Winter Dance Party: 2011

Sept 7, 2011

Charles Hardin Holley's 75th birthday was celebrated with an induction into the famed Hollywood walk of stars, steps away from the Capitol records building on Vine street in Hollywood. Phil Everly was on hand, Gary Busey, Maria Richwine (who portrayed Maria Elena in the Buddy Holly Story movie), the mayor of Hollywood, Peter Asher, many fans and of course Maria Elena Holly herself. Kudos to Kevin McGowan for pursuing this endeavor for years. The outside event featured Texas style heat, had to be 100 degrees out or at least it felt like it. The mayor of Hollywood also proclaimed the day as "Buddy Holly day."

And here's the star:

And now, check out Gary Busey's speech here:Gary Busey speech

Maria Elena's words of love here: Maria Elena Holly Speech

Phil Everly spoke as well but I did not get video of unfortunately.

Here's Gary, Maria Richwine and Maria Elena in background:

After the ceremony it was time to go inside the famous Capitol Records building...

It was then time for some cake. Don't know who made it but they did a great job:

Good little quick chat then had with Gary Busey.

And the lovely Maria Richwine (photo courtesy of her):

Saw some old friends and fans of our show at the event, it was great to see everyone again. Ran into an old friend Michael Frondelli who used to work at Capitol Records as an engineer so he knew the folks there and they gave me a little private tour of the studio A, B and C. Standing in these great rooms thinking of all the cool cats that recorded there was special indeed. Afternoon was reserved for R & R and to get ready for the evening's concert which was at the Music Box Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.

The concert was produced by Peter Asher, taped by PBS and featured some great talent; Chris Isaak, Stevie Nicks, Paul Anka, Boz Scaggs, Lyle Lovett, Raul Malo, Graham Nash and others. Unfortunately for the performers and audience the entire evening was done in starts and stops like a film shoot instead of like an actual concert. There were quite a few technical difficulties bogging things down even further. Really felt for the performers. The bass player (name?) had a giant full beard and facial hair to which Chris Isaak quipped, "This man was clean shaven before this night began." A very funny joke on how long the night was dragging on. But the music ultimately prevailed (how could it not?) and some standout performances were Raul Malo's version of "True Love Ways." The man has simply an astonishing voice and control. Paul Anka sang "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" a song he penned for Buddy and did it flawlessly. Chris Isaak wisely chose to keep his few interpretations of Buddy's songs close in feel anyway to the originals, very nicely done.

Here's a somewhat lousy and blurry shot of Chris:

At close to midnight it all came to an end. Rave on Charles Hardin Holley. Did you ever imagine people would be honoring your songs over 50 years later?

John Mueller

Los Angeles, CA

http://www.winterdanceparty.com

March 2-6, 2011 will not soon be forgotten! What a great time we had with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops. Always a treat for us to hear a full orchestra behind us and this was no exception. Peter had a great sense of humor on stage and even participated in one of our jokes that we do. Unexpected and quite hilarious. He is quite the pianist as well and did a great piano instrumental version of "Moon River."
Our rehearsals went off without a hitch and we were excited and ready to go. 4 shows in all with big crowds and an orchestra behind us. Fantastic. At a saturday matinee when we finished the show, the crowd called out for an encore...someone sitting dead center called out, "Hey, Buddy" (my tribute song to Buddy) so we did it which was fun. To my surprise, during our bows Peter Nero came up to me and said, "we should do that song every night." Thanks Mr Nero!

Here's a glimpse of day one of our rehearsals:

The Kimmel Center is where we performed at in downtown Philadelphia and this picture doesn't show but half of it, it's big!!

Here's the little area on stage we had for our set up:

That's "Guitar" George wondering where the rest of the band is.

Here's our poster outside on the Kimmel Center wall:

Side view of the Kimmel Center:

A shot of our dressing room door. Funny, they misspelled George's last name "Muller"...but wait...a George Muller was the stage manager. Maybe we hijacked his room!