Where were you when you first heard the Eagles’ “Take it to the Limit”? Roosevelt Stadium? Madison Square Garden, in your favorite jeans, giving a standing ovation for Randy Meisner? Maybe you and everyone on your floor in the college dorm blasted
“Hotel California” from your stereos (remember those?) at the same time, windows open, the bass thumping all the way down to the Charles River!
Okay. I know, That’s a dead giveaway that I’m a nostalgic Baby Boomer. But you knew that already.
So, text your old college buddies or take the grandkids (and your adult children, if they promise not to be embarrassed by you!) to Mercer County Festival Grounds in West Windsor to hear for themselves the cool sounds that you’ve been reminiscing about over Thanksgiving dinner every year.
Every Friday evening from July 11th to August 25th, you’ll hear an exciting line up of bands who will give tribute to memorable hits that have been the soundtrack of our lives. Bring a blanket and chairs and dig your old band tee shirts out of the attic (let the kids wear them for fun; you can’t fit into them anymore!)
Back in my undergraduate years, my own album and tape collection mostly included R&B, jazz, and James Taylor (in 1976, I’d won front-row seats from a radio contest to hear Hugh Masekela and Herb Alpert at Paul’s Mall-check out their old smash hit, “Skokiaan” on YouTube!-and later, I almost grabbed the wrong coats after a Natalie Cole concert at Symphony Hall on Mass Ave), but several favorite rock albums survived years of moves from Boston to New York City to New Jersey too.
On July 25th, “The Best of the Eagles” tribute band, established in 2012 by founder, producer, guitarist, singer/songwriter, Joe Vadala, will take the stage with a set of the Eagles’ greatest hits! Listen for your favorites from the Joe Walsh years, Glenn Frey, and more. These talented veteran musicians really have the chops (explain that term to the kids if you need to!).
Joe Vadala has opened for many national acts, and has performed as premier house band at the Stone Pony, and with Buzzy Linhart, Poetic Justice and other musicians.
Guitarist and vocalist, John Bushnell has played with Billy Cobham, James Cotton, Charles Collins, and other notable musicians.
Jerry Steele, on guitar, pedal steel, and vocals, has performed with EmmyLou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and with many Philly and New Jersey-based bands.
Bassist and vocalist, Dan “Dano” Miller is a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, and session player who has performed with the Pete Beck Band and the Rich Scannella Group.
Marc Hoffman is a session drummer and singer who has written and co-written songs with various recording artists and performed with a variety of bands, including Rock City.
Session player, songwriter, arranger, and producer, Dave “Squiggy” Biglin has performed with Art Garfunkel and toured nationwide.
Drummer and vocalist Anthony Krizan was lead guitarist for the Spin Doctors, and opened for the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers. He was co-writer on Lenny Kravitz’s “Stand by my Woman”, played with Jimi Hendrix’s bassist, Noel Redding, co-wrote and produced three tracks on John Waite’s EP, “Anything”, and co-wrote Waite’s, “When You Were Mine”. Krizan also performed on Poco’s, “When it All Began”.
An evening of classic rock at the 1970’s price of only 5 dollars! (You read that correctly!) Children 12 and under are free. So is parking!
And you can catch the entire multi-genre series into August: “The Taylor Swift Experience”, “Men of Steel-Earth, Wind, and Fire”. “The Players, formerly of Chicago”, and more!
So take a trip down memory lane with this summer music series, and, like “Soul Train’s” Don Cornelius said after every show: “You can bet your last money, it’s all gonna be a stone gas, honey!”
(It’s okay, kids. Go ahead and laugh at us “OGs”; we don’t mind!)
Have a great time! See you there!