Echo Park: News

So Rusty called me today and said that he and Jamie had laid down a NEW TRACK (finally), so I picked it up today and am working on lyrics!! Excited!!!!

Well...???
It's been a year & 3 months since we posted anything and what do we have to report?!?...nothing. Well, that's not entirely true. After a year and a half of moping around after losing Fish, we're talking to a possible replacement. It's been a long time coming, but there are a few things you need to understand. Most bands lose members, they post notices in music stores, in newspapers and on Facebook and the like, and they find someone else to play. We have had the good fortune not only to play with exceptional musicians, but forge deep personal ties and develop a brotherhood. Fish has been (and continues to be) at the center of that brotherhood since day one. Finding another bass player not only requires us to find someone with the chops, but a kindered spirit as well. Anyway, like I said, we're talking to someone. More later.
As far as the rest of us...Steve and Jamie continue to play with The Lucky Strikes. They're a wonderful Jazz/Oldies/Beach band that play in and around the NC High Country. Check 'em out if you get a chance. The four of us are very busy talking about all the music we're going to write for the next CD. Now if we'll just get off our collective ass and actually do some recording. Meanwhile Fish is sitting in Gainesville, FL sending me snippets of song ideas. He's gonna have our next CD written if I don't get it in gear!
Finally, we've had a lot of inquiries as to when we're gonna do "Tommy" again. We almost did it last April, but just couldn't get it together. Ensemble Stage was going to sponsor the performance and Gary Smith, Ensemble Stage's co-founder is pushing us to do Pink Floyd's "The Wall". When we get this bass player thing settled, we might just work up a double bill. We're that crazy and stupid (well I am anyway!). Heck...why not Quadrophenia...and JC Superstar...and Evita...and Madame Butterfly....and...and.....

Hi There!
There hasn't been much to report from EchoParkWorld lately. Fish came up to play Winterfest with us, it snowed 30 feet and we played to about 10 people. Thanks to all who braved the weather. It was a neat show. We played the whole CD with a couple of covers thrown in. We hadn't played Rosemond in eons. We've never played Mel live, so it was fun for us.
In other news...well...the is no other news. Since January we've all been taking care of other areas of our lives. Steve and Jamie have been playing with The Lucky Strikes, a local jazz group. If you hear of them playing anywhere, go check 'em out. They're really good. Jamie, Amanda and I have moved into a new apartment. We have enough room to set up drums, guitars and recording gear, so we hope to start making demos for new tunes for our second CD. I promise this one won't take 30 years. (I'll try to keep it under 10!)
To be honest, we're still scratching our heads trying to figure out what we want to do now that Fish is in Florida. There are several wondreful bass players we could call on. It's just hard to imagine anyone else in that spot, especially for me. I have a 30 year history with the guy. We developed a very tight musical raport, not to mention he's one of my oldest and dearest friends. He has sent some song ideas to me to play with, and I'm sure I'll send him stuff as well, which is to say he'll definitely be a presence on the next CD.
I sure have rambled on considering there's nothing new to report. It's just been a while since we said "hey!". Well..."Hey!". Stay tuned. We hope to get the ol' EP machine up and running soon.

Yep. Fish is coming up from Gainesville to do the Winterfest show on January 29 (this Friday). Being the procrastinators that we are, we waited a little long to ask someone to come in and learn our stuff and perform it at the end of January, so Fish agreed to come up and bail us out. We hope everyone can come out and see us (with the Fish Man) this Friday night for Blowing Rock Winterfest. Details are in the calendar section.

Well...Fish is in Gainesville and apparently he took the cold weather with him. Sheryl might just send him back up here! (at least until March or so). So I'm just sitting aroung wondering what to do about playing when I hear from Bob Miller of Ensemble Stage. For those of you who aren't familliar with Ensemble Stage, they are what used to be the core of the Blowing Rock Stage Company. They kicked off their new endeavor with a wonderful readers' theater production of "War Of The Worlds" last October 30 (Fish was in it! It was still good!) They also put on a fablous Christmas variety show. (Out of 3 scheduled performances, 2 were canceled due to weather. I'm sick of snow. I'm sick of cold. I'm ...oh yeah...) ANYWAYYY...Bob got in touch with me and asked if we would be intrested in doing a concert sponsored by Ensemble Stage for Blowing Rock's Winterfest. Concert? Nice Auditorium? Winterfest? Forget the small detail of not having a bass player. I said "sure". I knew we had to get back on the horse and I knew it would take all of 2010 if I didn't put a date in front of us. We'll announce who's playing bass soon. In the meantime, I hope y'all will plan to come out and hear us. We'll be playing the stuff on our CD as well as some of our favorite covers. I'm sure we'll sneak in some "Tommy" nuggets as well. Sooo...come on out. January 29, 8:00 P.M. Blowing Rock School Auditorium...WEATHER FREAKIN' PERMITTING!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!! Please do not forget the reasion for the season.  

