All-Star Benefit Concert To Commemorate Shaboo's 50th Anniversary

MANSFIELD/WILLIMANTIC, CT — Besides being inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, what do B.B. King, Tom Petty, the Police, Miles Davis, Joan Jett, Leonard Cohen, the Talking Heads, Muddy Waters, Aerosmith, Dire Straits, Tom Waits, the Cars, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, John Lee Hooker and Cheap Trick have in common, as it relates to Connecticut?

They were all among the hundreds of talented artists, from every genre of music, to have performed at the legendary Shaboo Inn. Often misidentified as being located in Willimantic, the club was actually on Conantville Road in Mansfield, behind what is now the East Brook Mall.

The club, owned by David "Lefty" Foster, his brother Mark, and Bruce John and his brother Gary, opened in Nov. 1971. In its second week of operation, an unknown rock band from Boston played a 2-night gig; during one of those shows, Aerosmith premiered a song called "Dream On."

Half a century has passed since the Shaboo's debut, and the club itself has been closed since 1982, but its founders are marking the 50th anniversary of its opening with a special benefit concert. It is slated for Saturday, Aug. 28, beginning at noon on the Shaboo Stage in Jillson Square in Willimantic.

An all-star lineup of performers will grace the stage during the all-day festival: The Founders at noon; NRBQ at 1:45; Tom Rush at 3:45; Pure Prairie League at 5:45; and the Shaboo All-Stars, featuring John Cafferty and the legendary James Montgomery, at 8 p.m. (Note: all times are approximate).

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Covenant Soup Kitchen. Tickets are $25 in advance or $35 at the gate, and are available at the Willimantic Food Co-op or online at eventbrite.com.

"David Foster and I have carried on our old hippie tradition from Shaboo of helping the needy and caring about social justice," Bruce John said. "David runs a charitable foundation that is extremely generous to local and Connecticut charities, while my wife Therese and I have run the Bread Box Folk Theater in Willimantic. We have raised and donated $235,000 to Covenant Soup Kitchen, and have continued to bring quality national and regional musical acts back to the Willimantic, Mansfield area. David and I share an empathy gene, and we can't stand by and watch people be homeless or hungry without using our talents to help them."

Despite its short 11-year run, the Shaboo remains one of the legendary concert venues in New England history. Whether you were a fan of blues, rock, jazz, folk, punk or new wave, there was always something to suit every musical taste at the club.

It all came about because of the dreams of two sets of brothers - three of them musicians.

"We figured because we were young and knew what young people wanted and the fact that my brother Gary and I had taken over my dad's restaurant, Lou's, that we could be successful," John said. "Mark, Lefty and I were in bands and wanted a cool place to play."

The venue dated back to 1853, when a silk mill was built which operated until the 1940s. The site then became a dance palace, a chicken farm and the All Day Motel until the Shaboo came into being.

"Although our grandfathers and fathers did business together , I didn't meet Lefty until I was 19 and he was 18," John said. "We became inseparable best friends immediately. The partnership was trying at times due to job equity and family lines, but we all remain friends to this day. In retrospect, we were the perfect combination of different personalities and perspectives that somehow were in the right place at the exact right time."

Of all the musical genres represented at the club, it was the proliferation of blues artists which cemented the establishment's reputation as a performance center.

"We got very lucky early on with our connection to blues artists," John said. "We started with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells and the word spread. John Lee Hooker, Hound Dog Taylor, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, T-Bone Walker and the legend Muddy Waters soon followed. We also had an early and, to this day, a very strong bond with James Montgomery, who led us to the jewel in our crown, Bonnie Raitt."

Within two years, agencies representing national artists began contacting the Shaboo owners for bookings, rather than the other way around.

"The bands all loved us because we treated them like royalty and were able to pay a lot more than the city clubs that held 200 people; we held 1,000," John said.

A fire destroyed the building exactly 39 years ago on Aug. 13, 1982, which was coincidentally also Friday the 13th. Nearly four decades after ceasing operations, just the mention of the name Shaboo evokes wistful memories from those who ever took in a show there.

"The anniversary concert is just a natural occurrence," he concluded. "The soup kitchen has served 1.3 million individual meals in 16 months and desperately needs money, plus we love doing big productions on the Shaboo Stage. It's only fitting to keep rocking as long as we can to keep the legacy alive."

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