Fourteen of Dane County’s finest musicians unite to perform the Steely Dan and Donald Fagen songbook.

The songs of Steely Dan form the soundtrack for so many of our lives. The band, more than any other, brought together jazz, rock, and R&B sensibilities to form a whole new kind of pop music. These are the songs that we associate with the warm summer of 1978, our first kiss, and those ski trips out to Colorado.

Winner of multiple awards for best tribute band, Steely Dane is dedicated to not only faithfully reproducing the Steely Dan and Donald Fagen songbook, but to bringing an energetic live-show experience to the crowd. Fourteen of Dane County’s best jazz and rock musicians have banded together around their passion for Steely Dan music, playing in the same configuration as the Steely Dan touring band including a four-piece horn section and three background singers. Shows consist of hits and deep cuts and sometimes even complete albums and are sure to have you out of your seats singing along.

Dave Adler

received the Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) award for Pianist of the Year in 2023. He’s co-leader of Steely Dane, a member of the Willy Porter Band, and plays frequently throughout the Midwest.

Dave Stoler

is the leader of his own trio, sideman with The Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Band (which has been voted Madison’s favorite jazz group for four years in a row), and participant in numerous other regional bands. He is one of the busier musicians in the area, and a first call if you’re looking for a jazz keyboardist.

As a young kid, while visiting a local library, Stoler discovered recordings by Count Basie and Oscar Peterson. That event was a catalyst which motivated his curiosity to master the piano. After studying both classical and jazz idioms, he began playing professionally as a teenager, eventually studying music formally at UW-Madison and the University of Miami in Coral Gables. Along the way, he was also a semi-finalist in numerous international jazz piano competitions. In 2011, his interest in the music of Steely Dan motivated him to transcribe enough of that group’s music to begin the vision of what is now Steely Dane.

“I first heard Steely Dan over an AM car radio from a local station. While at the time I didn’t know why it was good or different, I knew it was music I had to keep checking out. Later, I realized that its combination of pop, rock, funk, and jazz made it one of the better examples of popular music. Many decades later, my interest culminated in the creation of Steely Dane.”

He has a critically acclaimed album, Urban Legends.

Photo credit: Dan Kazinski

Joey B. Banks

is a performer, music producer, music educator, 2010 and 2011 Grammy-nominated drummer, and the 2014 and 2015 Madison Area Music Association Drummer/Percussionist of the Year.

He is a graduate of the Musicians Institute of Technology in Hollywood and is a Madison Scout Drum and Bugle Corps alum.

Banks has performed and recorded drums with more than 100 artists and performance groups locally, regionally, and nationally for over 25 years and has played on over 50 albums over the last two decades.

Some notable artists he has performed with include: Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown), Luther Allison, Koko Taylor, Cynthia Robinson (Sly and the Family Stone), Skyler Jett (2005 Grammy winner), Cowboy Troy (Big and Rich), Barrellhouse Chuck, Billy Flynn, Wayne Baker Brooks, Tom Holland, John Primer, Linsey Alexande, and Roscoe Mitchell, to name a few.

James “Pie” Cowan

is a 2023 WAMI Award-winning percussionist. He first became aware of Steely Dan in 1973.

"Their album Can’t Buy a Thrill was released the previous year. I was going to school at NTSU in Denton, Texas during this time and the band performed a stadium gig which was not very good."

Cowan has been performing, recording, producing, staging, and promoting music for over 40 years with local, national, and international artists. In 1969, he started working crew and production in Cleveland for Belkin Productions. He worked numerous Rock Festivals in the early '70s, including the 1970 Atlanta International Pop Festival and 1972 Mar Y Sol in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico to name a couple. His experience working on stage in front of up to 200,000–300,000 people in attendance was an epiphany. "The energy projected at the stage was overwhelming and I knew I had to perform."

