© Neil Rush Band
They say things come in threes. About two months ago was the 25th wedding anniversary of rock legend, Kent Morrill and his wife, Toni. Big doin’s and a great musical party for their family and friends. Last weekend was another 25th wedding anniversary in their family, and music was center stage from a coterie of many Northwest rock icons.
Got a call today to come over to the 25th anniversary party for a company in the small town where I live and guess who was playing? You got it. Many of the same icons who’ve been celebrating all summer infusing the iconic roots of what has made the Northwest famous. Today the Neil Rush Band was the featured headliner, and because this is all a huge musical family, the lines were firmly in place showing a who’s who at a fabulous community gathering.
What many people don’t remember is that the Northwest scene is at once independently indie music; and the distinct thread between R&B that weaves the fabric of the magic carpet ride of 20th century rock and roll. Members of The Fabulous Wailers were on hand to perform with the Neil Rush Band and a list of esteemed sidemen. These guys are all pros from the word go!
Kent Morrill for instance, started the whole dang deal in 1959 with the hit instrumental single, “Tall Cool One.” As the lead of The Fabulous Wailers, Morrill’s influence and their legend grew with a bevy of other greats including, Gail Harris. Neil Rush was also influential in the NW scene inviting a girl by the name of Merrilee Rush to join his troupe. Her hit single “Angel of the Morning” a Top 10 song earned her a Grammy nomination for Female Vocalist Of The Year in 1968. “Angel of the Morning” was written and composed by songwriter Chip Taylor, né James Wesley Voight, the younger brother of the actor Jon Voight. Taylor had also written and composed “Wild Thing,” a hit for The Troggs in 1966. So there’s quite a bit of history about who these folks are and how this quilt of music was built so to speak.
But what did they play today? Hard rockin’ favorites including “The Midnight Hour,” “All Night Long,” Joe Cocker’s “Unchain My Heart,” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind,” made immensely popular by Ray Charles.
Now…this is where things start getting interesting. When you see these icons play music Ray Charles made so popular, the thread of R&B comes out of every player regardless whether it’s keys, drums, sax, or guitar. Ray Charles lived in the Seattle/Tacoma area long enough his brilliance as an African American R&B phenom filled all these young white guys to the brim with ideas that took the music just a little bit further down the road into garage rock. A gutsy, raunchy sound so influential Aerosmith, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles have all given credit to the garage scene that spilled out of the isolated Northwest region during the late 1950s into the early 1960s and continues today.
Morrill sitting center stage at the keys gave a special nod to one of The Fabulous Wailers early hits, “Dirty Robber,” which he said he’s especially pleased is being covered in a new documentary by The White Stripes. While I’ve not heard The White Stripes version, there’s just nothing better than the original to bring back the rush of sophisticated arrangements that allows them all to stand tall against the winds of time.
It’s a bit corny to bring up, but McCartney’s “Yesterday” would be the logical guess of which rock song could withstand the test of time. But every guy and girl on the stage today has played “Louie Louie” a million times as a testiment to their roots and where rock began, ultimately becoming the most-recorded song in rock history.