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Artist rendering of Rhode Island Music Hall
of Fame Exhibits in Hope Artiste Village,
Pawtucket, RI |
Rhode
Island Music Hall of Fame announces first class
of inductees
PAWTUCKET – The
newly-formed Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame (RIMHOF)
is a nonprofit organization dedicated to
celebrating, honoring, and preserving the legacy
of Rhode Island musicians, educators and
industry professionals who have made significant
contributions to both the national and Rhode
Island music scene. RIMHOF, formed in spring
2011, will carry out its mission through the
annual election of inductees. The group will
honor the first class into the Hall of Fame on
Sunday, February 26, 7 p.m., at a ceremony and
concert at The Met, located in Hope Artiste
Village, 1005 Main St., in Pawtucket. The public
will also get their first look at mockups of
what will become permanent displays in the
hallways of Hope Artiste Village.
The Hall of
Fame's first inductees are John Cafferty & the
Beaver Brown Band, Roomful of Blues, Dave
McKenna, Eileen Farrell, and Oliver Shaw, as
well as three other acts previously inducted
into the R.I. Popular Music Archive Hall of Fame
– Ken Lyon, Anders & Poncia, and Gerry Granahan.
The February 26 event will include the induction
of all eight into the Hall of Fame followed by
performances by John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown
Band, Roomful of Blues – who expect to feature
many past Roomful alumni – and a Tribute to Dave
McKenna featuring his sister, Jean (McKenna)
O'Donnell, and friends.
The Rhode
Island Music Hall of Fame 2012 Induction
Ceremony will begin at 7:00 p.m. with
doors opening at 6:00 p.m. Tickets will be $20
advance / $25 day of event. Visit
here to purchase tickets online, or
here for more info.
"We're honored to be recognized by the Hall Of
Fame," says Cafferty, "and to be included in the
long line of talented, dedicated, hard-working
musicians who have kept us entertained, inspired
and dancing all these years." Roomful guitarist
and leader Chris Vachon adds, "After 22 years of
traveling the world and receiving numerous music
awards, being inducted in the Rhode Island Music
Hall of Fame's inaugural class is a huge honor
for Roomful. We'd like to thank all of our
friends in Rhode Island for their support over
the years."
A further
aspect of RIMHOF's vision is the creation of a
museum of artist- and music-related exhibits
honoring inductees and commemorating the Ocean
State's musical legacy. The Hope Artiste Village
complex on Main Street has offered to donate
hallway space that will become the future site
of the museum where up to 70 wall displays can
be installed for permanent viewing.
The group's
third major initiative will be an online music
archive featuring information and audio/video
recordings by those involved in Rhode Island's
vibrant past and present music scene. The online
Hall of Fame will include not only the work of
the inductees, but will be an ongoing project
documenting and preserving the entire Rhode
Island music scene with contributions from all
genres and eras.
This
initiative," says Rick Bellaire, vice chair of
RIMHOF, "provides a great opportunity to not
only acknowledge Rhode Island's musical greats
and celebrate their achievements, but to put in
place an organization whose primary goal is to
promote and preserve Rhode Island's rich musical
heritage in all its forms. With actual exhibit
space, coupled with an online archive, we have
in place the tools
to curate and showcase the best of Rhode
Island's musical artistry."
The RIMHOF
Board of Directors includes many individuals
representing Rhode Island's rich music scene in
addition to local business leaders: Dr. Robert
Billington, chair; Mederick "Rick" Bellaire,
vice chair; James Toomey, secretary; Josh
Cournoyer, treasurer; and Board Members John
Chan, Donald "D.C." Culp, Keith Fayan, Jonathan
Flynn, Michael Gazdacko, David Goldstein,
Russell Gusetti, Rich Lupo, Consuelo Sherba,
Bruce McCrae (Rudy Cheeks), Alan "Big Al" Pavlow,
Marc Perry, Mary Ann Rossoni, Herb Weiss, and
John Worsley.
The Rhode
Island Music Hall of Fame is actually the result
of a merging of two separate music Hall of Fame
initiatives. The first involved the inclusion of
a Hall of Fame as part of The Rhode Island
Popular Music Archive, a project coordinated by
musician/collector Rick Bellaire and designed to
preserve, promote and celebrate Rhode Island's
great musical legacy through the creation of a
musical archive while also presenting
retrospective concerts. Ken Lyon, Anders &
Poncia, and Gerry Granahan were elected to this
Hall of Fame in 2007-2011 and are part of the
inaugural 2012 inductee group as well.
The second
effort, begun in early 2011, focused on the
creation of a more traditional Music Hall of
Fame that would encompass Rhode Island musicians
and participants in the state's music industry,
and also include an actual museum space in
Pawtucket along with an annual induction
ceremony. "With the Rhode Island Music Hall of
Fame formally incorporated," says Bellaire, "we
will now begin raising the funds needed to build
display cases to be permanently affixed to
hallways in the Hope Artiste Village. Work will
also continue on the archival website
chronicling the best of all genres of music with
Rhode Island roots."
"As the
organization grows," Chair Robert Billington
adds, "the Hall of Fame will be committed to
developing programs and services aimed at
promoting and strengthening Rhode Island's
current and future music scene and ensuring that
music continues to play an important role in the
lives of all Rhode Islanders."