In 1974, Cowan moved to Amsterdam for a year performing a duet with guitarist James Alred as The Visionary Indian Angel. “We performed at numerous venues including the Milkyweg and Paradisio. We also operated and performed in our own coffee house until we were displaced by a fire in 1975." Cowan returned to the States in 1975 moving back to Madison where he met Tony Brown and united as The Tony Brown Band performing and recording reggae and Cajun blues as a quartet throughout the Midwest. In 1976, he joined with Michael Stone to found The Roots Band, an original band playing a variety of styles including blues, reggae, calypso, Latin jazz, and funk. This entity performed throughout the Midwest until 1979, culminating with the band going to Ocho Rios, Jamaica for two months to perform.

“In 1980 I returned to Kingston, Jamaica with Michael Stone, as Stone Foundation, to record. Our concept was a multicultural exchange with some of the best reggae musicians in the industry, including such reggae luminaries as Ernest “Daddy” Ranglin, Pablo Black, Earl “Bagga” Walker, Uziah “Sticky” Thompson, LeRoy “Horsemouth” Wallace, and Earl “Chinna” Smith. All were members of the legendary Studio One Band. Between 1980 and 1995 we recorded numerous projects at Harry J, Dynamic, Coxsun, and Tuff Gong Studios.”

In 1980, Cowan moved to Aspen performing with numerous musical entities for the next 11 years. “During this time I was fortunate to open for and perform with many musical legends including Joe Walsh, Steve Winwood, Kenny Loggins, and many others sitting in with our seven-piece band KT and the SailKatz. I also performed with legendary jazz pianist Dave Schappert (Miles Davis) in a jazz quartet as well as every musician in the Roaring Fork Valley at one time or another including Starwood and Bobby Mason.”

In the '90s he moved back to Madison full-time and continued to perform and record with Michael Stone, The O’Bros, Tony Brown, The Gibraltar Rockets, and many other great musicians.

In 2000, he joined The Know It All Boyfriends with Freedy Johnston, Jay Moran, Butch Vig, and Duke Erickson who he has known and worked with since 1975.

“Besides Steely Dane, I also perform and record with The Gibraltar Rockets, The O’Bros, Tony Brown, and the Landing Crew, The Know It All Boyfriends, The Mad Cabaret, and The Gomers."

Jim Doherty

can not only rip off a blazing trumpet solo, he can also build you a beautiful deck. As the resident band carpenter, he spends his days building things with his hands, and then swaps the hammer for some brass at night. Doherty has performed as both sideman and leader, most notably as a member of the Clyde Stubblefield Band, Janet Planet & the Urban World, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Madisalsa, Phat Phunktion, Arturo Sandoval, Don Rickles, and the Brian Setzer Orchestra. He studied trumpet at UW-Madison and the Eastman School of Music in addition to studying jazz with the renowned tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. He directed the big band at UW-Madison for a decade and directed the Madison East High School Jazz Orchestra for four years, and currently teaches trumpet privately.

Al Falaschi

was born and raised in a musical family in the between Milwaukee and Chicago. He must have fallen in love with music in the womb. His father taught himself how to play drums and piano and had Al holding drum sticks as soon as he was able.

His two older sisters sang and played the piano.

They also controlled the stereo while cleaning house on the weekends. A steady dose of funk and R&B, on top of the solid jazz foundation provided by his father gave a young Falaschi a unique musical perspective for someone his age. To the dismay of his father, he picked the saxophone during 5th grade band tryouts. They already owned drums and didn’t need to buy anything. There was a sigh of relief as the saxophone was at least a “jazz” instrument.

He is the co-founder of Phat Phunktion, a nine-piece tour de funk, based on his love of old school funk and R&B, like Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, and Steely Dan. The band was born out of the music school at the UW–Madison, but quickly grew out of control. Under the writing and production of Falaschi and his partner in crime Tim Whalen, Phat Phunktion has recorded and released four full-length albums that have been released internationally, and has successfully toured the U.S. and Japan.

Falaschi is an active member of the Wisconsin music scene, playing and recording saxophone and drums with many other groups, including Bon Iver, Clyde Stubblefield, The Jimmys, The Gomers, Moses Patrou, Johnny Chimes, Tim Whalen, and many others. He is also actively organizing an event called Funk Out Cancer, which is a concert series and silent auction that raises funds for cancer research in memory of his late wife Kate Gates Falaschi. The event has donated over $150,000 to the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center.

