Jan. 8, 1972: A group called Peace Bridge
A prime example of how everything in
Jan. 8, 1972
‘
Crossing Covered
A
When captain and second baseman Don Hackett left his hometown
The second time Don quit folksinging in clubs around
* * *
THEY’D JUST
played two clubs that closed and Don recalls: “We were pretty discouraged. When
you’re closing rooms like we were, it’s hard to keep a stiff upper lip.”
So Don, 34, was settled into teaching guitar to 54 students
at Williamsville’s Village Bandwagon music store. The fund cut hadn’t yet taken
away Sherry’s research job in a UB medical lab when folksinger Jerry Raven came
around last January and talked them into performing again.
Don first met Jerry after he quit baseball to play in
“Rashomon” at the Buffalo Jewish Center. Jerry was doing Yiddish folk songs
there.
They next met at the former Club 190 on
* * *
“WE WON the
contest,” Don says, “and then we had to work up a show for the Town Casino. We
did a week with Connie Francis.”
Hackett & Raven made radio and TV appearances, played in
clubs from
Crowds outside the Limelight sometimes stretched to
* * *
SHERRY, NOW
28, a
When Don came back in 1965 after his first retirement, he,
Sherry and Jerry became the Hemi-Demi-Semi-Quavers, a folk group that collapsed
under high expectations and broken promises.
“When Jerry came around last January, Sherry wanted to go
back more than I did,” Don exclaims, “because I really had it. Besides, I
thought the whole scene had gone by us.
“I asked Jerry: ‘Where we gonna work, man?’ And he said: ‘The
Sizzle Steak House.’”
* * *
SALVAGING SOME
old songs, picking a few new ones, the couple practiced so hard Don lost his
voice three days before they opened. It was a very nervous comeback.
“Luckily, all our friends were there the first night,” Don
says, “and they loved us anyway.”
So did Sizzle owner Mickey Lenzner. The Hacketts were there
for a month. Then Sandy Shire came along.
* * *
SANDY, a
talented arranger, found a Don and Sherry performance among his old tapes. How
would they like to try out for a CBS-TV new faces talent search, he wondered.
So in came
Al, 29, began with jazz groups back when he was in Bennett
High, got into rock with blind guitarist Charlie Starr, did three years with
the Vibratos as he worked for his master’s degree in counseling at UB.
“I’ll get my PhD and you’ll have to introduce me as Dr.
Rizzuto,” he tells Don.
Father of two and a State Education Department vocational
counselor, Al was in his brother Larry’s Ugly Brothers in 1970 and with The
Difference when
When the talent searchers ignored them,
* * *
THE COLLECTION
hit things right – two months at Gabriel’s Gate, two months at Peter’s Pub, the
Philharmonic Ball at
“A pretty good shindig,” Don jokes, “if you can imagine us in
tuxedos.” Sherry makes a face. “I still have to return
That was when
Their next break came when they led off the UB benefit
concert for
They’ll share the stage with J. R. Weitz, the rock trio that
organized the benefit, while the club tries out double billing.
* * *
“RIGHT NOW
we’re working up new stuff for it,” Don says. “We’ve dropped the three-part
harmonies – we’re playing softer now – and Sherry’s going to play some piano.
“We do some Cat Stevens, a Buddy Holly medley and as much
original stuff as we can find. Bob Bakert – he used to be with Gold – he’s
coming over tomorrow with a new song. He and Sherry wrote one called ‘Would I
Come Again.’ It’s about reincarnation.”
“We’ve kept some of our old folk songs and folk-rock,” Sherry
adds. “We like to do songs that have something to say, things that bring
happiness and gentleness to our audience.”
“We haven’t really worked a lot on the new stuff yet,” Don
says. “When I get an idea, Sherry’s housecleaning and when she gets an idea,
I’m watching football or hockey on TV.
“It’s like we need a deadline over us. I can always tell when we’ve got a deadline coming. We start getting less and less sleep.”
The box/sidebar:
Religious Songs Popular
That’s no ordinary picture of Jesus on Don and Sherry
Hackett’s living room wall. The perfectly symmetrical face is drawn from the
dimensions of the imprint on the Shroud of Christ enshrined in
It was a couple years ago in
“It was so heavy,” Don says, “that it was impossible to
discuss it. That’s why we brought the man here. And I had gone through 32 years
pretty much being an agnostic.
“Jesus is an interesting man no matter how you look at Him,
as Son of God or a philosopher.”
* * *
HAPPILY, THEY’RE able to work some of this into their music. There’s an abundance of
popular songs right now with religious themes and the trio
Among them, a “Jesus Christ Superstar” medley and the Edwin
Hawkins Singers’ “I Heard the Voice of Jesus,” a six-minute uptempo thing with
an Al Rizzuto drum solo.
“It’s interesting how well people in night clubs accept this
kind of music,” Don says.
* * *
THE PEOPLE
they’ve performed for in churches accept it as well.
“We did a kids’ Mass this summer,” Don says. “The priest was
wearing a flowered vestment and as we were singing Elton John’s ‘Love Song’ the
kids came up and took Communion. It was very moving.”
In Trinity Episcopal Church at Thanksgiving, at the end of a
set which included John Lennon’s “Imagine,”
“A little old lady came up to me afterwards and said: ‘Thank
you very much for helping us get rid of our provincialism,’” Don says. “I told
her, ‘You’re welcome very much.’”
* * * * *
PHOTO CAPTION:
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: Don reunited with Jerry Raven in the Hill
Brothers in 1977, they hooked up with Young Audiences of Western New York and
they performed bluegrass and folk music in school assemblies in
Sherry, who began performing with her father’s Swing band when she was 16, went on to sing and play keyboards with her current husband, David Keith, in the long-running local commercial rock group Sky.
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