Big Al Wetzel Band Bio:


Allen Wetzel is a published singer/song-writer, accomplished multi-instrumentalist, and live performance veteran who is perfectly at home on any stage.

Prior to forming the Big Al Wetzel band in 2008, Wetzel toured the country and the world full time for well over a decade with the legendary country rock act, Hello Dave, who began amassing a rabid cult fan-base in the early nineties by consistently dominating the thriving Chicago street festival scene. They soon found themselves doing several on air live performances for Chicago’s WGN TV morning news programs, XRT radio, and even a couple of the national anthem performances in front of 40,000+ Cubs fans at Wrigley Field.

Capitalizing on that momentum, Hello Dave began years of relentless touring, and went on to share the stage with major label country acts Zac Brown, Jake Owen, Keith Urban, Big and Rich, and Kenny Chesney, as well as rock acts REO Speedwagon, the Doobie Brothers, CCR, Huey Lewis, and Train to name a few. Wetzel has done seven world tours with Hello Dave in support of American troops, including performances in Iraq and the Middle East, Europe and the Mediterranean, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.

Constantly writing music on the road, Hello Dave released four studio albums under their own label Mountain Records. Hello Dave's fourth studio album release, "Perfect Day," was produced by Grammy nominated producer Don Gehman (John Cougar/Blues Traveler/Pat Green), and was engineered by platinum and gold award winning engineer, Mark Dearnley (Paul McCartney/ACDC). The “Perfect Day “album included the single “Golden” which enjoyed airplay on country radio stations from coast to coast.

Having always had the itch to form his own band, Wetzel relocated to South-Eastern Wisconsin in 2008 and teamed up with the extraordinary guitar and vocal talents of like-minded musician Jim Ryan to form “The Big Al Wetzel Band”. Wetzel and Ryan initially honed their show as an acoustic duo, but when the phone began ringing off the hook for larger events, they eventually enlisted a most venerable rhythm section of S.E. Wisconsin music scene stalwarts - Geoff Howard (bass and vocals) and Tim Rush (drums and vocals).

Drawing from fan favorites of every genre (including Rock/Country/Pop/Blues/Funk/Reggae to name a few), the Big Al Wetzel Band delivers a jaw dropping spectrum of first class live music for high end events large and small throughout the Chicago Tri State area and beyond.