Country Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash Revisits Roots of Father and Childhood with “The River & the Thread”

The music and spirit of the American South will make an impression on the State College area as country music star Rosanne Cash will perform at Penn State’s Eisenhower Auditorium April 9. The beloved singer-songwriter has recorded 15 albums over an amazing career that has lasted nearly four decades, winning the hearts of fans nationwide.

Now, the 59 year-old from Memphis, Tennessee has captured the attention of both fans and music critics with a record that revisits some of the most important places in Cash’s family history, including those of her legendary father, Johnny Cash. Released in 2014, the critically-acclaimed “The River & the Thread” includes 11 original songs by Cash and her long-time collaborator, and husband, John Leventhal.

 

“The River & the Thread” evokes the American South’s rich, historic landscape – physically, but also musically, and in turn emotionally as well. The songs portray a multigenerational cast of characters – from a Civil War soldier off to fight in Virginia, to a New Deal-era farmer in Arkansas, to a present-day couple in Alabama. The album's unique sound, which draws from country, blues, gospel, and rock, reflects the soulful blend of music that traces its history to the region. 

In February, the album won Cash three Grammy Awards, sweeping the categories it was nominated for: “Best Americana Album,” “Best American Roots Song,” “Best American Roots Performance” for the song “A Feather’s Not a Bird.”  

A legendary artist in her own right, Cash recently spoke with the Centre Daily Times about her new album, her family’s roots, and her other endeavors as well.

CDT: You’re making your Center for the Performing Arts debut here at Penn State. What can audiences expect to hear in concert?

Cash: I am performing all of “The River and The Thread,” and choosing songs from my older catalog to add to the show. I always perform “Seven Year Ache.” I went years without performing “Blue Moon with Heartache” and now I’m performing it again. I do some songs from “The List,” because people want to hear them. The other songs – I switch up.

CDT: What artists left an early impression on you and influenced your music, whether listening to the radio or seeing live performances?

Cash: When I was young I studied lyrics by Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, Joni Mitchell, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell and, of course, my dad. In my 20s, I put myself around great songwriters and listened to them talk about their principles, work ethic, mechanics of songwriting, and their love for the form, and it was tremendously inspiring.

CDT: Throughout your career you’ve collaborated with a number of other country legends, including Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, and Kris Kristofferson, and rock artists like Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello. Do you have a favorite memory from those experiences, and is there anyone you would like to work with that you haven’t?

Cash: For this record we wanted all the guests to be from the South or connected to the South, given the theme of the record. Most of the guests were already friends – Kris Kristofferson is like my older brother. Of course we also tried to match artists with the right song. John Paul White’s haunting voice was just perfect for “Etta’s Tune.”

CDT: With a recording career that has lasted nearly four decades you have achieved many accolades, including 21 top forty country singles, eleven of which reached number one, multiple Grammy Awards and nominations, and gold records. What has been the most satisfying for you and what do you think is the defining element to your career?

Cash: I don’t look at it that way. I feel very satisfied with this record and excited about doing good work. But it’s just as important to keep working, keep learning and keep things new to myself.

CDT: Aside from being a musician and songwriter you have also added the status of author to your impressive resume, writing short stories and penning two books, including your autobiography “Composed: A Memoir” in 2010. What has that process been like for you as compared to songwriting?

Cash: It’s all from the same pool. Writing prose is, I admit, more taxing, but it lets me expand on themes, let go of rhyme, find subtler ‘melodies’, and use language in a different way. I do think I’ve become a better lyricist by writing prose. But I don’t separate the two. I’m a writer, period.

CDT: Released in 2014, your recent album “The River & the Thread” is a collaboration with your husband John Leventhal, who produced, arranged and played guitar on the record. It’s a collection of songs that take a journey through the American South and visit your father’s childhood home in Dyess, Arkansas, as well as your own early childhood home in Memphis, Tennessee. How did it feel to go back to your roots and revisit those very special places in your family’s history? 

Cash: Going down south so many times in the last few years for various reasons opened my eyes – and heart – to the understanding that home and geography and connection to the people in your past are very big concepts, not just a string of facts. These were life-changing experiences. And they felt deeply familiar and resonant. I realized I carried a bit of Memphis with me all the time. Both my parents are Southerners, and my musical connections also tie me there. But I've never considered myself southern because I grew up in a very different ‘South’ – Southern California. 

