Holly's legacy beats on

By KYLE MUNSON
January 23, 2009
DesMoines Register

Fifty years ago, Graham Nash stood on a street corner in his hometown of Salford, England, with his best friend, Alan Clarke, and wept.

The source of their sadness was news from 4,000 miles away and across the Atlantic Ocean - a frozen field north of Clear Lake, where the airplane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson crashed on Feb. 3, 1959, killing the three rock stars from the Winter Dance Party tour as well as their local pilot, Roger Peterson.

"It was very traumatic for me," said Nash, who was only 17 years old that day. He went on to form the Hollies with Clarke in 1962. They found themselves among a rising tide of '60s rock musicians on both sides of the pond who owed a huge musical debt to the innovations of the Winter Dance Party artists.

Today it might be tempting to sum up the musical legacies of Holly, Valens and the Bopper in terms of Don McLean's landmark 1971 tune "American Pie" (that forever dubbed the tragedy the Day the Music Died), the biopics (1978's "The Buddy Holly Story" and 1987's "La Bamba") and the annual "oldies" rock tribute concerts at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, site of the trio's final performance on Feb. 2, 1959.

But today's musicians still continually claim Holly as a primary songwriting influence; celebrated indie singer-songwriter M. Ward, for instance, releases a new album Feb. 17 that includes a cover of Holly's "Not Fade Away." And younger music fans are discovering classic rock in greater numbers as the songs flow freely from iTunes and other online, digital sources.

Valens is revered for his guitar technique and as the prototypical Latino rocker who anticipated the careers of everybody from Santana to Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys.

The Bopper wrote country music hits for other artists and is credited with creating the first distinct music video.

"They are all different but of the same era - pioneers, artists that really did catch the ear of the world, not just America," said Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The Bopper has yet to join Holly and Valens as an official Rock Hall inductee, but the museum is co-producing a series of events Wednesday, Feb. 2 at the Surf to commemorate the enduring influence of all three artists.

Back in 1959 the Winter Dance Party served first and foremost as a teen dance that left the adult world unmoved - much in the same way that today's Disney heartthrob chart-toppers, the Jonas Brothers, while not poised for artistic impact on par with Holly, play to a predominantly teen fanbase.

Now that the teens of 1950s rock have long since grown up and are retiring, the likes of Buddy and the Beatles have in a way become canonized as classics. And it's no great stretch to imagine that Bruce Springsteen might even cover a Holly song during his halftime performance next weekend at the Super Bowl.




Musicians young and old now trace the musical thread of rock history back to the Day the Music Died.

"Buddy Holly totally was the model for the Beatles and everything that came after," said Dion DiMucci, the Bronx-born rock troubadour with blues roots and a doo-wop streak who remains the sole surviving headliner from the 1959 tour. "He was self-contained, he wrote, he had two guitars, bass and drums. He was the whole model of that."

"(Holly) was the essence of the first real rock 'n' roll band," agreed John Mueller, who today performs as Holly on his own Winter Dance Party tribute tour. "And when that went away with this tragic event, I think it left a huge hole. It didn't really start comin' back until ... the Beatles basically were doing Buddy Holly songs ... but in a little more aggressive, little more '60s kind of way."

The fledgling Beatles, as the Quarry Men, recorded Holly's "That'll Be the Day" as their first official tune before renaming themselves with a nod to Holly's band, the Crickets.

The Rolling Stones introduced themselves to America in 1964 with a cover of Holly's "Not Fade Away."

A decade after the death of his hero, Graham Nash found wider fame and became an emblem of the Woodstock generation with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. On Feb. 2 he will finally make his first pilgrimage to the Surf and Clear Lake when he headlines the capstone concert of the commemorative "50 Winters Later" events there. The star-studded musical lineup includes the Crickets, Los Lobos and a house band featuring key Rolling Stones sidemen (Chuck Leavell, Bobby Keys).

“To be invited to go and play on the 50th anniversary, I just couldn’t refuse,” said Nash, who also will mark his 67th birthday on Feb. 2.



The notion seems almost silly today, but 50 years ago not even the musical pioneers themselves were certain that rock ’n’ roll would survive much into the 1960s, whether before or after the Day the Music Died.

George Lucas’ 1973 cinematic love letter to teen car culture of the early 1960s, “American Graffiti,” includes the memorable line: “Rock ’n’ roll’s been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died.”

