Beat Memorabilia & Famous Musicians

    On Monday September 14th,  Crosby, Stills and Nash took the stage for the  first of 3 different Classic Rock  shows scheduled to play in the Puyallup Fair concert series for 2009.   When these three music icons walked on stage, a collective admiration was clearly exhibited by the almost capacity crowd.  The catalog of music that David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills are responsible for is astonishing. 

     The show started a bit quiet; and when I mean quiet, I mean the volume.  “Helplessy Hoping” was helplessy drowned out a few times by the shrill screams of participants on “The Extreme Scream” carnival ride.  This is one of the Puyallup Fair’s premier rides, which is unfortunately located right outside the gradstand entrance. 

     It seemed to take a couple of songs for their voices to “warm up” but once they did, there were several occasions during the concert that I experienced chills running down my back.  If you closed your eyes, you’d swear that there was a whole choir onstage singing.  When you opened your eyes, you remembered that it’s just these 3 guys, implementing the perfect 3 part harmony that defines Crosby, Stills and Nash.

The night picked up pace and volume with songs like “Love the One You’re With” and the offbeat “Deja Vu”.  Stephen Stills was amazing on guitar as well, and all three musicians seemed to get better and better with every song that they performed.  The group came back out for a gracious encore, which put the total time of the concert nearly 2 hours long, and the audience loved every minute of  it!

Photos of Angela Hammontree and Bill Cantlon courtesy of  Jeff Jordan Photography.

Photos of Dave Wilson and Dave Lavin courtesy of Cindy Beckwith.

REVIEW

     The show I covered was Thursday night, August 30th at Big Daddy”s Place in Woodinville, Washington.  This is a great venue featuring a raised stage, built in lighting, permanent dance floor and lots of room.

     Right off the bat, Angela showed off her strong vocal abilities with “White Rabbit” and Somebody to Love”.  When this girl belted out songs that were originally performed by Grace Slick, Robert Plant and Ann Wilson;  all you could say was “Wow”! 

     And what about “Helter Skelter” by The Beatles?  Can you get any more rockin’ than that song?  And people were dancing to it!  The dance floor completely filled when they played “I Saw Her Standing There” and kept it going with “Tie Your Mother Down”.  Dave Lavin (bass) took over lead vocals on that one and really connected with the crowd. 

     Dave Wilson (guitar) highlighted his skills on songs like “Crossroads” by Cream and “Ain’t Talking Bout Love” by Van Halen.  These songs contain intricate guitar riffs, which he performed brilliantly.

     And then there’s Bill Cantlon (drummer), the consummate entertainer.  You can tell that he has a blast when he performs.  He did a great job covering the various drumming styles of all the songs they performed, as well as keeping the audience rockin’. 

     Their song choices matched the abilities of these musicians well and the audience had such a good time that they didn’t want “Rock Steady” to stop.  All in all a great night, and with time I think this fairly young band (7 months old) will keep adding great songs to it’s playlist and be entertaining bigger and bigger audiences for years to come.

Rock Steady-No Doubt

     What do two “bean counters”, a landscape business owner and a General Manager for General Motors Accessories all have in common?  They all Rock Steady in a band by the same name.

     The foursome started out about 6 months ago with Dave Lavin (bass) and Dave Wilson (guitar) playing music together in their church.  It wasn’t long before the two of them found out that their love for music was deeper than just playing worship.  Classic Rock is the love and passion for both of these guys, and thus began the arduous journey to find a drummer and lead singer to complete the band. 

      Fortunately the other pieces fell into place pretty quickly after an ad on Craig’s List and a few auditions, Bill Cantlon was chosen as the drummer and Angela Hammontree as the lead singer.  The nice thing about this lineup is that each of these musicians has had years of experience in other well known bands, and they seem to have good chemistry together.

       Angela Hammontree is a native Northwest singer, musician and songwriter.  She has been writing and performing original music for several years with her project, “The Angela Hammontree Band”.  With the focus of her original music turning toward writing and recording in recent months,  Angela began looking for a cover project that would keep her performing for live audiences.  She found a shared appreciaton of classic rock music with the members of Rock Steady and , as their lead vocalist, enjoys paying homage to the bands that originally inspired her to become a musical artist.  (Favorite Beatles Albums:  Rubber Soul and Revolver)

       Bill Cantlon was born and raised in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame city of Cleveland, Ohio.  Bill played in several local Seattle bands back in the ’70s and ’80s.  The past two and a half years, Bill managed and played drums with Seattle’s own Heart tribute band “Straight On”.  Bill recently played with former Heart members Roger Fisher, Steve Fossen, and Michael Derosier as well as Randy Hansen, Dudley Taft, Gregg Fox and Rick Knotts of Rail.   (Favorite Beatles Albums:  Beatles ’65 and Rubber Soul) 

        Dave Wilson has lived in the Seattle area most of his live, playing guitar in an eclectic mix of different bands and projects in several genres, including  rock, progressive rock,  jazz,  acoustic and worship.  A life-long devotee to the six-string, Dave cites his primary influences as Jimmy Page, Roy Buchannan, Bruce Cockburn, David Gilmour, Steve Howe and the Beatles.  (Favorite Beatles Albums:  The White Album and Abbey Road)

       Dave Lavin is a Seattle area native and has played in performing bands since the late 1960′s.  His band “Oscar Wilde” was a frequent and familiar guest at well known clubs during  the 1970′s, including “My Place” in SeaTac and “Aquarius” in North Seattle.  Having played in several bands since then, he has aso offered his talents to Eastside churches with music ranging from rock and alternative to upbeat gospel.  During 2008 he performed with “Rear View Mirror”, a ’60s mod theme band and most recently with” Triple Shot”, a 7 piece classic rock and R&B project.  (Favorite Beatles Albums:  Meet the Beatles and Beatles ’65)

     To be continued:  Part 2 of this story coming soon!