This has to have been one of the coolest gigs I ever had as a musician. I met Stan Freese, the entertainment buyer for Disneyland probably in 1988 or so when he came to my studio to do some recording. At that time, he would make guest appearances on a TV show called Hee Haw, and he would pre record his stuff at Studio One, and then send it to them in Nashville so he just had to fly out and shoot the episodes. They were opening a new ride in the park called Star Tours, and Stan was looking for a group to play at the grand opening of the ride. I belive this was in 1989.

When he was at my studio, he noticed that I was very much into some of the current computer based music technologies, and I was playing an electronic wind instrument called the Steinerphone, developed by Nyle Steiner. He asked me to put together a group, and we played for a week at Disneyland for the opening press events and for the privat party that ran a week during the opening. The group was a hit, and they hired us about 18 months later as a full time atmosphere group in the park. We had about a four year run there, which is pretty good for a band at Disneyland!

This is the group TranStar in their hey day. From left to right is Amy Hum - dancer, Sandy Grinn - keys, Mike Overlin - EWI and Tralian the Alian - flutar.

We would drive that vehicle, affectionately known ad the dust buster, on set for each of our shows. We usually did seven shows a day and they were whacky to say the least. The numbers were instrumental versions of popular songs and ran from John Williams movie themes to top 40 songs like ‘Walk Like an Egyptian” or “Ghostbusters”.  They were also choreographed which was really kind of pathetic in a bumbly sort of way.

Actually, this was an exceptionally cool time to be an Overlin child, as they had pretty much free reign of the park during those years. They would often come and see Daddy at “work” and hang out with the various characters and performers working at Disneyland.

This is Brittney at Coke Terrace with one of the pianists that worked there regularly. Probably around 1992.