Today it’s taken for granted that Holly, Valens, the Bopper and their peers — Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, etc. — helped create a global youth movement that drove a wedge between mature adults and their restless kids. The post-war baby boom, teens’ disposable income, the spread of television, mass-produced vinyl 45s and LPs — many trends converged to enable the rise of rock in the ’50s, but the insistent beat of the music itself has sustained it most of all.

Dion bristles at the thought that the innovations of the ’50s were overshadowed by wilder experimentation in the ’60s; to him they’re both foundations of guitar rock.

“There’s two eras when guitar giants walked the earth: the ’50s and the ’60s,” he said. “It was like the Chuck Berry era, and the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix era.”

How Holly, Valens and the Bopper might have figured into the evolution of rock in the ’60s and beyond can provide endless speculation. Holly’s widow, Maria Elena Holly, said that her late husband longed to collaborate with soul “genius” Ray Charles.

“To me, he was a sort of a visionary even though he was 22 years old,” she said. “I always call him the old soul, because he came with ideas at that time that are happening now.”



To Graham Nash’s ears, any songwriter today who crafts a catchy pop tune has something in common with the 1959 Winter Dance Party.

“To me, the art of song writing is simplicity, and Buddy’s songs were incredibly simple, incredibly melodic,” said Nash, who hears much of Buddy in the songs of, say, modern troubadour Beck.

More examples of Holly’s enduring sound:

• The 1994 song and music video “Buddy Holly” remains a signature hit for rock band Weezer.

• Billy McGuigan, a veteran performer in the title role of the musical “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” and his own “Rave On” touring revue of Holly songs, hears Holly in the punk-pop of Green Day and the bluesy indie rock of the White Stripes.

• Like the Hollies and the Beatles, bands continue to name themselves after the 1950s pioneers: Witness Danish rock duo the Raveonettes.

Terry Stewart of the Rock Hall traces the Winter Dance Party’s musical heritage back to African drumbeats and brings it back around to the present.

“As it goes on it mutates into everything that we celebrate today, everything up to hip-hop, which is hard for a lot of people to understand,” he said. “But hip-hop is nothing more than R&B 50 years later, being done with different instrumentation and a different feel.”

Whether classic rock is defined as Buddy Holly, James Brown, the Beatles, the Clash or Nirvana, young rock fans have increasingly adopted a “broad definition of this music that occurred over a long period of time that their parents grew up with, and … it shows you that they are listening more than ever to the music that came ahead of whatever’s on the radio.”

In other words, the very technology that has been largely blamed for the decline of the music industry’s business model — digital recordings freely shared online — also is helping to preserve and promote the roots of rock ’n’ roll among its newest fans.

Compared to 1972, when Don McLean’s “American Pie” hit No. 1 on the pop charts, or 1978, when Gary Busey starred in “The Buddy Holly Story,” the music of the Winter Dance Party artists is more widely available than ever before.

Rock ’n’ roll’s history and future will meet later this month in Clear Lake.

“Going back to play in that very ballroom on the 50th anniversary — that’s kind of scary to me,” Nash said. “I love it.”



Tracing their roots: The Beatles and beyond
"One of the main things about the Beatles is that we started out writing our own material. People these days take it for granted that you do, but nobody used to then. John and I started to write because of Buddy Holly. It was like, 'Wow! He writes and is a musician.' ... In our imaginations back then, John was Buddy and I was Little Richard or Elvis."
- Paul McCartney of the Beatles, "The Beatles Anthology," 2000

"To guys of my age at the time, if you were the least bit interested in music, Buddy was the one, because he sang and was very self-contained. Elvis was fantastic, but because Buddy had glasses and looked a bit like a bank clerk, you could say to yourself, 'Well, it's not just for guys who look like Elvis,' because otherwise it was sort of unattainable."
- Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, "According to the Rolling Stones," 2003

"When I was 16 or 17 years old I went to see Buddy Holly play in Duluth, National Guard Armory. And I was three feet away from him, and he looked at me. And I just have some kind of feeling that he was - I don't know how or why - I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way."
- Bob Dylan, Album of the Year acceptance speech at the Grammys for "Time Out of Mind," February 1998

"When I think of Buddy Holly I think of the ... purest form of rock 'n' roll. ... And if we want to change things, if anybody wants to change anything in this business ... let's get back to that."
- Shawn Crahan of Slipknot, interview with Des Moines Register reporter Joe Lawler, 2009

"Bo (Diddley)'s rhythm was first borrowed by Buddy Holly, later by me for 'Magic Bus.'"
- Pete Townshend of the Who, Entertainment Weekly, June 2008

