The stars will light up the Bama Theatre sky again Friday, though they’ll shine down on just 250 ticketholders, under new coronavirus conditions, and of course on the featured rock ‘n’ roll bands: Graystone, and Casie Jo and the No Joes.
But everyone outside the 250 is welcome to tune in to the livestream, via Visit Tuscaloosa’s Facebook page. It’s the third live-but-streamed Virtual Music Experience, presented by Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports this summer. The previous two were held at the Lookout, atop Hotel Indigo.
With the assistance of the Arts and Humanities Council of Tuscaloosa, The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, WVUA, Eat My Beats, Buffalo Rock, and BioPURE, tickets will be just $10. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., but there will be no box office, to reduce contact. The tickets, limited to roughly a quarter of the Bama’s usual capacity, to reflect seats removed to enforce social distancing, can be found at www.LIVEFromTheBama.Eventbrite.com.
Those watching the show online will be encouraged to make donations, all of which go to upkeep and continued operation of the Bama Theatre, which, like all venues across the country, has been slammed hard by the pandemic.
“It’s going to be so nice just to welcome people back into the theater, and to hear live music again,” said Sandy Wolfe, executive director of the Arts Council, which operates the Bama.
Some of the faces in Graystone might seem familiar from an earlier incarnation with some of the same members, Touch of Gray, a band that played parties, dances and other gigs around Tuscaloosa for roughly 20 years. Graystone plays mostly classic rock from the ’60s and ’70s: party music. You might have seen Graystone onstage at last year’s inaugural Druid City Music Festival, on the main stage Saturday in Government Plaza.
“We were trying to get a group that really loved the ’60s,” said Gene “Poodgie” Poole, drummer for Graystone, and earlier, Touch of Gray. Some of the band’s veterans have been playing long enough to remember when these ditties were still crackling on the radio. A typical Graystone set list might include the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR,” “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” “Birthday,” and their version of “Twist and Shout,” along with Roy Orbison’s “Oh Pretty Woman,” Van Morrison’s “Domino” and “Brown Eyed Girl,” Chuck Berry’s “Memphis,” and the McCoys’ “Hang on Sloopy.” Friday night they’ll open the show with about 90 minutes’ worth of gold.
“All of us are getting older, so we needed to find folks who are physically fit, so they could remember all the words,” Poole said, laughing.
It’s definitely a band of veterans, with an estimated 248 years of professional music experience between them. And they stem from an even wider pool of vocations: Poole owns and operates Hudson-Poole Fine Jewelers in downtown Tuscaloosa. Guitarist and singer Scott Donaldson is an attorney, and chief judge of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. Bass player Kevin Whitaker, an aerospace engineer, recently retired as provost of the University of Alabama. Keyboardist Tim Wright is a pharmacist, and like Donaldson and Poole, also played in Touch of Gray. Guitarist and singer Duane Lamb retired as a colonel after 30 years with the U.S. Air Force, and is now working as associate vice president for facilities and grounds at UA.
“We’re probably the only rock ‘n’ roll band in the country,” Poole said, laughing, “who can start ‘Back in the USSR’ with a jet engine sound, and know if it’s accurate.”
Poole has been playing since the early ’60s, before he was old enough to drive. It’s a family trait: His father was a big band drummer, playing out of WLS in Chicago for the NBC radio orchestra; the senior Poole was a close friend of legendary jazz drummer Gene Krupa.
Every time he goes about the labor of setting up his drum kit, Poole thinks of his dad, who told him “Son, you just oughta play trumpet. Put your music in the stand, and you’re done,” he said, laughing.
Graystone is donating its artist fee back to the Bama. Like everyone else in the entertainment business, they’ve been shut down since spring, but the guys wanted to play, and help the cause, more than get paid.
“The Bama’s iconic, from my childhood, so when (TTS) asked us to do it, we jumped on it and got excited,” Poole said. “We would do just about anything to support the Arts Council and the Bama.”
It’s therapy for him, Poole said, even with the demanding physicality of the drums, and the sometimes multi-hour sets. “Music is such a wonderful art, everybody just enjoys it; it’s relaxing, brings back memories.”
And Friday is his anniversary with wife Jamie.