Nick Bartell

is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger, performing professionally on saxophones, flute, clarinet, piano, keyboards, and steel drums. After growing up in Madison, he moved to New York City to study saxophone at the New School. He lived in New York for eight years, and Chicago for four years.

Since moving back to Madison in 2012, he has performed with a very long list of professional groups in Wisconsin and around the Midwest. He performs with and manages The Neophonic Jazz Orchestra, a 25-piece big band in the tradition of the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Along with his brother Chad, he helped found and performs in Panchromatic Steel, a 12-piece professional steel drum ensemble, performing continuously in Madison and the surrounding areas. He performs regularly with funk/rock/reggae group Primitive Culture and with David Hecht & the Who Dat, alongside Steely Dane bassist Phil Lyons in both bands.

When not performing music, Bartell is a part-time mortgage advisor, works on video/web projects, and enjoys traveling, the outdoors, DIY home improvement, brewing kombucha, and spending time with his family, especially with his 10 nieces and nephews.

Photo credit: Luke Busch

Courtney Larsen

is the youngest of three who was born in the mid '70s. She was destined for a life filled with the music of her older siblings. “I actually have to credit them with my musical tastes,” she said. Her family is filled with entertainers.

Her father was the funniest person everyone knew and he also taught himself how to play guitar. Her mom plays piano, sings, acts, and directs; her brother acts, sings, and plays French horn; and her sister plays trumpet and guitar and was once herself in a band based out of Nashville.

When she was eight, her mom forced her into piano lessons saying, “You’ll thank me one day,” and boy was she right. In fifth grade came the biggest decision of her life—picking an instrument to play in the school band. Her two older siblings said they’d disown her if she didn’t pick a brass instrument. Larsen's no dummy and she wasn’t about to live in anyone else’s shadow so that left the baritone, trombone, and tuba. The tuba was way too big to drag onto the school bus. The baritone seemed sort of “meh” so she thought to her 10-year-old self, “at least the trombone had that cool slide thingy.”

She attended UW-Madison participating in numerous musical groups from jazz, to symphony band, and even one athletic group, the UW Marching Band. In 1997, her childhood pal, Al Falaschi told her Phat Phunktion was looking to add a trombone to the lineup and the rest is history from there with the band producing four full-length albums and touring throughout the U.S. and Japan.

In addition to Phat Phunktion and Steely Dane, Larsen has played with a variety of other groups including The Tim Whalen Nonet, The Darren Sterud Orchestra, and various trombone ensembles. She is also an active participant in Funk Out Cancer, a concert series and silent auction that Phat Phunktion puts on bi-annually to raise funds for cancer research. Over the past four events, Funk Out Cancer has donated over $150,000 to the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center. She believes this is one of the most important things we can do for our community. "All of us have been affected by this lousy disease at some point in our lives.""

Phil “Philbourne” Lyons

has performed or recorded with Freedy Johnston, Firetown, Clyde Stubblefield, The O’Bros, and Emmettville. In addition to Steely Dane, he plays trombone with The VO5 Disco-Funk All Stars and Primitive Culture. You can also see him playing with his talented son, Sam in The Sam Lyons Band and with Java alumn, David Hecht & the WHODAT? He is also a ceramic sculptor who teaches art in Madison.

Alison Margaret

is a renowned and lauded jazz and blues vocalist. Among other endeavors, she leads the Alison Margaret Jazz Quintet, featuring keyboardist Paul Hastil, bassist John Christensen, saxophonist Eric Koppa, and drummer Michael Brenneis. The Quintet has performed at top regional venues and events including Madison’s Jazz at 5, Milwaukee’s Third Ward Jazz Festival, Isthmus Jazz Festival, as well as at Monona Terrace, the Brink Lounge, Jazz in the Park, Memorial Union, Opus Lounge, and a host of other venues—anywhere jazz is heard and played. She also gets behind the Hammond organ in her soul group, Little Margie’s Soul Band.

