The evening was a wonderful date night, listening to talented musicians bring back classic songs of our youth. For a moment, we forgot the stress of daily life and went back to those carefree times 40 and 50 years ago.
My wife and I discovered the first time we were in the same building together was during a Marshall Tucker Band concert in Laramie, Wyoming in April of 1981. She was there with a date, and I was a temporary roadie working on the stage and sound crew.
Years later, when we started dating, the first concert we attended together was Starship. So, when both bands announced they were touring together on their 50th anniversaries in their Cloud 9 tour, the concert was a must-attend for us.
Starship was the opening act. The only members of the band who were present when we saw them in the late 1990s were David Freiberg who, turned down a spot with the Grateful Dead to form Starship in 1974, and the drummer Donnie Baldwin, who had been with the band since 1982. The band mentioned the greats who have since passed like Paul Kantner and Marty Balin.
Starship played hit after hit from both Jefferson Airplane and Starship. Their 20 years of chart-topping hits made for an enjoyable opening act hour. 55-year-old Cathy Richardson was a fitting substitute for Grace Slick, who retired in 1990. Her voice captured the phrasing and passion of everything from White Rabbit to We Built this City.
The surprise of the concert was the ability of 86-year-old David Baldwin to hit all the high notes in the song “Jane” – a song he wrote. His voice was strong and backup vocals and harmonies tight.
Cathy Richardson quipped, “Are there any women out there in their sixties?” Several women let out a passionate “Wooooo.” Richardson then commented, “Good, because the guys in the band want to pick up younger women.”
A half-hour intermission followed the opening act. After a time in line and a drink, it was back to hear the Marshall Tucker Band.
The Deadwood Mountain Grand is an amazing music venue. The concert hall is the renovated Homestake Mining Company gold mine slime plant.
The Northern Hills concert audiences are a sophisticated bunch. They have had the benefit of two generations of concerts from the world’s finest performers held at the Monument in Rapid City, several venues in Sturgis and the 15 or so concerts a year at the Deadwood Mountain Grand. The Northern Hills concert goers don’t give musicians their adulation lightly.
The Marshall Tucker Band took the stage.
Doug Gray, the 76-year-old lead singer is the only original member of the band. I enjoyed Gray’s interpretation of the music, even though his voice showed the strain of many years on the road.
Flutist Marcus James Henderson blew the doors down with his flute solo in Take the Highway, which evolved into a southern-rock-inspired jazz exhibition of musicianship by the newer members of the band.
The band did a wonderful job of creating the passion of the Caldwell brothers and George McCorkle. I don’t remember much of my back-stage view of the 1981 concert, but I do remember the talent, and the joy the musicians felt in performing in the Field House in Laramie. The folks putting on this concert shared the same joy.
Memories of country swing dances with college coeds at the Cowboy Bar and other venues flooded my mind. Those dances to Heard it in a Love Song, Fire on the Mountain and Searchin’ for a Rainbow, with long forgotten dance partners brought back, if for an instant, the carefree joys of my youth.
The discerning concert goers of the Northern Hills brought me back to the present with their approval of talented performers sharing a night of good old music.
Overall, the evening was a wonderful date night, listening to talented musicians bring back classic songs of our youth. For a moment, we forgot the stress of daily life, and went back to those carefree times years ago.
I urge those of you who appreciate the music of these talented groups to catch them while you still can. The time you can see these folks is fleeting.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 - 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House.
He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
