ARE YOU READY FOR SOME MORE PRINCESS MUSIC?

I know I am!

Here's the 2nd in a series! 

The Princess Foundation proudly presents Dennis Tufano, "Original Voice of The Buckinghams", and blues harmonica great Michael “Crawdaddy” Crawley and The Detroit Daddies!  They're all coming May 24th, at 7 PM.

Tickets are on sale at Rocky Top General Store and Harriman Jewelry for $15 for the floor and $10 for the balcony and will be festival seating.  All proceeds go to the Princess Foundation.

If you came up through the 60's music era, like me, then you'll instantly flash back to those trademark opening horn notes on The Buckinghams'  #1 hit, "Kind of a Drag", which became a signature of the Chicago horn sound.  Dennis Tufano was the voice that sang that song, and he's coming to the Princess to sing all his greatest hits! 

Dennis, a native of Chicago, is the "original voice" of “The Buckinghams”. The Chicago-based group scored with a string of five Top Ten hits in the late-sixties including, the No#1 “Kind of A Drag”, “Don’t You Care”, “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”, “Hey Baby, They’re Playing Our Song”, “Susan” and “Back In Love Again”. 

In the Buckinghams, Dennis was part of the song-writing duo "Tufano and Giammarese" and recorded three albums with Lou Adler's custom label, Ode Records.  Appearing as guest vocalist he went on to co-write with renowned composer and musician Tom Scott.  With Scott as composer, Dennis performed the "original title/theme song" for the long running "Family Ties" television show. (First 13episodes)

Dennis also wrote the music and performed with Bernie Taupin, Elton John's lyricist, on Taupin's album, "He Who Rides The Tiger". Subsequently he teamed again with Taupin to co-write, co-produce and perform the Farm Dogs album “Last Stand In Open Country”.

Back on the road, Dennis joined Olivia Newton-John on her hugely successful tour and was featured, with her on the HBO Special in two dramatically inspired duets.

As an actor, Dennis has appeared in theater productions in Los Angeles and has worked in film, television, radio and commercials.

He was also one of the founding members of an improvisational voice-ensemble called the “LA.MadDogs”. This group of actors performs on hundreds of movies and numerous television shows and have produced and performed seven "live" radio dramas, three of which Dennis directed, for KMPC RADIO THEATER in Los Angeles.

Dennis produced, directed and shot a documentary in Chicago, "Major Hall: Therapy Tuesday" and is currently preparing it for release. He has been praised for his performance on the, “PBS Music Series the ‘60s”, and will be included in the award winning PBS-DVD series.

At the age of eight, Michael “Crawdaddy” Crawley’s grandmother gave him his first harmonica, a gift from Hawaii where she once lived. It inspired him to learn his first Beatles song, “Love Me Do”.

Crawdaddy’s first introduction to the world of Trop Rock was at Knoxville’s Tropic Festival in 1997, where he appeared with St. Somewhere, A1A and Greg Bridgewater.  The next year he traveled to Key West with St. Somewhere for Meeting of the Minds, the official Convention for Parrot Heads in Paradise. Here he discovered Parrot Heads and their love of Trop Rock music.  From 1998 to 2001 he joined St. Somewhere on the road, traveling all over the United States.

Thirty years after picking up his first harp, Crawdaddy continues the musical journey his grandmother began.  Over the years Crawdaddy has befriended some of Jimmy Buffett’s bandmates – the Coral Reefers, and he has performed with a variety of musicians like Fingers Taylor, Magic Dick of The Geils Band, Mitch Kashmar of the band War and Mark Hummel, and has opened up for well-respected artists such as BB King, Johnny Winter, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Blackfoot, Delbert McClinton, The Sauce Boss, Marshall Tucker, Mac MacAnally and Nadirah Shakoor.

These days Crawdaddy performs in a wide range of musical outfits, spanning many musical genres: a blues duo called the Detroit Daddies; the Trop Rock duo with Tall Paul (affectionately known as “TallDaddy”); a seven-piece blues band called “Jenna and Her Cool Friends” (who represented Knoxville at the 2012 International Blues Challenge in Memphis); a local Jug band called Y’uns; and a rock outfit called Crawdaddy the Band.

So, see you at the Princess!