The Kootz Ready to Rock Montville Park

Glenn Taylor has been playing with his band, The Kootz, for the past 10½ years. In fact, the band plays so much that the members sometimes play two gigs at separate location, dividing the band into two separate acts.

On Thursday, the original four members of The Kootz—Taylor, guitar/keyboard/vocals; Christopher Bolger, guitar/bass/vocals; Ben Asher, guitar/vocals; and Tony “Al” Dente, drums/vocals—will be performing as part of Summer Concerts in the Park, Montville's free summer concert series.

When the group plays the Community Park Amphitheater from 7 to 8:30 p.m., the group will be covering many popular artists.

“We’re going to cover The Beatles, Tom Petty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, to name a few,” said Taylor, who owns a production studio in Caldwell called Taylor Made Productions. 

In addition to covering other bands, The Kootz is building up its own name. In 2005, the band released its first album, called “Tales from the Endless Bus Tour of New Jersey,” which featured 11 original songs and five covers.

Then, the band released a second CD, "Kootleg," in 2009, comprised of more than 200 hours of audio recordings from their countless live shows.

“Tommy James from Tommy James and the Shondells heard we covered his song ‘Hanky Panky’, and, because he’s a friend of the band, actually performed on it,” Taylor said.  “We got some radio play on CBS-FM because of that.”

The Kootz has 13 full members and seven guest players in addition to the original four members of the band, Taylor said.

“Our band does over 250 shows a year, so having all these members provides a lot of flexibility for us,” Taylor said.

The Kootz was originally based out of Essex County, but recently started basing themselves out of Montville, where they maintain a huge following.  The workaholics play many shows a year in towns as far north as Cooperstown, N.Y., as far west as Philadelphia, Pa., and a ton of places in-between. 

The group has booked 88 gigs for the 92 days of summer, playing in over 50 municipalities for events like car shows and summer concerts.  Because of this, The Kootz did something that may be a musical first- play two gigs at the same time in two separate places. 

“Last Tuesday, we divided up the group and played at the Black Horse Inn in Mendhem and Basking Ridge Country Club,” Taylor said, an occurrence that happens a dozen times a year for the group.

The group has sold 12,000 downloads on iTunes, a feat that will help Taylor achieve his goal for the band. 

“My goal with the Kootz brand is that it becomes synonymous with great musicians and a great show,” Taylor said. 

“I feel like it’s taken us 10 years to get the band right,” Taylor said.  “Everyone plays well, we’re close- when we do this, there is definitely a love over money factor that makes the band continue to do this.” 

The band is scheduled to perform on Thursday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Community Park Amphitheater. Parking is available behind the high school and library.