I began playing piano at age 6 and then drums at age 10.  I performed in numerous orchestra, band, and musical theater productions throughout my school years.  It seems that music has always been a part of my life even from an early age growing up listening to everything from Beethoven to Belafonte, Motown to Rock & Roll,  Big Band to Jazz, Folk music to Techno-Pop.  Artists like The Beatles, The Eagles, ELP, Deep Purple, Sly & Family Stone, Hall & Oates.  So many genres, bands, styles ... and I liked them all.

JUST US

At age 16 while living in Cleveland, I was recruited by John Goodworth to play drums for the St. Adalbert's Girls Choir, aka Just Us.  A Godspell-like youth choir from the Cleveland suburb of Berea, Just Us was booked multiple times on local Cleveland TV variety shows, including  Polka Varieties, The Gene Carroll Show, and even the local Jerry Lewis Telethon.

The High School GARAGE BAND with no name 

At age 17, my friends and I decided to start a rock band.  Since we were all drummers, we decided that our buddy Dave should be the drummer since he had the coolest kit: a Ludwig double-tom clear acrylic set!  I switched to keyboards/vox and my friend Carl brought his guitar.  We recruited Mike for lead guitar work and Jim for bass.  We were the epitome of a garage band with our cobbled up equipment and less than polished sound.  I played a Farfisa Combo organ through a Leslie I borrowed from John Goodworth (Just Us).  We only played 2 times: once for a New Year's Eve party and lastly for my High School graduation party [ LOL emoji goes here].  While we were far from great, we had a great time and our playlist was great:  Paranoid (Black Sabbath), Sweet Lorraine & Easy Livin' (Uriah Heep), Into The Sun (Grand Funk), Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh), Evil Ways (Santana), China Grove (Doobie Bros).  Some of the 1st rock songs I ever learned.  

We thought we were rock stars! 

Theater and Pit Orchestras

When I was a junior in high school, I had a classmate “Mike P” who was a thespian and through him I ended up playing in the pit orchestra of our school theater version of Guys and Dolls.  I enjoyed that so much that I found some work playing percussion and drum kit in other Cleveland area theater productions while in high school.   I played in the Baldwin-Wallace College (Berea, OH) production of "Bye, Bye Birdie" with other B-W college musicians.  In the Clague Road Community Theater production of "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris", I played percussion.  I really enjoyed playing in a pit orchestra and playing percussion and learned that I was a very good percussionist, but just an OK drummer.  This would signal a musical change of directions for me.

Around 1985, after seeing Scott Shaull and Danny Overton perform, I knew I wanted to play in a band with them someday.  We started Miniture Buzzurd and eventually recruited Dave Foreman from Findlay, OH around the end of 1987.   We played 70/80's rock and were a good draw in NW Ohio from Toledo to Bowling Green to Lima.  The band's live chemistry and energy was undeniable.  Our playlists were a great mix of current …

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Read the full story …

Mark Mikel is one of those rare multi-talented musicians who is skilled at songwriting, studio engineering, playing all musical instruments, and live performance.  His vocals are what Alan Parsons has called "Lennon-esq" ... a rare breed for sure.  Mark is good friends with Jeff Kollman and the Edwin Dare family, having written several songs for ED.  I joined Mark in 1994 when he was booked as opening band for Bad Co. at the Toledo Masonic Auditorium and he needed help covering live keyboards.   Soon after that show, I joined his Mark Mikel Hallucination band full time …

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Read the full story …

Somewhere during the Tongue 'n Grove years, I got the itch to play The Blues.  I saw an ad in The Toledo City Paper for a blues band looking for a keyboard player.  The band was Tina Lee & Random Blues and  I guess I passed the audition, because quickly after we met we played a short set at Mickey Finn's on January 28, 2007 for the Black Swamp Blues Society Memphis Send-off Party for winner "Josh Boyd and The VIPs".  They played the closing set and were amazing.  The opening band was a duo called Lucky Brother (Mark Lemont & Tim Oehlers) and they were so good.  The 2006 Lucky Brother CD is still in my rotation.  And as luck would have it, the BSBS vice-President at the time was old friend Greg Harley from my Edwin Dare days!  Small world after all ?  yes. 

In 2008, TLRB headlined a Blues Jam showcase at The Rumpus Room in East Toledo (down the street from Tony Packo's).  It was a cold March night and while we played it snowed ... hard.  We went in with no snow on the ground and came out to 6" of snow and still snowing!  Driving home on a barely-plowed I-75 at 1 in the morning was quite the experience.

