Professionals find their 
'Alter Ego' in a band

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Monday, July 22, 2002

By MARY KELLI BRIDGES, mkbridges@naplesnews.com

Growing up in Northwest Alabama in the 1960s, Robert Barclift was just a short distance from Mussel Shoals, an area known for its rhythm and blues.

So it was no surprise when he started his first band at the age of 12 and played for most of  his teen-age years.

But music soon made way for school, and at the age of 17, Barclift put music on the back seat.

"For some reason, I decided to start studying for the first time," he said.

He excelled academically enough through college and then law school to start practicing law 20 years ago.

His career took him in time from a stint at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Birmingham, Ala., to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Fort Myers in the spring of 1991.

Barclift prosecuted federal offenses in Southwest Florida, spent time with his family and attended Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers.

When the church decided to start a contemporary worship service, Barclift dusted off his acoustical six-string and tried out for the band.

"They said they could tell I was just rusty, but man was I rusty," Barclift said.

Still, he made the band, the first he'd been in since the early 1970s.

In the meantime, Dr. Tony Fransway had a similar fondness for rhythm and blues, in his case the trumpet specifically, but had also chosen a different path.

He said it was a tossup between medicine and music when he was younger, so he took an aptitude test.

It told him he'd be a great priest.

Music was next on the list, but he didn't think he was make a stable living for his family, so he enrolled in medical school. For about 10 years, while he was in school and during his residency, Fransway didn't even play music.

While working at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota he joined a band, but when he left in 1993 to join a medical practice in Fort Myers, he left the band behind.

Yet the music bug stuck with both men. In 2000, Barclift and Fransway formed their own group with local accountant Todd Caruso and insurance specialist Tracey Coppin.

They called themselves Alter Ego, appropriate considering the drastic differences between their daytime professional personas and their nighttime images.

Caruso and Coppin ended up marrying and leaving the band earlier this year, but over the past two years, Alter Ego has had little problem finding people willing to join them.

In addition to Barclift and Fransway, the diverse group now includes: Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy, who's a vocalist; Fort Myers pharmaceutical representative April Westmoreland, another vocalist; print shop manager Mike Santiago in Naples, on the trumpet and congas; Don Hulgas, a baritone and tenor saxophone player from Fort Myers, whose family owns a boat repair shop; Tom DeCourcey, a biology teacher in Naples during the day and a trombone player at night; Russ Blair, an electrician from Cape Coral, on the keyboards; and full-time mom and part-time graphic designer, Deb Fransway, whose the sound engineer and also plays the bass.

They're joined by professional musician and vocalist Laura Megard of Cape Coral; Craig Christman who teaches and repairs musical instruments in Fort Myers and plays the tenor sax; Bryan Mays, a guitar teacher from Fort Myers who plays the guitar; and Billy Canty, a professional drummer in Cape Coral.

"It's great being involved with some of the people whom I consider to be top-notch musicians," said Dr. Fransway, who serves as the band's musical director.

The horn band, with members in their early 20s to late 40s, specializes in rhythm and blues, soul, contemporary dance music and even a sprinkling of country music here and there.

Now Barclift goes from his daytime stint of locking up drug traffickers to playing bass and singing songs such as Travis Tritt's "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" at the V.I.P. Club in south Fort Myers one weekend a month and at a variety of other gigs, from weddings to office parties and festivals.

His co-workers and acquaintances might expect fellow attorney Molloy to be in a band, since Molloy's longer hair and quick wit isn't usually associated with a straight-laced lawyer. When he belts out the Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels' classic "Devil With a Blue Dress On," it's hard to picture him ever arguing in a court room on the merits of a white-collar crime case.

But the transformation of Barclift from mild-mannered attorney to a musician who is obviously having a blast on stage has caught some people off guard.

"People are very surprised and almost shocked," he said.

But they must like what they see, because the band is a huge draw to the V.I.P. Club, where if the folks in the crowd aren't dancing, many can be spotted singing along.

"They're all good guys. They're all having fun," said club owner Tom Watson. "It rubs off on the crowd, I think."

That's exactly what the band is hoping for.

"When we're playing, we're having a great time and what we really want for the people we play for is for it to be contagious," Molloy said.

Deb Fransway has helped with the band's sound since her husband helped form the band. After a while, she said, Barclift asked her to learn to play the bass so he could sing "Mustang Sally."

"I fell in love with it and I learned to play a bunch of other songs," she said.

Now she gets to spend time sharing her husband's interest in music.

"I really enjoy being able to spend more time with him in our leisure time," she said. "I'm having the best time of my life in Alter Ego," Fransway said.

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The Alter Ego Band of Fort Myers, Inc.