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Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers will make a sprightly young groove doctor out of anyone,” proclaims the band’s website. And if you’ve been to one of their shows, odds are, you agree.
Known for their energy in live performances, and tunes of rock, soul, funk, indie, and pop, songsmith Joe Hertler originally began performing while earning a middle-level education degree at Central Michigan University (CMU). Since then, he and the band have performed on stages at Electric Forest, Bonnaroo, Red Rock, and Summer Camp.
After traveling the country over the last several years, this week, Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers return to Mt. Pleasant for the
Max & Emily’s Summer Concert Series.
In preparation for the show, and in the midst of moving to Ypsilanti, just last week, Hertler found his first guitar and gave it a tune up. The guitar sparked a memory for Hertler of when he played it while at CMU.
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Courtesy Ryan Dillon
“I met this girl, literally in a COM 101 class, and I kind of had a crush on her. She ran the open mic night at Kaya Coffee,” he recalls. “She invited me, and I showed up and played three or four songs that I had written that week, thinking I was gonna impress this girl. And she ended up becoming one of my best friends throughout all of college.”
“Through Kaya Coffee I met Micah Bracken and Ryan Hoger,” continues Hertler. “They co-own the band and have been my musical life partners in a lot of ways, and we all kind of met through that.”
Hertler, Bracken, and Hoger first played on stage together on New Years Eve 2013, and soon after became the band they’re known as today: Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers.
The band’s name has a unique origin story.
“There’s a guy named T.J. Duckett, he played for the Lions and the Seahawks. He was a really, really great tailback at Michigan State,” Hertler shares. “And right around the time we were all starting to hang out—I had kind of failed on the idea of teaching after college—we're all just being a bunch of post-grad, don't-want-to-grow-up pirates. But we befriended this guy named T.J.”
“He booked us to make beats for local hip hop artists in the Lansing area,” recalls Hertler. “But we didn't have any gear. So T.J. bought us some basic gear—actually a microphone, preamp, and a microphone that I still have and use every single day. So through that, we just became tight with DJ.”
“He really made me appreciate the intersection of athletics and the performance arts,” he continues. “He just kind of mentored us early on, and we thought he was the coolest dude in the entire world. And there's a record called Rainbow Seeker by an artist named Joe Sample, who's kind of like a Herbie Hancock, kind of jazz beauty stuff from the 80s. He's got this album cover where he's just standing there and he's surrounded by a rainbow. And someone was like, ‘Man, if we were a band, the Rainbow Seekers would be really cool.’ T.J. was just like, ‘Yeah, Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers, you guys get that name and you'll be bigger than the Beatles!’”
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Courtesy Ryan Dillon
And soon, local audiences will get their own taste of that star power when Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers perform in Mt. Pleasant on Thursday, Aug. 14.
While in town, Hertler is looking forward to having some of Max & Emily’s chicken dumpling soup, meeting up with friends, and stopping by the Bird post performance.
The free outdoor concert is part of Max & Emily’s Concert Series, sponsored by Downtown Mt. Pleasant, Isabella Bank, CMU, the Mt. Pleasant Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Max & Emily’s. The show will begin at 6 p.m. on Main Street with an opener, followed by Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers taking the stage at 7 p.m. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs and blankets.
For more information on the concert, visit maxandemilys.com.
To visit Joe Hertler’s YouTube channel, visit youtube.com.
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