Toledo Idol: The Bartones

BOWLING GREEN - Funk, blues, classic rock, or pop. Whatever the flavor, The Bartones have got it.

The trio of musicians, originally from Sylvania but currently call Bowling Green home, have incorporated each genre of music for their audiences.

The group, which formed in late 2007 / early 2008, are influenced by many Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees and music legends like The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Randolph and the Family Band. The Bartones haven even taken cues from the heavy electronica sound of Daft Punk.

"The reason I like playing music is that we can improv a little bit, so when we have shows we can have set songs, but we also have sections where we can free form with stuff," said Steve Mizer, drummer and lead singer.

Minutes away from the Downtown Bowling Green music scene, The Bartones have plenty of venues to choose from to hone their musically-hypnotic craft.

"We're getting more and more comfortable with each other," said Evan Turner, who plays bass guitar. "The more we play every hour we get better as a group."

The same goes for the song-writing and music-building process.

'We'll write separately sometimes, and then bring it to the table. Sometimes we'll sit here and write and work like that too," said guitarist Andy DeWitt, who also provides backing vocals.

The end result can be anything from a blues free-form groove to a funky-layered song.

The musicians say they just go with the flow, because it's what they love to do.

"Well, music gets me by. For me, music is everything," DeWitt said.

Many music aficionados are enjoying their collective groove, and it was even better when they got the band's name right.

"We kind of played around with the pronunciation. We tried a little Spanish Bartone', with and accent above the e, and people misspelled it, and we were called The Baritones for the first couple of shows," Mizer said.

No matter the name, The Bartones believe their sound is unforgettable.

(FOX Toledo's Allison Brown contributed to this report)