CDT: As a musician, what has recording music and performing for an audience done for you personally and professionally? What goals do you still hope to achieve?

Cash: This has been a great year for me. I feel I wrote my best songs, made my best record, and it has been received in a way that has been deeply satisfying. The shows have been special for me. On a personal front, my daughter Carrie got married this past year and it was one of the greatest days of my life! Looking ahead, I am collaborating on writing with different people, singing as a guest on some records, and I wrote a piece for National Geographic about the Sunken Lands, which should be out later this year. 

Three Dog Night “Celebrates” Legacy and Honors Late Friend and Bandmate

Three Dog Night, one of rock and roll’s most successful groups of the late 1960s and early 1970s, is still bringing their classic blend of rock and blue-eyed soul to the stage each and every night.

Originally formed in Los Angeles in 1968, the legendary music icons are known for their creative arrangements and interpretations, with numerous hit songs like “One,” “Easy to Be Hard,” “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” “Joy to the World,” “Black and White,” “An Old Fashioned Love Song,” “Shambala,” and many more.


Led by lead vocalists, Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron, the band registered 21 consecutive Billboard Top 40 hits between 1969 and 1975, a record that still stands today. Three of those hits made it to the number one spot. The group earned 12 gold albums, sold over 40 million records, and also helped to introduce mainstream audiences to the work of many songwriters, including Paul Williams, Hoyt Axton, Laura Nyro, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, and Leo Sayer.

Born in Buncrana, Donegal, Ireland in 1942, Hutton came over to the United States at the age of four. After living in Boston for several years, Hutton and his family relocated to Los Angeles when he was twelve. Beginning his childhood in Ireland gave Hutton the early exposure that would prove beneficial to developing his craft and eventual career in music.

“Everybody creates their own music in Ireland; it’s kind of the national spirit there,” he said. “All of my aunts and uncles played and sang, and my mother sang and played mandolin. We’d have these family gatherings and everybody would get up and sing or recite a poem or play an instrument. So I’ve been around it all my life.”

Hutton, 72, eventually began his musical career as a producer and writer for Hanna-Barbera Records in 1964. His job was to get all the happening acts he could find on the street. When he couldn’t find an act, Hutton would go into the studio and write a song, sing the lead on it, and then sing the three-part harmonies. Hutton soon became a singer and songwriter and scored a modest national hit in 1965 with “Roses and Rainbows,” a song that was featured in an episode of the The Flintstones, with Hutton cast in the cartoon singing on television.

In time, the pieces for Three Dog Night began to come together in 1967, as Hutton met Wells and auditioned Negron – forming a vocal trio named Redwood, produced by the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.


L-R: Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton in 1969.
 

“Eventually our manager helped us get the guys to form the group, so we became more of a band instead of a vocal trio,” Hutton said. “People don’t realize that at the time it was very different to have three lead singers – nobody had done that. And the guys in the band were such good musicians, and they all could sing too. When we did the vocals for the choruses, it was a pretty mighty sound.”

Released in 1969, “Celebrate,” one of Three Dog Night’s signature songs, prominently features all three singers taking turns on lead vocals.


Hutton, Negron, and Wells in 1975.

Keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon, bassist Joe Schermie, drummer Floyd Sneed, and guitarist Michael Allsup rounded out the original band. Today, along with Allsup, and founding members Hutton and Wells, bassist Paul Kingery and drummer Pat Bautz complete the band’s current lineup.

On March 11, Greenspoon passed away at the age of 67 after a brief but valiant battle with cancer. Greenspoon took a medical leave of absence from the band last October to pursue treatment for metastatic melanoma.

“I will be forever shattered by his death,” said Cory Wells, in an official statement from the band. “Jimmy cared so much about excellence in the music and always made sure we had what we needed on stage and in the recording studio. I will miss my fellow Aquarian brother and will keep him in my heart forever.”

“He was like a brother to me, I knew him since he was just a teenager and he was my oldest friend in the band,” states Hutton. “Also, Jimmy was a critical part of our early history, bringing a sound to the band that helped develop our style. He left an indelible mark.”

 

The band plans to continue their 2015 touring schedule and honor their late friend and long-time bandmate. Eddie Reasoner, who came on board during Greenspoon’s leave, now takes over on keyboards.

