Prairie Cats

The Prairie Cats are a swing band based in Omaha, NE.

The Omaha-based Prairie Cats started to work as a band in late summer of 1998, and have weathered the bipolar bounce of Swing, the Fad, as it went from the massive Gap-ad popularity of '98/'99 to the moderate backlash bouncing about with the kids today.

"You'll always have people who follow any fad, then get sick of it," says drummer Jeff Schoening. "But we don't worry about them. We're from Omaha, which is more of a rock, or a rock and punk town, but there's a lot of people who are still into it. We get a lot of support."

And that support is warranted. Prairie Cats write, arrange, and play all their own songs, save a few covers changed to Cat style, and have a second CD due for release in April. They were invited to play the acclaimed South by Southwest music festival last March in Austin, Texas.

A recent tour found them in Denver and Los Angeles, playing a number of spots, including Denver's Mercury Room and the Derby in LA, both dream-venues for any band, especially swing. They enjoyed themselves, making friends of fans and vice-versa. Schoening says the band's shared base in jazz, coupled with swing's boom, helped get the band together two years ago. His initial motivation was two-fold. "It sounded like fun," he says. "And I needed some extra money before Christmas."

The band gained a solid following in Omaha, playing often in a number of clubs, including the now defunct Stork Club.

As they continued to play live, their rock influences came to the front a bit. "Our band motto is 'It all swings, Jack,' but we're not a jazz-based swing band like Royal Crown Review," says Schoening. "We're not exactly like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy either. We're jump swing, but we're aggressive, edgier. More edgy."

In addition to Schoening on the drum kit, Prairie Cats are: Jeff's brother Dan Schoening on trumpet and trombone, Jeff Koterba on guitar and band leader, Larry Frederickson, on stand-up bass, Erik Johnson on alto sax, tenor saxman Craig Crilly moonlighting on clarinet, Kevin Linder on trumpet, and the utility infielder Jason Groteleuscheun, who plays trombone, guitar, accordion and sings, to boot.

To check out their Discography click here.