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Thrill Is Gone 4:290:00/4:29
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Ain't No Sunshine 4:110:00/4:11
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Purple Rain 5:460:00/5:46
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One Way Out 4:200:00/4:20
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Feels Like Rain 5:340:00/5:34
About Us
The Backyard Breeze Band plays an eclectic combination of rock, blues, country, island, & other genres in both electric and acoustic setups. We mix beloved cover songs with killer originals and are available for public and private performances in and around the front range of the Colorado Rockies. In fact, we are one of the few bands in the region that can play all-original shows, bystepping music license requirements. (see Contact Us form at bottom)
Demo reel
Meet the Band
Michael james roberts
lead vocals
Mike is a classically trained singer and multi-instrumentalist. He was born into a musical family and was picking out tunes on the piano as soon as he could reach the keyboard. A fan of the western cowboy tv shows that were popular at the time, Michael taught himself to play the bugle at the age of 7 so he could play cavalry charges much to the chagrin of his parents.
Singing in the school choruses and playing trumpet in the school bands all through school gave way to the guitar and folk and rock music at the age of 16. Michael and his younger brother Gordon were soon performing in coffeehouses and other venues available to young teens and were always big fans of vocal harmonies with the special blend that comes from familial voices. Michael also began to write songs at this time.
As a vocal performance major in college Michael continued performing solo and in various groups in coffeehouses and the like and performed in college recitals and choruses. Michael and his brother soon moved to California and formed a band called Oro that became a cult favorite in the Santa Barbara area.
Marriage introduced a change in Michael’s life with a degree in computer science and a career in IT and soon a family. He continued to play solo and in bands and write music as allowed by his work and family schedules. Retired from the IT world and kids grown, Michael is once again concentrating full-time on music and is loving his musical life.
Michael believes that passion is a necessary component of any musical performance and strives to bring that to the stage in every performance.
Hardy Wright
Lead guitar
Hardy is a military brat, who by the age of 5 had traveled to every state in the contiguous United States, and spent a year in Japan, immediately after the Korean War. He loved Liberace and TV westerns, along with Howdy Doody, and other kids shows. Even at that age, it was not uncommon for him to be moving around the house humming or singing one of the popular tunes of the day.
After Japan his family returned to Denver and Hardy began performing at the age of 6, when, knowing his fascination with singing, he was enrolled by his parents in the Fred and Faye Talent school. It was associated with the popular Fred and Faye Show, a regular kid’s show on local TV, and performed on the show several times doing brief song and dance numbers.
Later, he sang in the school chorus and developed an ear for vocal harmony, and began folk guitar lessons at 14, after moving to Arlington, VA. He played in three bands in high school, at local venues and private parties. By this time his interests had moved towards the newly emerging rock from England, by groups like Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the Who. After graduation in 1968, at the age of 17, his family moved back to Colorado.
On arrival, he connected with an old friend from his childhood, who introduced him to the blues, and they spent hours listening to Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Eric Clapton, BB King, and Willie Dixon, among others. It was an interest that was to shape his guitar playing to the present day. He joined a band, Union Dues in the early 80s and began writing songs. He played the Colorado bar scene for the next 18 years.
When Union Dues ended, he was approached to play guitar and sing baritone in a Doo Wop/Oldies band, the Nostalgics. For the next 20 years, they played select venues all over the city with some of the best four-part harmonies to be had. During that period, Hardy joined Danny and the Fried Shrimp, a jam band that played half original, and half covers in an open format, often inviting other locally known musicians up to the stage to sit in. After 20 years, the Nostalgics broke up, and Danny Pitcher, the leader of the Fried Shrimp passed away from brain cancer.
This was a time of great personal and musical emptiness; as luck would have it, while receiving radiation treatment for his own cancer, he met his current bandmates, and the music was a very healing experience.The group has been playing ever since, in one form or another, resulting in the Backyard Breeze Band.
Best quote: “They’ll have to pry this guitar from my cold dead hands…”
DOUG SWANSON
BADASS BASS
Doug Swanson started playing bass at 16 after developing fingers of steel learning guitar on a Silvertone flattop. He learned to play guitar from a Beatles songbook and was in a folk duo that evolved into an electric garage band—The Spring Street Society—notably one of the first multi-racial teen bands in the Saint Louis area, carting around their gear in an old milk truck. The band had a lot of fun and gained experience playing frat parties and house parties. Doug moved with his younger brother Fred and formed a country/ rockabilly/ blues band, Smokehouse, through most of the ‘70s.
Marriage and kids intervened and becoming a psychopathic workaholic became Doug’s focus. Fortunately, he realized that playing music would set him free, and he began playing bass furiously every night. He is now nearly completely harmless while he works to be a better bassist.
debra buenting
The Dr drummer
Debra wanted to play drums and be in a band since she saw a certain British band on a Sunday night variety show at about age seven. She started beating coffee cans with pencils and used whatever she could get her hands on to beat out rhythms (including school books and desks). When given the opportunity to study music at school, she expressed her desire to drum. However, her parents thought it would be more lady-like to play something else, like the flute, so she studied clarinet for nine years, playing in marching and concerts bands.