With two of the three original lead singers remaining in the band, that one aspect alone is vital to keeping the original sound of Three Dog Night intact. “Cory has this incredible blues voice that’s really hard to duplicate,” Hutton said. “But we pretty much could have sung each of the other guy’s songs. We have a bass player who is also a great guitar player, and he does high harmony parts on a lot of the songs. You get the personality of the original records from our voices. We haven’t changed the keys in the songs, so we sound like the records.”

Though they didn’t typically write their own songs, Three Dog Night didn’t cover other artists’ hits either; rather they selected the more obscure songs and arranged them in their own way that suited the band and their three lead voices. They championed songwriters by taking their songs and essentially making them their own. They all knew that when they heard something it had potential, and they were all on the same wavelength.   

“I don’t think we ever covered anybody – I always called it resurrecting,” Hutton said. “Being a great songwriter doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with being a good arranger. Sometimes we would get songs that weren’t hits and we’d resurrect them and get the arrangements right and turn them into hits. So that’s what I feel we did. We would get a song and it wouldn’t be personal to us, so we would cut out words, change the verses and move it around. We would do all the things that most people would never do.”

L-R: Cory Wells, Paul Kingery, Michael Allsup, Danny Hutton, Pat Bautz, and the late Jimmy Greenspoon.

Whether recording in the studio or performing live on stage, Three Dog Night were and still are all real musicians and singers, crafting songs that continue to stand the test of time. “They have good melodies, good choruses, and the lyrics in general are about emotions – emotions never get dated,” Hutton said. “We weren’t political, and that usually puts a real date on your songs. We had big choruses, performed well; and even if you’re singing in a different language and people don’t know what you’re saying, they know good singing and they know good harmonies – and we had that.”

After nearly 50 years in the music business, Hutton considers himself very lucky to just be in good health and doing what he loves to do. “What it does and what it’s done is given me a wonderful life,” he said. “I just feel like we come on a good night and we are the party in that town. With the kind of show that we do – at the end of the night, people usually leave and they’re smiling and singing, and they’re happy. It’s wonderful to have that magic.”

Creedence Clearwater Revisited Still Carrying On the Music and Defining Generations

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, a band named Creedence Clearwater Revival flooded the radio airwaves and entertained audiences worldwide, cranking out hit after hit with their unique blend of rock, country, and rhythm and blues.

CCR broke up in 1972, but the classic sound of that legendary group has been reborn through a reincarnation also known as CCR, now renamed Creedence Clearwater Revisited.

The band features the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rhythm section from the original CCR, Stu Cook on bass and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford on drums.



Creedence Clearwater Revisited L-R: Kurt Griffey, John Tristao, Stu Cook, Doug Clifford, and Steve Gunner. 

Creedence Clearwater Revival are best known for their classic hit songs “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Green River,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?,” among many others.

Originally formed in Northern California in 1967, CCR featured lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford. Despite their San Francisco Bay Area origins, CCR portrayed a Southern rock style, with songs containing lyrics about bayous, catfish, the Mississippi River, and other popular elements of Southern American life. Since the group disbanded more than 40 years ago, CCR has remained a staple of American classic rock radio.     

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Cook’s early musical influences included artists like Ray Charles, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Ricky Nelson – all the early pioneers of rock and roll. San Francisco eventually became famous for the “Summer of Love” in the 1960s, but in the 1950s, the Bay Area had a very diverse culture and a great radio scene, where you could hear country music at night and rhythm and blues all day long.

“We had a lot of opportunities to explore out of pop radio,” Cook said. “Back in the ‘50s, there were small local labels that represented a lot of rhythm and blues artists, and a lot of small venues for people to experience the music live. It was a great place to get my musical education.”

That musical education led to the formation of a diverse band that incorporated a number of different styles into its repertoire. CCR’s influence can still be heard in many genres today, including southern rock, grunge, roots rock, and blues. “It’s just basic American music,” Cook said. “It’s blues-flavored but you have some country in there, and even a little Caribbean-flavored. We touched a lot of different bases with the Creedence sound.”

Many bands today still carry on the sound and influence of the original CCR in one genre or another, but it’s not really something that Cook or his bandmates consciously think about. “I’m not really listening for it, because the music of CCR to me is really the music of Chuck Berry, and all the people that we grew up listening to – with some Merle Haggard and some Buck Owens thrown in,” he said. “It’s drawn from all kinds of American music that came before us.”



