Jammin back in time

I’m about speechless …

Tonight, my friend Liz and I went to the local college to check out Tony, Jumbo & the River Root Band, a ‘60s and ‘70s cover band that we might not have seen if I hadn’t been browsing on the college’s Web site today, looking for story ideas … on a whim, we decided to head out to the concert.

wow. wow. wow.

A 9-piece band loaded with brass, guitars and keyboards -- not to mention their phenomenal 12-year-old drummer, these guys were without a doubt the coolest, tightest and most authentic cover band I’ve seen. Admittedly, the lead vocals seemed a bit over-rehearsed and, for lack of a better word, operatic at times, but with each passing song, the harmonies and instrumentation were so exact, I felt as though I had been transported back to a completely different time and place …perhaps a place my father had once been.

These guys jumped out by opening with the Bangles guitar pumping arrangement of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ and they were far, far from done … and they went on for nearly three hours. It was amazing.

They played Steely Dan. They played Neil Young. They played Ides of March.

They played The Beatles … ‘Here Comes The Sun,’ ‘Eight Days A Week’ and a dead-on version of ‘Birthday.’ They played Dave Clark Five … ‘Because’ and ‘I Like It Like That.’ Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Boxer.’ … The Mamas & the Papas ‘California Dreamin’ … A sweet Buckinghams medley that hit ‘Kind of a Drag’ dead-on. … The Turtles ‘You Baby.’ … An amazing Byrds medley … and, with all that brass, Chicago’s ‘Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?’ and ‘Beginnings’ -- one of my fave Chicago tunes, thanks to its raucous brass finale.

… even Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s ‘Teach Your Children’ -- in the form of all nine band members on acoustic guitars lined up at the front of the stage …

…The band ended with the Moody Blues’ ‘Nights in White Satin.’

Speechless? … it was breathless.