B.B. King - King of Kentucky Avenue

B. B. King RIP  

"The Trill is Gone." 

B. B. King - the Beale Street Blues Boy - came to Atlantic City often, usually twice a year in the pre-casino era to play one of the Kentucky Avenue nightclubs - the Club Harlem, where I saw him for the first time in the early '70s or the down the street at the Wonder Gardens, which he later was part owner of, neither of which are standing today. 

B. B. King at the Atlantic City Pop Festival 

 I almost caught B.B. King at the Atlantic City Pop Festival in August 1969, two weeks before Woodstock, but I had to work the weekend at Mack & Manco's Pizza on the Ocean City boardwalk, but when it rained Sunday afternoon, I got off early and went over there and caught Little Richard singing, "Good Golly Miss Molly," and fling a fur coat into the crowd. So it wasn't until a few years later when I got to see B. B. King for the first time.

I remember distinctly when Billy Muller, a good guitarist in his own right, who played in the Backroads band at Brownies, say that "B.B.'s in town, and he took me to Atlantic City to see  him. We parked on Atlantic Avenue and when we walked around the corner onto Kentucky Avenue in its hey day I was blown away by the sights, smells and sounds.

 There were people walking in the street, the smell of food hit your senses and music filled the air, coming out of a half dozen jive joints - Billy Daniel's organ sounds came from Grace's Little Belmont and Chris Columbo's drums pounded away at the Club Harlem, where you could see Chris thorough the open doors.

 

"Come on in," he'd say, waving his drum sticks as a violin player in a tux played on. 

We went in all right, and Billy introduced me to Chris and his band and we had a beer with them before going into the main back room, where Billy slipped a twenty dollar bill into the hands of host who led us directly to two seats next to the stage. 

The band was already tuning up and they played a few songs before B.B. came out and picked up his guitar and began playing the blues like you'd never heard before.

They say you have to live the blues to play the blues and B.B. must have lived a great life - and often told the story of how his guitar Lucille got its name. "We was playing a little roadhouse club down south that had a lit stove for heat, and while we was on a break a fight broke out and the stove was knocked over a fire started to engulf the whole place and we all got out, except for my guitar, so without thinking I ran back in and grabbed the guitar off the stage and made it safely out again. When I found out that the fight was over a lady named Lucille, that's what I called my guitar." 

Lucille 

B.B. King played Kentucky Avenue twice a year, once for a two week run in the spring and then again for another week at the end of the summer, usually the last week of August, and Billy Mueller would insist on going to see him for the first and last nights he was there, and the last night was always the best as he would play late into the evening and the other musicians from the clubs up and down the street would come in and they would jam for hours and the crowd went crazy.

I made a few friends - Chris Columbo became a good friend for thirty years until he passed away a few days after his 100th birthday. I visited him in the nursing home on his birthday and he had shriveled up and curled up in a fetal position and I almost didn't recognize him but when he woke up his eyes lit up and he remembered me - "the writer," he called me. Then he said, "Strange Fruit" - the Billy Holiday song and the closed his eyes and fell asleep. He died a few days later. I would have never met Chris if it wasn't for Billy Mueller and B.B. King and thank them both.

Besides Billy and me, there weren't many white folks around - a few in the audience, and only two on stage - George Mesterhazy played piano with the big boys, and I got to know George really well - and visited him often when he moved to Cape May to play the Merion Inn. George survived a fire there one Christmas but then passed away a year later, much to the dismay of his many fans.

Then there was Dan Fogel, who would sit in and jam on the organ at the Harlem once in awhile and at Grace's Little Belmont, where he'd play Billy Daniel's B3 that was permanently set up behind the bar.

There were always other great headliners at the Club Harlem and Wonder Gardens, but B. B. King was the King of Kentucky Avenue where he ruled for as long as street was the musical hub of Atlantic City, which was until the casinos came in. While the Kentucky Avenue club owners supported the casino legislation, they didn't know that once the casinos got up and running they didn't want their customers to stray away, and they also took all the big name acts that used to play Kentucky Avenue and paid them more.