With Tina Lee singing lead vocals, TLRB was able to perform many female oriented blues selections from artists like Koko Taylor, Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Lou Ann Barton, and Debbie Davies.  It was so refreshing to play songs by female artists and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed the first TnG line-up with Holly McConnell where we played many female artist songs.  I enjoyed my short time with TLRB, but decided to leave the band in 2009 to focus on Tongue 'n Groove.   The Blues "itch" was not gone, however, and would catch up with me years later.  And guess what ... Greg Harley would be part of that too.

In 2010, after decades of performing, I was ready for a break.  After leaving Tongue n' Groove in April 2010,  I took a nearly 5 year sabbatical, taking some time off to re-energize my love for music and revisit my musical roots.  During the sabbatical, I was invited twice in 2012 to perform with Jeff Kollman, Mark Mikel, Bob Revels, and others.  While I enjoyed the one-off performances, I quickly returned to my much needed time-off and my musical research.  As it turned out, the break did in fact re-energize me!

In October 2014, former Tongue n' Groove bandmate Dr. Ike contacted me needing a keyboard player for his New Year's Eve show with his current band.  I performed with the band that December 31st and the chemistry of the band was undeniable.  I felt energized and was certain that my sabbatical was now complete.  I was ready to get back into performing.  Fortunately for me, several days later the band invited me to join Big Red Deluxe full time.  Big Red Deluxe  developed into a big draw, festival favorite performing all across North and Central Ohio.  The band often performs with a fan favorite 3-piece horn section called The Groove City Horns.

Here's a fan cam video of Big Red Deluxe headlining the 2018 Carey Fest with The Groove City Horns.  We dropped this song on them right before the concert, worked out the arrangement backstage ... so we all just jammed it!  That's Stevie (not Winwood) on lead vocals and organ.

In 2016, a friend and I visited a new winery in Findlay, OH where the owner was looking for entertainment for her official opening in a few weeks.  After meeting Gillig Winery owner Nikki Gillig, she booked me as a solo act at her Grand Opening and this once again revived my solo performances.  Since 2016, I have been playing regularly as a solo artist where I arrange and play audience favorites with a blend of folk, rock, country, soul, and R&B styles.  I also invite the audience to pick requests from my playlist.    

                                                                 Current Show Schedule      :      A brief history of Stevie's past Solo Performances

Soon after reestablishing my Solo performances, Scott Shaull and I revived our SnS duo and we continue to perform together from time to time.   Here is a fan-cam video from Stevie's YouTube Channel of Scott and me performing one of my favorite "Scott tunes" at Herbie's Roadhouse in 2018.   Scott Shaull (vocals/guitar);  Stevie Eyer (organ, piano, backing vox) is off-camera. 

In 2016 my long time friend and former Miniture Buzzurd bandmate Danny O decided we had talked long enough about forming that Blues band ... it was time to do it!  We recruited bassist "Rockin'" Ron Wright and guitarist Jerry "G-man" Natal and The Buzzurd Blues Project was born.   Even though I continued to perform my Solo and Duo shows, as well as with Big Red Deluxe, the BBP was a venerable project and we performed regularly at various venues and blues festivals in NW Ohio.  In 2017, with help from friend Greg Harley, we opened for Toledo favorite Josh Boyd and the VIPs at The Longhorn Saloon.   We played at Findlay's Winter Blues Fest at Alexandria's for 3 straight years, opening for national headlining blues artist The Josh Garrett Band from New Roads, Louisiana.  We recorded many of our live shows and the recordings are still available on The Buzzurd Blues Project YouTube Channel.

More BBP videos on The Buzzurd Blues Project YouTube Channel

Even after UB Bluesin' It disbanded, Chad Marsh and I kept in touch and in 2023 we decided to start a new blues band.  We quickly recruited drummer Danny O (from The Buzzurd Blues Project) and found bass player John Hoffman in North Canton, OH.  As we began rehearsing, the chemistry was immediate and we knew we had a band!  The band name, The O'Mulligans, was chosen when we joked at rehearsal that we always sounded way better the 2nd time we played a song … we just needed to take a mulligan.  

Musicians:   
- Guitar, vocals:  Chad Marsh 
- Keys, vocals:  Stevie Eyer
- Bass:  John Hoffman 
- Drums:  Danny O

I've known Ricky Hall since the 80's, when he played in some of the most popular bands in Northwest Ohio.  But the opportunity to perform together had not presented itself until recently.  I ran into Rick at a Blues Jam session in Mount Vernon, OH in Jan 2024 and after performing together on stage we decided to form a Duo.  Hall & Eyer will make their debut in March 2024 in Mount Vernon and have several show scheduled for 2024.  Check out Stevie's Show Schedule for upcoming performances.