bergenPAC Presents THE ROCK'N'BLUES FEST with Ten Years After and More Tonight

The Rock'n'Blues Fest will play this summer at bergenPAC featuring five well-known players who were initially inspired to pick up their instruments due to their love for rock and blues. These rock legendary figures are Ten Years After, Edgar Winter, Canned Heat, Rick Derringer, and Pat Travers.

TEN YEARS AFTER: Their breakthrough performance at Woodstock catapulted them to Blues Rock Star status with "I'm Going Home" & "I'd Love to Change the World."

Ten Years After is an English blues-rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, Ten Years After scored eight Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart. In addition they have had twelve albums enter the US Billboard 200, and are best known for their tracks Im Going Home, Hear Me Calling, and Id Love To Change the World.

A chance opportunity early in 2002 for the three founder members of Ten Years After - Leo Lyons (bass), Chick Churchill (keyboards) and Ric Lee (Drums) to work together gave them an insight into the intense, re-awakened interest in the band. By public request, the band is back together. With new member, sensational, twenty-seven year old guitarist/vocalist Joe Gooch, they are recreating the music, energy and excitement they've been known for over the past four decades.

Ten Years After plays most of their classics, but it is not an oldies band riding around on past successes. It has taken up the reins and is riding into the future. Joe Gooch is fully conversant with all of Ten Years After's previous triumphs, but he has a distinct personality that breathes new life into the band's performance and helps forge a new direction with this highly respected team of legendary musicians.

EDGAR WINTER: Edgar Winter such hits as "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride." A multi-instrumentalist (keyboards/sax/percussion) whose music encompasses many different genres including rock, blues, jazz and pop, Edgar first hit the national spotlight with his early recording of "Tobacco Road," featured on his 1970 debut album, Entrance. Edgar would soon form the band White Trash and release two hit albums in 1971 and 1972 titled, Edgar Winter's White Trash and Roadwork. Hot on the heels of the certified gold album, Roadwork, Edgar would put together an entirely new outfit called The Edgar Winter Group that would originally feature guitarist Ronnie Montrose. The band's first effort, They Only Come Out at Night, would spawn both the hit singles, "Free Ride" and "Frankenstein," and remain on the charts for an incredible 80 consecutive weeks. The pivotal album would eventually reach double-platinum status, selling more than two million copies. More recently, Edgar achieved chart success in 2003 with the song, "Dying To Live," featured as "Runnin" (Dying to Live) in the film Tupac Resurrection, as the Eminem-produced song hit number five on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles sales chart. With more than 20 albums and numerous collaborative efforts to his credit, Edgar has not been satisfied to ride the wave of popular music stardom. His music has been featured in several major national television and radio and advertising campaigns.

RICK DERRINGER: The "All American Boy" returns to have some "Good Dirty Fun" Rick Derringer has had an illustrious career as both a solo artist and critical band member. "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" continues to be a staple on rock radio and was featured in several movies including The Spirit of '76, Rush, Stag, What A Girl Wants and the cult classic, Dazed and Confused. Derringer was part of The McCoys who opened for the entire Rolling Stones American tour in the 1960s. In 1977, he would appear on the last Led Zeppelin North American Tour. In the years to follow, Derringer would perform with such artists as Alice Cooper ("Under My Wheels"), Steely Dan ("Show Biz Kids" and "Chained Lightning"), KISS, Todd Rundgren and Weird Al Yankovic among others including both Johnny and Edgar Winter. From 1986 to 1992, Derringer would tour with Cindy Lauper and co-write a song from her True Colors album titled, "Calm Inside The Storm." Before embarking on last year's Hippiefest tour, Derringer toured Europe with Ringo Starr as a member of Ringo's All-Starr Band.

CANNED HEAT: Woodstock veterans gained world fame with "Going Up The Country." Canned Heat rose to fame because their knowledge and love of blues music was both wide and deep. Emerging in 1966, Canned Heat was founded by blues historians and record collectors Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson and Bob "The Bear" Hite. Drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of all phases of the genre, the group specialized in updating obscure old blues recordings. Applying this bold approach, the band attained two worldwide hits, "On The Road Again" in 1968 and "Going Up The Country" in 1969. These were inspired interpretations of the late 1920s blues recordings by Floyd Jones and Henry Thomas.

Canned Heat gained international attention and secured their niche in the pages of rock 'n roll history with their performances at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (along with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who) and the headlining slot at the originAl Woodstock Festival in 1969. Alan Wilson was already renowned for his distinctive harmonica work when he accompanied veteran bluesman, Son House, on his rediscovery album, "Father of the Delta Blues." Hite took the name Canned Heat from a 1928 recording by Tommy Johnson. They were joined by Henry "The Sunflower" Vestine, another ardent record collector and former member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, capable of fretboard fireworks at a moment's notice. Rounding out the band in 1967 were Larry "The Mole" Taylor on bass, an experienced session musician who had played with Jerry Lee Lewis and The Monkees and Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra on drums who had played in two of the biggest Latin American bands, Los Sinners and Los Hooligans and then with The Platters, The Shirelles, T-Bone Walker and Etta James.

PAT TRAVERS: "Live! Go for What You Know" influencing generations of guitarists since 1976. Pat Travers is a Canadian rock guitarist, keyboardist and singer who began his recording career with Polydor Records in the mid-1970s. Pat Thrall, Nicko McBrain, Mick Dyche, Tommy Aldridge, Peter "Mars" Cowling, Barry Dunaway, Jerry Riggs, Carmine Appice and Micheal Shrieve are some of the noted musicians who have been members of the Pat Travers Band through the years. Kirk Hammett of Metallica has cited him as one of his favorite guitar players.

bergenPAC is located at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood, NJ 07631. Call (201) 227-1030 or visit www.bergenpac.org or www.ticketmaster.com.

Founded in 2003, the 1,367-seat Bergen Performing Arts Center, or bergenPAC, is the area's cultural mecca. Housed in a historic Art Deco-style theater boasting one of the finest acoustic halls in the United States, bergenPAC attracts a stellar roster of world-class entertainment. The jewel in our crown is The Performing Arts School at bergenPAC - the innovative, educational performing arts initiative that reaches more than 30,000 students annually. The Performing Arts School provides community youth, age 2 months to 21 years, with unique, "hands-on" training in music, dance and theater by industry professionals. It is through the ongoing generosity of sponsors, donors and patrons that the not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) corporation bergenPAC and The Performing Arts School are able to thrive and enrich our community.

To post a comment, you must register and login.