“Since Mr. Vee is nearly a home-town boy, I thought many of our Valley City classmates would be interested to know the latest about Bobby Vee. Perhaps Larry G. even met and interviewed him. (Ed.note: Yes, he did. Interview is on the HiLiners61 blog from 2010: click here.) For certain, we remember his music. I heard about his activities recently from a friend who read about him in a news article in the St. Cloud Times:
“Bobby Vee is currently living in St. Joseph, Minnesota, and continues to enjoy music even as he deals with Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, he recently recorded a jam session with his family entitled, The Adobe Sessions. The album features covers of some of Vee’s favorite songs from Townes Van Zandt, Gordon Lightfoot and Ricky Nelson and was released February 3,the 55th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper.” The night of the crash, Bobby Velline, 15 years old, from Fargo, N.D., performed in Holly’s place at the Moorhead National Guard Armory. Velline became Vee and his career was launched."
Bobby Vee and the original Shadows Band, 1959. (L-R) Jim Stillman on bass guitar,
Bob Korum on drums, Bobby, and, on rhythm guitar, Bobby's brother, Bill Velline. Photo is from the Bobby Vee collection, posted here with
the permission of Rock House Productions.
Bob Korum on drums, Bobby, and, on rhythm guitar, Bobby's brother, Bill Velline. Photo is from the Bobby Vee collection, posted here with
the permission of Rock House Productions.
Jeff Vee informs me that the new CD entitled "The Adobe Sessions" is only available digitally now (2-5-2014), however, Amazon should have regular CDs of the album for sale toward the end of February or early March, 2014. If you'd like to preview the tracks and/or purchase tracks individually, go to http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bobbyvee1 It's an amazing album - this is a Bobby Vee you haven't heard before. Check it out!
An outstanding"mini-documentary" featuring Bobby himself tracing his career right up through recent work with his family, a "TpT-MNO (Minnesota Original)" production, is available by clicking here and I thoroughly recommend you take a look at it. It's one of the best auto-biographical pieces I've seen on Bobby's amazing career.
Thanks to MNO (part of Twin Cities Public TV) for doing this documentary and posting it on YouTube.
4 comments:
As I interviewed Bobby Vee in 2010, prior to our 50th reunion, it was riveting listening to him describe how he had tickets for the Buddy Holly concert in his pocket when he came home for lunch. It was then his mom told him that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and "The Big Bopper" were killed on their way to the Fargo airport. It was later that day that he accepted the invitation to appear with his band, The Shadows, at the Moorhead Armory, replacing Buddy Holly and the Crickets. And the rest is American music history.
February 2014 is quite a historic month - not only were those three talanted musicians killed, but one of "our own" was skyrocketed to fame as an unintended consequence. And besides that, the Beatles arrived in America 50 years ago this month as well. I can tell you that I did not realize at the time what a significant impact all of these young men would make in the development of Rock and Roll. Ah, those were the good old days!!
Well I hit some strange button - I meant to sign the comment just posted. Sorry about that. Barb
The third try is the charm (I hope). Just in case, this is Barb Lang, trying to post as something OTHER than anonymous. :-(
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