Armed with an arsenal of rock classics, 38 Special aims to please.

“We want to make sure people hear every song they came to hear, whether it was ‘Back to Paradise’ from ‘The Revenge of the Nerds’ movie — we’ve got it all in there,” Don Barnes said of their live shows.

The group named after the popular revolver cartridge is loaded with hits — “Hold on Loosely,” “Caught Up in You,” “Back Where You Belong,” “If I’d Been the One,” “Second Chance,” “Fantasy Girl,” “Like No Other Night.”

“We ran into our producer about six months ago — Rodney Mills, who produced the records back in the ’80s — and he said, ‘Can you believe those little songs we cobbled together back then are still played on the radio every day till this day?’ We hadn’t expected that; that was quite a pleasant gift we hadn’t anticipated,” said Barnes, the lead singer and guitarist.

“It was because we were hungry for it. And some of those early songs, we were actually desperate, like ‘Rockin’ Into the Night’ was 1979 and I can hear that now and still hear the hunger in my voice. We had swallowed a lot of failure up to that point.”

Barnes and singer and guitarist Donnie Van Zant co-founded the band in Jacksonville, Fla.

38 Special

“We learned a lot from [Donnie’s brother] Ronnie Van Zant, the singer from Lynyrd Skynyrd, was a big mentor for the band; he was about four years older than us,” Barnes recalled during a phone call from his Virginia home. “He said, ‘Don’t try to be a clone of somebody else because it’s already been done; try to put your own influences, your own truths, things that relate to your own lives [into your music].’

“And after he was gone tragically, we took all of his words of wisdom and tried to turn things around. We realized we were more not so much Southern rock, we were more Beatles fans, we liked a lot of that British Invasion stuff. And we put a little style together that we like to call ‘melody and muscle’ — you have the snarl of the guitars in your face kind of attitude, but a good story, a good melody over it.”

The band released “Live From Texas” last summer.

“We’ve honed ourselves all these years to be kind of a premier live act across the country, bringing the party,” Barnes said. “Everybody knows 38 Special brings 110 percent, always a good time, so we wanted to put that [disc] out to have available for the fans leaving, so they can take the party home with them.”

38 Special — Barnes, Van Zant, guitarist Danny Chauncey, bassist Larry Junstrom, drummer Gary Moffatt and keyboardist Bobby Capps — will headline the Monroe County Jam at 9:30 p.m. Aug. 25. Gates open at 6 p.m. at the Monroe County Fairgrounds, 3775 S. Custer Road, when Thunderfunk will take the stage, followed by Don’t Hold Back at 7 p.m. and the Hunter Brucks Band at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25.

“We realize it’s an escape from [fans’] normal, everyday lives. They can come out and shout, holler and sing along and clap their hands, and party a little bit, have a beer or two. We’re there for that release,” Barnes said.

“You see the reactions on the faces, you see the high-fives, the clapping and singing along, sometimes tears in their eyes  — a song might remind them of someone they may have lost in the past — just seeing all that makes us want to play with as much conviction and passion as [when] we first recorded them.”

Tags: 38 Special, Donnie Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Monroe County Jam

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2012 at 8:41 am and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert, Music.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Like its forefathers The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker Band and ZZ Top, Atlanta-based quintet Blackberry Smoke contains one key ingredient: music you can feel.

“What we enjoy is music that sticks to your ribs, not just whatever might be the flavor of the moment,” Blackberry Smoke singer and guitarist Charlie Starr said.

With influences ranging from Southern rock to country and bluegrass to gospel, Blackberry Smoke will bring its soulful live show to Huntington Center on May 10 as part of its tour opening for Eric Church.

“There’s a certain quality that the Southern bands, that their music has and always will have — like The [Allman] Brothers and Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker — and it’s undeniable,” Starr said. “I mean, I’m sure there are some people who, you know, that’s not their cup of tea.

