Over the hill never sounded so good. For the past 12 years, Eldon Matlick and Carl Rath, both associate professors at the School of Music, have been part of MidLife Crysis, the "World's most educated rock and roll band".

"It's therapy for us, a real emotional release," Matlick said. "Whenever we get together we have a lot of fun."

OU students may recall seeing the band opening for 1964 The Tribute, a Beatles cover band, during their annual February show in Catlett Music Hall.

Rath, an avid Beatles fan himself, pulls triple duty being part of the band. Not only has he been the group's drummer since the beginning, but he is an associate professor specializing in the bassoon. He also serves as the Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies for the music school. On top of this, his also plays bassoon for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

"It can be a lot of work balancing time between the philharmonic, teaching and an administration job," Rath said.

Rath also teaches several unique classes in the School of Music, such as a class titled "25 Years of Rock and Roll" and a class solely devoted to the Beatles.

Matlick also juggles teaching with playing professionally. Matlick plays French horn for the philharmonic, but also likes to rock, taking care of bass in MidLife Crysis.

"I'm a fan of the harder, edgier stuff," Matlick said, "I like the Beatles and all, not as much as Carl, but I'm a bigger fan of stuff like Hendrix and Cream."

Matlick, Rath and Associate Professor Ken Stephenson were the founding members of the band which originally was formed to play for fun at the School of Music's weekly convocations.

The band got their first gig at a School of Music faculty party in 1990, playing under the name Flashback where they repeated a 12 song set three times.

"On our way there we were listening to the radio and they mentioned that 'Flashback would be playing at the State Fair next week'," Rath said. "We knew then we would need a new name."

Their sound proved not to be the favorite of everyone in attendance.

"I believe at one point a faculty member actually came up and asked if we could 'tone it down'," Rath said.

The band did, however, reach at least one audience member, according to Rath. A first year teacher named Meryl Mantione expressed interest in the band and would become its first female vocalist.

With the addition of another guitar player, former professor Steve Paul, the band changed its name to Reflections, under which they would play only one gig.

"Eldon and I were talking about the band in the hall one day when a student passed by," said Rath. "He just laughed at us and asked if we were going thorough a 'mid-life crisis or something'. We knew right then that we had our new name."

With some clever tweaking of the spelling, made popular in the '60s by bands such as the Beatles and the Byrds, MidLife Crysis was born.

A few more additions saw the band grow to six members, each an active faculty member in the School of Music.

Over the next few years, the band played several gigs in and around the Oklahoma City area from OU campus events to even playing with a famous Elvis impersonator named Dana McKay at a high school class reunion. The group had its reservations at first when considering the gig.

"We weren't sure quite what to expect," Rath said, "but he turned out to be actually very good."

The set went so well, according to the band, McKay wanted to tour the south with them.

"I guess you could say it was kind of our brush with greatness," Matlick said. "We didn't hear from him for a while so we figured he had blown us off."

"In a tragic turn of events, we found out about a year later that he and his girlfriend had been murdered in Las Vegas," Rath said.

Though the band would go through many changes during the mid-90s, including losing guitarists Paul and Stephenson. It was an auction during a 1997 campus fundraiser that would bring the band closer to its current appearance.

"They were giving away several prizes such as lunch with Steve Owens, the Athletic Director at the time, and lunch with the President of the University," Rath said. "It just so happened that one of the prizes was the chance to play a song with us at the Summer Wind Performance."

Connie Smith out bid everyone to win her husband, James Davis, the chance to play with MidLife Crysis.

"Our auction raised the second most amount of money beating out lunch with the former Heisman winner," Rath said.

Davis, who currently sits on the Board of Visitors for the College of Geosciences, had made a hobby of collecting guitars but had never played in a band.

Originally supposed to play only one song with the band, Davis was eventually asked to play the entire show and became an official member of the band.

After losing their lead guitar player, it was Davis who found a replacement.

"James said that he knew of a guy he had just hired at Tinker (Air Force Base) who had played in the band seen in Los Angeles," Rath said.

Steve Balduff, experienced in playing with professional bands, became MidLife Crysis' new lead guitarist, to the accolades of all three of his band members.

"Steve Balduff is amazing on guitar," Matlick said. Rath and Davis echoed his complements.

Now in its twelfth year of existence, it appears as though MidLife Crysis is now in its permanent form.

"It looks like this is the way were probably going to remain," Rath said. "We started out as kind of a joke, but have quickly grown and developed very quickly."

The band will play at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Oklahoma City Community College during Arts Festival Oklahoma. They can also be seen at Clear Bay Cafe Lake Thunderbird Monday Sept. 2.

MidLife Crysis will return to the OU campus, playing Saturday Sept. 14, in front of the union prior to kickoff of the OU football game against the University of Texas at El Paso.
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