B.B. continued to play the Wonder Gardens and Club Harlem after casinos came in but eventually, the casinos put them out of business. There's a scene in movie Atlantic City where Burt Lancaster visits the Club Harlem and it kinda captures the art deco interior and style of the place in its last days.

I caught B.B. open for the Rolling Stones from the eight row on the floor of the Spectrum in the mid-1970s, but the last time I saw B.B. was at a casino, when he invited me and a few other people backstage after the show and just talked about his life and the changes Atlantic City was going through, and how  he missed the old Kentucky Avenue.

Now, if you go to Atlantic City and park on Atlantic Avenue and turn the corner on Kentucky Avenue all  you see is a parking lot and there's no more smell of the food or the sounds of the music. It's all gone, and so is B. B. - the Beale Street Blues Boy.

Beale Street is in Memphis, Tennessee and besides being the home of Elvis, there's a night club there called B.B. King's Blues Bar, a lasting legacy to a great and humble       man.

George Mesterhazy

Bill Kelly, James Cotton and Billy Mueller  - Thanks Billy - for turning me on to B.B. King and Kentucky Avenue and introducing me to Chris Columbo, George Mesterhazy, Dan Fogel, James Cotton and Hubert Sumlin.

Kentucky Avenue in its last days during the day.

Burt Lancaster walking down Kentucky Avenue in Louis Malle's 1981 movie "Atlantic City" 

Trailer for the movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp1qJ9wPgPM

Kentucky Avenue Facebook Page 

https://www.facebook.com/OnKentuckyAvenue

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Max's Cafe - Gloucester City, N.J.

Max's Cafe - Gloucester City, N.J. - Five Stars

 Max's Cafe - Max's Cafe - 32 N. Burlington Street, Gloucester, City, N.J.
(856) 456-9776
 


 http://www.maxsseafoodcafe.com/
Hear about Max’s? You think of Max’s Kansas City. Hear about Chubby’s? You think of the now defunct but locally legendary Chubby’s of Camden.

Max’s Café in Gloucester City, N.J. is a classic revival of a neighborhood saloon that is bound for legendary status, while a new Chubby’s is rising like a Phoenix from the ashes and will be up and running soon.

You could never just stumble across Max’s Café unless you took a wrong turn off the Walt Whitman bridge and got lost wandering around the back, one way streets of old Gloucester City, where old, well-kept row houses are a stark contrast to Camden, where the neighborhoods were pretty much abandoned by their residents for the suburbs.

In the shadow of the Walt Whitman bridge, this beautifully restored and exquisitely operated century’s old café has a great historical tradition was restored and renovated complete with tile floors, tin ceiling, fans, wine cellar, board room fireplace and a German artisan wood carved bar with a mirror that reflects a hundred years of change.

All of this is the handiwork of Tom Monahan, whose uncle John was the owner of the legendary Jack’s Twin Bar, a half-mile away, where there’s an historical plaque that reflects that fact that Bill Haley and the Comets were the house band there in the early nineteen fifties before their hit song, “Rock Around the Clock” became the first Rock & Roll song to make #1 on the Pop Charts in 1955.

Monahan, who is pictured by the fireplace with one of his customers – David Crosby, has kept up the city’s Rock & Roll tradition by bringing in Fran Smith, of Hooter’s fame, every Friday night.
As their 1912-2012 100th Anniversary poster explains, the building was originally constructed in 1890 and originally served as a shoe store owned by German immigrant Joseph Fred Leisinger, and you can see pictures of him on the wall of him standing out front.

On a trip home to German in 1911 Leisinger got a good deal on a huge artisan carved wood and mirror bar that he purchased and had shipped home, and on June 1, 1912 (five weeks after the Titanic sank) opened Leisinger’s Saloon, a popular establishment until Leisinger died in 1937. His widow sold the place to another German immigrant, Max Waterstradt, who renamed it Max’s, as it has been known for the past 68 years.