"As a musician and singer (Holly) had a style of singing that we all try to at some point emulate. If you don't do it exactly the way he did it, at least it's a thing always in the back of your head."
- Billy Bob Thornton, interview with Des Moines Register reporter Joe Lawler, 2008

"The great thing about Buddy Holly is his songs had a rhythm and bluesey kind of feel, super catchy with really strong vocal melodies. That's what I really liked. Later on I really appreciated that he played a Strat while other guys played hollow body. Part of his sound was the way he played that Fender, and I really appreciated it."
- Kirk Hammett of Metallica, interview with Des Moines Register reporter Joe Lawler,
----------------------------------------------------------

New Holly collections in stores
Jan. 27 — “Down the Line: The Rarities”: Two CDs, 59 songs, from a raw 1949 home recording in Lubbock, Texas, to the undubbed “apartment tapes” recorded in December 1958 and January 1959 in the New York flat Buddy Holly shared with wife Maria Elena. Also heard are Holly’s 1952 rockabilly recordings as Buddy & Bob (with Bob Montgomery) and the early garage rock tapes of the Crickets.

Feb. 10 — “Memorial Collection”: Three CDs, 60 songs, a sampling from Buddy & Bob to the “apartment tapes,” with all the essential hits between.

http://cmsimg.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bildeSite=D2&Date=20090123&Ca...

get the Purple Chick 10- cd set "THe Complete Buddy Holly"

it's exceptional. 

it can be found all over the web, to download, as a torrent.

Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly, Tommy Allsup

Fiesta Ballroom,
Montevideo, MN

27th Jan 1959



Ade & Tommy Allsup,

The Half Moon, Putney, London

June 2008

Buddy Holly was one of the true greats, I remember my older Sister playing his music when I used to go over for supper, she loved B.H., I think my fav. of his is "Rave On" with the way that he stutters in the beginning, a-well-a well a-well the way you, etc.

thanks Sioux 

Chuck Leavell & Bobby Keys are confirmed, to play
as members of the 'House Band' at the Surf Ballroom on Feb 2nd

http://www.50winterslater.com/events.html#jan28


MONDAY, February 2nd, 2009*

SURF BALLROOM/GIFT SHOP:
Hours: 6:00pm - close

EXHIBIT/DISPLAY: “SPECIAL TRIBUTE COLLECTION”:
Time: 6:00pm - close
Location: Surf Ballroom Lounge Stage
Event Description: Tom Fontaine's Rock and Roll Investments will present a special tribute collection exhibit featuring personal items, contracts, lyrics, autographs, etc. belonging to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper Richardson.” Bonus items from The Beatles (celebrating the 45th Anniversary of first arrival in the US), Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison etc. will also be on display during this time. Event open to ticketed 50 Winters Later concert-goers only.

CONCERT: 50 Winters Later Commemorative Concert
Artists Scheduled to Appear:
Tommy Allsup
Big Bopper JR
The Crickets
Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens
Joe Ely
Wanda Jackson
Los Lobos
Los Lonely Boys
Delbert McClinton
Chris Montez
Cousin Brucie Morrow
Graham Nash
Peter & Gordon
Sir Tim Rice
Bobby Vee
and special guests TBA
House Band:
Kenny Aronoff
Chuck Leavell
Bobby Keys   
Hutch Hutchinson
Doors Open: 6:00pm
Concert: 7:00pm
Location: Surf Ballroom
Tickets: $85

Rock fans head to Iowa to recall day music died

By MARCO SANTANA –

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa (AP) — It's been 50 years since a single-engine plane crashed into a snow-covered Iowa field, instantly killing three men whose names would become enshrined in the history of rock 'n' roll.

The passing decades haven't diminished fascination with that night on Feb. 2, 1959, when 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens performed in Clear Lake and then boarded the plane for a planned 300-mile flight that lasted only minutes.

"It was really like the first rock 'n' roll landmark; the first death," said rock historian Jim Dawson, who has written several books about music of that era. "They say these things come in threes. Well, all three happened at the same time."

Starting Wednesday, thousands of people are expected to gather in the small northern Iowa town where the rock pioneers gave their last performance. They'll come to the Surf Ballroom for symposiums with the three musicians' relatives, sold-out concerts and a ceremony as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame designates the building as its ninth national landmark.

And they'll discuss why after so many years, so many people still care about what songwriter Don McLean so famously called "the day the music died."

