Brendan Bayliss (born August 11, 1976) is an American musician and the founder, a lead guitarist, and primary vocalist for

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

band

Umphrey's McGee Umphrey's McGee is an American jam band originally from South Bend, Indiana. The band experiments with many musical styles, including rock, metal, funk, jazz, blues, reggae, electronic, bluegrass, country, and folk. They have toured regularl ...

Biography

Bayliss formed Umphrey's McGee in 1997 and took its moniker from the name of a distant relative he met at a wedding named Humphries McGee. "My father's aunt's sister's son's kid," says Bayliss. "He's just a nice guy. Lives on a farm, I think." Bayliss is one of the band's main songwriters. Bayliss attended St. Joseph's High School (South Bend, Indiana) and went on to attend the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

, where his father Bob Bayliss was the men's

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

coach, and formed the Star Wars inspired Tashi Station with bass player Ryan Stasik and keyboardist Gregg Andrulis. After the band split in the fall of 1997, Bayliss and Stasik joined up with Joel Cummins and Mike Mirro – two former members of another recently defunct local band, Stomper Bob – to form

. Bayliss uses

Paul Reed Smith Paul Reed Smith (born February 18, 1956) is an American luthier and the founder and owner of PRS Guitars, a high-end guitar maker. Early life Smith graduated from Bowie High School in 1974. He also attended St. Mary's College of Maryland wh ...

guitars,

Mesa/Boogie Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is an American company in Petaluma, California, that manufactures amplifiers and other accessories for guitars and basses. It has been in operation since 1969. Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a sm ...

and Oldfield amps, endorses VOX Classic Plus amps, and along with the rest of

endorses Morley pedals and BBE Sound equipment. Bayliss and fellow musician

Jeff Austin Jeff Austin (April 25, 1974 – June 24, 2019) was an American mandolinist and singer best known for being a founding member of the Yonder Mountain String Band. Biography Although Austin was born in Arlington Heights, Illinois, United S ...

formerly of

Yonder Mountain String Band The Yonder Mountain String Band is an American progressive bluegrass group from Nederland, Colorado. Composed of Dave Johnston, Ben Kaufmann, Adam Aijala, and Nick Piccininni, the band has released five studio albums and several live recordings ...

have played a handful of shows together since the summer of 2006 and, as of May 11, 2010, have released a studio album together under the name 30db. The album is called One Man Show, and the band went on tour in Spring, 2010, to release their album.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayliss, Brendan Umphrey's McGee members American rock guitarists American male guitarists 1976 births Living people University of Notre Dame alumni