Creedence Clearwater Revival L-R: Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and John Fogerty in 1968.

Creedence Clearwater Revival had tremendous success in a very short period of time. From 1969 to 1971, CCR had five Top Ten albums, and nine Top Ten singles, including five singles that reached No. 2 without ever scoring a No. 1 single, a record for an artist. They seemed to be one of those bands that was in the right place at the right time. America was in the midst of the Vietnam War and people needed music that defined that true American spirit. This among other things contributed to the band’s growing popularity, something that perhaps only fans from that era can attest to.

“I can’t really say for sure because I’m on the inside – that question is better asked of people on the outside,” Cook said. “I’m sure you’d get a thousand different answers; but for me the music was straight ahead, simple and honest. You could feel that it was from the heart rather than constructed. Fogerty wrote some great songs for the band, plus we had a ton of support from radio. AM radio, and then later FM radio took up the slack and got the music out to the audience and soon they became fans.”

Interestingly enough, many younger people may not realize that Creedence Clearwater Revival performed at the Woodstock Music Festival in August 1969. The band was to headline on Saturday night but did not get on stage until early Sunday morning. CCR was the first act to sign up for the concert, but unfortunately the band was not included in the documentary film that was made about the three-day music festival. John Fogerty was not happy with the band’s performance and did not want them included.

“I’ve listened to the recordings and the performances are quite good,” Cook said. “Not being in the movie was a big mistake because we were riding high at the time and it couldn’t have done anything but helped our career. But there is 15 minutes of audio and video on a bonus DVD for the 40^th anniversary reissue of Woodstock.”  

After CCR broke up in 1972, the members went their separate ways, as John Fogerty pursued a solo career and had success with his hit album “Centerfield” in 1985. Cook and Clifford then played in various bands, most notably the group Southern Pacific in the 1980s, where Cook was joined by Doobie Brothers John McFee and Keith Knudsen. Founding member Tom Fogerty, John’s older brother, passed away in 1990 at the age of 48.

The music of CCR seemed to be in the past, until the band’s classic sound was resurrected one day in 1995. Cook and Clifford were hanging out, living in a small Sierra Nevada town and found themselves with too much time on their hands, so they decided to put a band together.

“It just kind of came out of wanting to get back in the business,” Cook said. “We didn’t have an album, and we didn’t have a plan. We just sort of threw it out there and wanted to see if anybody cared.”

After they formed the band, Creedence Clearwater Revisited began touring, performing the old CCR songs for audiences worldwide. The band’s current lineup consists of Cook on bass and backing vocals, Clifford on drums and percussion, John Tristao on lead vocals, Steve Gunner on keyboards, guitar and backing vocals, and Kurt Griffey on lead guitar.

When Cook and the band first started playing live, they were quite surprised at how young the audience had become. Now 20 years later, there are more Creedence fans than ever – even more than when the original band was enjoying their brief successful run of hits back in the late 1960s.

“We’ve got three solid generations of fans now, and we’re working on a fourth,” Cook said. “It’s thrilling to see that so many young people enjoy listening to the music. When radio got broken up into different formats, the creation of classic rock really helped focus for the fans where to find the music. So that worked out great for us.”

Cook sees Creedence Clearwater Revisited for the most part as a live performance project and says the band really has no interest in going into the studio and adding to the great catalogue that is Creedence. “We’re trying to stick to our original premise, which is to take the music to the fans again and have some fun,” he said. “We just want to go out and play the music, have some fun, have successful concerts, a good time with our fans, and go to the next town and do it again.”

After refusing to relive the music of his past for many years, original lead singer John Fogerty began to perform the songs live that he had written for the band as well in 1997. Many times there are rifts in rock and roll bands and CCR is certainly no exception. A reunion is not likely to happen, but the various members have come to accept what they cannot change and are now looking to the future.

“Nobody has ever stopped John from singing the songs, and I’m still not stopping him – he can sing what he wants to sing,” Cook said. “What we’re trying to do is honor and celebrate the music of the band, and that means we have to go out there and play great every night. We hold ourselves to pretty high standards, so it’s up to us to do the job.”

