Last night I drove down to the Chautauqua Institution to see what was billed as "An Evening with Dion." As regular readers may recall, I consider Dion DiMucci to be the most underrated superstar of rock and roll, an artist whose been around and active since the late fifties, who continues to release new music that's just as good as what he was doing as a teenager way back in the Golden Age.
Dion and his band put on a great show, mixing hits with some of his less well known material of the past twenty or so years, as well as some covers of songs made famous by friends and colleagues over the years (like Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, and Eddie Cochran).
A highlight is when he sent off the band to play a few solo acoustic numbers, each of which was preceded by often self-deprecating stories about his long career, growing up in the Bronx nad meeting his wife of almost fifty years. The guy has a real flare for engaging the audience whether he was playing, singing, or just spinning a yarn.
I was gratified to hear him play some blues, which seemed to take some in the audience by surprise. They must not have known about his two recent albums that paid tribute to his musical heroes, guys like Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf.
My only complaint was that they only played for ninety minutes; but then Dion is about 70, so I'm just glad he's still out there performing as energetically as he does. On the walk out of the amphitheater, I overheard a couple guys raving that he still plays the old hits in the same key in which he recorded them half a century ago-- no doubt about it, Dion still has some of the mightiest pipes in popular music. I'm sure glad I got to see him exercise them a bit!
Last night I drove down to the Chautauqua Institution to see what was billed as "An Evening with Dion." As regular readers may recall, I consider Dion DiMucci to be the most underrated superstar of rock and roll, an artist whose been around and active since the late fifties, who continues to release new music that's just as good as what he was doing as a teenager way back in the Golden Age.
Dion and his band put on a great show, mixing hits with some of his less well known material of the past twenty or so years, as well as some covers of songs made famous by friends and colleagues over the years (like Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, and Eddie Cochran). 
A highlight is when he sent off the band to play a few solo acoustic numbers, each of which was preceded by often self-deprecating stories about his long career, growing up in the Bronx nad meeting his wife of almost fifty years. The guy has a real flare for engaging the audience whether he was playing, singing, or just spinning a yarn. 
I was gratified to hear him play some blues, which seemed to take some in the audience by surprise. They must not have known about his two recent albums that paid tribute to his musical heroes, guys like Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf. 
My only complaint was that they only played for ninety minutes; but then Dion is about 70, so I'm just glad he's still out there performing as energetically as he does. On the walk out of the amphitheater, I overheard a couple guys raving that he still plays the old hits in the same key in which he recorded them half a century ago-- no doubt about it, Dion still has some of the mightiest pipes in popular music. I'm sure glad I got to see him exercise them a bit!
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