Fri 10/21 & Sat 10/22 @ 8PM
Way back in 1973, before there was a Michael Stanley Band, Stanley released a pair of solo albums backed by an all-star cast of players including Joe Walsh, Ken Passerelli, Dan Fogelberg, Richie Furay and David Sanborn.
Wanting to play out live, he put together a small acoustic ensemble in early 1974, tapping first guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Jonah Koslen, and then bassist/vocalist Dan Pecchio, whose previous band Glass Harp, had just broken up.
By the summer of 1974, realizing that sitting on stools and playing acoustic guitars wasn’t going to get audiences excited, they added drummer Tom Dobeck, who had just left popular local bar band Circus. They were ready to rock, but quickly realized they had such good chemistry together that they wanted to focus on writing new material for the band instead of focusing on Michael’s solo stuff.
That lineup played on the first three Michael Stanley Band albums, You Break It … You Bought It! (1975), Ladies Choice(1976) and the live Stagepass album (1977). Koslen contributed some of the fan favorites including “Strike Up the Band” “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Mind” and “Ladies Choice,” before leaving in 1977 to form his own band Breathless. Pecchio followed in 1979, leaving to focus on driving race cars. As for Dobeck, he never left: he played every band show Michael Stanley did until his death in 2021.
Now the trio will be back onstage for the first time since the ’70s, to play songs from the first three Michael Stanley Band albums and tell stories about their time together. They’ll perform two shows at the Kent Stage. Go here for tickets.