ROCK OF AGES

By Kevin Purdy/purdyk@gnnewspaper.com
Niagara Gazette

July 01, 2007 12:31 am

— Bill Bates remembers quite well when the face of the music scene across Western New York changed forever.
He remembers mostly how unhappy he was to see so many young guys coming out from the garages of the Niagara region in the mid-1960s, firmly committed to Beatles-like harmonies — and fame — and slowly coming to dominate the club bookings.
“(My band and I) didn’t think they could really play at the time ... mostly because we had an ego problem,” said Bates, now 66 and living in Boston, N.Y. “But that produced some pretty nice bands, it turned out.”
Bates will lend his ear, and his drum set, to a good number of those acts Friday, as dozens of veterans of the region’s live music scene from nearly 40 years ago jump on stage once more for “Summer of ’69.”
For the third year in a row, men separated by career paths, family obligations and, in some cases, thousands of miles will converge on one place to relive an experience that once brought them together, night after night, bar after bar, song after song.
The free show will essentially offer once-prominent Niagara-area bands — the County Orphanage, The Invaders and The Loved Ones among them — a chance to run through standards and hits of their youth, as well as a few originals being cooked up. More than
700 people showed up last year to soak up an evening in Hennepin Park and the vibes emanating from old-time rock music.
Tim Kneeppel, speaking from Baton Rouge, La., acknowledges that “the inspiration back then, for just about everybody, was The Beatles.
Kneeppel played drums behind his friends Gary Baker, Kevin Toohey, Neil Nicklas and Tom Pieroni everywhere they could during their high school and early college years. He eventually found himself recording in Baton Rogue, Nashville, Tenn., and other locations. Once his wife became pregnant when he was 23, however, the idea of living a life on the road with widely variable income lost its appeal.
He eventually found himself with a job as regional manager of CompUSA store, a secure gig that could ensure his daughter had money for college. Seven or eight years ago, he picked up his sticks again, and today he owns and operates a recording studio in Baton Rouge.
A lot of guys Kneeppel knows who were once in bands often talk about a mythical chance to get together for one last gig. Summer of ’69, Kneeppel said, gives him that chance.
“It’s absolutely a miracle,” he said. “To be able to hang with your friends almost 40 years later, and have that kind of response ... we’re just blessed.”
Gary Baker faced the same difficulties making his way into the professional music business as many of his bandmates, traveling constantly to play shows that left him arguing over door proceeds and hauling equipment.
While sitting down to breakfast one morning in Houston after one of countless club gigs the night before, Baker saw a group of men in their 40s at another table. They were a local band that had resigned themselves to playing covers, pop hits and a few of their originals from the early years.
“I told myself at that moment, ‘I don’t want to be that band, the one that never makes a change,’ ” Baker said in a recent interview. “So I moved to Muscle Shoals, Ala., and never looked back.”
What followed was nearly 10 lean, scrappy years of singing background and writing music for the countless acts that recorded in the famed city.
Baker moved through four record deals with major labels, but his solo work netted only modest attention and returns. He scored a hit with “Once Upon A Lifetime,” sung by Alabama, but then found major, Grammy-winning validation with “I Swear,” originally written for country artist John Michael Montgomery but made a chart-topper by mid-1990s R&B act All-4-One.
Now managing his own studio and business complex in Florence, Ala., Baker has returned every year to play at the Summer of ‘69 event, organized by his friend Chuck Scrufari and the Lewiston Council on the Arts.
“It’s my best buddies in the whole world, and once a year, we get to go home and go back to when everybody we knew played music,” Baker said.
As for Bates, he’s looking forward to seeing the bands he remembers from the original Coat of Arms, the Ontario House, the Armory Lounge and other long-gone venues.
“It was different back then ... we were competing for gigs with all these new guys,” he said. “Now, we’re all lucky to be able to play once in a while.”
Contact reporter Kevin Purdy
at 693-1000, ext. 107.