April 2020 – Sonny del Rio
Saxophone legend Sonny Del Rio aka Dennis Grasley, has long been a fixture of the Hamilton music scene, most prominently as a member of Crowbar and of King Biscuit Boy’s bands. To celebrate his 60 years in the business, he assembled his 5 Star Revue for an attractive concert video. Sonny handles most of the vocals with Catherine Goodrick on vocals & BG vocals, Dan Thomas on lead guitar, vocals & BG vocals; Jason Colavecchia on the 6 string fretless bass, vocals & BG vocals and Robin Houston on drums. Director David Beatty invited an audience to the studio to create a nightclub setting around his four cameras. On the second disc, we get a lengthy interview of his career, which featured an eight-year stint with Ray Materick and a later edition of Crowbar, which included Kelly Jay & Richard Newell. He and Richard worked together for forty years, with Richard appearing on all his albums and Sonny on most of Richard’s. The album Two Hounds Blues contains Richard’s last recording, the duet title song. Over the course of his sixty years, Sonny has released six albums and the concert draws on three of them while also acknowledging his time spent in cover bands in Hamilton. This results in a goodly selection of radio hits that also give the talented band members some solo time. From his own albums, we get “Crazy Street” from Welcome to Saxland, with the vocal by Catherine and “Treat Your Baby Right” “Say You Will” and as an encore, the rocking “Birthday Suit” from 40 Years of Rock & Roll and All I’ve Got’s the Blues. We also get a fine version of “Two Hound Blues”. This DVD set is a welcome acknowledgement of a vital member of the local scene in Hamilton. A trailer for the DVD is on YouTube and his web site is www.sonnydelrio.com.