{"id":364,"date":"2015-08-02T20:30:29","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T00:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/?p=364"},"modified":"2015-08-02T20:30:29","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T00:30:29","slug":"rock-the-yacht-2015-review-all-the-hits-and-hearty-handshakes-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/rock-the-yacht-2015-review-all-the-hits-and-hearty-handshakes-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock the Yacht 2015 review: All the hits . . . and hearty handshakes, too"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Robbie<\/a>

Robbie Dupree
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

The next time I see Robbie Dupree, I\u2019m going to have to apologize to him. You see, I may have been a little overly aggressive in our initial meeting.<\/p>\n

Dupree is part of this year\u2019s Rock the Yacht 2015 tour. Joining him on the show is Stephen Bishop, Player, Ambrosia and Little River Band.<\/p>\n

I had the opportunity to see the first concert of the tour recently at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, N.J. My friend Patti Myers, who serves as official webmistress for Player, hooked me up with a ticket and backstage access. An interview with Player\u2019s Peter Beckett talking about the making of the band\u2019s 1977 self-titled debut album appeared in The Vinyl Dialogues.<\/p>\n

The night of the show, Patti was taking a friend of hers and me backstage to meet Beckett and Ronn Moss of Player. We went up on stage through a side door, out another door at the back of the stage and into a foyer behind the stage. It was about 20 minutes before curtain.<\/p>\n

Standing there in the foyer was Robbie Dupree. I didn\u2019t immediately recognize him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi Robbie!\u201d said Patti as she gave him a hug, then proceeded to introduce us to the singer.<\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/a>

Stephen Bishop
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

He extended his hand to me and I shook it. I didn\u2019t realize it at the time, but maybe I was a little more enthusiastic than I would normally be at meeting an artist whose music I enjoyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus Christ, man. Don\u2019t squeeze so hard,\u201d said Dupree.<\/p>\n

Oops. Sorry Robbie. I didn\u2019t mean to squeeze the bejeezus out of the man\u2019s hand. I really didn\u2019t. And I felt like a mope.<\/p>\n

In was a brief exchange, however, and it appeared to me that no paramedics had been immediately summoned to attend to Robbie as we took our leave. We proceeded down some steps and to the Player dressing room, where both Beckett and Moss were getting ready for the show. I got to meet both of them, and they each had firm handshakes of their own. It was all I could do to not blurt out, \u201cDon\u2019t use that handshake on Robbie Dupree!\u201d to Beckett and Moss.<\/p>\n

The concert itself was spectacular. Dupree opened the show and appeared onstage without his hand bandaged, a sign I took to mean that I hadn\u2019t actually broken the man\u2019s hand. Whew. He sang two of his biggest hits, \u201cSteal Away\u201d and \u201cHot Rod Hearts\u201d off his 1980 self-titled debut album.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>

Peter Beckett
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

Next up was Stephen Bishop, who sang his hits \u201cOn and On\u201d and \u201cIt Might Be You.\u201d Bishop, you might recall, had a cameo role in the 1978 film, National Lampoon\u2019s Animal House. He is billed as \u201cCharming Guy With Guitar,\u201d who is sitting on the steps of the Delta frat house singing and playing for a bunch of young women when John Belushi\u2019s character \u201cBluto\u201d walks down the steps, pauses, then grabs Charming Guy\u2019s guitar and smashes it against the wall.<\/p>\n

Bishop was just as charming when he got on stage and was a real hit with the crowd that evening, despite the less than stellar endorsement of his singing and guitar-playing skills by Belushi\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

Beckett and Moss were up next, and they killed it. Their hit single \u201cBaby Come Back\u201d sounds just as good today as it did in 1977. Plus, those guys are just cool rock stars.<\/p>\n

Ambrosia, who served as the house band for the first three acts, was up next. They still have original members Joe Puerta on bass and vocals; Burleigh Drummond on drums and vocals; and Christopher North on keyboards and vocals. And these guys still got it. They<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/a>

Joe Puerta of Ambrosia
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n

were tight and their vocals were spot on. It was great to hear them live on the band\u2019s hits \u201cHow Much I Feel\u201d and \u201cBiggest Part of Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little River Band was the final group. One of my first handful of concerts I saw as a youngster in the 1970s was in Ames, Iowa, in 1978 and featured Little River Band, Head East and Foreigner. The current lineup of Little River Band features no original members, which was the only disappointment for me. Otherwise, the band\u2019s sound and performance was excellent.<\/p>\n

The Rock the Yacht 2015 show is a fun one, and I recommend it if it comes to your town.<\/p>\n

And if you go and have a chance to meet Robbie Dupree, try not to break his hand. I wish someone would have given me that advice ahead of time.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>

Peter Beckett and Ronn Moss of Player
(Photo by Mike Morsch)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next time I see Robbie Dupree, I\u2019m going to have to apologize to him. You see, I may have been a little overly aggressive in our initial meeting. Dupree is part of this year\u2019s Rock the Yacht 2015 tour. Joining him on the show is Stephen Bishop, Player, Ambrosia and Little River Band. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,151,198,208,219,222,226,243],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tvdbook","tag-ambrosia","tag-little-river-band","tag-peter-beckett","tag-player","tag-robbie-dupree","tag-rock-the-yacht-2015","tag-ronn-moss","tag-stephen-bishop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinyldialogues.com\/VinylDialoguesBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}