Maca Rey

In the summer of 2009 Amanda and Boris Canani went to a Ween concert in Bend, Oregon. After the show they stayed in a rental house with a bunch of other friends where they partied together. Soon after a soak in the hot tub, Amanda was experiencing a raging headache which landed the two of them in their room where a young man by the name of Jeff wandered in and out of. At the time Boris and Amanda were working on acoustic music for Amanda’s band STONE JUMPERS. Jeff had been under the influence of a cocktail of drugs and alcohol being quite incoherent with his constant rambling. In one of those blabbing moments he did mention one thing that night that hit Boris like a ton of bricks. He turned to him, in a serious tone and said, “You’re only as good as your drummer”. It was a revelation that inspired Boris to seek a seriously tight new drummer. Soon after that experience Boris was pondering the words Jeff said. At the time he was in a working band called HONKY FUNK that consisted of Johnny Laser (LASERDRIVE) on rhythm guitar and vocals, Juan Dillard on drums, Paulo Reyes (OUT OF ORDER and CUBENSIS) on bass and Tina Vallody (SAMBA JA) on percussion. A falling out with Johnny Laser prepared Amanda to fill his position on rhythm ukulele and vocals. The band just wasn’t the same without Johnny Laser’s Southern drawl. Basically, the Honky in HONKY FUNK was no more. With the demise of HONKY FUNK, Boris had to come up with a new project to continue to play music with a band. He put an ad on Craigslist for a new drummer and he got a few responses. One such response from Matt Symonds, “Llama Latte” (the GREAT ALL MERGE and FUZZ FOUR) who was in a Funk band called, FUZZ FOUR. Llama had heard of Boris and his music when Boris was in an Island, Folkadelic band called, SWEET ISLAND THYME. Llama’s band FUZZ FOUR was dissolving so he was available for a new project. After a few potential catchy names, Boris came up with MACA REY. Maca is an Andean root (maca root) with holistic properties and Rey is the Spanish word for king. It wasn’t until Llama sat in for HONKY FUNK’s last set on July 10th 2009, opening for EQUALEYES that clinched the deal. The audience was the real judge. Fans of HONKY FUNK mentioned that the drummer rocked and the rest was history. During that same summer Llama, Amanda and Boris got together once a week to work on MACA REY’s new sound. The new band combined Latin and World styles from Boris’ long list of songs and Llama’s Funk beats from his previous band giving the band the sound it has today. Maca Rey consisted of Boris Canani on guitar, vocals, bass and KAOS pad, Amanda Canani on Ukulele, Charango and vocals, Llama Latte on drums and vocals, Paulo Reyes on bass and guitar, Tina Vallody on tablas and percussion and Graham Reinhardt on keyboard. Their debut was on November 18th 2009 at Joe’s Bar and Grill in Eugene, Oregon. Maca Rey had consistently played a couple to a few times a month from the beginning and opening for “Simplistic” at Diablo’s in Eugene, Oregon in January. Then Boris ran into Barry Flast (Kingfish, Jefferson Starship and Dead Ringers) at together they came up with an idea to play a couple of shows. The first billed as, “Lovers Sweetheart Dance” on February 13th 2010 put MACA REY AND DEAD RINGERS together. That show set the stage for the next huge show at the Goodfoot in Portland, Oregon. It was the day before FURTHUR was expected to play Rose Garden so naturally Boris and Barry double billed the show KINGFISH AND MACA REY on March 5th 2010. That show also introduced an amazing new keyboard player for the band, Thierry Renoux (ABAKADUB, MOCKSHA and DEFAULT). It was to be the final lineup for the band. In that same year MACA REY landed a spot at the 2010 Eugene Celebration playing the Broadway stage. Now MACA REY is currently playing all around Oregon from Eugene to Portland and everywhere in between. 2011 is becoming a huge time for the band, playing almost every weekend. New songs are being introduced and the rest of the band is contributing more songs to the band’s repertoire. Now it’s time to enjoy the musical ride. Maca Rey