By 1977 Max’s had a reputation for the best, simply prepared fresh seafood – flounder, shrimp, clams and mussels, the house specialty, and there were lines around the block to get in.



Twenty years later however, fortunes had changed, in July 1998 Max’s closed and remained shut and boarded up for a few years, until Tom Monahan came across it and recognized its potential.

At the time, with plywood across its windows, it looked like an abandoned Mom & Pops corner store, and most speculators and developers would have leveled it and built something new, but Tom saw something underneath the bleak façade – its history.

While excavating through dozens of years of renovations and additions, the mirrors reflected them as they got down to the original building and not only found the old brick walls, tiled floors and tin ceiling, they found Max’s original liquor licenses, from June 1, 1912, and all of the other licenses from continuing years, and have framed them on the walls.

Monahan reopened Max’s Café on June 2, 2001, and if the old German immigrants - Joe and Max came back today they would certainly recognize, not only the old neighborhood, but their old joint that Tom Monahan has lovingly restored to its former glory.

And not only did they restore the building; they brought back the original menu and specialize in simply prepared fresh seafood, especially mussels. When you think mussels, you usually think Italian, but here you them – the house specialty in a German-Irish tradition, something different.



With the slow but solid success of Max’s, Monahan has expanded his vision and is now restoring Chubby’s, a few blocks away, that he intends to make in to a steak house, so as not to compete with Max’s, and now, rising like a Phoenix from the ashes is a new Chubby’s, that like Max’s will soon be another centerpiece gem not far from the Delaware waterfront, on the other side of the river, in old Gloucester City, N.J.

Not a place you will stumble on, unless you are really lost, but a place you make a destination and really be satisfied that you got what you anticipated – and I give it five stars for good food, fine wine, great music, exceptional motif and a history worth re-living today.

Max's Cafe - 32 N. Burlington Street, Gloucester, City, N.J.
(856) 456-9776

http://www.maxsseafoodcafe.com/

Fran Smith (from the Hooters) & Steve Butler (Smash Palace) every Friday
Naked Sun 5/9
Norman Taylor 5/30
Ginger Coyle
Ken Kweder 6/13

2015 Somers Point Beach Concerts

15 CONCERTS ANNOUNCED FOR THE SOMERS POINT BEACH THIS SUMMER

 Carmen and Nancy Marotta Announce:

Beginning on June 12 for 14 consecutive weeks through September 11, 2015, Somers Point Beach Concerts will feature 7 of the worlds greatest international performing artists and 6 classic rock tribute shows including a tribute to Bruce Springsteen and Jersey Shore rock 'n roll performed by Grammy Award Winning Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Vini Lopez with the Billy Walton Band on July 24. 

A special "Summer of Love Woodstock Weekend" on July 3rd and 4th will feature Bob Campanell's Summer of Love Tribute, The Dan Burke Band’s Tribute to Bob Dylan and The Band and Hawkins Road’s; Tribute to Santana and Crosby, Stills and Nash.  On September 4th a special "Funkin' with the Beatles" tribute will be performed by the Tony Mart Allstars with special guest, Dr. Bobby Fingers.

Hot young bands presented for the first time this summer include the International Blues Music Award Winner, Mike Zito and the Wheel with multiple-BMA award winner, Jimmy Carpenter.  Philly's entertaining funky New Orleans style brass band, Swift Technique, kicks off the concert series June 12th.  Dave Fields NY Allstars perform June 19th with guest star NYC Blues Divas, Sari Schorr and Nikki Armstrong.

The legendary founder of New Orleans famous "Meters", George Porter, Jr, will perform with his Runnin’ Pardners June 26th.  The man who produced and played guitar with  both Bob Marley and Peter Tosh,  Donald Kinsey, will lead the Kinsey Report in a special Raggae and Funk salute July 17th.

Regional stars, The Jeremiah Hunter Band, featuring original members of the Soul Survivors and Full House, will light up the beach with their sizzling party dance show on July 10th.