Please help us spread the word! The location for Bill Fisher’s Farewell Reception and the Echo Park performance of Tommy have been moved to the Watauga High School Auditorium. Join us Friday, Dec. 4, from 5:00 til 6:30 for Bill Fisher’s Farewell Reception at Watauga High School, then plan to stay and see Fish and the r...est of Echo Park perform Tommy. Tickets are $10 at the door.See More

Yes, our on again, off again situation with that stubborn deaf, dumb and blind boy is back on! Echo Park will perform The Who's "Tommy" on Friday, December 4th at 6:30 P.M. at the Harvest House Performing Arts Center on Boone Heights Drive in Boone, NC. We've been able to retain 99.9% of the cast from our May performances. We are thrilled to have the band Harvest House open the show for us. This show WILL BE THE LAST public performance by Echo Park with Fish on bass. In honor, we will have a reception at Harvest House starting at 5:00. Everyone is invited to come and see Fish off as he prepares to move to Florida. We hope this will be a special night and would love for all of you to join us. See the calendar page for more details.

Sad news to report, Fish is leaving the band and moving to Fla(must be getting OLD). I wanted to take a few minutes to express what he means to me and to the band. The bass is the foundation of all music. Thats what he does for us. Not only is he an awesome bass player, he is a hell of a lyricist and a great singer. We all brought something different to this band. He brought a strong foudation to build on. He and Rusty have been here from the beginning, he cannot be replaced. The CD we released was his baby. He spents hours and hours tweaking and listening to make the best out of each performance. Yeah we had to redo some things but it turned out well. We all have a debt to you for your hard work .

I first met Fish as a Freshman at ASU in East Dorm. We lived on the same hall. It was an interesting time in 1976. He moved on and I stayed in Boone. May years later I was in Rusty's basement trying out for the band. Rusty, Mark Williams and I were waiting for their bass player Fish, in walks Bill, (Fish was short for Bill Fisher his radio stage name) I was blown away. I did not make the band that time, it would be six more years before I was asked to join.  We have shared many things over the years, birth of our children, deaths of our parents, late , late nights spend hauling heavy equipment (HMF), watching the bar fights from stage and getting shot at leaving a gig(both Tennesse). Watching the sun come up loading in at Jim and Jennies. Practice, practice ,practice. People changes, getting a drum sound at Solli's. Pebbles and Bam Bam, the PARK RANGERS. Too many memeories and I'm sure many forgotten.(we played there?)

WE did it right! We NEVER played Free Bird. We played the music we loved with people we grew to love. We played music that challenged and streched us, and did it pretty damn well. We wrote some awesome songs!! Although our dream did not come true something else happened along the journey, I gained a family. I got to be in a ROCK and ROLL band that did not compromise, played the music I loved with people I loved. Can't BUY that. Can't BEAT that. Who knows what is in store down the road. I hope our paths cross again, and again, and again. Live long and prosper Brother!!

Bob

 

We here in EchoParkLand were saddened to hear that the Hayes Center in Blowing Rock will be closing its doors for the remainder of the year. This of course means that we will NOT be performing Tommy as planned. We are looking at other venues , so stay tuned. Meanwhile, all of us in Echo Park send out our best wishes to everyone at the Hayes Center and the Blowing Rock Stage Company. We sincerely hope you're up and running again real soon.

IT'S OFFICIAL!!
We are pleased to announce that We're going to perform "Tommy" again on Friday, September 25th at the Hayes Center in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. We've got the whole cast coming back, less one(Amber can't make it back from Florida, dang it!). We got a lot of positive feedback when we did it last May. We got just as many people saying "man, I missed it. I wish you guys would do it again." Well... here y'go! Stay tuned. More to come.

Yo!
For those of you not familiar with the Concert On The Lawn series that the Watauga Arts Council puts on every year, it's a concert held every Friday afternoon from May (June?) through September on the front porch of the Jones House in downtown Boone. The historic Jones House is an art gallery and also houses the officies of the Watauga Arts Council. It's sizable front porch looks out over a beautiful yard where patrons bring lawn chairs or blankets and plop down to enjoy some of the best music the area has to offer. Any given Friday you can hear everything from traditional bluegrass and old time to gospel to folk to blues to newgrass...and then there's us. We're there to throw some rock & roll into the mix. Last Friday (7/10) was our turn on the porch.This is one of our favorite shows of the year. A beautiful setting (if it doesn't rain!) wonderful people who are there just to listen to music. This year we had the added pleasure of sharing the bill with Melissa Reaves. She is such an amazing talent a mezmerizing performer and one of our dearest friends. We were able to do a few things together, which was a blast. If any of you are in the area on a Friday afternoon, please check out the Concert on the Lawn. It's an important and wonderful happening in our neck of the woods. Many thanks to Cherry Johnson, Mark Freed and Jenny Schrum for all their help and support. O.K. I'm done. Twiggs Sept. 4 and Pepper's Oct. 2. More later. Y'all take care now.

