Andrew Bertelsen
Andy was born and raised in Niederwald, TX (population 223), the son of former NFL football player Jim and his wife Laura. At the summation of their tenure in Niederwald the family, now including younger sister Katie, made the transition to Wimberley, TX, a move that would eventually be a pivotal and key occurrence in the formation of Texas Renegade. In addition to being named prom king, Andy earned varsity letters as well as all-district accolades in both Football and Baseball while attending Wimberley High School. At the age of eighteen, after listening to Robert Earl Keen’s “No.2 Live Dinner” on repeat for an inordinate amount of time, Andy began to learn how to play guitar and write songs. That same year Texas Renegade formed and, with the exception of graduating Cum Laude from Texas State University, he has been expending the bulk of his time and effort in that capacity ever since. In 2008 the Academy of Texas Music nominated Andy for “Male Vocalist of the Year” however he did not win, which reminds me…Andy is a fan of the Houston Astros.
Eli Carver
Eli Carver was born along with fellow band mate and twin, Tyson, at home in Wimberley, TX on October 15, 1982. When he was three years old, he and his brother saw a picture of very young children playing the violin in the Wimberley newspaper and informed their mother that this was something that they wanted to do. Though he has no memory of this, legend has it that they bugged her about it enough to make her realize that they were serious and in April of 1986, they began taking Suzuki violin lessons once a week. This lasted for about seven years until their musical influences took over. Their parents listened to the likes of Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Peter Rowen, and many others in the Americana and bluegrass fields. At the age of ten, they decided to part with their long time classical violin teacher and concentrate on their “fiddle” chops. After taking three years of fiddle lessons from a variety of players in the area, the twins and their family moved to Durango, CO in the summer of 1996. Once settled in Durango, Eli decided to call it quits on music all together and concentrate on high school sports and snowboarding. Towards the end of high school, however, he began to think about getting back into music. Upon graduation in 2001, they moved back to the Wimberley area and began playing music together. He picked up the fiddle again but also started a new interest of the bass guitar. After tinkering with the fiddle for a few months, he determined that a bass player would fit better with his brothers newly acquired guitar skills and acquired a bass. In the spring of 2002, the twins met band mate Andy Bertelsen and former band mate Chris Lenard through some mutual friends and the band Texas Renegade was formed. Eli has now been playing the bass for about 8 years now and has also begun playing the upright bass at acoustic shows. He says that getting back into music and choosing to play the bass was one of the best decisions that he has ever made and he could not be happier to play with such a great group of guys.
Hunter St. Marie
Born in Galveston, TX, Hunter learned the guitar by picking up his dad’s left-handed Stratocaster upside-down, mimicking licks off of his favorite albums by Cream, Santana and Jimi Hendrix. He played in various cover bands on the island before moving to San Marcos to attend college. While at Southwest Texas State, he began mixing sound at the famed Cheatham Street Warehouse and learned the finer points of a live performance. Hunter has supported various singer-songwriters on stage and in the studio, ranging from country to hard rock. After graduating with a creative writing degree, St. Marie hit the road full time, traveling the states and internationally; further proving that education in any field is a life long process.
People I’ve played with:
Doug Moreland, Grant Ewing, Bart Crow, Ricky Stein, Broken Spoke, JR Castro, Jackson Parten, Granger Smith, Peter Dawson, Jason Beckett, Robbie Doyen, Matt Davis, Zac Walther, Frank Neville, Cari Hutson, Tympanic, Ben Danaher, The Sidehill Gougers, Texas Renegade
Albums I’ve engineered:
Grant Ewing, Rainmaker, Move
Glen Moreland, Glen Moreland
Zack Walther and The Cronkites, Death of Roger Vol. 1
Chief, The Weather Underground
Luke Ayres
Luke Ayres began beating on his father’s kiwi shoe polish tins at age 3 in Gruver,TX and kept begging for a new Sears drum set every year to replace the battered paper and plastic drum heads. Luke played through middle school and played marching toms for 2 texas 5A high schools(Plainview and Abilene) Luke also performed in the Plainview Symphony Orchestra while attending high school. Luke travelled as a professional drummer starting in 1996 with Jeff Berry while attending college: he graduated with a 3.3 GPA in 1999 with a BBS in English/art minor from Hardin Simmons University.
Luke then moved to Nashville until fall 2004 touring America for 3 years (including two different stints living in Los Angeles playing label showcases at the famed Whisky-A-GoGo and CBS Studios with rock band Shaded Red/Indio. He toured and recorded with many different bands; including his first dive into country music playing percussion for BNA recording artist Shannon Brown alongside George Strait drummer Michael Kennedy. Luke was then hired/moved to play drums in the newly formed rock band; I Am August. Luke was then referred to the Steve Tenpenny Band by Austin drummer Rob Hooper (Guy Forsyth, Atash, Seth Walker) to fill the drummer spot after I Am August played their final show at SXSW 2005. Luke toured the Texas red dirt scene with Steve Tenpenny, Ryan James, Beth Garner(UK tour 2005), and Big Machine Artist Sunny Sweeney(European tour 2007). Luke occasionally plays drums with 2008 Nashville star finalist Gabe Garcia and played the Mirande Country Music Festival in France as part of a back up band for Teri Joyce, Paul Minor, Robert Banta, Genuine Cowhide, and Dave Insley and The Careless Smokers… Luke began playing fulltime with Texas Renegade in September of 2007 and recorded drums on thier latest release “Bad Dreams and Other Things”. Luke has recently recorded projects with Jenny Reynolds, Ted Hadji, and Genuine Cowhide.
Other Texas acts: Graham Weber demo, Colin Gilmore, Stephen Pointer, Melody Mann, Amanda Cunningham, Wendy Colonna, Robert Henry, Travis Lawrence, Eric & Mark Mckinney demo.
Other Nashville acts: Willie Heath Neal, Jennifer Day-Morrison(Arista Nashville/independent),By The Tree(provident), Byron Keith, John Pavlovsky(Abstract Blues), Riley Armstrong, Brian Corley (The McGillicutys), Stonedaisy, Hether(formerly STEREOBLIS), Pol Buckingham(of Polarboy), Fleau, Fast Phyllis, Nathan Meckel, and Darrell Evans.
Tyson Carver
I was born at home outside of Wimberley, TX and I am 9 minutes older than my twin brother Eli. I began playing the violin at age 3, so music has always been a part of my life. When I was 13 I moved to Durango CO where I quit playing violin and began tinkering with guitar. Growing up, my brother and I did everything together; played music, football, track, theater, rode horses. But in high school, we split ways and he did sports and I focused on theater. Towards the end of our senior year, he took up the bass and we began to play music together again. In August 2001, we moved back to Texas with the plan of working a year and returning to Colorado for school. Well, in April of 2002 we began Texas Renegade and decided to stay in Texas. In the spring of 2004 I started college and while working and playing 180 shows per year somehow managed to graduate with a communication studies degree and business minor in May of 2009.
Camp
Camp was born March 1 2005. He was 1 of 4 born to a half chiahuahua, half wolf mother and a lhaso apso father. When he was 13 weeks of age, against their better judgement, he was taken home to Eli, Andy, and Tyson where he promptly was introduced to disc golf, college parties, and the Renegade Ranch. He quickly found that Tyson had the most comfortable bed and has resided there ever since. He began traveling with Texas Renegade about 3 years ago and has been from South Padre Island to Ft. Collins CO and all points between with them. He has his own leather captains chair in the van and gets very excited when the overnight bags are pulled out and packed each weekend. He sheds like crazy but at this point, is most definitely more famous than the band is.