The
Highlights have over 100 years of collective musical experience. Their
energetic performances include 50’s and 60’s, country, blues, rock and
standards. The Highlights are triple winners of the Madison area Battle of
the Bands and have written, produced and recorded their own tunes here and
in Nashville. They have been featured
at the Art Fair on the Square and the Taste of Madison.
While all
hail from Wisconsin, they bring very diverse musical backgrounds to form
a fun time for dancing or listening.
The magic of the Highlights is that all of the players
can play and enjoy all sorts of music - so their rhythm and blues sounds
like rhythm and blues, their country sounds like country
and their 50's sounds like 50's.
Most important, the Highlights are usually
game to try anything once to ensure that the crowd has a great time! Variety
music, dancing and great fun...that’s the Highlights!
James Gallagher
is the newest Highlight, rounding out the band’s solid sound with
multi-keyboards and violin. His nimble fingers and extensive keyboard set-up
provides piano, electric piano and organ sounds plus exciting strings,
horns, percussion and many others.
You may remember Jim from the hard
working bands Bounty Hunter, Mad-City Marshals and JR and the Rodeo Cats.
Or, perhaps you’ve seen Jim playing the blues with Blues by Night or rocking
out with rockabilly nuts Jebediah Gumbo.
Ken Heim
plays electric bass with the Highlights and performs lead and background
vocals. Ken got his start in professional music at age sixteen at an
impromptu performance with his first band, The Natives, for an audience of
200 screaming high school girls. Ken was hooked on music!
He played rhythm
guitar and electric bass and sang with The Natives, a band that rode the
wave of the British invasion of the 60’s by specializing in playing the
music of The Beatles. Ken joined The Bowery Boys (later known as Clicker)
the day after the Natives played their last gig. After playing keyboards,
guitar, and singing with the Bowery Boys, he decided to pursue his first
choice of instruments, the bass.
After a
stint as bass player with the Milwaukee-based rock band Eden Stone, Ken
joined forces with Madison’s Funky Drummer, Clyde Stubblefield, in the R&B
group called Blume’. After Blume’ came his "Blues Period," when he performed
with Paul Black, Mel Ford, Will "Smokey" Log, and John Chimes.
In 1986, Ken
joined the Highlights and has been swinging and rocking with them ever
since. Ken has also ventured into musical theater and performed in
“Seussical The Musical” with Middleton Players Theater in 2004.
Marcy Heim
toured with sing/dance groups and with choirs in high school and college
including the "Kids from Wisconsin" and the Concert Choir of UW-Madison.
After College, an ad in the Madison newspaper for a female vocalist led her
to join the local rock band, Nite Fire. From there she hooked up with
Changes Band, a local country variety band until forming The Highlights in
1985.
Her original song, "Maybe Together Was Better" earned honorable
mention in the Nashville Music City Song Festival. Most fun was forming the
trio, "Special Delivery" with combined the musical talents of three local
bands and performed at area conventions and festivals.
Marcy got a strong
dose of rhythm and blues as singer with Clyde Stubblefield and the Motown
Players for more than seven years. Most recently, Marcy has ventured into
musical theater performing a lead role as the Sour Kangaroo in “Seussical
the Musical” and “Mrs. Fezziwig” in CTM’s Christmas Carol. Marcy’s major
musical goal – have fun with the music and the crowd!!
Rich Larson
is the drummer with the Highlights. Rich grew up in rural southwest Wisconsin. As a young boy he was inspired to play the drum set from listening to A.M.
radio stations that played pop and R&B records. Originally self-taught, he's
gone on to study music at Boston's Berklee College and with internationally
recognized drum set instructors.
His playing career includes performing and
recording with the Highlights, the Madisalsa Latin jazz band, Robert J,
Chris Plata & Extra Hot, and various bands in the Madison area. He's even
played drums in a hockey cult movie called Slapshot that starred Paul
Newman. What audiences like best, of course, is the steady, clear beat Rich
lays down for the dancers.
Tom Waselchuk
plays guitar, pedal steel guitar and performs vocals with the Highlights.
Tom’s professional career began in 1979 with a popular Madison-based
bluegrass band, Stone Oak. He continued to perform with several bluegrass
and folk groups after Stone Oak disbanded in 1983.
Tom developed an interest
in jazz with several small groups, including the Harris Lemberg Trio, before
founding the Full Count Jazz Band (1986 - 1993), a sextet that featured some
of Madison's finest jazz singers and instrumentalists. Throughout his entire
career, Tom has found regular work in area theater, writing and performing
for the Madison Rep, The Fireside, and Tap-It Dancing and Theatrical Co.
Tom has
been with the Highlights since 1992. Tom penned two of the original tunes on
the Highlights tape, "Plain and the Heart on Your Sleeve," and "Calypso
Moon." In addition to his musical home with the Highlights, Tom plays with
Harmonius Wail and The Dang-Its.