Internationally acclaimed BMA Award Winner, Coco Montoya, one of the worlds greatest guitarists who actually replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Blues Breakers, will perform August 7th while West Coast Swing Legend Rick Estrin & the Nightcats will make their encore performance on August 21st.  Estrin has won both International BMA and Alternative Roots Music Recognition as one of the top harmonica players, performers and songwriters in roots music today.

Multiple BMA Award Winning, Louisiana singer songwriter “Jumpin' Johnny Sansone” appears with his Cajun Rock/New Orleans R&B band on August 14th.  Five time Grammy nominated, multiple BMA Award Winning member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, Kenny Neal, brings his world class performance to the beach on July 31st.

It all wraps up  Good Old Days weekend, September 11th, when one of the top Tribute bands in our region, The SOS Band, perform 2 hours of your favorite songs by one of America's most beloved big bands, Chicago.

From 7pm until 9:30pm every Friday night plus special 4th of July festival performances from 6 to 9:30pm, it all happens FREE every week this summer on the Beach in Somers Point.  For more details go to www.SomersPointBeachConcerts.com or www.TonyMart.com and get ready to Let the Good Times Roll on Bay Ave. once again in 2015!




SHORE MEDICAL CENTER
CONCERTS ON THE BEACH IN SOMERS POINT 2015

June 12 Swift Technique ~ Funky Philly Jammin’  Brass Band with a New Orleans Flair

June 19 Big City Rhythm & Blues Magazine presents the Dave Fields NY Allstars with Guest Star Blues Divas Sari Schorr & Nikki Armstrong

June 26  George Porter Jr & the Runnin’ Pardners ~ World famous Bassist,  Founding Member of the Meters & New Orleans Offbeat Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Funky  R&B

SOMER OF LOVE WOODSTOCK WEEKEND

July 3  The Bob Campanell Band ~ Hippie Songs of the ‘60’s and Classic Rock of the ‘70’s

SPECIAL SATURDAY  4TH OF JULY  FESTIVAL SHOW  - PM START

Celebrate Levon & the Hawks at Tony Mart’s in ‘65

July 4 The Dan Burke Band ~Tribute to Bob Dylan & THE BAND plus Americana Music Favorites
    Hawkins Road Tribute to Santana & Crosby, Stills and Nash plus Country Music Favorites

July 10 The Jeremiah Hunter Band ~ Party Dance Sounds from Original Members of the Soul Survivors & Fullhouse

July 17  The Kinsey Report ~ Staring Donald Kinsey, guitarist & producer with Bob Marley & Peter Tosh   Reggae, Caribbean Funk,  Chicago R&B

July 24 Grammy Winning Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famer  Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez & Billy Walton Band - Bruce Springsteen’s Original Drummer with our favorite Jersey Shore Rock Guitar Hero Tribute to Springsteen, Southside Johnny and Jersey Shore Rock ‘n Roll!!

July 31  Five Time Grammy nominated, Multi BMA award winning, Member of Louisiana Music Hall of Fame ~ Kenny Neal & his Band ~ World Class Louisiana Music Performer

August 7  World Renown Roots Rockin’ Singer Songwriter ~ Coco Montoya and his Band ~
Acclaimed Guitarist who replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayal’s Blues Breakers

August 14  International BMA Winning Singer/Songwriter ~ Jumpin’ Johnny Sansone & his Band New Orleans Rhythm and Blues, Louisiana Ballads, Cajun Rock ‘n Roll

August 21  Rick Estrin & the Nightcats ~ 2013 BMA & Alternate Roots Music Award winning Swing Blues Headliners

August 28 International BMA Song of the Year and Best Producer Award Winner ~ Mike Zito & the Wheel with BMA Winning Saxophone Player, Jimmy Carpenter ~ Hot Young Emerging Roots Rockers

Sept 4  The Tony Mart Allstars “Funkin’ with the Beatles” Tribute Show plus  Dr. Bobby Fingers Sing-a-long Dance Party

Sept 11    The SOS Band   Tribute to “Chicago”   - 2 hours of your favorite songs from one of America’s most beloved Big Bands

ALL CONCERTS 7 TO 9:30PM
(EXCEPT SPECIAL Saturday, July 4th Festival @ 6PM)
For more info go to www.SomersPointBeachConcerts.com

Bob Dylan at the Jersey Shore 1965-2015

 Bob Dylan's Local Links to the Jersey Shore - Bill Kelly


Fifty Years from the Point


Tony Marts on Bay Avenue in Somers Point during its heyday.

