Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Classic Rock Concert Saturday September 17 @ Lowell Auditorium

On Saturday September 17, V is for Veterans and Veterans Assisting Veterans will be presenting a live concert “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans” at Lowell Memorial Auditorium to honor those Vietnam veterans from Lowell and the surrounding communities who have selflessly defended us over the years. The ultimate sacrifice some of these young men and women made allow us to be able to present events like this. Our goal is to remember those sacrifices and honor those who have returned receiving little recognition or none at all.

The show will consist of a classic line up of artists who are either from New England or a substantial part of their career was established here. So please come and join us on this journey and before we begin; let me introduce some of the artists who will be performing that evening.

Christine Ohlman (a/k/a "The Beehive Queen" for her mile-high platinum-blonde hairdo) is the current, long-time vocalist with the Saturday Night Live Band whose sixth critically-acclaimed CD with Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez, The Deep End, was honored on national end-of-year Top Ten lists.

Recent appearances include her star turn at the SNL 40 After-Concert at the Plaza Hotel (her voice graced the telecast itself) where she romped with the B52s and Jimmy Fallon (as her backup vocalists) and verse-traded with Elvis Costello; HBO’s “VINYL” series (her voice graced five episodes, including a duet with Costello); The 2016 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s tribute to David Bowie; The “Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon; The Carnegie Hall Tribute To The Rollling Stones, the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Concert in Cleveland (broadcast on HBO); and The WC Handy Festival in Muscle Shoals, where she was the special guest of the Blind Boys Of Alabama, produced a sold-out tribute to iconic Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler and, as the Grand Marshall, famously rode in Sam Phillips’ "often-ridden-in-by-Elvis" baby blue Cadillac.

Ohlman's numerous collaborations encompass Grammmy-nominated recordings and include duets with Mac Rebennack, Dion, Ian Hunter (she appears on four cuts on Hunter's latest release), Marshall Crenshaw, Bonnie Bramlett, Levon Helm, Charlie Musselwhite, Paul Thorn and The Subdudes (Ace Records in the UK will release her contribution to an upcoming tribute to legendary songwriters Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham), plus on-stage appearances with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson, Steve Miller, Graham Nash, George Harrison, and Al Green. She is a featured guest on legendary Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham’s historic ALO Orchestra Volume II (named “coolest record of the year” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage/SIRIUS XM) alongside Johnny Marr, the late Alex Chilton, and others.

Ohlman topped the International Readers Poll onTheAlternateRoot.com as Americana female vocalist, joining The Mavericks, Paul Thorn and Rodney Crowell in the top slots. Mixing a fiery brand of rootsy Americana with an old-school soul music flavor, she serves up a style that's been dubbed "Contemporary Rock R&B" by SIRIUS/FM's Dave Marsh. Her seventh CD, “The Grown-Up Thing,” will be released in 2016.

Paul Nelson considered to be among the list of today's top guitarists; Paul is a Grammy Award winning artist who has toured the world live and appeared on recordings alongside artists such as Eric Clapton, Leslie West, Edgar Winter, Rick Derringer, Joe Perry, Brian Setzer, Billy Gibbons, Dicky Betts, Joe Walsh and Slash among others. Nelson has also appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Paul spent the better part of a decade as the driving force behind Johnny Winter and as guitarist for the Johnny Winter Band. He produced and played on several of Winter's albums, including "Step Back", winning him a 2015 Grammy Award for Best Blues Album and debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart for Blues Albums and Independent Albums, winning the Blues Music Award for Best Rock Blues Album. Paul Nelson was inducted into the New York Blues Hall of Fame and received the Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) award from the Blues Foundation.

Jon Butcher patterned after Hendrix but influenced by Richie Havens, John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Taj Mahal; Butcher has had a storied career as part of some of the areas greatest bands. With Johanna Wild, in the mid to late-70’s, Jon toured the Northeast generating a large following. Johanna Wild's chemistry influenced much of the Boston music scene in the 1970's and become a Boston music staple through the then blossoming cable TV networks MTV and radio medias, particularly the influential radio station WBCN in Boston, MA.

