Above: The Funsters’ Nancy Curry and Sherman Ward team up on a tune. Photo by Corey Groll.
By Roger Hillis
If there has ever been a Delaware cover band with an appropriate name, it’s The Funsters. The self-proclaimed “rock ’n’ soul” band from coastal Sussex County has been tearing up stages for decades, but has never taken itself particularly seriously. Even the roots of its formation are a little cloudy.
The 10-piece group played its yearly anniversary party at Irish Eye at Anglers in Lewes last month, but the question is, which anniversary is it? The band’s website advertised the event as a “celebration of over 35 years of providing fabulous music and fun to the Delmarva peninsula.”
“It’s a made-up date; I always say it’s our 500th anniversary,” the group’s high-octane frontman Sherman Ward says. “I’m not sure how long we’ve actually been together, but it’s got to be 40 years and change. What’s that old saying? ‘If you remember, you weren’t there.’”
The roots of the band go way back to the mid-1970s, when most of the members (who hail from areas including Lewes, Seaford and Rehoboth Beach) played the same circuit of beach bars in the summer and attended the University of Delaware in Newark during the winter.
Ward and lead guitarist Keith Mack were bandmates in a party-rock band called Eighth Day. Drummer-vocalist Ed Shockley concentrated more on original material in his quartet Jack of Diamonds, which gained regional radio play with his cowbell-driven single “Dodge City” (which was about his hometown of Lewes).
One after the other, Mack, Shockley and Ward all moved to New York City after college to try life in the Big Apple in the ‘80s. It was an experience that was especially life-changing for Mack, as he quickly landed the guitar spot in vocalist Patty Smyth’s fledgling pop-rock act Scandal and scored Billboard hit singles including “The Warrior” and “Goodbye to You.” Mack has also toured the world with Cyndi Lauper, Paul Young and the late Joe Cocker.
According to Shockley, in the late 1980s and ’90s, he and Mack would bring down a couple of friends from New York City to play dates at the Rose & Crown and The Front Page. The band was billed The Funsters, which was the name of Pat Crowden’s band that they played with in NYC.
The roots of The Funsters date back to the mid-1970s. Photo by Martin LeMaire.
At the same time, Sherman (now living in Philly), would book gigs for the band and many of the horn players who had played with the band in NYC would drop in. In fact, Sherman got a gig for a big Christimas part at One Liberty Plaza in Philly. He called all of his own band mates going back to college days to join him for the performance — 16 of them showed up, including a full horn section.
“That was so much fun that I started to book a job every couple of months at The Rose & Crown,” says Shockley. “This is the same lineup we’ve had for 20 years.
” We didn’t have a name and relied on word of mouth to promote those gigs,” he continued. “Later I realized that the club had used the name The Funsters in their print ads for us. By that time it was too late to make a name change, even though we were using one of my closest friends band’s name.
“He is just now getting over it,” kids Shockley.
There have been multiple lineup changes through the years, as well as substitute players on standby due to busy non-Funster schedules among the musicians. Ward said he thought he might have to pack it in himself a few years ago after emergency heart surgery.
“I had a double-bypass in 2019, and at first I thought I’d bought a one-way ticket to Palookaville; I wasn’t sure if I’d ever come back from that,” he says.
The 2020 COVID pandemic also put the brakes on things for a while, and though the band eventually returned to the stage, it found itself in a bit of a rut.
“The wheels were coming off,” Ward said. “We couldn’t decide on a new song to try without 50 emails going back and forth.”
For the past 13 years, The Funsters have played the Harry K Foundation’s Christmas Gala to fight childhood hunger in Rehoboth. Local singer-songwriter Nancy Curry has also been a fixture on the bill, singing the National Anthem, show tunes and more. Her occasional jam sessions with The Funsters became more magical each time, Ward says.
“I called Ed and said, we’ve got to get her in the band,” Ward says. “She joined in 2024.”
While some members wondered about making such a drastic change after so many years, it was apparent that a new voice would enable them to bring new material to the mix. Curry takes center stage for songs including “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Brass in Pocket.”
“In February of 2024, we played five gigs in one month, which is a lot for us,” Ward says. “Any doubts or misgivings about things working out musically went away. Nancy has such an amazing voice and also a great stage presence. People love her. She’s a pro on every level.”
The Funsters will celebrate yet another anniversary this summer, when they take their 21st annual turn providing the live soundtrack to Rehoboth’s annual Independence Day fireworks display at the city’s bandstand by the boardwalk. This year’s edition will take place Saturday, July 5.
Ward says that before The Funsters, he and his musician friends would joke about making “hundreds of dollars per year.” “Once we were in The Funsters, that was reduced to ‘tens of dollars per year,’” Ward says with a laugh.
Fast forward to 2025, where the group is in high demand on the lucrative wedding circuit. But fun is still a major part of the equation for these lifers.
“The band has always rolled along, or stumbled along, in spite of itself,” Ward says.
— The Funsters will perform at Elkton Music Hall in Elkton, Md. on March 27. Visit TheFunsters.com.
