our grade that played other instruments and decided to start a band. None of us could play and I didn’t even have a guitar yet. …But we were a band. After talking about it, it was decided that we didn’t need 3 guitars so I was elected to be the bass player. I asked for a guitar for my birthday and my parents got me my first bass guitar. I started taking lessons at the same music store as all the other guys in the band and as soon as we learned one song we played it as loud as often as we could. My parents were very supportive. My dad impressed upon me at an early age that no matter what you do be the best you can be so I practiced as much as I could. Being the parents of a bass player whose room was above the living room was brutal and to this day I never once remember them asking me to stop. The summer came and every year the music store put on a “Battle of the Bands” in the parking lot. We signed up and entered the contest and got to play right in the parking lot of a shopping center. We played 5 songs, and just as my dad had said we gave it our best. We didn’t come close to winning, as much as that would add to this great story, but I got this incredible feeling that happens the first time you do what you love in front of an audience. As time went on we lost a guitar player and my best friend went off to Military School and I still practiced. In 9th. Grade I was approached by a really great guitar player, Mike Harary, who was starting a band with some of the best musicians in the school. Just the thought of me being asked to audition was an honor because I never thought I was that good. He was in the winning band that had played in the parking lot of the music store. I remember that day I auditioned I was scared to embarrass myself but once again applying what my dad had said I went and gave it my best and was asked to join the band “PEGASUS” We practiced 3 times a week after school and learned close to 200 songs and we worked on the harmony parts just like the records and just like the Eagles.
We played school dances, parties, bowling alleys, even as sophomores in high school we played a dance, for another high school, at the Columns in Avon. We stayed together until graduation from high school and that summer but 2 members went off to college and 1 moved to North Carolina and the band was done. I put my guitar away for a while and got into the DJ business and more of the behind the scenes work with other bands. I missed performing but I still had music in my life. I met Vinny Daniele who was playing in a band and he offered me a job working for him. That band is Cats on A Smooth Surface. I learned a lot about the business. The coolest part
was that every once in a while I was invited to play a song or two and that same feeling I had in the parking lot came back. A friend of mine had just gotten a new CD by a band called Little Texas and he played it for me. I instantly liked the way they sounded, as a matter of fact I thought they sounded just like the Eagles. I started thinking about playing again and the Country Radio market was huge here on the East Coast. I bought country cd’s and listened and decided this was the perfect music for me. I started talking to people about putting together a band. A friend of mine had heard this 20 something year old kid sing Karaoke in a place and suggested that I hear him sing. I went and sat through countless songs and bad versions of every song and then came this kid the music started and he hit the first note and I stood up to see where it came from and was completely impressed. I introduced myself and we started getting together to lay out the groundwork for “SOUTHERN REIGN”. We put ads in the papers and found musicians and then it started. Practice again 3 nights a week and learn 200 songs and play anywhere for free to get our name out there. We got lucky and people liked us. We were nominated for New Jersey Country Music Association Band of the Year in 1996. We were very popular. We were noticed by some good people who had us playing TV shows and fairs and concerts and then one day we got a call from the radio station to open for Diamond Rio at the Count Basie Theatre. The theatre liked us so much they hired us for their house band every time a country artist came to town. We played with Johnny Paycheck, Charlie Daniels, Neal McCoy, Kevin Sharp, and The Mavericks and even appeared on Good Morning America. Well life went on and the country music scene began to fade and I took a break but I decided after a few years to do a reunion weekend. I called Willie who had kept some version of the band together and said what do you think? Book 3 clubs that we used to play and play a reunion weekend. We got together and guess what? We practiced and practiced and practiced and all of us knew that this was for more that just one weekend. So we formed the band again and under the name After The Reign and we sold out all 3 clubs and we once again began to work in the country music scene. The band is still together and we have been blessed to do a lot of really cool things from concerts to fairs to playing in Atlantic City. I have been blessed with the support of a loving family who come out to hear the same songs over and over again. A wife who lets me live my dream. Three wonderful kids who don’t seem to mind that I sleep a little later sometimes and even put away my equipment for me the next day.