Grammy-winning artist Amy Grant Grateful and Blessed for Life in Music

American singer-songwriter Amy Grant is perhaps best known for performing Christian music, gaining fame in the 1980s with hits such as “Father’s Eyes,” “El-Shaddai,” and “Angels.” Grant later found success in mainstream pop music as well, releasing the 5x platinum album “Heart in Motion” in 1991, which yielded the hits “Baby, Baby,” “Every Heartbeat,” and “I Will Remember You.” Grant has collaborated and recorded with numerous well-known artists, including fellow Christian singer-songwriter and friend Michael W. Smith. She remains the best-selling contemporary Christian music singer ever, having sold over 30 million records worldwide.

 

Born in Augusta, Georgia, the Nashville resident grew up loving everything that was on the radio and was constantly sneaking her older sisters’ records out of their room and into hers. She loved Joni Mitchell, Carole King, James Taylor, the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and Elvis Presley. “Everything was new then,” Grant said. “Pop music was totally unexplored, and then there was the British invasion with the Beatles, and also Blood, Sweat and Tears.”

Recently, Grant and her husband, country singer-songwriter Vince Gill, were going through their LP collection and listened to one of Blood, Sweat and Tears’ early records. She hadn’t realized that the record was produced by James William Guercio, who owned Caribou Ranch, a recording studio near Nederland, Colorado that was heavily damaged by a fire and shut down in March 1985. Many famous artists had recorded at the studio, including the jazz-rock group Chicago, which recorded five albums there in the 1970s.

In the fall of 1981, Grant recorded her first album at Caribou Ranch, “Age to Age,” which was released in the spring of 1982. Guercio, the former Chicago manager/producer, stopped in the studio while Grant was recording the gospel album. “I remember Jim coming into the studio, and he said, ‘this record is going to sell a million copies,’” she said. “And I hadn’t even done more than 25 percent of it. I said ‘you’re off your rocker.’” But the album did sell a million copies and became one of the fastest-selling Christian albums ever released. Featuring the single “El-Shaddai,” the album became certified platinum and was named Gospel Album of the 1980s by Billboard magazine. Grant would record three more albums at Caribou and was set to record a fifth album there the day the studio was destroyed.

In 1985, Grant released “Unguarded,” an album that surprised fans with its very mainstream sound. The hit single “Find a Way,” became the first non-Christmas Christian song to hit the Billboard Top 40 list, also reaching No. 7 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album gave Grant more exposure and the music world began to take notice of her talents as a pop singer as well.

Ironically, one year later in 1986, Grant was visiting a college friend in Atlanta, when she got a phone call from a record producer whom she had met before, Michael Omartian. Omartian was producing a solo album for former Chicago lead singer and bassist Peter Cetera. Grant had never worked with Omartian before, but he asked her if she would do a song with Cetera. “Chicago was at the top of their game, and Peter, he was doing some solo work and I remember thinking, ‘Why did he call me?’” she said. “I was completely knocked sideways. I thought, ‘How in the world did I get invited to this party?’ I just said ok. I just couldn’t believe it.”

“The Next Time I Fall” was released from Cetera’s album “Solitude/Solitaire,” and the duet became a No. 1 hit in the fall of 1986. It was Grant’s first foray into the secular music field, after scoring several No. 1 singles in Contemporary Christian music previously. This eventually led Grant to change direction and crossover into pop music, and in the process, widening her fan base and making her a household name.

Throughout the 1990s, Grant continued her success in pop music, with the albums “Heart in Motion” (1991), featuring Grant’s second No. 1 hit “Baby, Baby,” “House of Love” (1994), and “Behind the Eyes” (1997). In 2002, Grant returned to her roots, releasing an album of hymns titled “Legacy…Hymns and Faith.”

In 2013, Grant released her first full-length album of all new material in 10 years, “How Mercy Looks from Here.” The album was inspired by a conversation Grant had with her mother just a couple months before she died in April 2011. Though her mother was suffering from dementia, her advice to her daughter to sing songs that mattered compelled Grant to do an album of songs where each one tells a different story. “I had songs that I had written years earlier, and I got to just sort of cherry-pick what I thought were the best things from the five or six years prior to that,” she said. “But I just feel like the history behind each of the songs mattered. I’ve had great response to the record.”

Whether recording gospel or pop albums, performing duets or singing solo, Grant feels truly blessed to have the success she’s had, and all of the people with whom she’s worked with who have made it all possible. “I guess it’s fair to say that I love making music, but I’ve never felt like I was steering my career,” she said. “I felt like I just sort of happily wound up in some really magical places.”

