Classic Beatles album to ‘Revolve’ at the big house

Guitarist Lawrence Juber to lead collection of musicians in performing The Beatles album “Revolver” on July 19 at Sebastiani Theatre in Sonoma

 

When The Beatles released “Revolver,” musicians around the world immediately knew they had to step up their game. Akin to Dylan “going electric” at Newport, “Revolver” changed things over night.

That record will be played in its entirety when an impressive collection of players comes into town to perform it live at the Sebastiani Theatre on July 19. In addition to “Revolver,” the band will play a set referred to as the “Best of Badfinger,” a band very closely related to The Beatles.

Leading the troupes that night will be Lawrence Juber, an outstanding guitarist who played in the first iteration of Paul McCartney’s “Wings” band. And from Badfinger itself, Jeff Alan Ross will handle the keyboard duties.

Rounding out the band in very impressive fashion are John Jorgensen, who played in Elton John’s band for five years. Bill Cinque played bass in Neil Diamond’s band for five years. Christopher Allis has played drums for Mike Nesmith, Denny Laine, Billy J. Kramer, Melissa Manchester, and local favorite Maria Muldaur. Guitarist David Blasucci boasts an equally nuts list of big names he has played for.

“Revolver” has been called one of the greatest albums ever by several music biz know it alls. If you need to be reminded, here are the songs we first heard on August 8, 1966: “Taxman,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Love You To,” “Here, There and Everywhere,” “Yellow Submarine,” “She Said She Said,” “Good Day Sunshine,” “For No One,” “I Want To Tell You,” “Got to Get You Into My Life,” and “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Go ahead, tell Ringo his was the worst song on the album.

Badfinger was the most successful band on the Beatles’ Apple label, after the Fab Four themselves, of course. Their hits, “Come and Get It,” “No Matter What,” also performed by (shameless plug here) The Cork Pullers, and “Baby Blue” (heard in the final scene in “Breaking Bad”).

“Revolver” holds a special place in The Beatles catalog. It marks an important transition for the band, and opened a musical door that previously had not existed.

Local musician, luthier, and very knowledgeable Beatles historian Chris Hanlin said of the album, “I think it has the best overall writing examples of individual songs of any album from them. Each song stands on its own. Very even quality.”

Hanlin continued, “In later albums, the quality was more spotty from song to song, even if the overall theme of the album was more unified.”

A few lucky guitarists will recall when Lawrence Juber played a show at the music shop owned by Steve Klein many years ago. What a jaw dropping treat that was. And the following morning, about 10 of us got to sit at the master’s feet for an up-close tutorial. Two or three guitars were burned that afternoon, to be sure.

In an interview conducted by phone, with Juber relaxing in his home in the Los Angeles area, he discussed this upcoming show with enthusiasm and excitement.

In this day of very popular tribute bands, this is not a “boots and suits show, with the band pretending to be (in this case) The Beatles” as Juber put it. He continued, “this is more on an homage to the music. That’s why we do it. There is something really special about being able to perform our generation’s classical music. It’s like if we were violin players playing Mozart or Beethoven. This is from the classical cannon of the rock and roll era. And “Revolver,” in particular, is a very special album because it has a very special place in The Beatle’s repertoire.”

The other portion of the show at the big house is the Badfinger set. Juber explained, “it recognizes that fact that Badfinger was a great band with great songs. They were “Beatles adjacent”, they were on Apple Records and Paul McCartney wrote one of their biggest hits, “Come and Get It.”

This high quality, high powered show at the Sebastiani Theatre on July 19 begins at 7 p.m. Tickets can be had at sebastianitheatre.com. The show is sure to sell out. It will be a blast.