Shortly after he would go on to form Jon Butcher Axis, the power trio he had always envisioned. Axis performed throughout New England and the timing and apparent surge in popularity afforded Butchers’ next opportunity. Through Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J. Geils Band, Axis was invited to tour on the world famous Boston band’s 1982 Freeze Frame American tour, culminating in three sold out shows at the Boston Garden. The experience of performing on the tour led to the Jon Butcher Axis’ first international record deal with PolyGram Records; beginning a recording and touring career which saw the release of 'The Jon Butcher Axis' and 'Stare at the Sun'. 1983 saw the release of their first and self-titled album, featuring "Life Takes a Life" and "Ocean in Motion". TheJon Butcher Axis' video "Life Takes a Life" became one of the first videos by a black artist to receive airtime on MTV. The band's second album, "Stare at the Sun” was released in 1984. The result of these two albums' successes afforded the band the opportunity to tour with both Rush and Def Leppard’s in 1983 and on The Scorpions 1984 'Hurricane' tour.

In 1985, Jon Butcher Axis signed with Capitol Records and released "Along the Axis". The track, "The Ritual", earned multiple writers in the band a Grammy Nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Jon Butcher Axis frequently toured major venues across the US during this period, opening for INXS and again with Rush.

With the Jon Butcher Axis ending its run in 1990; Jon spent most of the 90's on various multimedia projects. In 1994, he formed Barefoot Servants who released their self-titled album on Epic Records. In the mid-1990’s, Butcher released two solo blues albums. "A Stiff Little Breeze" on Atom Records in 2001 and was Jon's first solo project with the independent label. This CD would resurrect the Jon Butcher Axis name, and again the Hendrix reference.

Johnny A got his start in the 70’s performing in the Boston based band “the Streets”. Touring with or supporting several major artists including Aerosmith and Bob Seger and eventually going on to compete in the first WBCN "Rock 'n' Roll Rumble” in 1979.

During the 80’s Johnny formed the band Hidden Secret who released the local hit “No More Lonely Nights", which occupied the top spot on 'BCN for 26 weeks. In 1986 Johnny would once again go to the WBCN "Rock 'n' Roll Rumble” in his new band Hearts On Fire, placing second in the competition.

In the 1980’s and 90’s, as a sideman, Johnny played with Santana percussionist Mingo Lewis as well as with Creedence Clearwater Revival drummer Doug Clifford and then with Delaney & Bonnie, Derek & the Dominos keyboardist Bobby Whitlock. He would then begin a seven-year stint as guitarist and musical director for J. Geils Band front man Peter Wolf.

In 1999, Johnny A. launched his solo career independently releasing his debut CD "Sometime Tuesday Morning". Later in 2000, Johnny signed a licensing deal to re-release "Sometime " on Steve Vai's Favored Nations Entertainment. Re-Released in 2001 the album spawned the #1 single "Oh Yeah" across the USA on AAA radio marking the first time in over a decade that an instrumental had achieved the top spot on radio, eventually selling over 100,000 copies.

Johnny eventually signed a multi-record contract with Vai's label. In 2004, "Get Inside" was released on the Favored Nations Label, yielding two radio singles, "I Had to Laugh", making the Grammy nominations ballot, and the title track "Get Inside."

Since 2010 Johnny has been on a roll. He was the recipient of The Boston Music Award's Blues Artist of the Year 2010. In 2014, Johnny's most recent offering,"Driven" was released; his most ambitious album producing and playing all the instruments. In 2014Johnny A. was inducted into the Boston Music Hall of Fame at the Boston Music Awards.

In 2015, Johnny joined Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band The Yardbirds; following in the footsteps of their former guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

In 2003, Gibson Custom Guitar company, in collaboration with Johnny A., released a "Johnny A." Signature Model guitar, designed to the artist's specifications. It is one of the company's most successful "signature" model guitars.

Creating an artist signature model guitar is not something we take lightly. But sometimes a player comes along who is not only a musical innovator and artist of the highest-caliber, but has innovative ideas about designing a totally new instrument. And that's Johnny, who just knocked us off our feet.

— Rick Gembar, Gibson Guitars Senior VP

Danny Klein (aka “the Ace on Bass”) for Boston’s legendary J. Geils Band has helped provide the thumping bass lines to the band for their almost 50 year history. Klein, NY born and NJ bred moved to Massachusetts to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute. There he met musicians John Geils and Richard (Magic Dick) Salwitz and while attending college the three of them formed a jug band.

With the addition of Peter Wolf, Seth Justman and Stephen Jo Bladd the band changed their name to The J. Geils Band where Klein has remained as a continuous member through now.

Throughout the 1970’s, 80's and 90's, during breaks in the Geils touring, Klein recorded with artists such as Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Debbie Davies.

Hirsh Gardner, drummer and vocalist for the band New England journeyed to Boston from Canada, playing in various groups, in which he hooked up with the other future New England members. With endless hours rehearsing they refined their sound and rather than play the local club circuit they worked day and night at putting together a show to highlight the strength of each band member and play to an arena audience.