Jay Moran

is a very active Madison-area musician/singer/ songwriter/producer. He is a music geek well versed in the '70s and early '80s rock-soul-jazz world. He is a founding member of The O’Bros, Emmettville, Know It All Boyfriends, and an accomplished solo artist.

He has been one of the primary songwriters with The O’Bros for well over 30 years now, but he is a guy who likes to play and write in many musical styles. He formed another band, Emmettville in 1994 to explore a more folk, country/rock vein. Emmettville released two critically-acclaimed albums and has shared the stage with Los Lobos, Sonia Dada, Willy Porter, Peter Himmelman, and Marshall Crenshaw, to name a few.

Another venture of Moran's is the Rocksteady band Mad Rocksteady, a 10-piece band paying homage to the music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966 as a successor of ska and a precursor to reggae. Mad Rocksteady has one eponymous album and performs around southern Wisconsin occasionally with several members of Steely Dane fortifying the group including Clay on saxes and Courtney on trombone.

If that’s not enough, he also is a solo artist, writing a deep book of music that he has recorded and performs live. Moran has also lent his guitar, vocal, and production skills to many projects for other artists including Freedy Johnston, The Gibraltar Rockets, and many others.

He picked up Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy A Thrill soon after it came out in 1972 and has been a fan of the Dan every since. “To me Steely Dan’s music is the ultimate in musicianship, sly lyrics, and amazing melodic content. To be part of this band has made me a better musician. You can’t suck when playing Steely Dan.”

Megan Moran

is a Madison native who studied voice and music education at Lawrence University. In 2004, she was awarded a Downbeat Magazine Student Music Award for Outstanding Solo Singing in the College Vocal Jazz category. These days, she performs with the Paul Dietrich Jazz Ensemble and the Darren Sterud Orchestra. Offstage, you can find her singing and dancing with her elementary music students (the next generation of Steely Dan fans).

Thomas Mattioli

grew up in Madison playing piano and drums. Then around age 18, he fell in love with the vibraphone.

In 1992, he earned a Bachelor of Music degree from UW-Madison and moved to Brooklyn to further his training in Afro-Caribbean percussion at The Harbor Conservatory. He studied timbales, piano, composition, and arranged with Johnny Almendra, José Madera, Victor Rendón, and Francis Rodriguez. In 1996, he formed Grupo Latin Vibe (GLV) with Anibal Tito Rivera. GLV became one of the most popular salsa bands in New York, recording three albums and touring the U.S., Italy, and the U.K.

Mattioli has been an adjunct percussion instructor at Hunter College in Manhattan for the past 20 years. He also leads Rico Vibes, a Latin jazz group, and The Vibrojets, a surf rock/exotica band. He is currently transitioning his home base from Brooklyn back to his Madison roots and plays with Steely Dane, Tony Castañeda’s Latin Jazz Sextet, and Mambo Blue.

Dennis Shepherd

earned his first professional gig in his early teens with local variety favorite Strange Brew. Throughout the late ‘80s and ‘90s he performed with Wisconsin favorites At Large, Kidd Gloves, famed WAPL, Green Bay Packers radio parody The Wedgies, The Marc Golde Band, and Blues Artist Bruce “Groove King” Koenig, among others.

In 1990, he won the Best Young Guitarist (ages 17-21) award for Henri’s Music Company by showing his mastery of several different guitar styles.

In 2002, he moved to Chicago to work for world-renowned amplifier manufacturer Hughes & Kettner. While there, he also joined the Steely Dan tribute band Reely Dan. He performed The Night Belongs to Mona and What I Do from Donald Fagen’s Morph the Cat album onstage with harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy (Bela Fleck) who played harmonica on both cuts for Fagen. He moved to Nashville in 2005 where he played with Bobby Keys (Rolling Stones), Phil Kenzie (Al Stewart), Michael Fair, The Scat Springs Band featuring Joseph Wooten, and a host of some of Nashville’s top musicians. From 2008 to 2010, Shepherd toured the southeast with Eclipse: Recreating the Music of Pink Floyd, painstakingly recreating the brilliant tones and phrasing of guitarist David Gilmour.

Shepherd now lives in Appleton and the band is glad to have him bring his considerable skills to Steely Dane!