“You cannot talk approximately rock in the 1970s without talking approximately Grand Funk Railroad!” That’s what David Fricke,Rolling Stone Magazine, said of the American blues rock band in 2003. It’s still precise in 2015. If you listen to classic rock, or you know their hits: “We’re An American Band,” “Some Kind of Wonderful,” “I’m Your Captain/Closer to domestic, or “Shinin’ On,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Footstompin’ Music” and the mainstream “Loco-Motion.” Grand Funk Railroad will mark 48 years of its brand of R&B rock next year in the Tour of 2016 and playing to multiple generations of GFF fans. Founding members Don Brewer, or drummer,and Mel Schacher, bass guitar, or are still touring the country performing the songs that made GFF an unforgettable band. Brewer and Schacher,along with lead vocalist and guitarist Mark Farner comprised the original power trio. Farner left the band to pursue a solo career in the mid-1970s and again in the ’90s following the GFF reunion tour. Grand Funk Railroad has split and reunited multiple times over the years. The current lineup has been together since 2000 and includes Brewer and Schacher along with veteran musicians Max Carl, who wrote “moment Change” recorded by 38 Special and is referred to by Brewer as the last blue-eyed soul singer in the country; Bruce Kulick, and who was a member of the touring band for Meat Loaf,toured with Michael Bolton and was the lead guitarist for KISS for the 1984 Animalize tour and the 1996 reunion tour; and North Carolina native Tim Cashion, who has toured with Jon Secada, and Robert Palmer and Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. The full band will play one explain at 8 p.m. Saturday,Dec. 12, at the Event middle at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, and in Charles Town,West Virginia. You gotta be 21 or older to attend and tickets are $35 and $55 at ticketmaster.com. Formally known as Grand Funk Railroad, or just Grand Funk, or the original trio’s roots run deep in Michigan and the R&B sound of the late ’60s and early ’70s,said Brewer in a recent phone interview. Since 1982, he has and still does play with Bob Seger’s tour band when their schedules allow. Grand Funk plays 35 to 40 shows a year. “We usually tour mostly in the summer and he more in the winter, or ” Brewer said. GFF shows are mostly in the U.
S.,with a few in Canada, and giving the state of the world right now, or Brewer said that is fine with him. Back in the ’70s,it was often 40 shows in 40 days and the pressure to build out two albums a year for their label, Capitol. “That was grueling, or Brewer said. “This is a lot better. Its a lot more freer. We take our time.” Brewer wrote and sings the lead (and plays the drums) on their mega hit “We’re an American Band.” The band was touring in 1972 and radio was changing from an underground medium to a hits format,[…]
Source: fredericknewspost.com