“They may be a super metalhead, but if they were to go watch The [Allman] Brothers play ‘Whipping Post,’ they wouldn’t be able to take their eyes off the stage.”

The band is rounded out by brothers Richard Turner (bass/vocals) and Brit Turner (drums), Paul Jackson (guitar/vocals) and Brandon Still (keys), who was added to the lineup in 2009, Blackberry Smoke is a group of road warriors that has shared the stage with artists like the aforementioned ZZ Top and Marshall Tucker Band on its journey, one that began when the band formed in 2000.

And on that road over the past 12 years, Blackberry Smoke has been able to make some unique friendships.

“Billy Gibbons has hung out with us so many times now, and he’s become a friend,” Starr said. “So it’s like, it’s a crazy thing to think about, I guess, now to be like, ‘Wow. When I was 13, I never would figure that I would be sitting talking about guitars with Billy Gibbons.’”

Blackberry Smoke

Much like its idols, Blackberry Smoke has worked tirelessly over the years to be able to have those experiences. The band self-released its debut album “Bad Luck Ain’t No Crime” in 2004, following it up with 2008 EP “New Honky Tonk Bootlegs” and its sophomore record “Little Piece Of Dixie” in 2009.

Blackberry Smoke’s touring included gigs with The Outlaws, Montgomery Gentry, Cross Canadian Ragweed and Zac Brown Band, the last of which has become good friends with Blackberry Smoke. Brown was such a fan that he inked the group to his Southern Ground Records label in 2011.

“In our case, he came to us right when we needed somebody most,” Starr said of Brown. “We were involved with an indie record label that sort of fell apart, and so we were like, ‘Well, here we are again. We’re going to have to pretty much start over.’

“He had already pretty much set up shop with Southern Ground Records and had some other Georgia artists signed to the label and making some records and whatnot, and so he came to us basically and said, ‘If you need a home, you got one here with us. We’d love to have ya.’”

With production help from Clay Cook, Matt Mangano and Zac Brown, the band recorded its latest album — titled “The Whippoorwill” — at Echo Mountain Recording Studio in Asheville, N.C. The bulk of the work took place in four-and-a-half days due to the group’s rigorous touring schedule, Starr said.

“It’s nasty and raucous at times and knocks your teeth out, and then there’s times where it sounds like we were on your back porch,” Starr said of “The Whippoorwill.” The album is available at Blackberry Smoke shows and will be officially released at the end of this summer.

“And adding Brandon on piano and organ, this is his first album with us, and he did just a fabulous job,” Starr said.

And while Blackberry Smoke is excited to give new material to its fans, the band is also looking forward to giving back by performing at the second annual Boot Ride this August, which features cast members from the FX series “Sons of Anarchy” and is put on by the Boot Campaign.

Started by five Texas women known as the “Boot Girls,” the Boot Campaign shows appreciation and raises awareness and funds for U.S. troops by encouraging citizens to purchase and wear the combat boots it sells.

“My dad was in Vietnam, and Brit and Richard’s — the bass player and drummer’s — father was a retired Air Force colonel,” Starr said. “And so that’s something that’s close to our hearts.”

On May 10, Blackberry Smoke will perform at a show that also features Brantley Gilbert and Eric Church at Huntington Center, 500 Jefferson Ave., Downtown. Tickets range from $40-$55 and can be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets and the Huntington Center Box Office. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit huntingtoncentertoledo.com.

Tags: Allman Brothers Band, Blackberry Smoke, Eric Church, Huntington Center, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker Band, ZZ Top

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 12:26 pm and is filed under In Concert, Music, Star.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

For two years in the mid-1990s, I watched July 4 fireworks from the steps on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The epic bursts of color and light soar over the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool on the National Mall, while 1 million people “ooh!” and “ah!” It’s a definitive experience, like spending Christmas at the North Pole or Halloween in Salem’s Lot.