RHODE
ISLAND MUSIC HALL OF FAME - 2012 INDUCTEES
ANDERS & PONCIA
This Providence-born duo first achieved success
in 1960 when their doo-wop group, The Videls,
went national with an Anders & Poncia original,
“Mister Lonely.” They parlayed their success
into a decade-long career as staff writers whose
songs were recorded by artists such as Elvis
Presley, Jackie Wilson and The Ronettes. They
were also producers and performed themselves
under the names The Tradewinds (“New York’s A
Lonely Town”) and The Innocence (“There’s Got To
Be A Word.”) After splitting in 1972, each
continued on to even greater heights. Vini
Poncia, working as an associate producer and
songwriter for Richard Perry, was involved with
all four Beatles during the solo years composing
the smash hit “Oh My My” for Ringo Starr and
became a Grammy winner for writing and
co-producing Leo Sayer’s #1 hit “You Make Me
Feel Like Dancing.” He won many platinum awards
for producing major acts such as Melissa
Manchester and Kiss. Peter Anders released a
solo album in 1974 and then concentrated on his
songwriting career with compositions covered by
dozens of artists including Phoebe Snow, Dion,
and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.
JOHN CAFFERTY &
THE BEAVER BROWN BAND
After ten years on the bar-band circuit during
which they became one of the most in-demand
unsigned bands in the country, Beaver Brown
finally broke through nationally with leader
John Cafferty's score to the motion picture,
"Eddie and the Cruisers." The soundtrack was
awarded triple Platinum certification by the
RIAA and led to their own recording contract
with Columbia Records. Their second album,
"Tough All Over," was a Platinum-seller and
gained them an international audience. After 40
years, John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band are
still an in-demand attraction and are one of the
best-selling Rhode Island acts of all time.
EILEEN FARRELL
Although a native of Connecticut, Eileen Farrell
spent her teenage years at Woonsocket High
School where she prepared for the further
studies and experiences which would lead to her
becoming considered one of the finest American
sopranos of the 20th century. For more than 30
years, she performed with every major opera
company and symphony orchestra in the United
States including the Metropolitan Opera and
Arturo Toscannini's NBC Symphony Orchestra. She
was one of the best-selling classical artists of
all time and, equally at home with the standards
and show tunes she loved, she also recorded four
albums of popular music for Columbia Records.
She devoted the last decades of her professional
career to teaching. Eileen Farrell died in 2002.
GERRY GRANAHAN
Hailing originally from Pennsylvania, Gerry
Granahan has been a Rhode Island resident for
the last 50 years. In just three short years,
from 1957 to 1960, Gerry reached the heights of
the music business as a performing
singer-songwriter and producer earning three
Gold Record awards along the way: "Click-Clack"
by Dicky Doo & The Dont's, "You Were Mine" by
The Fireflies, and "No Chemise, Please" under
his own name. He then moved behind the scenes to
become one of the youngest record executives in
history, first at his own Caprice Records and
then at two major labels, United Artists and
Dot, where he continued to produce dozens of
hits in the '60s and early 1970s including smash
hits by Jay & The Americans and Patty Duke and a
series of best-selling albums by comedian Pat
Cooper.
KEN LYON
A Newport native and a lifelong Rhode Island
resident, Ken Lyon's career spans five decades
beginning with his days as a folk-blues singer
on the Greenwich Village scene of the early
1960s. The “folk” phase of his career was capped
by the nationally-released Decca Records album
“Ken Lyon In Concert” in 1970. Beginning in the
late ’60s, Ken experimented with various
electric/acoustic combinations culminating in
the Columbia Records album “Ken Lyon &
Tombstone” in 1973. Along the way, he achieved
legendary status in southern New England as a
“godfather” of the blues. His selfless approach
as a band leader provided the launching pad for
dozens of other R.I.-based musicians including
tenor sax legend Scott Hamilton, blues & swing
guitarist Duke Robillard, Brenda Mosher of
Prince’s Vanity Six and Apollonia Six, and many
others.
DAVE McKENNA
Bursting onto the post-war jazz scene in the
late 1940s, Dave McKenna, of Woonsocket, was
almost immediately recognized as one of the
finest pianists to ever set fingers to keyboard.
His amazing technical proficiency served only to
raise his art to the highest interpretive levels
as a sideman, accompanist and soloist. His left
hand alone would have guaranteed him a place in
the pantheon of great jazz pianists, but his
depth of feeling guaranteed his place as one the
greatest improvisors in the history of jazz.
Dave McKenna died in 2008.
ROOMFUL OF
BLUES
For more than 43 years, Roomful of Blues has
earned top accolades from music fans as well as
from the music industry itself. They are one of
most successful blues acts of the second half of
the twentieth century with more than 20 albums
in their catalog and have garnered five Grammy
nominations as well as dozens of other awards
over the course of their career. Even with
dozens of personnel changes over the decades,
the band has not only managed to remain a top
touring and recording act, but they have served
as the launching platform for some of the
country's top blues artists including Duke
Robillard, Al Copley, Fran Christina, Preston
Hubbard, Lou Ann Barton, Ronnie Earl, Sugar Ray
Norcia, Greg Piccolo and Curtis Salgado. With
guitarist Chris Vachon leading the band for the
past two decades, Roomful continues to play its
distinctive brand of up-tempo horn driven R&B.
OLIVER SHAW
Based in Providence during the early 19th
century, Oliver Shaw was an exceptionally
successful musician by the standards of any era.
He was a highly sought-after teacher providing
lessons to upward of 40 students at a time; he
ran a retail and mail order music shop selling
instruments and sheet music; and he also ran his
own publishing company. But it is as a composer
that Shaw is best remembered. He was a major
composer of sacred, brass band and topical music
as well as popular songs and his "There's
Nothing True But Heaven" became the first
national hit by an American-born musician in
1829. Oliver Shaw died in 1848.
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