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Hard Living Man 5:200:00/5:20
About the Band
The Cliff Wheeler Band
Southern Outlaw Rock
What is now the Cliff Wheeler Band came together in 2016 to record a handful of songs Cliff had written. Originally, the group only intended to record their first album as a side project. However, when the recording was completed, the band decided to stay together to perform live. The lineup now features Cliff Wheeler on guitar and vocals, Gary Orlando on lead guitar and harmonica, Garret Wheeler on bass and vocals and Johnny Handy on drums. Debuting in Nashville, TN at The Local, the first live shows were met with highly positive feedback. This led to the band continuing to perform and record, ultimately causing their music to chart on multiple indie music charts in the US and abroad. Following “Wheeler”, the band released the albums “To The Bone” and “The Ring” along with numerous singles like “Let Me Down”, “Sober Again” and “Sunshine”. Based out of the small coastal town of Oak Island, NC, the CWB continues to write, record and tour the southern United States.
Awards:
Cumulus Media’s Nash Next North Carolina winner.
Music Mafia Radio Artist of the Year first runner up 2017.
Nominated for four Nashville Universe Awards 2018 including Song Writer of the Year.
Music Mafia Radio’s 2018 Group of the Year Second Runner Up.
International Singer Songwriter Association Entertainer of the Year Silver 2019.
Music Mafia Radio Band of the Year 2019.
Carolina Country Music Association Bassist of the Year 2019, Garret Wheeler.
International Singer Songwriter Association Entertainer of the Year Gold 2020.
Carolina Country Music Association Vocal Group of the Year 2020.
International Singer Songwriter Association Band of the Year Silver 2023.
International Singer Songwriter Association Rising Star 2023, Garret Wheeler.
Carolina Country Music Association Damien Horne Humanitarian of the Year 2024, Cliff Wheeler.
Cliff Wheeler
LEAD GUITAR/ACOUSTIC GUITAR/VOCALS
This son of the south has been a journeyman player for nearly four decades and has played venues from coliseums to theaters to clubs to backyards across the state and the southeast, and it’s all been good! Cliff began his musical journey playing bass with the hard rock band Knight Heir in the early eighties. A converted guitarist, he quickly learned to love the lights of the stage. Always the songwriter, Cliff wrote all of the lyrics and helped with the arrangements for this band’s original songs. After a few years, Knight Heir had run its course. Meanwhile, Cliff had met a guitarist new to the North Carolina music scene, Gary Orlando. The two joined forces to form MZ Dangerous and several bands thereafter including Synergy and again, Cliff wrote the lyrics and the two together wrote the arrangements. The bands including this combo thrived and found themselves opening for national acts passing through the region and garnering interest from record labels. In the early nineties, Cliff and Gary began to go their separate ways musically and Cliff returned to his roots doing one man acoustic shows with Gary joining him occasionally. The two reunited in the late nineties for a short run with Cliff’s newest musical venture “Twister”, an alt-country band. Although the band met with modest success at the club level and released an EP, it didn’t last and was likely ahead of its time. Following the end of Twister and being a new husband and father, Cliff took a hiatus from performing and writing. Meeting Robert Watson several years later changed that. Cliff and Robert began performing as Watson-Wheeler doing acoustic shows and as The FOG Blues Band, a blues rock band covering Texas, Delta and Chicago Blues. Cliff’s time with the FOG reignited the fire to write that had been smoldering for nearly a decade. In the summer of 2016, with encouragement from his son Garret, Cliff went into seclusion on Oak Island, North Carolina for ten days and the songs on the CWB’s first album “Wheeler” are the result. Choosing the musicians to record “Wheeler” was an easy decision. This is a Band of Brothers!
Garret Wheeler
Bass Guitar
Garret was born to play. As Cliff’s son, some of Garret’s first memories are listening to Twister rehearse in the family garage. After experimenting with drums, guitar and keyboards, Garret found his true calling in the bass. After learning the basics with a little input from his dad, he soon began wowing Cliff’s contemporaries at jams in their backyard barn. His ability to improvise with much more seasoned musicians forecast the future. After a couple of public shows with Cliff to gain stage experience, he spread his wings and formed the award winning power trio, Bad Sign. Garret records and performs as a solo artist when not performing with the CWB and records with Gary Orlando’s S.A.W. He is a graduate of the School of Music at UNC Wilmington.
Gary Orlando
Lead Guitar
Gary started his professional musician career on the New Jersey club circuit with the bands Ruffian and The Priscilla Harriet Band before moving to North Carolina in 1985. Soon after his arrival in North Carolina Gary and Cliff hooked up to lead several bands such as MZ Dangerous and Synergy that had regional success. Later, Gary joined Cliff in his first foray into alt country or as they called it “acid-country” with the band Twister, which released an EP in the early 90s. Their musical collaboration now spans five decades. Gary was the lead guitarist for the metal band “Redemption” prior to joining the CWB and records as a solo artist under the S.A.W. brand.
Johnny Handy
Drummer
Johnny was born in Southern California, then spent a couple of years in New York before he and his family settled in Mooresville, NC. Johnny began drumming in middle school and played in his school district’s rock ensemble in high school while receiving lessons from older, seasoned drummers and percussionists. At the young age of 14, Johnny joined his first band “The Clouds”, a 3-piece act consisting of Johnny, a neighbor and a cousin. They self-produced a 7 song EP of original music. Later, he joined “Groove Skeleton” aka “Tommy Green’s Groove Skeletons” and currently plays and records with Garret Wheeler when not playing with the CWB. Johnny is a Writing and Digital Arts graduate from UNC Wilmington.