Let me start off by saying I have been a fan of The Guess Who almost my entire life.
I grew up listening to their songs on the radio, recording their songs on cassette from the radio and listening to them so much.
Some of my favorite songs ever are by The Guess Who. These Eyes, No Time, Undun, Laughing, American Woman, Share The Land and soooooo much more. Classic stuff.
So, when singer/keyboardist/flutist/guitarist/harmonica/songwriter/founding member Burton Cummings and guitarist/singer/songwriter/founding member Randy Bachman won back The Guess Who name in a lawsuit (the band for the past few years was basically a sanctioned tribute band with no original or classic members), they announced a tour that I was not going to miss.
And adding Don Felder (Eagles lead guitarist and a great singer too) to the tour was a great bonus.
This show, at my favorite venue the Riverbend Music Center just outside downtown Cincinnati, was the second show of The Guess Who’s US tour (they had already done a bunch of dates in their native Canada).
I’ll start off by saying Don Felder is awesome!!
This was the second time I had seen him.
He sings and plays a lot of Eagles songs, as well as a few of his solo songs.
His latest album, The Vault, is a great collection of songs he has written over the years but never released. It’s an awesome album and he played one of the songs at this show.
His band is awesome too. Along with Don on vocals and lead guitar, he has Dave Amato (REO Speedwagon lead guitarist for 36 years), Matt Bissonette (has played with David Lee Roth, Jeff Lynne, Ringo Starr, and Elton John just to name a few) on bass, and Seth Rausch (plays with Keith Urban and has played with many Country acts) on drums.
The band rocks and I got to say Don does a great job singing Eagles songs and of course his guitar playing is second to none.
Rock on sir!!
Now to the main event and boy was it.
Like I said, I’ve been a fan of The Guess Who most of my life and to finally see Burton and Randy together (I was supposed to see them in 2020 and 2021 but COVID happened and the tour was cancelled.) was a dream come true.
I know I say that all the time about concerts, but it’s true.
They played lots of Guess Who songs (including my favorites I listed above), along with songs by Randy’s other awesome group Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and a couple of Burton’s great solo songs.
Along with Burton on lead vocals/keyboards/guitar/flute/harmonica and Randy on vocals/guitar, their band includes Tim Bovaconti (guitar), Joe Augello (guitar), Jeff Jones (bass), Sean Fitzsimons (drums), and Nick Sinopoli (percussion).
Burton is one of my favorite singers ever and his voice is still quite strong and at 78, he has more energy than I’ll probably ever have. This show was about 2 hours and to have that stamina at any age is incredible. Randy is 82 and still sings and plays great, and their band rocks.
Burton and Randy are very appreciative of their fans and the fans gave back their appreciation in spades by singing and clapping along to their amazing catalog of music.
This was a very special show for me and I’m soooooo happy that I was able to attend.
Backstory: I had a lawn ticket (I could not afford one under the roof this time.) but when I got there and was going to the edge of the lawn to get the best view I could, one of the workers asked me if I wanted to be under the roof. I said yes if possible, and he told me where to go, and I ended up being under the roof after all. Also, since it was supposed to rain, I was very grateful I was not going to get wet.
Awesome show. I love Burton and Randy sooooo much and I love Don Felder too.
Thank you all for your amazing concert and your amazing discography all around.
Rock on always!!
P.S. I’m still trying to figure out why some of the pictures are so pixelated. Trust me, they are not really that way. Hopefully I’ll get this problem fixed.