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McGuinn, who will join them for this tour, met the band's members through writer Carl Hiaasen a dozen years ago and has played with them off and on ever since. His assessment of them is a bit kinder. "Now Dave will tell you that they're just a lousy band, but in fact they're pretty good," McGuinn said recently by phone as he traveled between gigs in Nashville and Tucson, Ariz. Then he couched that, adding, "They're not as bad as they claim to be." He has high praise for several members, including keyboardist Mitch Albom ("Tuesdays With Morrie")" bass player Ridley Pearson ("Middle of Nowhere") and guitarist Greg Iles. The latter was actually a touring musician before he wrote his first best-seller, "Spandau Phoeniz." Another member, James McBride, is a respected composer as well as a writer. Tan, meanwhile, studied classical piano as a child, something that in no way seems to have prepared her for the sometimes-goth-dressing, bad-girl rock vixen that "The Joy Luck Club" author portrays onstage when she belts out the old Nancy Sinatra hit "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'." The group's specialty is '60s rock 'n roll with a few original tunes by band members thrown in. Still, among the most entertaining segments of a Remainders performance, Barry says, is watching Roy Blount Jr. and "Simpson's" creator Matt Groening clap out of time during an entire show while pretending to sing along with other band members. Neither, he said, will get close enough to a microphone to let the audience hear them. "We're fun. We're not good but we're fun," Barry says, laughing. "And they do serve alcohol (at the show). This is key. For us as well as the audience."
[Associated
Press;
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