What is Steve's to me? Ask my friends about me and chances are the word ‘music’ will be in the first sentence of their response. I love music, I play music, most of my friends are musicians, my kids are musicians, I listen to recorded music all day while I work and go out to hear live music two or three or even four nights a week. It’s an obsession, I know, but I’ve never found any reason to regret it.
And now, finally, right here in my own city, I’ve found a place and a group of people who, by their very existence, prove something I’ve felt strongly since I was a small boy – that music is one of the great good things about being alive; that music is one of the greatest of human activities, right up there with healing the sick and feeding the hungry.
The place is Steve’s Backstage Pass, 15 School Street, Taunton, MA, and the people are the owner, Steve Toli, and the musicians who make Steve’s the magic place it is.
Most of the musicians I’ve heard there are not big names and never were; they don’t have big record deals, but they’ve got big, generous hearts and more than enough talent to express themselves and their own love of music with honesty, conviction and plenty of pizzazz.
And maybe best of all, Steve’s is not some clubhouse for an exclusive clique of musical show-offs. It’s an easy, warm, very welcoming place, where everyone is invited to sit with a coffee or a beer and just listen, or – if you’re so inclined – to get up on stage and play along. At Steve’s Backstage Pass, that happens all the time. Everything about the place and everybody in the place encourages it.
Ever see an old folky playing slide guitar and singing country blues with a sixteen year old harmonica player, a local teacher blowing in on flute and sax, a well-known local guitar wiz -- on drums! And backup singers who can reach subterranean lows and angelic highs while others play penny whistle, mandolin and bass? All of them making wondrous, beautiful music even though they’ve never been on stage together before? I have, at Steve’s Backstage Pass.
Ever see a world-class blues guitarist, so good he could blow any challenger out of the water with his astounding feel and technique, decide to get up on stage with a fifteen year old singer-songwriter whose soaring voice could tear the heart out of your chest – and create a perfect musical match even though they’d never played together before? Let me tell you, they brought the house down, and those who were there felt privileged to be there.
For a music lover, these are magical moments, the kind one doesn’t expect to experience very often. But I have experienced them often at Steve’s Backstage Pass.
That same afternoon (this was just a lazy Sunday open mic) a local C&W singer tried out some new material, a duet made up of banjo and concertina blew everybody away with their agility and speed, a couple of folkies played some great old songs, a few grammar school kids got up with other musicians and sang a couple of numbers, getting the audience to sing along, and a guy who played guitar like Greg Lake of ELP wove a fantasia with his acoustic while a friend sang thoughtful, engaging lyrics.
I could go on and on, but – well, just one more. This guy with a goatee who calls himself a student of the blues carries his Gibson up on stage to play along with an old-time jazz-era blues keyboardist who had been playing songs after song with great authenticity for maybe an hour. The student of the blues turned out to be quite advanced, really good in fact, and – here’s the magic – he knew a dozen or more songs from the pre-WW2 era that the keyboardist also loved. Their combined enthusiasm for the music they were playing delighted – and educated – everybody there.
More magic. Another night at Steve’s Backstage Pass. The place has only been open for a few months, but I’ve already had dozens of wonderful experiences there just like these I’ve written about here.
Sometimes the players are pretty well-known. The Pete Best Band, led by the original drummer for the Beatles, did a great job of letting the audience know what it would have been like to hear the Beatles in their Hamburg days back in 1962 (and we got to hang around with him after the show!).
And the Liverpool Legends brought us all of the Beatles, playing songs from every era. Managed by George Harrison’s sister Louise, this was far more than your average Beatles cover band. It was eerily convincing and an amazing tribute – because the music was so damn good! As was the music by the Cream tribute band that played a few weeks later!
I’ll say it again – I could go on and on. But I won't. If you really do love music, I'll see you at Steve's Backstage Pass.
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