When Bob Dylan took the Borgata stage in Atlantic City April 10 it marked 50 years since one of the most seminal events in the history of rock & roll - and it all began at the Jersey Shore.

After writing his masterpiece "Like a. Rolling Stone," Dylan knew he had a hit and excitedly played it to his manager at Albert Grossman's New York City office.

Already known as a folk and protest singer - the "conscience of a generation" and heir apparent to the poet laureate  in the Whitman- Lowell-Ginsberg tradition, Dylan was about to test the conscience of a generation once again.

Not a folk song, "Like a Rolling Stone" was full of energy and needed  an electric boost.

The Byrds had already taken Dylan's folk song "Mr. Tambourine Man," added drums and guitars and made it a pop hit on the charts.

Dylan wanted a back-up band - the best rock & roll band around - and when Grossman began to go through his size able rolodex, his receptionist-secretary Mary Martin spoke up.

The best rock and roll band she ever heard was from Canada - The Hawks - the band that backed rockabilly Ronnie Hawkins she had heard in Toronto.

Others say that blues singer John Hammond, Jr., son of the Columbia Records talent scout who signed Dylan (and Billy Holiday and Bruce Springsteen),  made the introductions.

All Canadians, except for Arkansas drummer Levon Helm, the Hawks had tired of touring with Hawkins after five years on the Chitlin' Circuit, and had taken a steady summer gig as the house band at Tony Marts nightclub in Somers Point at the South Jersey Shore.

Dressed nattily in suits and ties,    Levon & the Hawks played three sets a night every night, before and after a headliner like Conway Twitty.

Legend has it that Dylan came to Somers Point incognito and saw the Hawks in person, some say they remember him standing back against the wall taking in the eclectic Tony Marts experience, but some recall otherwise.

Tracking down the Hawks through their booking agent Colonel Howard Kudlets, Dylan is said to have called Tony Marts and asked to speak with one of the Hawks.

The late Levon Helm recalled taking the call in his autobiography "This Wheels on Fire," and Dylan asking him if they wanted to play Carnegie Hall.

"Who else is on the bill?" Helm said he asked incredulously

"Just us, " Dylan replied.

Helm said at that point he had never heard of Dylan but others in the band quickly filled him in, so early one morning Helm, Robbie Robertson and a few of the Hawks piled into a car and drove the two hours to New York to meet Dylan at Grossman 's office.

Dylan convinced them to join him on an upcoming tour that included the Forest Hills tennis stadium, Newport Folk Festival and gig in England.

But there was the matter of their contract with Tony Marts, where they were scheduled to play through Labor Day.

Tony Marts was owned. by the irascible cigar chomping Sicilian Anthony Marotta,  who didn't like the idea of his hot house band bailing out on him on the biggest weekend of the summer.

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But Tony liked the Hawks, and later remembered them as real gentlemen who treated him with respect, not like the drug fueled hippies who later came down the pike. So he let them out of their contract - with the provision that Colonel Kutlets provided him with a good substitute group - which he did - a new band out of Detroit - The Wheels, riding the hit, "Devil with the Blue Dress On."

On their last night Tony even threw them a party - complete with a cake, and wished them well on the rough road ahead.

As chronicled in the history of rock & roll - the Hawks went from Somers Point to Woodstock and rock & roll infamy.

