The Rockin Recons rock out in this recent photo. From left are Mike Asselin, Steve Pelletier, Roger Blais, Doug Royer, Dave Brissette, and Denny Blais. Submitted photo
Roger Blais and the rest of his bandmates in the Rockin’ Recons are getting ready for another upcoming gig. There’ll be regular practices right up to the performance, perfecting their timing, their tight harmonies and some new material to keep it fresh. Then hauling their instruments and equipment to the show, setting up, tuning up, sound checks. And then it’s show time!
After thousands of performances, you might think it’s getting a little old. But does rock ‘n’ roll ever really get old? Not to these guys.
“You know, there are certain songs that we know are going to kick in, like “Pretty Woman” and the old-time rock ‘n’ roll. … But the song that resonates so amazingly is “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond. Oh, my God, we play that and that crowd goes bananas. … And from that point on it just GOES, you know. And that’s our reward,” says Blais.
The early Innkeepers. Submitted photo
Blais, Dave Brissette, who also plays in the Twin Cities, and Kevin Kimball, who plays with Blue Steel Express out of southern Maine, are just a few of the ageless rockers in Maine still playing and still soaking up the energy of their fans 50 to 60 years after first falling for rock ‘n’ roll.
Some things have changed. Blais, 75, Brissette, 73 and Kimball, 70, are a bit older, a bit grayer. They’re pickier with their gigs. Longer sets and performances into the wee hours are generally a thing of the past.
But other things are still the same. They continue to work hard on their music, the quality of their playing and performances. They still mix things up and try to keep their audiences happy and growing. And they still get energized by the audience and love what they do.
In the ’60s, Blais played guitar first for the now-defunct Innkeepers in Lewiston and currently plays percussion and guitar for the Rockin’ Recons. In the early days, Brissette played guitar in the Twin Cities for the Recons and the Moon Dawgs and currently plays guitar for the Recons. Both men said that some 60-plus years on, they still find immense pleasure in performing.
“I’ll be 76 in October and we’re still marching along,” Blais said. “But it’s a hobby. It’s not a career thing. God, you definitely don’t get richer doing this deal. But it’s such a joy, too. You know, I’ve been doing this since I was 12 years old and I never thought it would extend that long.”
Kimball, who also started in the ’60s in his hometown of Sanford, emphasized the importance of doing what you love. “The wonderful thing about being an ‘aging rocker’ is that you get to pick and choose while reaping all the timeless benefits of performance,” he said.
“For me, when the band is cooking along, and the rhythm section is locked in, and the PA is set up perfectly, you feel exactly the same as you did in your youth. There’s no difference,” Kimball added.
A photo from a PAL Hop in the mid-’60s at Lewiston City Hall. Submitted photo
TEEN ROOTS
In the mid-1960s, for many young people in the Lewiston-Auburn area, Friday evenings meant getting to Lewiston City Hall and the PAL Hop. Picture a Friday afternoon in the spring of 1964: School just got out, and after a couple of errands or chores around the house, the only thing better to do than listen to ‘Meet The Beatles!’ for the umpteenth time was to head to City Hall and see if you can get into the PAL Hop.
The Police Athletic League’s Friday night dances took place weekly at the performance hall located in the city building. From the spring of 1964 to the winter of 1967, for many southern and western Mainers, Lewiston City Hall was a beacon for music lovers and social butterflies.
The early Moondawgs. Submitted photo
What began as a typical youth dance night blossomed into a cultural phenomenon, hosting 1,500 to 2,000 attendees every week for three years. The highly anticipated Friday night festivities featured music mainly by six local bands: The Innkeepers, Rockin’ Recons, The Moon Dawgs, The Royal Knights, The Travelers, and Terry and The Telstars. For band members, it was a stage where dreams played out, and where friendships forged in music endured for decades.
“That was over 2,000 people and it was like that nearly every week for three years,” Blais said. For musicians in those days, “It was a goal for kids to want to learn to play music, and if you have the talent to be accepted at the PAL Hop, you have arrived. It was like being on the ‘Ed Sullivan Show.’”
The Hop’s short-lived run came to an end the day after Thanksgiving in 1967 when a fight that broke out on the dance floor turned into a riot, causing much damage to the historic building. That night’s final act, The Innkeepers, continued playing through much of the chaos until police put the kibosh on festivities.
Brissette formed the Rockin’ Recons at just 10 years old with the late Bobby Blais. He agreed that the PAL Hops days were beyond compare. Brissette eventually bailed to play with The Moon Dawgs. It was a sore spot for a while, but the bands didn’t count on the camaraderie that would develop among Lewiston musicians over the years. Driven by a desire to keep playing after Dawgs founder Bobby Blais passed away, Brissette rejoined The Rockin’ Recons in 2016.
Mid-career Moondawgs. Submitted photo
“You’ve got to understand, there were so many damn musicians in Lewiston. This was a musical hub during the (old) days and all those different bands we had,” Brissette reminisced. “Can you really beat it?”
“I just wanted to keep playing,” he added, referring to his work with various bands.
