Tonis
" Always remember, 'Bards have no ego,'...no, really, you believe me, right???!!!"
Born the child of a Dutch
sailor and a Scottish mother of the MacGregor clan, Tonis van Driele
grew up in northern Scotland. He was given a Dutch name per his
father's request. When Tonis was 12, he left his home to become a cabin
boy on a ship with a desire to follow in his father's footsteps and
travel the world. Through his songs and stories, he became well liked
by his fellow sailors and spent many happy years travelling the seas of
the world. When he was about 20, he found himself in the town of
Belfast, Ireland in a pub where he met and fell in love with the
proprietor's daughter. Eventually, they married and he decided to leave
the sea and seek their fortunes in mainland Europe. Shortly after
reaching the mainland, they reached Germany and joined the household of
a knight by the name of Sir Mathias Von Leuwenburg. While accomplished
with a sword and spear, Tonis has always identified more with the
performer in himself and strives to find some way to balance all the
multiple demands on his time…not always successfully.
Stephen Hoogerwerf
Stephen Hoogerwerf is a U.S. Navy brat and has lived in California, Oregon, and Arizona (as well as attending college in Texas). He currently resides in Tucson, Arizona with his wife, Nancy, and his two sons, Kellen and Benjamin. After spending 3 years as a music major at Lubbock Christian University, before moving back to southern Arizona, Stephen eventually went back to night school to get his Bachelor in Business Administration and is currently pursuing his MBA in Global Management at night through the University of Phoenix.
He has held several jobs including 9 years in the Army Reserves (as a truck driver, petroleum supply specialist, and medic), a "water cop" and outreach specialist for the local water utility, and part-time karate instructor being the most noteworthy prior to finding employment in the defense contract industry. What he'd really like, though, is to find work as a full-time song-writer and/or actor..."hey, everyone has a dream"...
Still involved with a medieval re-creation group known as the Society for Creative Anachronism, Stephen writes and sings his own medieval-themed music (he's even been known to write counterpoint and a 2-part latin motet) and sings with the Whiskey Bards at various society events and, hopefully, beyond in the near future. He has also written several rock & contemporary folk songs and even spent a short stint as the lead singer for a local alternative/hard rock band several years ago. While he's played violin, cello, guitar, piano, and several percussion instruments he still considers himself a novice at most all of them...mainly due to a lack of dedication to the practice room.Jump to bio for:
Simon - Cosimo - Yonatan