"It was the locus point for that last performance by these great artists," said Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. "It warrants being fixed in time."

Clear Lake is an unlikely spot for a rock 'n' roll pilgrimage — especially in winter. The resort town of about 8,000 borders its namesake lake, and on winter days the cold and wind make the community 100 miles north of Des Moines anything but a tourist destination.

The crash site is on private property, a five-mile drive from Clear Lake and half-mile walk off the road. Corn grows high in adjacent fields during the summer, but in winter the fields are covered with snow and a path to the small memorial is often thick with ice. The memorial features a small cross and thin metal guitar and records, all of which are draped in flowers during the summer.

"It's a much nicer trip in the summer," said Jeff Nicholas, a longtime Clear Lake resident who heads the Surf Ballroom's board of directors. "But in the winter, you get more of a feel of what it was like."

No one tracks the number of visitors, but fans stop by throughout the year and on some summer days visitors to the crash site can create the oddity of a corn field traffic jam.

Stewart said the deaths still resonate because they occurred at a time when rock 'n' roll was going through a transition, of sorts. The sound of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Holly was making way for the British Invasion of the mid-1960s.

"The music was shifting and changing at that point," he said. "The crash put a punctuation point on the change."

All three musicians influenced rock and roll in their own way.

Holly's career was short, but his hiccup-vocal style, guitar play and songwriting talents had tremendous influence on later performers. The Beatles, who formed about the time of the crash, were among his early fans and fashioned their name after Holly's band, The Crickets. Holly's hit songs include "That'll Be The Day," "Peggy Sue" and "Maybe Baby."

Richardson, "The Big Bopper," is often credited with creating the first music video with his recorded performance of "Chantilly Lace" in 1958, decades before MTV.

And Valens was one of the first musicians to apply a Mexican influence to rock 'n' roll. He recorded his huge hit "La Bamba" only months before the accident.

The plane left the airport in nearby Mason City about 1 a.m., headed for Moorhead, Minn., with the musicians looking for a break from a tiring, cold bus trip through the Upper Midwest.

It wasn't until hours later that the demolished plane was found, crumpled against a wire fence. Investigators believe the pilot, who also died, became confused amid the dark, snowy conditions and rammed the plane into the ground.

The crash set off a wave of mourning among their passionate, mostly young fans across the country. Then 12 years later the crash was immortalized as "the day the music died" in McLean's 1971 song, "American Pie."

Vonnie Amosson, who manages the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Clear Lake, said that ever since the plane crash, the community has embraced the tragedy. It's a continues stream of tourism dollars, and the town's chamber of commerce estimates that this year's events, dubbed "50s in February," will generate more than $4 million for Clear Lake's economy.

"It's kind of sad that that is what we are known for," Amosson said. "But on the other part of it, I think the whole '50's in February' weekend is a huge memorial and it's an honor to them."

In part because of its role in rock history, the Surf Ballroom has retained its vintage look, with a 6,000-square-foot dance floor, ceiling painted to resemble a sky, and original cloud machines on either side of the room. Ten Buddy Holly banners line the wall opposite the stage. The 2,100-capacity ballroom still hosts many national and regional performers, most of whom add their names to a backstage wall that is now crowded with drawings and signatures.

"It's quite a special place," said Nicholas, the Surf board member. "This place looks just like it did in 1959."

Ade, thanks so much for all this info!  My mom was a huge Holly fan so I grew up listening to him -- it's great to see him being remembered this way, his influence was tremendous.

Holly fans come from near and far

http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2009/01/28/news/latest/doc498109e90dcd65560...

CLEAR LAKE —

British Buddy Holly fans make the pilgrimage to Clear Lake every year for the annual tribute concerts at the Surf Ballroom.

But this is the first time Roger Johnson of Leeds, England, and his family have made the trip.

Johnson said one reason they came is that it’s the 50th anniversary of the Winter Dance Party at the Surf. Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens were killed in a plane crash after the concert.

“There will never be another 50th,” Johnson said. “It’s awesome to be a part of it.”

Johnson, who came to a 50 Winters Later reception at the Clear Lake Arts Center Wednesday with his wife, Rita, and their grown children, Richard and Ruth, said they are big Holly fans, but even bigger fans of Bobby Vee, one of the performers this year.

They have met him in person a number of times.

“Bobby tells us we are his Yorkshire VIPs. That’s spelled V-E-E-I-P-S,” Roger said.