After the PAL Hop days, The Moon Dawgs ended up touring and traveling around the region and in Canada, opening for big names like the Dave Clark Five, Freddie and The Dreamers, and the Kingsmen. While members of the many Maine bands of the 1960s dreamed of making it big, everyone started from somewhere, and the bar most set was a Kingsmen classic. “If you can’t play ‘Louie, Louie,’” Brissette said, laughing, “well, you’re out.”
Blais said The Innkeepers played up and down the New England coast, in New York, at the Montreal 1967 World’s Fair, and served as opening act for The Four Seasons, Gary Lewis and The Playboys, Mitch Ryder, and The Doors. While trying to hit it big down on Long Island, a friend got the group set up with a handful of gigs. At one of those gigs, Blais said, the group was told they would be opening for a “big band.”
“This guy walks up to me and he says, ‘You did a great job on our songs.’ I go, ‘Who the hell are you?’ ‘Oh, I’m Neil Diamond,’ he says. I almost peed my pants.”
Kevin Kimball and Deb Danuski of Blue Steel Express perform at the Maine Blues Festival in Lisbon. Blue Steel Express photo
FROM PAL HOPS TO THE BLUES
Kimball, co-founder of the Maine Blues Festival and guitarist for Blue Steel Express, never performed at the PAL Hop in Lewiston, but his musical journey has been long, rich and varied. “And I never really stopped to be honest with you,” he said.
Kevin Kimball, right, and Jim Palmer of Blue Steel Express perform at the Portland Lobster Company. Blue Steel Express photo
As bands on the PAL Hop scene continued rolling with the times — and morphing throughout the years — Kimball began carving out a musical path of his own. Like Blais and Brissette, Kimball’s performances brought him all over New England and beyond. He said one of his greatest achievements was co-founding the Maine Blues Festival.
The festival, which played in Naples for 16 years, has been held in Lisbon in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kimball continues rocking out with Blue Steel Express, which he formed over three decades ago. He began playing guitar around age 15 and, after about a year, switched to bass for his father’s Dixieland and ragtime band.
“He walked into my room and he says, ‘I need a bass player. Do you think you can handle it?’ And I said, ‘Oh, yeah, sure,’” Kimball said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, God. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna get fired from my own father’s band.’ So I buckled down and learned. … It made such a difference in my adolescence. Certainly it was a bonding experience with my father.”
Kimball played pubs and cocktail parties throughout his high school years and, after, “bounced around in a couple little bands” as a guitarist. He said that once he “grew up” and got married, his father began easing up on gigs, which came as a relief to his mother, who wasn’t a fan of their musical gallivanting.
Kimball joined the U.S. Navy and served for 20 years, playing from time to time all over the world. While stationed at Brunswick Naval Air Station in the late 1970s, he reconnected with a few Sanford friends and snagged enough gigs to play five days a week, keeping his love of music and performance alive.
‘IT’S PRETTY AMAZING’
The Vietnam War broke up many bands in the late 1960s and early 1970s. And the expected mortal hiccups of older age have taken others from the local rock ‘n’ roll scene. But the diehards play on. Blais, Brissette, and the Rockin’ Recons rehearse every week. And every Friday, Brissette and one or two Recon members join with the late Terry McCarthy’s Telstars members for jam sessions.
In 2010, the Innkeepers made a one-night comeback as the first of six acts in a concert billed as “The PAL Hop Rocks Again Reunion 2010,” bringing nearly 3,000 attendees and reuniting many of their contemporaries.
The music, the performing, the camaraderie and the audiences inspire these ageless rockers to not only keep playing but keep innovating.
“We usually draw an older crowd because we play older music,” said Blais. “But what’s happening now is that we have much younger people that come and see us. So now, what do we do? We bump it up a little bit to the ’80s (music) little bit. So we’re trying to accommodate as much as we can.”
It’s all worth it, says Blais.
Mid-career Rockin’ Recons. Submitted photo
“The guys in the band, they enjoy the music, they enjoy the company, they enjoy the excitement that brings people out to watch them and dance, or just sit there and hear them, you know. So that’s our thing. We enjoy the crowd.
“And they are so wonderful to us. They come in early. And you know, we have to fight to take a pee, man, because they want us to play like, you know, three hours straight. We gotta go to bathroom once in a while! Guys, just give us 10 minutes, that’s all we need.
“So you know, it’s pretty amazing,” he said. “We do enjoy it.”
Blais, the well-liked, long-time owner of Roger’s Haircutters in Auburn until his recent retirement, doesn’t hesitate when asked how long he figures he’ll continue playing.
“As long as I can. As long as I don’t start slurring and peeing my pants. Yes, I’ll keep going as long as I can, you know. I’ll wear a diaper if I have to. I don’t care.”
Copy the Story Link
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66b95fe03cb84d48b9881b4e7084039b&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sunjournal.com%2F2024%2F08%2F11%2Fageless-rockers-its-rock-n-roll-not-rockin-chairs-for-these-maine-musicians-still-playing-a-half-century-later%2F&c=7469015271168769327&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-08-10 21:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