A showcase for Bill Aucion, Kiss' legendary manager, brought the band to the attention of numerous major labels. After a bidding frenzy, the group signed with Infinity/MCA and Paul Stanley produced their debut album. The disc included the classic song “Don't Ever Wanna Lose Ya”. Primed the band set off to tour with Kiss, AC/DC, Journey, Styx and others.

After New England broke up in 1983, Gardner received a call from an old friend Kiss’s Gene Simmons, who turned Hirsh onto Vinnie Vincent. Together with former New England bandmates Jimmy Waldo and Gary Shea they put together the group Warrior in LA. Prior to the band signing a label deal Vinnie got the offer to join Kiss. Hirsh returned to Boston and began producing numerous acts in the northeast.

Gardner was nominated for Boston Music Awards Producer of the Year 5 times, voted Producer of the Year for the Boston Phoenix Best Poll, and was sought out by numerous record companies to produce their top acts.

John Cafferty (vocal & guitar) and “Tunes” Antunes (saxophone) of John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band started out as a New England bar band based in Narragansett, Rhode Island and established a following up and down the Northeast in the 1970's achieving mainstream success in the 1980’s.

They first achieved success with a 1980 self-released single pairing two of their songs, "Wild Summer Nights" and "Tender Years", selling over 10,000 copies getting radio play up and down the Atlantic seaboard. Despite their success, the act was ignored by the major labels due to persistent critical comparisons to Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. They finally achieved international success when producer Kenny Vance, a longtime fan, offered them the score to a movie soundtrack he was helming based on a best-selling novel about a legendary bar band, Eddie & The Cruisers. Thanks to frequent airings of the film on HBO and the purchase of the soundtrack album by their established fanbase along with hundreds of thousands of new converts, Eddie & The Cruisers: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart and produced a number 7 hit single ("On the Dark Side") on the Billboard Hot 100. "On the Dark Side"also held number-one on the Album Rock Tracks chart for five weeks. The album was eventually certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.

The group's 1985 follow-up album Tough All Over made the top 50, enjoying great sales for "C.I.T.Y.". The title track became their second number-one single on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Another song from that album, "Voice of America's Sons", was the featured theme song on the official motion picture soundtrack of the movie Cobra, starring Sylvester Stallone, and Cafferty'ssolo track "Heart's on Fire" was featured in anotherStallone film, Rocky IV.

In 1989, they released an "Eddie" sequel, Eddie & The Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! Subsequent music has appeared on the soundtracks of several major motion pictures including the There's Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber To.

Jeff Howell began his bass playing career as a teenager in upstate New York. Over the years, Jeff built a reputation that brought him to the attention of national acts. He eventually hooked up with Kim Simmonds, of,Savoy Brown fame. At this time in 1986, Kim was playing with some very good hard rock musicians under the heading "KSB." Jeff spent several years before departing the band and venturing off to Vermont for some R&R.

Soon after returning home, Jeff's agent called to say Foghat needed a bass player. So, off to Boston he ventured in a van with no heat (Dec. 89) to beat out approximately 30 other musicians and getting the gig. This is where Jeff met his mate, Roger Earl. "Roger and I got along very well. Every show was euphoric” states Jeff. Howell toured every state several times with Foghat. "I headlined so many shows I can't remember, but I have video tapes for souvenirs." Once again, all good things come to an end, but not before, Jeff fell in love with his wife and the town, while playing the showroom at Harrah's Casino, in South Lake Tahoe, NV in 1990.

Shortly after leaving Foghat, Jeff rejoined Savoy Brown and left on a European tour. "It was incredible", commented Jeff. "When we got back from Europe, we left for Hawaii and then a mainland tour. It was a lot of fun, but it too ended." Howell to Lake Tahoe. "One day while soaking up the sun, Roger called and asked Jeff to come back to Foghat for their upcoming tour.

After his reunion with Foghat, Howell returned to Lake Tahoe only to receive a call to see if he was interested in playing for The Outlaws. Off to Florida Jeff trekked for two days of rehearsal and out on tour. "The next thing I knew, three years went by". While playing with The Outlaws, Jeff recorded three albums. The Outlawsdisbanded in 1996, so Howell occupied himself working as a studio musician at Muscadine Studio in Macon, Georgia, where he then resided.