Fireworks are fun, but crowds, bugs, heat and traffic are problematic for my increasingly cranky and fussy demeanor (and for 3- and 5-year-old boys who take potty breaks every 45.8 seconds, a frequency that exponentially increases the further from a potty they are). My family was fortunate this year; a friend of ours booked a room and hosted a viewing party at the Park Inn for the July 3 Downtown Toledo fireworks.

Eleven stories above Summit Street, the view to the horizon provided an amazing warm-up show. Fireworks displays in Oregon, Rossford and throughout Toledo (official and otherwise) provided a constant tableau of color and distant booms. We were at the wrong angle to see the Mud Hens’ fireworks over Fifth Third Field, but we could see the reflections and hear the cracks, roars and rumbles from that display, which we knew signaled the imminent blast of Toledo’s show.

We tuned the hotel clock radio to 94.5 ’XKR to hear the simulcast music for the fireworks. The fireworks display was a tremendous and exciting big-league effort, and the music simulcast provided an eclectic soundtrack and tribute to America’s birthday.

Blade staff writer Zoe Gorman described the music as “an All-American classic rock soundtrack,” which it kinda sorta was, excluding appearances by England’s Beatles (twice), Rolling Stones, The Who, Jeff Beck, Yes and Pink Floyd and Australia’s AC/DC (twice).

The soundtrack was produced by ’XKR’s program director, Dan McClintock. McClintock, a former Toledo Free Press contributor, is a veteran radio executive whose rocker credentials are beyond reproach.

McClintock had an unenviable task; he had to produce a July 4 mix tape for a citywide audience that stayed true to his station’s tone. Defining the success or failure of such a project is as subjective as choosing a favorite color; 1,000 people could take the challenge and none of them would produce something that would please every musical taste.

Having said that, among its many triumphs, there were — to my ears — some odd moments in the mix.

The Sunday event started with Chicago’s “Saturday in the Park” and segued to a loop repeating the title from Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.” By now, it must be common knowledge that this song does not celebrate America; it is harshly critical of its politics and failures. Either McClintock took the license to separate the words from their context, or he perpetrated a subversive and radical move by opening the fireworks with sarcastic irony. My guess is McClintock would stress the former action, but the latter theory is actually more faithful to the visions of the American Revolution.

The mix spiraled through a series of Attention Deficit Disorder edits, pulling snippets of songs that used words such as “freedom” to form a chain of staccato beats that set the aural framework.

In an email conversation, McClintock said the 22-minute mix took about 15 hours to assemble.

“94-5 ‘XKR is a Rock station but the soundtrack also really needs a wide appeal as you have an audience from eight to 88 and then some, and a lot of songs are must-haves,” McClintock wrote.

He said while he had input from sponsors and Zambelli’s Fireworks, “There really was no approval necessary. It was more like an exchange of ideas to get the right dynamics and flow.”

The mix featured a run-through of songs about America (including the Lynyrd Skynyrd staple “Sweet Home Alabama,” a song whose ambiguous racial politics have been dulled by time and repetition).

It included some great choices — “America the Beautiful” by Ray Charles, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son,” (another song that sounds patriotic but is a biting indictment of the American system — maybe McClintock was being subversive) and a slick Jimi Hendrix-to-Whitney Houston blend of “Star-Spangled Banner” versions.

Two odd moments slowed the mix to a stop. One was a segment from SSgt. Barry Sadler’s No. 1 record from 1966, “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” which related the death of the green beret. I understand the deference to sacrifice and respect the sentiment, but playing the song during a fireworks display is like playing Terry Jacks’  “Seasons in the Sun” during a wedding reception or Verve Pipe’s “The Freshmen” at a high school reunion — it’s piling on emotionally.

The mix stopped to pay respects to the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. A series of news clips and speech snippets told the story as the fireworks splashed across the sky. That was followed, not by a fight-back song by Toby Keith or a rumination such as Alan Jackson’s “Do You Remember,” but by an instrumental version of … “Over the Rainbow”?

