Where can you go to chase down the feel of 1960’s power pop? Head to the Highdive to hear Marshall Crenshaw this this Saturday, October 11th. Opening for Crenshaw will be The Thin Souls.
Also an actor and composer, Crenshaw should not be classified solely as a power pop performer, but he plays that sound exceedingly well. His music is an amalgam of styles, honed since childhood and executed with precision. Identified by a prominent melody, crisp vocals, and clever and efficient guitar riffs, power pop gets its inspiration from 1960’s American rock, soul and R&B, as well as British pop music. Its roots go back even further to songs by Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and others, who added a little country flavor, creating the rockabilly sound. Crenshaw spent his career mastering the sound of these heroes. Their sound filtered through the music he knew growing up in Detroit, home to Motown records, in the 1950’s and 60’s. At that time, Detroit radio had soul and R&B in heavy rotation, along with the new sounds coming up from Sun and Stax records out of Memphis and later, the British invasion sound, which was actually a loving reflection of all of the above. It was like the perfect storm of popular musical influences.
When you listen to Marshall Crenshaw’s music, the influences are unmistakable. The opening guitar riff on “Someday, Someway”, a single from his first LP, gives a nod to Buddy Holly, as does the overall sound of “Cynical Girl”, off the same album. Perhaps it was his devotion to the precision of Holly’s style that helped him land the part of Buddy Holly, in the movie La Bamba about another rock and roll superstar, who, along with Holly, died in a plane crash in 1959.
Crenshaw has enjoyed critical acclaim throughout his career. With music featured in movies (Night Shift, Desperately Seeking Susan, Empire Records, Baby Mama, etc.), and on television (Fame, Ed, Crossing Jordan, The West Wing, etc.), he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for composing the title song from the movie, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. His songs have been covered by Ronnie Spector, Bette Midler, Matthew Sweet, Freedy Johnston, and the Gin Blossoms, to name a few. He has worked with legendary music producers throughout his career, including, T-Bone Burnett, Larry Hirsch, Ed Stasium and Stewart Lerman.
Starting out in the 1970’s as the guitar player in a Detroit area rock band, Crenshaw points to his decision to leave Detroit with a friend, to join a bar band in LA, as his first pragmatic career decision, “that was the beginning of the journey”. After about six months with the band he answered a classified ad in Rolling Stone magazine to audition as a Beatle look-a-like for the stage play, Beatlemania. He got the part as a John Lennon understudy, and made his way to New York, where he was sent back out west to play shows in LA and San Francisco for six months, before hitting the road with the production company for another six months.
Returning to New York, Crenshaw cut some demos and began the process of defining the music he was to make a career out of. Early in the 1980’s, Crenshaw caught the ear of a small record label called Shake Records, and cut his first single, “Something’s Gonna Happen”. That successful release led to a recording contract with Warner Brothers in 1982, the year his eponymous first LP hit the streets. With the release of his first album, Crenshaw took his place alongside performers like, The Smithereens, Matthew Sweet, Nick Lowe, Cheap Trick, and The Cars, as purveyors of the New Wave genre called Power Pop.
You’ll find Marshall Crenshaw serving up songs that seem to reach back through decades of popular rock and roll music, and you’ll find him having a lot of fun doing it. He will be performing in Champaign at the Highdive, on Saturday, October 11th. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Top photo credit to Todd Chalfant.