CLAYTON— The legacy of north nation rock ‘n’ roll musicians of the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies is being celebrated in a multi-media challenge that can formally kick off with a live performance right here in July.
The North Nation Track Undertaking celebrates the area’s contributions to rock ‘n’ roll in a partnership with the Flower Memorial Library. To release the challenge, it’ll provide a distinct tournament on July 31 on the Clayton Opera Space to honor the north nation’s rock pioneers.
The North Nation Track Undertaking, the brainchild of Watertown expats Tom Walker Jr. and Larry Gordon, is a gaggle of Northern New York natives who first of all got here in combination round an oral historical past challenge. The focal point: the area’s tune scene within the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies, a time and position that produced some unusual musicians whose have an effect on reverberated some distance past the limits of Northern New York.
“We had vibrant recollections of Watertown’s colourful tune scene within the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies,” Walker, former School and Educational Director at Goucher School, Baltimore, mentioned in a information unlock. “We noticed a fleeting alternative to seize firsthand memories of our native musicians whilst we nonetheless may just. We suspected that memorializing this period and growing this assortment would catch on like wildfire. And it has, exactly since the tune used to be so excellent and the recollections so fond.”
Within the early Nineteen Sixties within the north nation, native musicians like brothers “Tiny” and “Giant Guy” Trahan and Ray John already had a following. However after the 1964 look of the Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Display,” rock ‘n’ roll exploded around the nation.
Native bands like Ed Wool and the Nomads and the South Shore Highway Band packed highschool dances, bars, and golf equipment around the area and in the end far and wide the Northeast. They in flip influenced different northern New York bands together with Dancing Naked, Moondance, Contraband, Crystal, Highlife and the John Michael Band. This explosion of skill intended that within the Nineteen Sixties and 70s, younger folks within the north nation may just pay attention and dance to a really perfect reside band any evening of the week.
Up to now, the North Nation Track Undertaking has recorded greater than 50 interviews with musicians from that generation, together with Ed Wool, Claudia Wool, Bob Kissell, Al Bouchard, Joe Bouchard and plenty of others. The ones interviews together with pictures, archival sound, video, podcasts and memorabilia will change into a part of an enduring on-line archive hosted by means of the Flower Memorial Library.
“We’re overjoyed to be house to this native oral historical past challenge,” says Suzie Renzi-Falge, the library’s Govt Director. Emphasizing the individuality of this assortment, she added “We’ve by no means had the historical past of tune within the north nation documented whatsoever. I don’t have any doubt this challenge may have a long-lasting have an effect on at the group.”
The North Nation Track Undertaking believes the area’s contributions to rock ‘n’ roll within the Nineteen Sixties and ‘70s constitute a definite bankruptcy of the historical past of Northern New York. Extra importantly, the criteria set again then proceed to at the moment, making the standard of musicianship in Northern New York distinctly higher than in lots of portions of america.
In popularity of that, on July 31, on the Clayton Opera Space, the North Nation Track Undertaking will provide “Rockin’ the North Nation: The Bands, The Track, Our Tale.”
Within the taste of the Kennedy Middle Honors, this night time of reside tune, private tributes and particular visitors will have a good time the north nation’s rock ’n roll pioneers: Ed Wool, Claudia Wool, the Kissell Brothers (Bob and Dick), Al Bouchard, Joe Bouchard and the overdue Ray John.
“It’s going to be an excessively particular night time,” mentioned Gordon, fundamental at The FactPoint Workforce, Los Altos, California. “Watertown local Carol Hills is bringing her a long time of media manufacturing and journalism revel in, together with her gritty north nation decision, to provide a first-of-a-kind thank-you to our native musical legends that couldn’t be extra well timed.”
Hills has introduced on Watertown local and Grammy award-winning manufacturer and bass participant Mark Prentice as tune director of the development. He’s a 1971 graduate of Watertown Prime Faculty.
“It’s a singular honor to be concerned with giving the superb tune scene within the north nation some lengthy past due credit score for the standard and amount of awesome musicianship that outlined and continues to thrive within the space,” Prentice mentioned.
Prentice began out taking part in in native bands in Watertown together with Dancing Naked, Moondance and Dove. “As a teen bitten with the tune ‘malicious program’, the usual of excellence I used to be uncovered to and needed to reach to also be within the recreation within the north nation ready me to move out on this planet and excel in a wide variety of instances,” he mentioned. “I didn’t comprehend it on the time, however I were to some of the greatest tune colleges on this planet.”
In a 2013 interview with the Watertown Day-to-day Occasions, Prentice recalled the instant he sought after to be a qualified musician: “February 17, 1967,” he mentioned. “I noticed the Younger Rascals at Watertown Prime Faculty and it used to be life-changing. I owned a guitar on the time and I’m lovely certain I used to be in a band, however that used to be a lightning bolt second.”
The emcee for “Rockin’ the North Nation: The Bands, The Track, Our Tale” will likely be Steve Behm, former Deejay, Program Director and Track Director at WOTT “A laugh Radio” in Watertown from 1969 to 1977. He performed a key function in selling rock tune within the north nation. He additionally used to be an enormous assist to native bands, offering them with advance copies of the most recent hits in order that they might be in a position to play them at their subsequent gig.
“After touring maximum of this nation, I’ve at all times felt the total high quality of musicianship in Central and Northern New York is as excellent, or higher, than any place else,” Behm mentioned. “We’ve been blessed with best shelf skill for a few years.”
Tickets for “Rockin’ the North Nation” are to be had on the Clayton Opera Space.
Along with founders Walker and Gordon, the participants of the North Nation Track Undertaking:
Steve Adams, musician/educator, Clayton.
Sam Barker, musician/trainer, Chicago.
Carol Hills, senior manufacturer/host, “The International,” WGBH/PRX, Boston.
Joe Medwick, singer, drummer, author, Asheville, Nortyh Carolina.
Thomas Murray, musician/artwork educator, Watertown.
Walt Younger, gross sales marketing consultant/stock supervisor, Bob Johnson Auto Workforce, Watertown.