At 53, Grant feels she has had her run and she has loved every minute of it. But what gets her heart racing more than anything is knowing that it’s her turn to lift up the people coming after her. In the same way that she applied her creativity to making music, Grant is just trying to open up her mind and look at the resources that she has.

“My life and especially my recording career, has been so impacted by people who let me dream and supported those dreams,” Grant said. “And I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but what I look forward to the most is pouring my energy into the dreams of artists coming after me. And all of that possibility is thrilling for me.”

As it does in music, Grant believes that nothing happens with anything in life unless you start talking about it, say it, and open yourself up for direction. “I guess that’s what I’m really anticipating most,” she said. “I want to give back and pour encouragement into young artists.”

Violin Remains Distinctive Element in Sound and Success of Kansas

The 1970s may be mostly identified as an era for iconic singer-songwriters, but the decade also became known for its progressive, album-oriented American rock bands that would dominate the rock music scene well into the 1980s.

A fixture of Classic Rock radio and known for their hit singles “Carry On Wayward Son,” “Dust in the Wind,” and “Point of Know Return,” Kansas has produced eight gold albums, three sextuple-Platinum albums, and played to sold-out arenas and stadiums throughout North America, Europe and Japan.  

Kansas first formed in 1970 in their hometown of Topeka, Kansas. Early incarnations of the band performed under different names and included Phil Ehart on drums and percussion and guitarist Rich Williams, both of whom remain with the group today. The band evolved even further as it began to adopt its own identity, as later additions to the band included lead vocalist Steve Walsh, guitarist Kerry Livgren, and bassist David Hope.

In 1974, the band released their self-titled debut album, an album that defined the band’s signature sound, a mix of American-style boogie rock and complex, symphonic arrangements with changing time signatures. In 1976, Kansas rose to national prominence with their fourth album, “Leftoverture,” which spawned the band’s first hit single, “Carry On Wayward Son.” Their follow-up album, “Point of Know Return” in 1977, brought Kansas even more success. The record produced the top ten certified gold single, “Dust in the Wind,” which peaked at #6 and helped the band to appear on the Billboard charts for over 200 weeks throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The band’s continued success carried over into the 1980s, with more of a pop approach than the band’s previous recordings. The album “Power” was released in 1986, yielding the #19 pop hit “All I Wanted,” the last Kansas single to hit the Billboard Top 40 chart.

Violinist Robby Steinhardt provided a distinctive element to the group’s sound, being defined more by heartland rock than the jazz and classical influences which had been followed by most rock violinists. After leaving Kansas in 1982, Steinhardt fronted his own band. He later returned in 1996, only to leave a second time in 2006. During his departure from Kansas, violinist David Ragsdale replaced Steinhardt. Over the years the band has had a revolving door, but Ragsdale now seems to be a permanent fixture in the current lineup performing the classic repertoire of Kansas songs. The band’s current lineup includes, Ehart, Williams, Ragsdale, Billy Greer on bass, Ronnie Platt on lead vocals and keyboards, and the group’s former lighting director David Manion on keyboards. 

Growing up in Columbus, Georgia, Ragsdale began playing the violin at a very young age. Though he was much more interested in the guitar than the violin, Ragsdale soon realized how many good guitar players there were, so he thought it may not be a bad idea to go back to the violin and have both. Ironically, it was the band Kansas that attracted Ragsdale back to the violin.

“When I was a junior in high school I was driving down in Columbus and heard Kansas for the first time on the radio, and it was the song ‘Can I Tell You,’” he said. “It was a rock band playing a rock song with a violin, and it was rocking. I thought ‘this is pretty cool.’”

Ragsdale, 56, graduated from the University of Tulsa and played in the Tulsa Philharmonic. After playing with Louise Mandrell in Nashville, he joined Kansas in 1991. After years of touring, Ragsdale decide to take a break, leaving the band in 1996, before rejoining them in 2007.

Ragsdale defines the band’s distinctive sound and believes the violin to be the one instrument that makes everything work. “It’s made a couple of elements really accessible to Kansas that might not come as easily to bands that don’t have that texture,” he said. “There’s that early American, pre-Civil War violin melody or element that is introduced there, along with massive symphonic arrangements. Kerry Livgren listened extensively to symphonic music and borrowed heavily from it. The violin is an instrument admirably suited to those contributions.”

