Greg Piper and I went to see Working Class Hero's lead guitarist Don Butler play an acoustic duo show at the Big Oak Lodge in Santa Clarita. He played with his old friend Stormy and did the old songs they've been playing together since the 1970s. Don is also the lead guitarist for the live John Lennon themed show Just Imagine at the Hayworth Theater on Wilshire Blvd. in L.A.
The Big Oak Inn is an interesting place. It's way, way out in the middle of nowhere on Bouquet Canyon Road in Santa Clarita and there doesn't seem to be anything around it for miles except mountains. It's a nice place once you get there, a real romantic rendezvous spot.
Don Butler and Stormy sing the classics.
Watching Stormy & Don made me realize that the kind of music and the sort of live show these guys do is quickly becoming a thing of the past. The songs themselves and the level of musicianship of these guys is quickly dying out. People of my generation take this sort of performance and repertoire for granted but it is becoming rarer and rarer. To see kids playing these songs feels like seeing cowboys shoot it out on the streets of Knott's Berry Farm (if they even still have those old stunt shows), they're just not authentic. With these guys you know you're seeing the real deal. They've been playing these songs since the songs were new hits on the radio and with more and more of the original artists dying out or retiring these guys are the closest thing to the original.
Someday too soon even musicians like Stormy and Don will be gone and with them the last vestiges of an authentic and real American Classic Rock Era experience. Enjoy them while you can.
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