“I told her, ‘I’m going to play you music for our anniversary.’ She said, ‘No, I’m going to let you play music for our anniversary,’ ” he said.
“I don’t know how many more gigs I have in me. I turn 75 in January. But if I only get to play 10 more times, what a blessing. Music is a gift.”
Casie Jo and the No Joes draw much of their sound from a similar era, though the band’s experience range widens. Their ages range from the front woman’s 30 up into the 70s. The name is a sly jab at guitarist Michael Terry’s dad, Joe Terry, another veteran guitarist
“I called the band the No Joes, but they always said this is Casie Jo and the No Joes,” said Casie Jones. The Casie Jo is a nickname from high school, and no she wasn’t named for the Grateful Dead song, but was named after the heroic train engineer they and others — including Johnny Cash and Pete Seeger — sang about. Her great-grandfather was a switchman, who collected and donated train gear to Northport Train Depot.
Joe Terry taught his son everything he knows, and has been part of a couple groups with Jones. Both father and son can be intense.
“We know when Michael gets a little too extra, we say ‘OK Joe,’ ” Jones said. “It’s kind of like we’re not being mean, but we’re not allowing Joe to be in our band. It’s kind of an anti-Joe — but we love you — band.”
Though the truth is Joe Terry, and other veteran players such as Tommy Gardner, do sometimes sit in.
“We all bring different types of music, but it’s all kind of the same,” Jones said. “It revolves around the same type of soul music. … We just all feel very soulful about it.”
She met Terry about a decade ago at a wedding, and sat in. Though she’d been playing guitar and singing, it was mostly for herself and her grandmother, who she lived with for a while. Her best friend always had country music playing. Her dad was more of an Eric Clapton fan, which Jones picked up on in high school, while her mother shared disco fever. So though Jones wasn’t born until 20 or 30 years after much of the music the band plays originated, she knew all the words.
“I think the first one we did was (Fleetwood Mac’s) ‘Rhiannon,’ and that was good, so we just kept going,” Jones said.
The two guitarists, Terry and Rush Smith, bring blues-soul-rock influences from Clapton to the Allman Brothers. Drummer Luke McLaughin is more into neo-Southern rock, like Tedeschi Trucks Band.
“If I think it sounds good, I’ll want to sing it,” Jones said, and the guys take some lead vocals as well. Though there are some newer songs in the setlist, a lot of them will be familiar to classic rock fans.
“We do want to please the crowd, we don’t want to be too common,” Jones said. “I want people to hear what they know, but also (less-known) songs that sound familiar.”
The pandemic kept the band apart, though they’re eager to reunite.
“We have not officially practiced since March, and we are not going to practice until we get in the Bama next week,” Jone said, though part of the band did play at The Oasis a few weekends ago. They have been sharing clips of music, and getting together in pairs and smaller groups, when possible.
“We just might do something we’ve never played in public before,” Jones said.
Everyone contributes ideas, but Jones is as up front as her name.
“I kind of conduct it,” she said. “I will always do what’s best for our band. But they listen to me.”
She taught in the county schools system for five years, and now is supervisor of youth programs for Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Authority (PARA), so she’s used to that kind of benevolent dictatorship.
“Being a performer is weird, because when I think about it, I don’t want to do it,” she said, but somehow it balances out. “I’m an introvert who does extroverted things.
For those who’ve never seen Casie Jo and the No Joes, she said to expect “very energetic and enthusiastic” players.
“They’re about to burst to play music,” she said.
Friday night at the Bama, everyone will have to be masked, except when eating or drinking, Wolfe said. The concession stand, rigged with plexiglass and marked off for distanced standing, will be open. There will be no walkup sales for tickets, so all those will need to be purchased in advance. Concession and Bama T-shirt sales will be cards only, no cash. And patrons can’t swap seats, because there won’t be any extra. All proceeds will go to the Bama.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize the entertainment industry, the performing arts industry, and venues like the Bama Theatre, have been hit hard by the virus,” Wolfe said, in these unprecedented times when even Broadway’s shut down. Performers, technicians, venue operators and staff, musicians and more are out of work
“Some theaters and venues won’t make it out of this,” Wolfe said. It’s important for the community to rally around the Bama, she said.
“Remember we are still here, and we’ve got to support, as a community, our performing arts organizations and spaces.”