512 York Rd.
Towson, MD 21204
THE NEW HAZLETT THEATER
Allegheny Square E.
Northside Pittsburgh, PA
Saturday, July 19
Box Office opens at 6:00 / Doors open at 6:30
Show starts @ 7:30
Ticket sales start June 9th with Ticketmaster.com
*******
The 70’s “The debut album of the year”
Crack the Sky was formed in the mid-seventies by John Palumbo and Rick Witkowski,
after they signed with Lifesong Records. In addition to Palumbo and Witkowski, among the
players who made up the original band were Joey D'Amico on drums and Joe Macre on bass.
Their first album, the self-titled Crack the Sky, was declared by Rolling Stone magazine,
“The debut album of the year” in 1975.
The band's second album was conceptually designed to be a rock opera on the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police. Animal Notes, like the band's debut release, was critically
acclaimed, but the high concept nature exuded “prog” before prog became a popular genre.
Fueled by a breakdown in communications with the record label and a divergence in creative
approaches, Palumbo left the band in 1977 to pursue a solo career. The remaining band
members released Safety in Numbers in 1978; In addition, a live album Live Sky was
released by this lineup of the band. Crack the Sky disbanded and Classic Crack, a greatest
hits compilation, which included Palumbo, was released by Lifesong Records in 1980, in
addition to Palumbo's solo release, Innocent Bystander.
The 80’s “The best song Pink Floyd never wrote”
In 1980, Palumbo reunited with Witkowski and performed a 180º and released White
Music, which featured a number of "singles-quality" songs that had earlier proved elusive to
the band, including All American Boy, Skin Deep, and Hot Razors in My Heart.
Palumbo and Witkowski reformed the band once again in 1981, with all new members and
produced Photoflamingo. This release, and subsequent efforts including World in
Motion 1 and The End, eluded the critical and public acclaims of the earlier releases, and
the group disbanded again in 1983.
Palumbo released the studio album Raw in 1986. Although the album had the signature
Crack the Sky sound and feel to it, it featured no past members of the band besides Palumbo.
In 1988, Palumbo joined with Witkowski and D'Amico to produce From the Greenhouse,
which received the highest acclaim from Rolling Stone since their first album. Lauding the
title track, “The best song Pink Floyd never wrote”, the magazine re-discovered Crack The Sky.
The 90’s Live!
Dog City was released in 1990. The period between then and 1996 saw little activity except
for the release of the compilation disc Rare! in 1994. Palumbo and Witkowski put together a
band once again, in 1996 and played a series of live shows at small venues. The band at that
time featured the same lineup as 1993's The End. A new studio album, Cut, was released in
1999, as well as a double disc release featuring one of the band's live shows, Live at The Recher.
The 2000’s “A prog twist on political fare”
Crack the Sky continues to perform occasional live shows and the albums, Ghost, 2001 and
Dogs from Japan, 2003, were both released to critical acclaim, and the band continues to
enjoy a devoted fan following. They collaborated, under Palumbo's guidance, to develop a
new concept album entitled The Sale, which was released in March of 2008 and features the
return of original bassist Joe Macre.
The original band --John Palumbo, Rick Witkowski, Joe Macre, and Joey “Sticks” D’Amico--
has recently reunited with long time members Bobby Hird, on guitar and Glenn Workmann,
..boards, to play their first gig at ROSfest in Pennsylvania.
With a prog twist on political fare, cuts from The Sale served up an enthusiastic response
from the audience, which encouraged and impelled Crack The Sky to stay together and get
back on the road.
A 2008-2009 tour is being planned.
*******
*** Lastest Review at this year's RoSfest 5-08 ***
Having been raised in the northeast United States and hearing about Crack The Sky’s amazing gigs since the late 70’s, the announcement that they had been booked to replace The Flower Kings as headliners got me more excited than ever about ROSfest. Finally I was going to see for myself what the buzz was about back then. I was not disappointed, to say the least.
Drawing on their nearly 35 year history, CTS rocked the Keswick with a performance that was musically tight, yet had a looseness and funkiness that brought to mind a sort of Rolling Stones of prog. Guitarists Rick Witkowski and Bobby Hird contributed mightily to the “Rites of String” with some great soloing and an extended guitar dual, and the rhythm section of original bassist Joe Macre and drummer Joey “sticks” D’Amico drove the band like a Ferrari on the autobahn.
Although his voice was rather rough in spots, John Palumbo fronted the band with a combination of ‘been there, done that’ swagger (“We were prog in…1980? So we’re just gonna play”) and genuine appreciation for the positive reception they were receiving. He also took audience interaction to a new level for ROSfest by actually climbing offstage to join them in cheering on the band, and later in the set spent some time walking up & down the aisle, grinning from ear to ear while audience members strummed his guitar. It was great fun to see a little bit of rock concert mayhem sneak its way into the normally conservative ROSfest. The final number of the set had the audience pressed up against the stage, providing the “woooos” to the Beatle’s “I am the Walrus”.
Although Crack The Sky never achieved the fame that should have come their way after Rolling Stone named them one of the best new bands back in 1975, their performances were legendary. This terrific performance can only add to that reputation.
*** CtS Albums ,Cds & Gallery of Photos ***
1975 -thur- 2008
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