{"id":24830,"date":"2017-06-27T09:24:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T13:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=24830"},"modified":"2017-06-27T09:25:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T13:25:48","slug":"24830","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=24830","title":{"rendered":"On Stage (Extra): McQueen is a breath of fresh air"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lily McQueen<\/p><\/div>\n

With so many new female rock artists arriving on the scene every month, it verges on being overwhelming for listeners.<\/p>\n

Making it even harder is the fact that so many of them sound the same \u2013 content to ride the current trend and not adverse to ripping off ideas, riffs or even full productions from their peers.<\/p>\n

Every once in a while, it becomes crucial for listeners to be presented with a \u201cbreath of fresh air\u201d — a singer whose music is fresh and refreshing.<\/p>\n

Lily McQueen, who will headline a show at Ortlieb\u2019s (847 North Third Street, Philadelphia, 267- 324-3348, www.ticketfly.com<\/a>) on June 27, is a \u201cbreath of fresh air.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been playing music my whole life,\u201d said McQueen, during a phone interview Wednesday as she was leaving Hot Springs, Arkansas for a gig in Nashville, Tennessee. \u201cI was playing in bands with friends for fun when I was in college.\u201d<\/p>\n

McQueen was raised on the music of The Beatles and The Band. From her youthful soaking in classic rock, she formed an all-female country band in college.<\/p>\n

\u201cI graduated from Bard College in 2012,\u201d said McQueen. \u201cIn senior year, I formed my first real band \u2013 She Rose. It was like a country-folk band inspired by The Band and Gram Parsons.\u201d<\/p>\n

McQueen\u2019s music went through a shift after that. The country influence was overridden by indie-pop and 80s rock influences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought that country and pop were pretty much the same \u2013 like the Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons,\u201d said McQueen. \u201cNow, 80s pop-rock is where I\u2019ve gone with my music.\u201d<\/p>\n

McQueen\u2019s music has a wide variety of strains in its DNA. Fortunately, the strains are woven in deftly \u2013 musically intertwined rather than electronically spliced.<\/p>\n

Her new album \u201cElectric Love, which will be released on June 30 on Concierge Records, features songs that are totally up-to-date and have the hit-friendly vibe achieved by Hain and songs that could have been top hits on MTV in the 1980s \u2013 songs that could have been hits for Pat Benatar or Thomas Dolby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith my music, the 80s was always there,\u201d said McQueen, who grew up in New York City. \u201cAnd, I rediscovered what I used to listen to with my dad. The first concert I went to was Dylan at Madison Square Garden with my family when I was seven.\u201d<\/p>\n

McQueen writes and co-produces her own songs in all their anthemic roller rink soundtrack glory. After a well-received EP, she began working on \u201cElectric Love,\u201d which features nine tracks that were recorded in studios and bedrooms from coast to coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recorded it with a few different people,\u201d said McQueen, who now lives in Pasadena, California. \u201cSome were friends with home computers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I\u2019d build up a song on the computer, I\u2019d take it to Midnight Sun Studio in Brooklyn, replay the guitar and add drums. I did have a band that I was playing with but a lot of the parts I\u2019d play on my own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI write on guitar and piano. A lot of the sings on hits album I\u2019d write in GarageBand on my phone. I was actually without a computer for two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made the album over a course of about three years. I wrote all the songs after I graduated from college and the band broke up. I figured out which sounds I wanted to pursue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my first album so I really haven\u2019t done much touring. I\u2019ve been writing these songs for four years and now I\u2019m ready to take them out. For these shows, I have a drummer, a guitarist and I play keyboards. I play Philly of the 27th<\/sup> and then have a record release show in New York on July 9.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Lily McQueen \u2013 https:\/\/youtu.be\/dEKcRrdYbpM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at Ortlieb\u2019s, which also features Errol, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are free.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Buddy Holly Story<\/p><\/div>\n

Charles Hardin Holley was a young man from Lubbock, Texas who passed away in 1959 at the age of 22.<\/p>\n

Holley\u2019s death made headlines around the world.<\/p>\n

Better known by his stage name Buddy Holly, he was one of the most popular musicians of the day. Holly died in a tragic plane accident that also took the lives of fellow musicians Richie Valens and The Big Bopper.<\/p>\n

Holly, who had massive hits with songs such as \u201cPeggy Sue,\u201d \u201cNot Fade Away,\u201d \u201cOh Boy,\u201d \u201cThat’ll Be The Day\u201d \u201cRave On\u201d and \u201cMaybe Baby,\u201d may have died more than a half-century ago but his legend lives on.<\/p>\n

His legend lives on mainly through his music but also through stage and screen.<\/p>\n

Holly\u2019s life story inspired a Hollywood biographical film, \u201cThe Buddy Holly Story,\u201d which came out in 1978. Its lead actor Gary Busey received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Holly.<\/p>\n

Holly\u2019s life and career also was the inspiration for \u201cBuddy \u2013 the Buddy Holly Story,\u201d which achieved success as a stage musical.<\/p>\n

