Returning to Rock southern Maryland on Oct. 31 for a rocking Halloween concert is fan favorite, Funny Money. On Friday Oct. 31, the band will come to the Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department for a one night show. The concert doors will open at 8 p.m. and the party will begin.

Tickets may be purchased on line at www.hyperspaceentertainment.com, the Bistro Aveline in Callaway. Call (301) 358-3839 for more information.

In an exclusive phone interview with TheBAYNET.com, band front-man, Steve Whiteman stated, “We love to come to Southern Maryland. We got our first record deal in Waldorf because of the great support from our fans there.”

Joining Whiteman will be his original drummer from Kix, Jimmy Chalfant. “We call him Jimmy Chocolate,” joked Whiteman. Whiteman told TBN that Funny Money has been in existence for 12 years and that this is only the second iteration of musicians. “Playing with us for the past four and a half years are Mark Schenker

Mark Schenker

on Bass and Rob Galpin on guitar.”

“Playing all those shows has made us a very tight group,” said the lead singer and popular song writer. Whiteman and his group now only play smaller venues and confines their concert performances to Fridays and Saturdays. “We play the same in front of 200 or 2000. It doesn’t matter,” said Whitman. “The show will be the best we can make it, no matter what.”

When asked about their most recent hit, Whiteman indicated it is a single called By the Balls and that the band intends to go into the studio for their next CD soon. “When we get a couple of new songs we enjoy we go into the studio and record them. We should be done with another CD by this coming Spring."

Those wishing to purchase any of their past releases can go to www.cdbaby.com, www.itunes.com or check out Funny Money’s website at www.funnymoneyband.com .

Whiteman and Funny Money are known for their energetic stage antics and vocal acrobatics. “It’s all about putting on a great show,” said Whiteman.

According to the bands biography as presented on their web site, Funny Money was conceived in the fall of 1996 when musician Billy Andrews met Whiteman at a local fund raiser in Baltimore. He asked Whiteman what he had been up to since the demise of Kix. “I shared with him that I had been teaching vocal lessons and kind of wanted to start a band again,” Whiteman remembered.

One thing led to another and Whiteman and Andrews decided to launch another band. From there, Funny Money was born with the original musicians, Ned Meloni, drummer Bobby George and Dean Cramer.

With the exception of drummer George, the band jelled. After a short search, Funny Money added Geoff Burrell and the band began in earnest. “Geoff pretty much blew everyone away after his first audition, so he was scooped up and the band was complete!”

Things were going well until 2003 when the line-up took a hit. Andrews, Meloni and Burrell all announced they were leaving to pursue other interests. At this point, Cramer and Whiteman decided to keep things going, so they recruited bassist Mark Schenker, Sam Stillwell on drums, and Lewis Coppola on guitar.

As to how the band ended up with its current line-up musicians, Whiteman said, “In 2003, we were working on our fourth release, Skin To Skin, when Ronnie Younkins’ band the Blues Vultures were playing some shows with us. Mark invited his friend, Rob Galpin, to join the fun since a couple of the songs on Skin were co-written by Rob and Mark.”

Whiteman indicated that there was a definite chemistry flowing in the studio and Galpin and Schenker were asked to join the band after the album was released.

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