Blast from the Past

Yesterday afternoon a friend of a friend was having an outdoor party. They were gracious enough to tell my friend to invite more people if she liked. The draw? The hosts closed off the street in front of their house and Martin Zellar was coming to play.

Martin Zellar used to be in a band called the Gear Daddies. They were very popular in the Twin Cities during late 80's/early 90's. I found an interview with Martin on the 25th anniversary of their album Billy's Live Bait where he said he supposed their genre was Americana but that term wasn't being used yet when they were popular, so he just said they were the bastard child of Johnny Cash and Styx. 😂

I won't lie, one of the big attractions of the Gear Daddies was that Martin was a-DOR-able. Check out this video on Letterman. Don't you just want to poke a finger into his dimples?

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These days Martin is a silver fox.

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And he lives most of the time in Mexico, and when he does gigs in the Twin Cities most of his set list is Neil Diamond covers. That's fine! Neil has a solid list of catchy hits, probably more than you could even think of... I'm not a big fan of the slow schmaltzy ones (Forever in Blue Jeans, You Don't Bring Me Flowers). But the band brought a little bit of ironic humor to those, especially You Don't Bring Flowers. And it was a chance for his female backup singer to shine.

They also did a couple of Johnny Cash (Burning Ring of Fire and Folsom Prison) and Blue Suede shoes, along with other hits I'm not remembering.

So, another spectacular fall day. 😁

Enjoy, and if you want to see middle aged tomfoolery to Sweet Caroline, skip to the last couple of minutes.