Jeff Haley: Twang Twang the Third

At 27, former Twang Twang Shock-A-Boom bassist Jeff Haley is still a little young for the "Whatever Happened to?" file, and yet it still seems like a valid enough question. Whatever did happen to Haley? The short answer: He moved to Queens.

After Twang Twang's breakup in 1991, Haley became the trio's only UT graduate and degree-earner, going on to play music locally with Erik Hokkanen, Fabu, and the Jazz Pharaohs, a vocal jazz outfit many locals credit with starting the local lounge revival. Acting was the next step; not Haley's, but rather his wife's, Rebekah Ross, with whom he moved to New York in 1995 so she could pursue an acting career. Haley, meanwhile, neither plays nor performs live currently, preferring instead to teach music in a Queens elementary school.

"I love 'em both and am as happy as a clam," says Haley of his former Twang Twang bandmates, Davíd Garza and Chris Searles. "They're my war buddies." Although Haley refuses to say exactly what it was they were all fighting, or much of anything else about his days on the West Mall, all three former bandmates contend they're still close friends. In fact, just months after Haley moved to New York, he and his wife actually embarked on a low-key Twang Twang reunion tour billed only as "Dah-veed."

"We still love playing and hanging out and that's all that tour was," says Haley.

As for Garza, still ever the leader, he says discussing Haley in a "Where Are They Now?" context and any talk of a Twang Twang reunion some day are moot issues altogether.

"Twang Twang still exists," says Garza. "We still play. When I go up to New York and Jeff and I sit in his apartment and play, that's Twang Twang. When me and Chris record in Austin, that's Twang Twang. It's just an energy... the three of us in any combination." -- A.L.