“That’s Jeff Beck from his last studio CD,” McClintock wrote. “That was a suggestion from John Greer at Zambelli … I popped it in after the 9-11 tribute.”

Again, all of this is incredibly subjective, but the dour and dragging version of “Rainbow” just didn’t work to my ears.

There was a too-short clip from Katy Perry’s “Firework” and a nicely edited run through the armed services themes before an effective false ending and the finale. The armed services music was directly followed by Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell,” and the production ended with the theme song of fireworks sponsor The Blade, Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold”; both choices make it hard to discount that subversive thread that wove through the music.

Kudos and thanks to McClintock for taking on the project and making his “July 4 Mix tape.” It offered highs, lows, smart moves, silly moves, corny moments, emotional moments and a mixed bag of just about everything.

A lot like America herself.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: 2001, AC/DC, Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, City of Toledo, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dan McClintock, Downtown Toledo, Jeff Beck, July 4, Katy Perry, Lighting The Fuse, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Michael S. Miller, Park Inn, Pink Floyd, Ray Charles, Rolling Stones, Sept. 11, SSgt. Barry Sadler, Ted Nugent, Terry Jacks, The Who, Verve Pipe, XKR, Yes, Zambelli's Fireworks

This entry was posted on Friday, July 8th, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

“God and Guns,” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first studio release in six years, is loaded with political and survival themes, delivered with the group’s three-guitar firepower.

“This country was founded on God and guns, you know, and the Second Amendment,” said Gary Rossington, guitarist and a founding member of the Southern rock band. “We just live out in the country in Florida so you have to protect yourself from bad neighbors if there are any, snakes and gators and things like that, so we believe in guns to protect yourself. Of course, not handguns that you kill people with and run around with hidden.

“And we believe in God, and we think it was better when we used to pray in school and say the Pledge of Allegiance. We’re not really preaching it, that’s just the way we feel.”

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd has dealt with a lot of feelings the past three decades. The rockers took a 10-year break after a 1977 plane crash claimed the lives of singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines. Since then, five members have died.

While recording “God and Guns,” the group lost keyboardist Billy Powell, 56, and bassist Ean Evans, 48.

“It was kind of a healing process for us to finish the record for Billy and Ean and play as best we could,” Rossington said during a call from New York City last fall. “They were part of this album and played on some songs and were around when we were starting it, so we wanted to finish it not just for the fans but for them.”

Two songs on the disc, “Storm” and “Gifted Hands,” pay tribute to Evans and Powell, respectively.

“[Powell] was a roadie for us, believe it or not, and we got stuck at a show one night. It was a teen dance at a school, and we waited to load the equipment in the truck because it was raining real hard. So he just sat down at this piano that was in the gym where we played and said, ‘If I was to play ‘Free Bird,’ I’d play it like this,’ and he started playing all the beautiful stuff the way he had made it up; he was a classical piano player. So we fired him that night and hired him,” Rossington said.

Lynyrd Skynyrd — Rossington, lead singer Johnny Van Zant, guitarist Rickey Medlocke, guitarist Mark Matejka, bassist Robert Kearns, keyboardist Peter Keys and drummer Michael Cartellone — will play June 24 at DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, Mich., and July 8 at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls. Both shows start at 7 p.m. and will feature Bret Michaels and .38 Special. Tickets range from $22 to $65.50.

Odds are fans will hear the new song, “Skynyrd Nation.”

“Every time we look out playing live shows, there are two or three generations out there — there’s older people and their kids and then some of their kids,” Rossington said. “It’s like a ‘Skynyrd Nation ’… You pull up and people are making hot dogs and throwing footballs and playing and having barbecue tailgate parties and then they come into the show.”

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, Lynyrd Skynyrd has sold 28 million records, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Saturday Night Special” and “Gimme Three Steps” are still staples on classic rock radio.

Tags: Lynyrd Skynyrd

This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.