Hi There,
First of all, thanks to everyone who came out to Canyons last Saturday night. For those of you who don't know Blowing Rock as it was in the 80's, Canyons used to be Hollie's Tavern, an establishment that many of us considered a second home and where a very young Echo Park played some of our first shows. To go back and play there again almost 30 years later was a wonderful experience. There were a few people in attendance last Saturday that used to come see us back in 80 & 81. It was great to have you back. Hopefully we'll be back to Canyons in the fall.
On to other stuff. We're at Pepper's Bar in Boone this Friday at 8:00. It'll be an acoustic show (y'know, I'm the only one who's actually playing an acoustic instrument and we call it "an acoustic show". What great power I possess!!). We'll do some covers from our "acoustic" repertoire as well as some neat arrangements of our original tunes. Hope y'all can make it out.
See Ya!!

WE will attempt to take over 100.7 Mac FM this Friday at 1PM. PLease Tune in as we play some of our favorite songs for our favorite bands!!

OUR CANYONS SHOW IS SATURDAY, JUNE 13, NOT FRIDAY, JUNE 12. We had a schedule mix up. We hope everyone can make it to Canyons in Blowing Rock, NC on Saturday, June 12th at 10:00. Sorry for the confusion.

We have been overwhelmed from the response to "TOMMY". It was a fantastic weekend and every one, cast and crew, rose to the occasion. We are truly blessed. Thanks to all that came out and we hope to do it again someday.

Next up is Caynons on June 12th. We are gonna rock the house off it's foundation!!!

Thanks to cast and crew. The show was a huge success! WE are all blessed to be in such a talented commuinty with so many people to lend themselves to our projects. I think everyone became immeresed in the show and we pulled it off as one. WE are all exhausted but it's a good kind of tired. Our cup is full now and we want to fly!!!

Don't forget May 8th at Geno's!!

This is the week for TOMMY> Practice today was awesome!! I can't wait to perform it for all of Watauga County.

The talent is amazing!! The brotherhood of artist in this community is overwhelming I am having such a good time seeing all these gifted people put it out there. Please don't miss this.

Friday May 8th, Geno's is hosting our 1st CD release Party. We will be playing songs from Echo Park by Echo Park (always wanted to do that) as well as many covers that you will enjoy.
Come party with us as we celebrate this LONG coming event. Hey bring tour CD's and you might coax us into signing them, naw that might reduce their worth. anywho CALLING ALL PARK RANGERS!! You Rock!!

We had to pull our posting untill we got details straight with the venue, but we did & so here goes...The Official Announcement...Right Here...

Echo Park will perform the Who's Rock Opera "Tommy" on Friday, May 1st and Saturday, May 2nd. Both performances will be at 7:30 P.M. at the beautiful Valborg Theater located in Chapel Wilson Hall on the campus of Appalachian State University. The band will have many wonderful guest singers singing the different characters' songs. Guests include Becca Eggers-Gryder, Billy Ralph Winkler, Melissa Reaves, Aaron Burleson, Robbie Stevens, Kevin Johnson and Jordan Jackson. This performance will be a benefit for The Watauga County Arts Council.

Well...there's the announcement. This is gonna be really cool! Rehearsals are going really well and our guest singers are doing a fantastic job. Amber Stradley and Amanda Blanton are providing backing vocals and Amanda is playing bass while Fish sings "Fiddle About". Daniel Rochelle is providing guitar on "Cousin Kevin" while Rusty sings that one. Daniel is also playing on "Welcome", a number that The Who never even performed when they did "Tommy" live. There's also going to be a second set after intermission where we'll do some of our stuff...and a suprise or two! We're all very excited about putting on this show, doing such a significant work in rock history in such a nice venue. Please come join us. This is gonna be really cool!
Tickets are available through the Watauga Arts Council at www.watauga-arts.org

We will be playing a set at a benefit for Green Valley Park and Mountain Pathways School on Saturday, May 16. This event will be held at Green Valley Park, which is on Big Hill Road off of NC Hwy. 194 near Todd, NC. There will be food and other activities including inflatables for the kids. Other acts include Folk & Dagger, Lost Faculties, The Forget Me Nots, Amantha Mill (featuring "Tommy's Mom" Becca Eggers-Gryder) and Surefire. The festivities start at 11:00 and we go on at 4:00. Admission is free and they will be collecting a parking fee. This is a beautiful park and a wonderful place to see live music and just hang out and enjoy the mountains and have fun. Hope to see you there. For moinformation and directions go to www.greenvalleypark.org

Tommy can you hear me? It's on!! May 1st and 2nd at 7:30. More details to come later. Stay Tuned to the Website for updates. There's more at the door!

Live Electric show!! A High Country Favorite!! Canyons has hosted many national acts and we are stoked to get the opportunity to play here. Thanks Bart. Calling all Park Rangers, come on out and have a big time. Come early the food is GREAT!