Sandy Heikes was born in Alaska and started playing drums at age 12 -- "before child labor laws!" -- with the Heikes Family Band, playing the little bars of old Alaska.  By age 16 she'd already backed up some country legends and more than a few strippers.  By the late '60s, when Alaska was fueled by big oil and country music, she was playing in Anchorage's country bars, sharing the stage with the stars:  Merle Travis, Rose Maddox, Faron Young, Ferlin Husky, Buddy Allan, Moe Bandy, Johnny Rodriquez, Tommy Cash ... as the list got longer, the stories get more wild.  Gunshots, fights, stabbings  -- you name it, Sandy has seen it.  And that was just onstage.

 

After moving to Portland in the early '80s, Sandy joined Buckboard, a country band on the CIS label, with whom she played the Reno circuit, sat on Merle's tour bus, stayed with country music Hall of Famer Rose Maddox, and in 1985 toured Guam, Japan, Korea and Hawaii on a DOD tour.  Ask her about her trip to the Hiroshima Museum.  Sandy came home to Alaska for a break in '85, and decided to stay. 

 

Besides being a charm school graduate (YES!!!), our lil' Sandy is a movie star!  You can see about ten seconds of her and Buckboard in the movie, "St. Helens", starring Art Carny [1981 dir. by Ernest Pintoff].  Nine of their original songs ended up in the film as background music and on the soundtrack.  For you triva kids, that's the Rome Symphony you hear in the mix.  The Aqua Nets have been searching the pawn shops for "St. Helens" -- we're going multimedia, baby.

 

When Miss Congeniality isn't pounding out the rhythm for the Aqua Nets, she's one of the boys in Mr. Whitekeys' traveling road show, or is working with husband, Alan, in their band, Full Tilt.  Sandy plays Ludwig drums, also likes the Premiers "because they're lightweight", uses Pro-Mark sticks, and uses whatever drum heads are cheap.