We'll kick things off today with a piece sent in by Jim Nowoc, who just took the Concerts at Sea Alaskan Cruise
We sailed to Alaska, truly our Last Frontier, with the Concerts At Sea Group put together by Harmon Travel out of Boise, Idaho. The cruise entailed four ports of call and a cruise through Glacier National Park. It was terrific. We were treated to sightings of whales, bears, eagles, salmon and some of the most spectacular viewings of glaciers.
The sightseeing was combined with performances from six prominent acts of the 60's and early 70's. The concerts were hosted by Boston DeeJay, Jimmy Jay.
Evening Number One featured Gary Lewis followed by Charlie Thomas' Drifters.
With seven of Gary's first records reaching top ten status. his recording catalogue provided an appropriate start to
the concert series.
Rock And Roll Hall
of Famer Charlie Thomas and his Drifters followed. Besides singing
everybodys' favorite Drifters numbers he went into the way back machine
and performed a terrific rendition of the Early Drifters hit "Drip
Drop."
Evening Number Two featured Peter Hoorelbeke [aka Peter Rivera, lead singer and drummer for Rare Earth.
Supported by
keyboardist Danny McCollim and gifted guitarist Joe Brasch, Peter
performed among others, "Get Ready," "I Just Want To Celebrate," "I'm Losing
You" and a powerful rendition of "Tobacco Road." He introduced the song by offering a dramatic monologue describing how his hometown of
Detroit has morphed into a city so different than what he remembered
as a boy growing up there.
Next
came another Two-Fer ... Mitch Ryder shared the bill with The Cowsills.
Meeting Mitch, I found him to be a tad socially awkward and almost painfully
shy ... but then he got on stage and it was electric!
Recently inducted into
the R&B Hall of Fame, he proudly shared his feelings regarding the honor with us. From
"Little Latin Lupe Lu," "Jenny Take A Ride" and "Shake," the set was as
frantic as it was dynamic. Finally everyone was on their feet enjoying
the high energy finale that was "Devil in the Blue Dress."
The surprise of the event was a wonderful performance by the Cowsills.
Self depreciating Bob Cowsill stated upfront that it would be a very short concert if they had to rely on just their hits [which only numbered 4.] So he with brother Paul and
sister Susan intermingled wonderful covers of Lulu, We Five, Simon
& Garfunkel, CSN and others. Their finale consisted of a raucous
rendition of "Hair."
Closing
the week of concerts was Paul Revere's Raiders. As it turned out, the
best of the concert evenings was saved for last.
Some consider The
Raiders akin to a tribute group ... but how many tribute groups have
artists that have performed for 37, 40 and 45 years in the group?
All
of the Raiders' hits were performed including "Like Long Hair," Paul's
earliest hit that begins with the beautiful classical piano and then
transcends into a key banging piano finish. Danny Krause on keyboard
received a
well-deserved standing "O" for his performance.
The Raiders consisted
of Darren Dowler lead vocals, Ron Foos on Bass Guitar, Doug Heath and
Jamie Revere [Paul's son] on the other guitars and the Drums were played frenetically by former Buckingham, Tommy Scheckel. As an aside the Raiders backed up Mitch Ryder during his performance. Scheckel was so into the set that he nearly harpooned Mitch with an errant drumstick that flew nearly 20 feet.
Performing a trilogy honoring Veterans, he Raiders perfomed Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth," The
Animals' "We've Got to Get Out Of This Place" and Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild." Their encore finished
with
them performing "Louie, Louie" in front of a big screen showing a
heart rendering montage of the late Paul Revere's photos.
Raider
T-shirts commemorating The Ride to The Viet-Nam Wall [begun by Paul]
were sold with ALL PROCEEDS going to Veterans Groups. As a Viet-Nam Vet
myself, to me they're not just Raiders, they're Patriots as well!
On September 29th, The Raiders, Mitch Ryder and Peter Rivera will be performing at the Arcada Theater. I can assure you that all who attend will have one Hell of a Night! If I wasn't tapped out from the Cruise, I'd be there with bells on!
Finally,
the Iconic Guitar added five more signatures, raising the total to an
amazing 114 signatures! It's literally full now ... but it seems I always
find room for one more!
Continued Success, Kent.
Your Rock & Roll Buddy,
Guitar Jim Nowoc
Thanks for the great review, Jim!
Tommy Scheckel has been trying to get us to go on this cruise for YEARS now ... and we still haven't made it. (We even talked about possibly doing some type of special promotion thru Forgotten Hits. If that sounds even the least bit appealing, please let me know ... if we can get a big enough group together, this just may be worth pursuing!)
We saw Paul Revere's Raiders, Peter Rivera and Mitch Ryder perform at The Arcada Theatre last year and it was a blast. Be sure to check it out if you can when all these guys return to the stage in less than two weeks! (kk)
P.S. Jim - You'll have to send us an updated photo of your infamous guitar ... and a few shots from the cruise, too ... musical and nature. It sounds amazing!
