Their respective bands were also up to the considerable challenge of playing 70s and 80s classics that are known for having some of the most challenging instrumental parts in all of rock and roll. But songs like “Saturday in the Park” and “More Than a Feeling aren’t just workouts for the fingers and pipes. Their melodies buoy you up, quicken your pulse and carry you soaring. Songwriters Robert Lamm, Terry Kath, Peter Cetera, David Foster (who wrote for Chicago) and Tom Scholz, that MIT mastermind making songs of longing and connection in his Boston basement, were all done so proud.
The first on the big stage, at 6:00 p.m., Carl Jackson, a powerful gospel belter and Megan the Melon Idol winners of earlier that day got their moment on the CMC Steel Products Stage in front of spectators rapidly filling the VIP seats and setting up choice spots on the grass of the baseball field.
Hope-Hempstead Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Christy Burns said of their performances, “They both did wonderful. Megan Flowers’ debut at the festival and on the big stage showed how talented she is and how far she is capable of going. Carl has been with the festival for over 30 years. His commitment to the festival landed him on the big stage this year and it was well-deserved.”
Next came the Buzz Andrews Band, fronted by a complete pro who has been playing bluesy country rock for decades, based in the Texarkana area. A musician in Hope from the time he was a high schooler in the mid-60s, Buzz kept up an ongoing conversation between propulsive songs with the many VIPs who came by 7:00 p.m. to catch him and gave everything he had in the early August heat with a band that boasted crack musicians at every instrument. Buzz himself turned in a lot of bracing solos that came through like Kodachrome color from a guitar so oft used it has a worn-out hole below its rosette.
The remaining two hours were a dynamo of Chicago and Boston classics, played and sung to superlative quality and commitment. Jason Scheff played those inventive bass parts while using his upper tenor to fine effect, even on top-of-the-scale climbers like the sublime, McCartneyesque “If You Leave Me Now.” He also more than credibly sang in Robert Lamm’s much more conversational style on “Saturday in the Park” and “25 to 6 to 4,” clarifying that the latter song is about Lamm still being up between 3:34 and 3:35 in the a.m. writing lyrics. He was amply helped by a virtuosic band, complete with local horn players from the Ark-La-Tex area who punched their lines through at times percussively, at times in golden sheets.
Tommy DeCarlo showed himself a heroic and strutting vocal athlete. “More Than a Feeling” is the album opener on Boston’s 1976 debut, whose sales broke records for a band’s first release and it is a notorious etude for the rock voice, requiring a singer with uncommon range, breath control and sudden switches from chest to head voice of the kind that terrified Luciano Pavarotti. But DeCarlo had it all and made those switches. Another memorable performance was Boston’s own McCartneyesque turn on “Amanda” when the singer must exude total sincerity in low and high parts. DeCarlo’s band’s exuberance and crunch was irresistible, lots of clustering together and swingings of guitar necks. When DeCarlo called for fans to come up to the stage front, he didn’t have to wait long for about three dozen of us to emerge, waving our horn-hands and peace signs.
Remember the continuation of these great concerts in Hope depends on how many of us show up. Let’s do our part, Hope, and keep these concerts coming every year.
