Bill Gottshall Music will present another themed show at The Underground, on Saturday, December 29th, when his band, The Time Travelers, will perform “Pioneers of Rock,” A Classic Rock and Folk Rock Show. The song lineup will be drawn exclusively from the music of solo performers & bands who broke new ground in the history of rock. The songs performed will span nearly a 70-year period, from the early pioneers, like Elvis Presley and The Beatles, to contemporary performers, like John Mayer and Sara Bareilles.
Bill Gottshall (keyboard & vocal), his lifelong friend, Doug Slemmer (sax & vocal), and frequent co-performer, Eva Kuykendall (vocal) form the core of The Time Traveler Band. The trio will be joined by Mark Walsh (guitar & vocal), of RGM Project, and a frequent Underground performer. Rounding out the band line-up on December 29th will be two longtime friends of Doug Slemmer: Frank Reed (bass & vocal) and Bob Romanelli (drums & vocal). All three were members of The Wright Brothers Band, a popular local group in the 1980s and ‘90s. The Wright Brothers Band was that rare ensemble in which every member sang and sang well. They were known for their outstanding vocal harmonies, especially in their a capella vocal numbers.
The music featured in “Pioneers of Rock” will include songs from each of the last seven decades, reaching back as far as the 1950s, with some of Elvis’ hit songs, on through the “British Invasion” bands of the 1960s, like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, into the Jazz-Rock Fusion sound of bands like Steely Dan and solo acts like Van Morrison. The trip through time (hence the band’s name, The Time Travelers) will include performers like Philadelphia singersongwriters Hall & Oates and New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen, who were powerhouse performers in the 1990s, and Billy Joel, whose career spanned three decades of rock history. “Pioneers of Rock” will also pay special attention to the music of folk singers who crossed over into rock, like Bob Dylan, James Taylor, and Joni Mitchell.
Keyboardist Gottshall observes that The Underground is a perfect venue for performing a themed show. “The audience here comes only to listen to the music,” he says. “There’s no wall of big screen TVs with sports events playing, competing for attention, and no loud conversations going on. It’s like a traditional coffeehouse environment, but with good acoustics and great Round Guys Brewery craft beers!” The show begins at 8:00 PM and will run until approximately 10:30 PM. Tickets are $19 per person. While tickets are available at the door, several of the band’s past shows at The Underground were sold-out.