Levon Helm with Tony Marts T-Shirt - Backstage at the Bubba Mac Shack in Somers Point (circa 2000)
   
                   
Bob Dylan - 50 Years from the Point

Dylan's August 28, 1965 Forest Hills N.Y. concert with the Hawks was controversial because Dylan went electric and jilted the classical folk purists but before the show was over the jeers and boos had turned to cheers and applause as Dylan, riding "Like a Rolling Stone," dragged the reluctant crowd into a new era of Rock & Roll.

Then he took the show on the road to England. With the Hawks behind him Dylan was a new man who had conquered folk and was taking on the world. According to the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, "the music Dylan made in 1965-1966 revolutionized rock. The intensity of his performances...were a revelation, and his lyrics were analyzed, debated and quoted like no pop before them. With rage and slangy playfulness, Dylan chewed up and spat out literary and folk traditions in a wild, inspired doggerel."

Then tragedy struck.

Dylan had taken a liking to staying at Al Grossman's - his manager's Bearsville, New York rural retreat near the artists colony at Woodstock, where he crashed his motorcycle on July 29, 1966.

The Hawks visited him while he was recovering at Grossman's spacious digs, where the sign at the gate read: "If you didn't telephone you are trespassing."

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The Hawks liked Woodstock too and rented a new split level pink house in nearby West Saugerties, where they set up their equipment in a basement-garage and jammed, Dylan eventually joining them. Garth Hudson had a reel to reel tape recorder that he would occasionally turn on and record the proceedings - tapes that were later bootlegged and recently re-recorded by new artists.

As the local townsfolk began to refer to them simply as the Band, they took on that moniker, and released their first LP album "Music from Big Pink," that as history records "was a revolutionary album; although it's long-term influence was enormous, it has yet to be certified gold."

Eric Clapton said that when he heard "Music From Big Pink" he was floored, and quit the super group Cream because it was going in the wrong heavy metal Headbanging direction and The Band's back-to-the-roots sound was the right way to go.

"Big Pink" includes "The Weight," with the biblical lyrics "Pulled into Nazareth," but Robbie Robertson later said that's a reference to visiting the Martin Guitar factory in Nazareth Pennsylvania when they were playing at the Jersey Shore.

There's also Garth's organ recital - "Chest Fever," that includes references to the "goons at the Dunes" - the old now defunct all-night roadhouse on Longport Blvd.

Dylan did the art work for the Big Pink album cover and word spread they were holed up in Woodstock, where a major music festival was being planned. But the Woodstock town council, in all their wisdom, denied the permit because they didn't want an influx of thousands of kids and hippies, so the 1969 concert was held near Bethell, New York, about 30 miles from the hamlet of Woodstock.

While The Band did appear at Woodstock, Dylan didn't and manager Grossman would't permit them to use The Band on the Woodstock recording or in the film.

The Bamd's second album is considered their masterpiece and includes "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Up on Cripple Creek," but the years they backed Dylan are considered to be some of the best live performances ever. Eventually they recorded and Martin Scorsie filmed a grand finale "The Last Waltz," considered a classic.

While guitarist Robbie Robertson spun off on his own, the rest of The Band continued on - with Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko and Richard Manual.

They were booked to play the new disco nightclub that had replaced Tony Marts in 1986, but tragedy struck again - Richard Manuel committed suicide in a Florida motel while they were on the road. Robbie Robertson was right and they couldn't continue on the road they were on.

I caught Richard and Rick Danko play as a duo at the Chestnut Cabaret a few weeks before he died and as the three of us talked after the show Richard seemed to be looking forward to the Somers Point - Tony Marts homecoming.  He fondly recalled the summer of '65 and spoke highly of Anthony Marotta.  "He was the Boss," Manuel said before breaking into a deep gravely voice unmistakably imitating Tony saying. "You Bums get outta here!"

Death comes in threes and before The Hawks returned to the Point both Anthony Marotta and Albert Grossman passed away, but the gig came off and was a night that everyone there remembers.