The Johnsons have seen Vee perform in England. Just before coming to Clear Lake for 50 Winters Later, they were on a Caribbean cruise where Vee was one of the performers.

Roger said he is looking forward to seeing The Crickets perform at the Surf, in addition to Vee.

“Everyone who has been here has told us we are going to love it,” he said.

Another visitor from across the Atlantic is Torbjorn Lorentsen, who is from northern Norway.

Lorentsen came to the Surf five years ago to see Merle Haggard perform.

“It’s an interesting place,” he said.

Lorentsen was 15 when Holly died, but he didn’t know anything about him at the time because his town had only one radio station and it didn’t play his music.

He said he learned about Holly from reading a biography of Waylon Jennings, who performed with him that night.

Among the North Iowa fans attending Wednesday’s reception was Dennis Tierney of Charles City.

Tierney came with his son, Brad Tierney, a 1991 Charles City High School graduate now living in North Liberty.

The younger Tierney, who has a pair of Buddy Holly-style glasses he wears just for the annual celebration at the Surf, said he inherited his love for Holly and other early rock ’n’ roll performers from his Baby Boomer parents.

He has several ’50s-related drawings he did on display in the current exhibit at the Clear Lake Arts Center, including a portrait of Elvis.

He said he is looking forward to this year’s celebration because he thinks the 50th anniversary will attract people who don’t normally attend.

“The atmosphere should be great,” he said.

everything you need to know, regarding the Purple Chick 10-cd set, can
be viewed here (incl. downloadable artwork)

http://www.bigozine2.com/features06/BHcomplete.html

Why Buddy Holly is still pop’s hero

Chas Hodges

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5...



I enjoyed John Gribben’s piece on Buddy Holly, who died 50 years ago on Tuesday, (The Times, January 16), but I don’t think his reasoning as to why Buddy is still so popular today is good enough. So how? He was the first man to mix original melody with rock’n’roll.

I’ve become a friend of Jerry Allison, who was the drummer and wrote a lot of songs with Buddy: That’ll Be the Day, Think It Over. I stayed with him in Nashville and said to him one night: “Do you realise it was you and Buddy Holly who actually put melody into rock’n’roll?” The Beatles wouldn’t have been the Beatles without Buddy Holly: he showed them the way forward.

I first heard Buddy Holly in 1957, singing That’ll Be the Day on a programme called Six Five Special on the BBC. They used to play records — they didn’t have videos in those days — and they’d get the kids to dance. I became an immediate fan. I had enough money for one record at the music stall in Edmonton Market and I had to choose between Buddy’s Listen to Me and Breathless by Jerry Lee Lewis. I chose Listen to Me. He’d overdubbed his own voice — it gave off an eerie, haunting sound that I’d never heard on record before.

When Buddy’s new records came out, unlike Lewis or Little Richard, they always sounded different. Not too different, but enough to make you think a bit. The only band since then who have give me the same feeling have been the Beatles.

We lost a driving force with Buddy Holly

I was in a skiffle group at the time and I learnt a lot of Buddy’s guitar chords: the quick changes in Peggy Sue were quite nifty at the time and I was really pleased with myself when I pulled them off. My playing improved enormously after listening to his records, and we used to play his songs on stage.

I was 15 when he died. I remember the kid next door but one knocking at the door and saying: “Guess what, Buddy Holly’s been killed in a plane crash!” My stupid response was: “Just as long as it isn’t Jerry Lee Lewis.” Why did I say that?

I remember the papers saying what crap music rock’n’roll was, but when he died they were saying: “What a talent, a contender for the throne of Elvis.”

I joined a band called Mike Berry and the Outlaws and we did a tribute to Buddy Holly, which was in the charts in 1961. We recorded it with the producer Joe Meek, who was obsessed by Buddy Holly. He used to have seances and say, “I spoke to Buddy Holly last night,” and he committed suicide on the anniversary of his death.

If Buddy were alive today, he would have loved the Beatles saying it was him that influenced them but I don’t think he would really have been fully aware of it. He wouldn’t realise quite how important he was.

Chas & Dave: All About Us, by Chas Hodges, is published by John Blake

Tyrades! Rave On, Buddy Holly Fans

Friday, January 30, 2009
By Danny Tyree
February 3, 2009: that'll be the day.
That's the 50th anniversary of the tragic plane crash that claimed the lives of rock and roll stars J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly.

There are a number of ways to mark the anniversary of "the day the music died."

