A Detour for the Huckabee Campaign

Wed, January 09, 2008 - 9:02 PM

A little more on Mike Huckabee's event in Greenville.

This event started the way a good number of Huckabee’s events start – with the former Arkansas governor rocking out on the bass guitar. It’s all part of the show, and the crowds eat it up.

To the national press corps traveling with Huckabee, these jam sessions get a little tiresome. But the bands love it. That’s doubly true when the band is comprised of a bunch of high school kids, as was the case tonight.

The band: Detour, of Clemson, South Carolina. Cool name, but potentially hazardous for Huckabee. He’s leading in the polls here, but had a new poll come out tonight that showed he had dropped into last place, the band’s name would have worked its way into every major newspaper tomorrow.

(As in: GREENVILLE, S.C. – Gov. Mike Huckabee’s bid to win South Carolina took a major detour Wednesday night with a poll showing that his lead in the state had evaporated. Huckabee learned of the news after jamming with a local band called “Detour.”)

But that didn’t happen.

I caught up with Detour afterwards. They’re all freshman in high school from Clemson. This was the second time they played with Huckabee in the last month.

Huckabee joined them for “Takin' Care of Business."

Daniel Hill, bass player, lent Huckabee his bass for the song, while he switched to guitar.

“He knows what he’s doing. We just told him what key, and he picked it right up,” Daniel told me after the show.

I asked Nic Allen – singer, keyboards – if he was nervous singing with a man who could become president. “Well, I was a little nervous, kind of,” he started.

Daniel chimed in: “Quit lying, you know you were nervous.”

Nic: “Yeah, I guess I was.”

The other two guys in the band are Alex Nigro, on guitar, and Jack Ryan on drums. I’m told Jack’s dad is a Tom Clancy fan.

--Sean Mussenden