Deb picked up guitar around the same time as the clarinet (age 11) and played electric guitar in high school and college jazz bands. At home and occasionally with bands, she built a drum kit and played when possible. She studied music theory in college before moving to Europe, where she played on a few albums.
Drumming was on and off again for several years until Deb was encouraged by one of her students to join a weekly open jam where she enjoyed getting her groove back. She is delighted to play with Backyard Breeze when she’s not teaching college, camping in her newly renovated 1964 camper or hiking with her dog, Panda.
Deb says, “I love to see the joy on people’s faces when they connect with the music, the band and each other.
Teri Senior
Percussionist/Harmonica
Originally from Long Beach Island NJ, Teri began playing percussion and harmonica on the Jersey Shore scene in 1984 and from there, branched out to playing in various places from New Jersey, to Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, and Colorado. She has worked with various music acts such as The Soul Surfers, The Roadrockers, The Prowlers, and several others over the years, In Colorado she has been active in the blues, country, and classic rock music scene playing percussion, drums, and harmonica while adding in harmony vocals. She currently works with the Pikes Peak Blues Community and 719 Magazine, helping local music be seen and heard. She also works with other acts, staying active in the Colorado Springs music scene. She joined the Backyard Breeze to add her percussion skills and harmony vocals in 2024 and is enjoying every minute!
As the newest member of Backyard Breeze, Teri describes herself as a fun-loving, hard-working lady who wants to enjoy life to the fullest. She has a great son who is in college and loves dogs. She’s always looking for friends to have fun with.
Song List
BLUES
Baby Please Don’t Go
Baby What You Want Me to Do
Big Boss Man
Bright Lights Big City
Caldonia
Feels Like Rain
Key to the Highway
Messin’ With the Kid
One Way Out
Since I Fell for You
Smokestack Lightnin’
Thrill is Gone
You Let Me Down
ORIGINALS
Against the Night
All for You
Buffalo Blues
Christine
Don’t Spill The Beans
I Like to Dance
I’m Trouble
Jamaica Blues
Makes No Sense
Oro de Colombia
Pass or Play
Some People
We Thought You Were Dead
Grateful Dead
Bertha
Casey Jones
Deep Elem
Fire on the Mountain
Friend of the Devil
I Know You Rider
Me and My Uncle
Ripple
Rock & Pop
Ain’t No Sunshine
Babylon
Blue Suede Shoes
California Dreamin’
Can’t always Get what you Want
Cathy’s Clown
Dear Mr. Fantasy Amie
Don’t Let Me Down
Down Sally
Everybody’s Talkin’
Five O’clock World
Fooled Around and Fell in Love
For What It’s Worth
For Your Love
Get Back
Gimme a Little Sign
Harvest Moon
Have You Ever Seen the Rain
Heart Full of Soul Feeling Alright
Honky Tonk Women
I Feel Fine
I Saw Her Standing There
I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water
I Wish it Would Rain
I’m no Angel
I’m on Fire
Into the Mystic
Just the Two of Us
Lean On Me
Live With Me
Magnolia Lay
Mary Jane's Last Dance
Memphis
Moondance
People Are Strange
Roadhouse Blues
Simple Man
Sloop John B
Stand By Me
Tupelo Honey
Under the Boardwalk
Use Me
Ventura Highway
Waiting on a Friend
Walk Right Back
Wild Horses You Never Can Tell
Your Mama Don’t Dance
COUNTRY
Already Gone
Amie
Bartender’s Blues
Best of My Love
Flowers On The Wall
Folsom Prison Blues
Good Time Charlie
Guitars, Cadillacs
Help Me Make it Through the Night
I Can’t Help It if I’m Still in Love With You
King of the Road
Long Black Veil
Mama Tried
Peaceful Easy Feelin’
Six Days on the Road
Take it Easy
Tennessee Whiskey
Tequila Sunrise
The end is not in Sight
Third Rate Romance
Truck Drivin’ Man
Tulsa Time
Your Cheatin’ Heart
Americana & country
Already Gone
Amie
Angel From Montgomery
Bartender’s Blues
Best of My Love
Bird in the House
Copperhead Road
Country
Crazy Love
Dark Hollow
Desperadoes
Evangelina
Flowers On The Wall
Folsom Prison Blues
Good Time Charlie
Guitars, Cadillacs
Help Me Make it Through the Night
Henry
Homeward Bound
I Can’t Help It if I’m Still in Love With You
I Shall Be Released
In the Jailhouse
Killin’ the Blues
King of the Road
Long Black Veil
Mama Tried
My Window Faces the South
Navajo Rug
Night Rider’s Lament
Now Mr. Bojangles
Old Number 7
Panama Red
Paradise
Peaceful Easy Feelin’
Rose of Cimarron
Six Days on the Road
Sounds of Silence
Spanish Pipedream
Take it Easy
Tennessee Whiskey
Tequila Sunrise
The Boxer
The Shape I’m In
The Weight
Third Rate Romance
Truck Drivin’ Man
Tulsa Time
Up on Cripple Creek
Waitin’ for a Train
Whiskey
Will the Circle be Unbroken
Willin’
Your Cheatin’ Heart
Take it Easy