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Rick Danko brought his band down from Woodstock to play the Good Old Days Picnic in Somers Point and Levon Helm played the Bubba Mac Shack a few times while he was battling cancer - that he overcame. Helm had opened Levon Helm's All American Cafe in New Orleans with Tony's son Carmen Marotta and always maintained his affinity for Somers Point and the Jersey Shore.

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Finally Levon Helm headlined a show at the Borgata in Atlantic City and he won a Grammy for "Dirt Farmer" while hosting shows in his Woodstock barn before the cancer returned and put him down.

Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson are the last surviving Hawks who pulled onto Bay Avenue Somers Point to play Tony Marts in the summer of '65 and then went on to fame and misfortune and change the history of rock & roll.

And now, 50 years after taking the Hawks out of Tony Marts, Bob Dylan is playing the Borgata in Atlantic City, a sort of homecoming for those who remember the transcendental Summer of '65.

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Tony Mart's Scrapbook - An interview with Carmen Marotta

http://jerseyshorenightbeat.blogspot.com/2011/08/carmen-in-press.html

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IN THE SUMMER OF '65 ROCK 'N ROLL HISTORY WAS MADE AT TONY MART'S

It was actually 50 years ago this month, in the spring of '65 when "Colonel" Harold Kudlets, a premiere talent agent out of Toronto Canada convinced Tony Mart (Anthony Marotta, Sr) to give a young band, Levon & the Hawks, the opportunity to bring their rock and rhythm and blues sound to one of the hottest night clubs on the east coast.

After being formed and rehearsed on the road for five years by the Canadian Rockabilly star, Ronnie Hawkins,the band left Ronnie Hawkins and became Levon & the Hawks in the winter of 1964-65. They were a sizzling hot rock and roll band with no place to go in Arkansas and Memphis. Colonel Kudlets asked Tony Mart to "Just give them a chance! Please! Just give them two weeks and if you don't like them you can get rid of them." Tony Mart loved them. And so did everybody else!

Word of this incredible rock 'n roll, rhythm and blues ensemble spread like wild fire up and down the east coast. Being from Toronto the personal assistant of Albert Grossman knew about "The Hawks", Grossman, Bob Dylan's manager, became very interested in what was happening in Somers Point, NJ because he was looking for the right band to help Bob Dylan transition from folk music and acoustic protest songs to electric rock.

He sent John Hammond, Jr down to the Jersey Shore to verify that this in fact was "the band".

Dylan's talent scout walked into the pulsating Tony Mart's in the summer of '65 and felt the awesome power of Levon & the Hawks driving the dance floor and amazing audiences with their spellbinding performances, embellished by the guitar licks of Robbie Robertson, the incredible, soulful voice of Richard Manuel and the incomparable vocal performances and harmonies of Levon, Richard and Ricky Danko. He instantly knew that this was, in fact, THE BAND.

As these Rock and Roll Hall of Famers have stated throughout so many interviews in their vaunted careers, the summer of '65 was one of the greatest times of their lives. Doing 4 shows a night, 6 nights a week they were rockin' the Jersey Shore in Somers Point with their enrapturing southern, rootsy rock 'n roll when Bob Dylan offered them 5 times as much money as they were making at Tony Mart's and took them away to Woodstock to record and help compose and arrange some of the greatest folk rock songs in the history of music.

In Somers Point a year or two later, the next thing we heard was a recording called "Music from Big Pink" the name of the house where Levon & the Hawks officially became "THE BAND" forever.
The rest of the story, as they say, is rock 'n roll history.

Tony Mart Presents the 50th Anniversary of this milestone in Rock 'n Roll history with shows throughout 2015 beginning with the Dan Burke Bands "Tribute to Bob Dylan & The Band" at Spring Fresh Craft Beer and Wine Festival on Saturday, April 18th at the EHT Elks Club and again at the Somers Point Beach Concert on the 4th of July.

For more information go to www.Tonymart.com or Tonymarto@aol.com or 609-653-6069.
Carmen Marotta   tonymarto@aol.com 609-457-1316