DRUMS

Danny owns and operates The Music Room, his own private teaching studio in downtown Lafayette, and is on the music faculties of both the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and South Louisiana Community College. He’s been working as a professional musician for 25 years, having performed, toured, and/or recorded with some of the area’s most well-known and respected musicians and bands like Bonsoir Catin (with whom he received a Grammy Award nomination in 2015), Balfa Toujours, Joel Savoy, Michael Doucet avec Beausoleil, Dirk Powell, Givers, Cedric Watson, Ann Savoy and the Sleepless Nights, Terrance Simien, Mark Broussard, The Pine Leaf Boys, Devils and Trains, David Egan, Eric Bibb, Mem Shannon, Anders Osbourne, Irene Sage, and Theresa Anderson. He has been commissioned to write and arrange music for the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, The Dayton Symphony Orchestra, The West Virginia University percussion ensemble, The UL Lafayette percussion and wind ensembles, as well as numerous dance, theater, film, and art projects.

KEYS/GUITAR/BASS

Dave Trainer has been a musician/music instructor for over thirty years, teaching and performing on a variety of instruments including keyboards, guitar, bass, violin, mandolin, banjo and uke. He has played with a variety of bands in different genres across the country and is super excited to be getting his Rock Band thing on with the GTRR staff and students….that’s right keep on rockin’ in the free world yo!!

VOCALS/GUITAR/BASS

Maegan Berard Rankin is a two-time Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter. Over the last 20 years, she has collaborated and performed with some of South Louisiana’s finest musicians. In 2012, Maegan joined the allstar Cajun group, Bonsoir, Catin, as lead guitarist and vocalist. Maegan is co-founder of the St. Martin Parish family trio, Sweet Cecilia. Maegan is also the lead guitarist for the 70s classic rock band, The Magnalites. Maegan is a true rocker at heart and credits Jimmy Page, Ace Frehley, Billy Gibbons, Jimi Hendrix, Heart, and Al Berard as some of her greatest musical influences.

BASS/GUITAR/DRUMS

David Crochet began his music career performing in bars at the ripe age of 12, well before he was able to enter without a guitar in hand. Since then, he has performed and recorded regularly as a drummer, bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, and singer-songwriter for a number of different rock, folk, indie, Cajun, jazz, and Latin groups in Louisiana. He is a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he received a Master of Music degree in Music Theory/Composition. He performed as a snare drummer in the 2017 Santa Clara Vanguard Drum & Bugle Corps, where he was a recipient of the Fred Sanford High Percussion award. He has been teaching private lessons for 7 years, and he is in his second year of working as a high school music teacher and band director.

VOCALS/BASS

Jessie Lalonde Devillier is a long-time member of the Lafayette music scene. Her voice helped to define the unique sound of two popular avant-rock bands from the early 2000’s, Matt Rock and the Powerboxx and FIGHTs!. She’s also played bass, drums, and sang in the punk trio t-kette. And she is one of four voices that make up Lafayette’s only doo-wop ensemble, The Boyfriends for Now. In addtion to these musical endeavors she frequently lends her singing talent to recordings, tribute shows, and various other one-off gigs. As if that weren’t enough she is the proud captain of Vanqueur, a 20-plus member percussion ensemble that marches each year in the Krewe du Canaillies Mardi Gras parade. She is a veteran now of the Good Time Rock Retreat, having slapped some bass in the first annual GTRR camp way back in 2023. Her musical talent, leadership, winning spirit, and all around good-time attitude has elevated her status this year to instructor....and accountant!

GUITAR

Chad Viator has been working as a musician and teacher for over 20 years. In 2000 he graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette obtaining a BA in music concentrating on classical guitar performance and electronic media. During this time he was given the opportunity to study with Dr. Gerd Wuestemann, Manuel Barrueco, Christopher Parkening, and John Holmquist. Chad participated in various guitar competitions in the United States winning the Pine Belt Guitar Symposium and Lamson Guitar competitions in 1998. Upon graduating from ULL, he began to tour as a professional guitarist performing in many festivals and stages including: The New Orleans Jazz Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, Cayamo Cruse, South by Southwest, D-Fest, Festival Du Voyageur, Louisiana Crossroads, Portland Riverfront Blues Festival, City, International Folk Alliance, and has shared the stage with a wide range of national artist. In 2007 He was nominated for a Grammy award for his work on the album “Gulfstream” by Roddie Romero and the Hub City Allstars. Chad is currently teaching for the LPSS talented music program as well as in the Recording arts program at University of Louisiana . In 2018 he was nominated for teacher of the year through LEF in the inspirational category. In addition to teaching with LPSS, Chad also runs a music production studio where he has scored music for films that have been played at various festivals including Cannes film festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Full Frame Documentary Film festival, Fargo film Festival, GI Film Festival, and FLY festival and has also recorded and produced music for many different artists covering a wide variety of genres.