Holly hometown Lubbock, Texas, plans tours, panel discussions, and other events on Feb. 2 and 3.

The Smithereens will perform a tribute to Holly at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa (the last place Holly performed) on Feb. 2.

You could reminisce over ways Holly's music has touched your life. I was born the year after Holly died, but during my one-weekend career as a DJ at WJJM (1982), I proudly opened my first show with "Oh Boy!"

You can play Linda Ronstadt's 1977 cover version of "It's So Easy" over and over, watch Gary Busey in 1978's "The Buddy Holly Story" (mindful of the standard biopic inaccuracies, shortcuts and distortions), or lock yourself in your room and listen to the 3-CD "Memorial Collection" or 2-CD "Down The Line: Rarities" (both to be released Jan. 28).

Imitate one of the aforementioned Lubbock panels and speculate on where Holly would be now if not for the plane crash. Would he be an elder statesman of music, like Tony Bennett? (Even though Holly's national fame lasted only 18 months, and he was only 22 when he died, "Rolling Stone Magazine" in 2004 ranked him #13 on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.) Would he be a reclusive retiree? Would he have reinvented himself a dozen times over the decades?

Marvel at just how much the music industry has changed since Holly's time. We now have stereo FM radio, satellite radio, MTV, and VH1 -- but no "American Bandstand." Digital downloads, CDs, iPods and ring tones have changed our relationship with music. Radio station consolidation has tightened playlists and reduced DJ flexibility.

Debate the cryptic references in 1971's "American Pie" (some observers see Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and Janis Joplin hidden in the lyrics, but give it your own spin) and briefly share Don McLean's longing for a simpler era, before overt sexuality, drug abuse, and social protest took over rock.

Encourage an "oldies" radio station to give more airtime to Holly and his contemporaries. Many of today's oldies programmers think rock and roll history started with the British Invasion or even Woodstock. Next, it'll be starting with Milli Vanilli.

On the other hand, refrain from hypocrisy. It's easy to snicker at the rigid establishment figures who banned Holly's innovations as "jungle music," but some fans of Holly's music have become locked into one sliver of musical history. Come out of your comfort zone for at least one day. It's hard to celebrate the rebelliousness of Holly by turning a deaf ear to a new artist or new genre. Give a chance to someone else who hears the music in his head and wants to share it.

Holly deserves to be more than a fleeting glimpse of a young guy with geeky eyeglasses surrounded by coonskin caps, Hula Hoops, and "I Like Ike" buttons. Do your part this February and guarantee that the legacy of Buddy Holly and the other pioneers of rock and roll will "Not Fade Away."

Note: Danny Tyree welcomes e-mail at [email protected].

http://www.marshalltribune.com/story/1497546.html

Thanks again, Ade 

Ade, when you met Tommy Allsup were you able to talk with him about Buddy at all?

zooeyglass wrote on Jan 30^th, 2009 at 5:25pm:



Tommy has toured the UK the last 2 years, with Kevin Montgomery and his band (son of Bob).

They play small clubs and would you believe it, backrooms of pubs?  

Kevin (who has a cult following and is a brilliant singer songwriter, in his own regard), starts the show, intoroducing Tommy onto stage. Between songs by Buddy, Bill Wills (Tommy has been a member of the Texas Playboys, as well as being a session musician, for just about every 20th century act, you can think of...i'm serious...the list of records, he features on his unbelievable).  

Inbetween songs, Kevin chats with Tommy, about Buddy, the songs, his career, the events of The Winter Dance Party, and of course, the coin-flip with Ritchie Valens.
You can hear a pin drop, when he speaks of these pivotal events, and he still chokes up, when he recalls, that he gave Buddy his wallet, to Buddy for i.d , to get his laundry cleaned.
When the plane crashed, and the bodies were recovered, Tomy's wallet was found in the debris, and the authorities, rang Tommy's mother, to tell her, Tommy was dead...it's so emotional to here him tell these stories, and to play the riffs on the records, that mean so much to so many people.

The 2nd half of the show, is opened up to the audience, with a relaxed Q&A session, and afterwards, Tommy is happy to pose for photos and sign memorabilia.
The man is a true gent, and i look forward to him (hopefully) touring the UK, again, this coming summer.
He's apparently working on his autobiography.... what a lifestory to tell.

 Buddy Holly is my music hero, so to meet Tommy, who played such a pivotal role, in 20th century music history, is, for me, an amazing thing.  
...apologies for rambling on !