In 1996, Jeff returned to upstate New York to work on the recording of other artists' projects in order to be near his children as they grew. During the latter portion of 2009 and most of 2010, Jeff recorded Foghat's blues CD “Last Train Home”, and returned for a while as a touring member of the band. He would return home to continue on recording projects but rejoin Foghat periodically over the years as a touring band member.

Barry Goudreau, former guitarist for arena rockers Boston. There is nothing more to say about Barry in regard to this band. His guitar sound was largely responsible for the sales of over 40,000,000 copies of the band’s first two records. When the first note of any of these songs come on the radio you know the song they are so distinctive to a generation.

Prior to Goudreau’s departure from the band, he continued on in similar style producing work of his own. In 1980 he went on to record his first solo project titled“Barry Goudreau”. The LP successfully hit the airwaves with the songs "Dreams" and "Mean Woman Blues". In 1984, Goudreau formed the band Orion The Hunter and released a debut LP. With Fran Cosmo as lead vocalist, Brad Delp provided backing vocals and co-wrote five of the album's songs. The album included the single "So You Ran". The band then added keyboardist and backing vocalist Brian Maes and toured in support of Aerosmith in 1984 but ultimately broke up in 1985.

In 1990 Goudreau formed the band RTZ (Return to Zero). Delp left Boston to join the band. RTZ experienced some success with the hit "Until Your Love Comes Back Around". Delp and Goudreau felt that the record company was not supporting the band to the best of their abilities and asked to be released from their contract. They later signed with MTM Records; however, Delp departed shortly after to rejoin Boston.

In 2003, Goudreau and Delp teamed up for their independent recording of Delp and Goudreau.

Goudreau continues to play special events with other former members of Boston and with musicians he became friendly with while touring, as part of a continuing Rock and Roll All-Star show.

David Hull began his career in music performing with Buddy Miles, Joe Cocker, Ted Nugent, Arthur Lee & Lee's band Love.

On October 1, 1970 David performed at an impromptu show after the funeral of Jimi Hendrix. David joined Buddy Miles, Johnny Winter, Charlie Karp, Billy Cox, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding at a nearby hall.

Hull was asked to be the studio and touring bassist for the first two Joe Perry Project albums, a band formed by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.

In 1986, David along with fellow Joe Perry Project member Charlie Farren formed a rock trio named Farrenheit. The band signed with Warner Bros. Records and their music went into regular rotation on MTV scoring an opening slot on Boston's 75-stop sold-out American tour.

In 2006, Hull filled in on Aerosmith's "Route of All Evil Tour" for bassist Tom Hamilton who took ill. David would eventually resume these duties with Aerosmith in 2009 and 2013.

Hull reunited with the Joe Perry Project on the band's album "Have Guitar, Will Travel". The re-formed band toured the United States in 2009 and 2010. In January 2010 joining Mötley Crüe to tour Canada. In April they joined Bad Company for UK tour during which they performed shows at Wembley Arena and the legendary 100 Club.

Cliff Goodwin is a Massachusetts native with a vast Rock and Roll resume. As a young man just out of his teens, he was approached by Joe Cocker to lead his band on a global journey. The journey that lead Cliff to be a noted guitarist and musical director worldwide. Playing not only with Joe Cocker, but sharing the stage with Steve Miller, recording with Robert Palmer, touring with U2, Rod Stewart and Supertramp to name a few. He was also complimented by Eric Clapton who admired Cliff’s style.

Cliff continues to play in the region in a number of different functions. He appears with the house band for a regional television show in the style of American Idol shot both in Boston and New York City. Cliff continues to be a sought after session and live performer by many of the premier acts in New England.

Now you know a little about who'll be there; so maybe it's time to tell you why. Veterans Assisting Veterans (VAV) offers support on a number of levels, offering direct service to veterans as well as providing Trac chairs and PTSD services. Through the foundation’s volunteer opportunities, the average American is able to make a difference and give back to their local heroes.

Veterans returning from current conflicts and those who returned from previous ones need the assistance organizations like this provide. The problems they face upon return from deployment or those that develop decades later are to great to be handle in a cookie cutter fashion. We are talking about people who were willing to sacrifice their lives for us; so the least we can do is to work at helping them get the services they need and deserve.

If you have a parent or grandparent who served in Vietnam, or a friend, relative or significant other who has served recently. Please consider attending this event to help us celebrate those who’ve served honorably, to honor those who did not return and to assist those who returned injured.

There is no limit to what the organizations we are partnering with can or need to provide. It is as broad as the needs of the veterans requiring the services and only limited by the funds we can help raise to assist the heroes.

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