From June 28-July 9, the Kimmel Center is presenting \u201cBuddy \u2013 the Buddy Holly Story\u201d at its Perelman Theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuddy \u2013 the Buddy Holly Story\u201d is a musical in two acts written by Alan Janes, that opened at London\u2019s Victoria Palace Theatre in October 1989.<\/p>\n

Considered to be the first of the so-called \u201cJukebox Musicals,\u201d the show ran in London\u2019s West End for over 14 years, playing 5822 performances. Janes took over the producing of the show himself in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuddy \u2013 the Buddy Holly Story\u201d has been on tour in the UK for 17 of the last 24 years, and has played Broadway, five U.S. National Tours, Canada, Sweden, South Africa, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Holland, Singapore, Finland, Austria, Denmark and countless other productions around the world.<\/p>\n

This has resulted in the show being named as \u201cThe World\u2019s Most Successful Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Musical.\u201d Janes was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Musical. Internationally, \u201cBuddy \u2013 the Buddy Holly Story\u201d has received 29 nominations and awards.<\/p>\n

The show has had more than 50 productions around North America, including runs at the Grande Theatre in Ontario, Canada; the 5th<\/sup> Avenue Theatre in Seattle; the Laguna Playhouse in California and locally at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, the Fulton Theater in Lancaster, and the Buck County Playhouse in New Hope.<\/p>\n

It first played the Bucks County Playhouse in June and July 2016 with John Dewey in the lead role. The production featuring Dewey as Holly returned to the theater in New Hope earlier this year and now is heading to the Kimmel Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis production has just two stops but we also did the show last year in Bucks County,\u201d said Dewey, during a phone interview last week from his temporary home in Philadelphia. \u201cI auditioned a year-and-a-half ago and then did the lead role in the show last summer at the Bucks County Playhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone from that cast is back for this year\u2019s shows except the actress who played Maria Elena. Actually, the return of the show wasn\u2019t planned after last year but it has worked out well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directed by Tony Award nominee Hunter Foster with choreography by Lorin Latarro, \u201cBuddy\u201d ran at the Bucks County Playhouse in May and June prior to moving south to South Broad Street.<\/p>\n

Also returning to the production are Zach Cossman as Jerry Allison; Andrew Frace as Hipockets Duncan; James David Larson as Joe B. Mauldin; Kent M. Lewis as Norman Petty; Brandi Massey as Apollo Performer; Elizabeth Nestlerode as Vi Petty; Karak Osborn as \u2018The Big Bopper\u2019; Gilbert Sanchez as Ritchie Valens; Max Sangerman as Tommy Allsupp.<\/p>\n

They will be joined by Natalie Ortega, as the sole newcomer to the cast. She appears as Buddy\u2019s wife, Maria Elena Holly.<\/p>\n

Dewey, a Virginia native who graduated not long ago with a music theater degree from the Boston Conservatory, is obviously too young to have grown up with Holly\u2019s music \u2013 but that has not been a drawback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kinda familiar with Buddy Holly before I got involved with this show,\u201d said Dewey, who lives in New York. \u201cEverybody has heard some of his music on the radio. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until I got the role that I really started digging into all his music.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musical\u2019s action takes place in Lubbock, Texas; Clovis, New Mexico; New York City and Clear Lake, Iowa, between January 1956 and February 1959.<\/p>\n

Starting out as a Country & Western singer in Lubbock, Holly teams with his two friends Joe B. Mauldin and Jerry Allison form The Crickets.<\/p>\n

After an inauspicious start at Decca Records in Nashville, Holly and the Crickets sign a contract with up-and-coming innovative record producer, Norman Petty and make records for Brunswick Records.<\/p>\n

Within hours of meeting they start to record Buddy\u2019s biggest hit \u201cThat\u2019ll Be The Day\u201d which will rocket up the charts to number one in a matter of weeks. Buddy Holly & the Crickets suddenly become the hottest act in the country.<\/p>\n

Throughout his brief but brilliant career, Holly recorded hits for three record labels \u2013 Decca, Brunswick and Coral.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t listen to a lot of the Decca stuff,\u201d said Dewey. \u201cThis show concentrates on what he wanted to do and where he ended up. Listening to the Decca tapes would have been me going in the wrong direction. Instead, we concentrate on the hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show picks up when Buddy Holly is 19 \u2013 right before he goes to Decca. It looks at how he went to Decca, was disappointed, got hooked up with people in Clovis and his rise to where he got to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second act revolves around his time with Maria Elena and being in New York. It mainly focuses on Buddy and Maria Elena and their relationship \u2013 and with the rise to fame, the rock stardom and the collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for The Buddy Holly Story \u2013 https:\/\/youtu.be\/PK_PTYws0Bc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at the Kimmel Center\u2019s Perelman Theater will run from June 28 through July 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times With so many new female rock artists arriving on the scene every month, it verges on being overwhelming for listeners. Making it even harder is the fact that so many of them sound the same \u2013 content to ride the current trend and not adverse to ripping off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7529],"tags":[6518,9115,9116],"class_list":["post-24830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-d-arts-entertainment","tag-featured","tag-lily-mcqueen","tag-the-buddy-holly-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24833,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24830\/revisions\/24833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}