This past July, Steve Walsh announced his retirement from the band after 41 years. His last performance with Kansas was at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Sioux City, Iowa on August 16. Though the band has soldiered on and wishes him only the best in his future endeavors, Ragsdale and his bandmates know it’s impossible to replace a legendary vocalist like Walsh.

“Well, you don’t replace Steve Walsh – he is succeeded,” Ragsdale said. “But we were very fortunate. Ronnie Platt is our new singer, and he is outstanding. I don’t believe we have missed a beat yet.”

In 2009, Kansas celebrated their 35^th Anniversary with a symphonic concert in their hometown of Topeka, Kansas, accompanied by the Washburn University Symphony Orchestra. Inspired by this live performance and its DVD release, Kansas conducted their “Collegiate Symphony Tour” from 2010-2012, performing their hits accompanied by various college and university symphonies throughout the United States.

“More than anything we were doing it as a fundraiser for the music departments of those universities,” Ragsdale said. “The kids in those orchestras were just so excited to be doing it. It was very rewarding, and it worked out really well.”

This year marks Kansas’ 40^th year in the business, and they were rewarded with induction into both the Kansas Hall of Fame and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, recognizing their career achievements for both their native state and adopted home state. 

With the days of performing before thousands of people in large stadiums long gone, Ragsdale appreciates the intimacy that a small theater provides for the artist, and for the fans. “It’s my favorite venue – the small theater. It’s what I really enjoy,” he said. “The acoustics are always great. It doesn’t bounce around and turn it into a gymnasium like the large venues do. The people are right there where you can get at them. You can make eye contact, you can feed off of them, and there’s an energy exchange that starts to happen between the band and the audience that’s an awful lot of fun when it gets going.”

At this point in his career, Ragsdale seems to be taking everything in stride by just working hard on his craft every day. “I just want to get better as a violinist,” he said. “I still want to go a little further – as far as I can go. I’m certainly not thinking about retirement or anything even remotely like it. As long as I can do it and continue to improve, that’s enough.”

One of the most exciting things for Ragsdale and his bandmates is seeing parents who grew up with their music now bringing their kids to the shows. “You can pick out one guy – one 14-15 year old kid and watch him just be absorbed in what’s going on,” he said. “I feel that it has largely to do with the fact that today’s popular music so excludes music. There aren’t any musicians, everything is programmed, everything is sequenced, the vocals are all auto-tuned, and there’s no musical exploration. Here all of a sudden are these guys up on stage playing things he’s never seen before, and it’s so fun to watch.”

Knowing there are benefits and pitfalls to what he does for a living, Ragsdale feels extremely fortunate when he observes the world around him. “That question is most easily answered by me anytime I get into a traffic jam,” he said. “I look around and think about the people who are in this traffic jam at this time every day, every single day. I get to avoid that by and large. What we do is tedious but it’s very cool. Compared to what else I could be doing, this is pretty good.”

Ageless Crooner Tony Bennett Has Still Got It After Six-Decade Career in Music

After a six-decade recording career that has seen him become one of the most celebrated performers of our time, Tony Bennett has proven that time truly does stand still for some.

The ageless crooner gave an amazing performance Thursday night in Williamsport in front of a packed Community Arts Center, filled with fans of all ages, proving that Bennett’s music and popularity have truly transcended multiple generations.

The evening began with a performance by Bennett’s lovely daughter Antonia, who paid tribute to her father on a number of tunes.

A nice touch was added to the show as the jazz and pop singer was introduced by an old recording of Frank Sinatra’s voice. Backed by a lineup of stellar musicians, Bennett sang many old favorites, including “Because of You,” “Just the Way You Look Tonight,” “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “For Once in My Life,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” and of course his signature song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

 

At 87 years old, Bennett proved that he can still belt it out with the best of them. His vocal range after all of these years is absolutely astounding, going from smooth and low to powerful and soaring, all in one line of a song.

Many of his songs received standing ovations, as the audience and myself were not only in awe of his singing, but of his energy and stamina, as the crooner still showed some nifty dance steps during a few numbers.

Bennett performed a number of encores, walking off the stage several times, and fooling the audience and myself that he was finished for the evening. Lo and behold, the singer would return back onto the stage for another go at it, showing his sense of humor as well.

