Blog

There are some familiar names in the band with a wealth of experience over many years to draw on.  The band is fronted by Mark Jacobs who also plays guitar. Andy Twang is on lead guitar and keyboards with Dave Hayward or Dave Wheelhouse (depending on where the band is playing) on pedal steel guitar. Harley Dave is on bass and Mark’s nephew Matt Jacobs is on drums.
Mark Jacobs’ love of Country music started at a young age. He learnt guitar at the age of 14 and he and his brother David formed Country Pride doing a few local gigs, some in care homes.  When he was 16, he and David joined the Hank Dalton Band; Mark played guitar and David played pedal steel. Mark stayed with the band until Hank retired and that is when he first met Henry Smith when he joined the Dalton Boys in 1990 as lead singer.  In 1995 the band was relaunched as Henry Smith and The Dalton Boys but Mark had left by that time and since then he has worked with many popular bands. He spent some time with Bournemouth 5-piece band Capricorn before joining the Rick McKay Band. The band was very busy including extensive touring in the north east but when they folded Mark joined another busy band Kalibre. Kalibre started as a trio with Bobby Red, Dale James and Bob Dixon. Shane O’Bourne replaced Dale James on lead guitar and he was then replaced by Mark Jacobs. Bobby Reed left the trio for about four years for personal reasons and Mark and Bob Dixon carried on as Kalibre duo. When Bobby Reed came back to Kalibre, Mark Left to form his own band Perfect Strangers.  The band comprised Mark Jacobs (lead vocals and lead guitar), Dave Wheelhouse (pedal steel guitar), Terry Goodchild (bass) – Terry had been the bass player in the Hank Dalton Band and then in Henry Smith’s Country Dreams and Matt Jacobs (drums). Matt is Mark’s nephew.
Mark has helped with a number of other bands including Medicine Bow (from Cornwall) and Bakersfield as a trio. Most recently he has been working with Ridgeway Country and the Danny Lee band until the pandemic. He has also worked with Rick McKay in his Johnny Cash Revisited theatre shows from time to time and is currently playing bass in the show.
Andy Twang has also been playing Country music from a young age. At the age of 12 he was given his first guitar and his dad taught him how to play. Two years later he made his first appearance on TV when he performed the instrumental Ghost Riders In The Sky. Not long after that he joined his first Country Band, Clovis whilst still at school. Andy travelled the UK playing his guitar and met many different artists and performers; and quickly realised he wanted to be a Country musician. Since then he has been in many other top British Country bands including Medicine Bow, Diamond T Band, Dusty Rhodes Band, Band Named Sioux, Henry Smith’s Country Dreams and more recently the Ray Peters Band and Ridgeway Country. He has also backed visiting American artists including Billy Yates and Heather Myles.  He is also recently rejoined Henry Smith’s Country Dreams switching from lead guitar to bass.
Dave Hayward is one of our most experienced and stylish pedal steel guitarists and over the years he has played with many top Country bands including Al Barrett’s Linemen, Frank Jennings Syndicate, Little Ginny, and Marietta Station. Such was his standing as a player; he has performed at Steel Guitar festivals in the USA, Holland and Ireland; and in the UK at every British Steel Guitar festival at Newbury.  He also recorded a very well respected album London to St. Louis in 1980 with Gerry Hogan, another stalwart of the pedal steel guitar. More recently Dave has been a member of the Ray Peters Band and in 2015 he joined Ray in the Smokey Turtle Band.  He has also been a member of the Ian Highland Band, Ridgeway Country and before joining the Honky Tonk Strangers. Dave is a member of Honk Tonk Strangers for the majority of bookings but if the band is playing in the south of England, Dave Wheelhouse comes in on pedal steel guitar.
Dave is another very experienced steelie with a wealth of experience. Dave’s dads love  of Hawaiian and Country music influenced him from an early age. He used to listen to his dads old 78 records of Felix Mendlessohn and his Hawaiian Serenaders, Jimmy Rogers, Slim Whitman etc. He saw his first pedal steel guitar back in 1971 when he was 13 being played by Gerry Thaine.  He saw Gerry again three years later and the two of them struck up a friendship. Dave’s dad took some measurements of Gerry’s steel and a year or so later had built Dave a twin eight string pedal steel having never seen one before. When Dave got married he stopped playing altogether and sold all his gear. Many years later when he was bitten by the bug again after encouragement from his wife but he couldn’t afford a pedal steel and decided to build his own. His background was in engineering so this wasn’t as daunting as it might have seemed.  After a lot of research and development he built his first Sheffield pedal steel guitar and was later asked to build one for US pedal steel virtuoso Tommy White. Dave delivered the instrument to Tommy personally in Nashville and was there when he played it on stage at the Grand Ole Opry.
Dave has played with a number of other bands including Lost Highway and Wells Fargo. Having moved to the south of England he has played with Texacana, Ridgeway Country, Perfect Strangers and most recently Area Code 629 who disbanded during the pandemic.
Bass player Harley Dave has a very long history in Country music. He has played Country music since the early 1980s after meeting up with US Country musicians while travelling. His all time guitar hero has always been Bill Kirchen (Comander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen), while his bass hero is Billy Dee (Dale Watson & His Lone Stars). He has played with both of them and is proud to call them friends.
His first ‘serious’ bands were Ivor & the Engines who were a Skiffle-Billy Country band who were featured on BBC TV and recorded an album, Full Steamy Head on Fury Records c early 1990s. He recorded another album, Made in Austin TX with Too Country,  their tagline was  ‘Tried ‘n’ Tested, a Honkytonk band, sponsored by the Shiner Brewery’; they became a frequent sight in Austin’s best bars during 2002-2005. Shiner Beer has been independently brewed in Shiner, Texas, since 1909.
Dave has played guitar and bass in a number of British Country bands including Texas Nightlife (bass), Kay’D’s Redneck Rodeo (guitar), Shot To Pieces (guitar), Doggone Country Band (guitar), Gone Country (bass, then guitar). Pure Country Band (bass), Johnny Cash Revisited with Rick McKay – theatre show (bass & guitar). He is also currently a member of the Hayley Oliver Band where he plays bass and guitar. Dave has also played in two German bands, Texas Heat and Texas Rooster.
During his long career in Country music Dave has also been a backing musician for Tommy Cash (Johnny’s younger brother), Victoria Boland (Canadian singer, now in Nashville), Joni Harms (US singer/songwriter) and British Country singers Niki Dean, Rosie Horne and Laurie Gregory. He has also been Stage Manager/Sound Engineer for the Notts Americana International Festival, Trip Out Festival and Alan Cackett’s ‘Soul Café’ in Maidstone. He has also done some studio work and US interviews for Country 1035 Radio.  In case you wonder about his name, he owns and rides three Harley Davidson motorbikes. He has been riding Harleys for as long as he has liked Country music.
The final member of the band and the only member without a long pedigree in Country music is drummer Matt Jacobs, Mark’s nephew. Have played in Perfect Strangers he is already a top class drummer and worthy of his place in the band.