In Louisiana cajun country, they sometimes call gators "yard dogs". Here is southwest Florida we also have "yard dogs". The name just seemed to fit the three of us!

Absolutely! We gig live a minimum of five times a week and during the tourist season here in southwest Florida, we sometimes play out as many as 7 nights a week.
We have many special moments with our music. Some of those moments we can even admit in public!

The most special to us all is the joy we find in sharing our music and seeing the happiness it engenders in our audiences!

It's great! It's the best thing ever to happen to music! It enables people to search out their favorite artists and genres, sample different genres, broaden their horizons musically. The internet has truly brought music to the people!

Everybody has their price. Make us an offer and we'll negotiate!

The Yard Dogs are the Cajun/Zydeco/Classic Rock/Blues Band that is taking Southwest Florida by storm! They provide high-energy, upbeat-tempo numbers that will have your hands clappin' and your toes tappin' within seconds of hearing them start to play!

The Yard Dogs feature "Spiderman" Charlie Kuchler on accordion, keyboards and vocals. Charlie is at home covering tunes from the Rolling Stones to Clifton Chenier in addition to providing dynamic renditions of tunes he has written himself! Ask Charlie to play "Bye Bye" or "Crawdaddy Bayou" for you (two of his own songs) and you are liable to find him standing on top of your table while he does so! Be warned, however - Charlie is unable to play the accordion unless he is barefoot!

"Turbo" Kip Lawrence, a gifted singer/songwriter and solo performer in his own right, holds down the frontman duties for the Yard Dogs. Kip plays guitar, 6-string banjo, does vocals and provides a sprinkling of fingertip percussion on his flat top guitar and banjo bodies. Kip specializes in writing ballads and songs that explore the sensitive side of life and relationships. Nevertheless, when played by the Yard Dogs, those sensitive ballads become "Cajunized" and are definitely danceable tunes!

Brian "Superstar" Travis provides the bottom end to the Yard Dogs sound, anchoring the beat with the bass sound from his hand made Jamaican rhumba box. Brian built the rhumba box after his third visit to Jamaica when it dawned on him that this was an instrument that could be played with one hand while leaving the other hand free for beer drinking. Brian also does vocals and provides some unique color to the Yard Dogs sound with a sprinkling of blues harp riffs.

Come see the Yard Dogs and you will soon understand that they truly believe "every day is Mardi Gras and every performance is a party!"

We have so many musical influences that they defy description! Let's just say rock, blues, folk, traditional tunes, punk, and country are all manifest in our performances. Have you ever heard Alice Cooper or AC/DC tunes played cajun style along with original songs interspersed with tunes by Elvis, Buddy Holly, Willie Dixon and Creedence? If not, come and catch one of our gigs!

Key West, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Matlacha/Pine Island Florida

We are an amplified acoustic band. We really don't use any special effects. We only amplify ourselves to get our acoustic sound out into the venues we play.

The Yard Dogs motto: "Every day is Mardi Gras and every performance is a party!"

Favorite saying: "Hey, gimme a sip of that 'special water!'"