Tony Bennett’s performance on this night was truly entertaining, but also inspiring. He has said that he still performs for all the same reasons he did when he began his amazing musical journey; and he shows no signs of slowing down. Bennett believes that performing for people is a noble profession to be in, and he wants people to forget their problems and leave the show feeling good. For as long as Bennett has been performing, it is clearly evident that being on stage after all of these years is still making him feel good too.

Ageless Jazz and Pop Singer Tony Bennett Still Going Strong at 87

Well known for popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz, legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett is perhaps best known for his signature song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” recorded in 1962.

Still hip with audiences young and old at age 87, the iconic pop and jazz crooner has performed for more years and at a higher level of excellence than perhaps any other artist in popular American music. Bennett reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as “The Beat of My Heart” and “Basie Swings, Bennett Sings” with the Count Basie Orchestra. His career then suffered a downturn during the height of the rock music era, but regained popularity in the late 1980s and ‘90s. Most recently, Bennett has experienced a kind of a renaissance, after his various duet albums with modern rock singers.

During his illustrious six-decade career, Bennett has won 17 Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and has sold over 50 million records worldwide. Aside from music, Bennett is also an accomplished painter, with works on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in New York City.

 

Bennett recalls growing up in the Depression, a time when there was not a lot of money to spend on entertainment. If you bought a record you had to make sure that the entire family would enjoy it. “I remember one of the first records I purchased was of Enrico Caruso, and I had an uncle who was connected to Broadway so I got to see theatrical productions as a result,” he said. “But it was jazz music that hit me hard and the first time I heard it I just fell in love with it and feel that way now. It's America's classical music and it's an art form that we invented in this country.”

After being a foot solider in World War II, Bennett came home and was fortunate enough under the GI Bill of Rights to be able to attend classes at The American Theatre Wing, where one of his vocal coaches, Mimi Speer, gave him some advice that greatly influenced him as a singer.  “She told me not to imitate any other singers as then I would just become one of the chorus and instead told me to listen to jazz musicians that I admired and try to emulate their instrumental style,” he said. “I have always loved the pianist Art Tatum as he had a very unique style where he would build each song into its own finale layer by layer, creating a mini-monument of each song he performed; and I studied his style and used that in my own song performances.”

Throughout his extraordinary career, Bennett has had the pleasure to record and perform with a wide array of artists, including Judy Garland, K.D. Lang, and most recently Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga, with whom he has recorded a complete album, which will be released in September. But if there is one artist Bennett regrets never having the honor to perform with, it’s a certain New Orleans jazz legend. “I will say that the one performer I never got a chance to sing with and would have loved to have had that opportunity is Louis Armstrong,” he said. “He was a consummate performer and he truly taught us all how to sing.”

When Bennett signed with Columbia Records in 1950 his premise from the beginning was to create a ‘hit catalog’ and not just go after ‘hit records’ – many of which were novelty songs that would be popular for a relatively short time and then be instantly forgotten. A few years ago, Columbia released the biggest boxed set ever of Bennett’s work and when going over all the music for the set, he was so thrilled that there wasn't a single track that he felt didn't belong. “I fought pretty hard over the years to only record the best popular music I could find,” he said. “I think not compromising on quality is really something I consider a career highlight.”

He doesn’t perform as much now as when he was first starting out over six decades ago, when he had to sing seven shows a day at the Paramount Theatre, but the thrill and spontaneity of being in front of a live audience is still what he loves best. “Being on the road for so many decades has given me an education of the world that I would never be able to have achieved any other way,” Bennett said. “And as a visual artist, I have painted and sketched in all the cities and countries that I have travelled to, so that has been a great advantage; and to have been able to go to all the magnificent museums and art galleries around the world.”

Bennett has performed in Pennsylvania many times through the years and always loves coming back to the area. “I get a chance to do some sketching if I can while I am here,” he said. “It’s a very warm and welcoming place to perform for very intelligent audiences.” 

With a career that spans seven decades, Bennett still performs for all the same reasons he did when he began this musical journey; and he shows no signs of slowing down. “I just love it – as much today as when I was first starting out,” he said. “I think it is a very noble profession to perform for people and for a few hours they forget their own problems, and if they leave the show and feel good, that to me is a great compliment.”