The IMP (Illicks Mill Project) Storytellers
Remembering eight entire years is difficult to do in one afternoon.
The IMP (Illicks Mill Project) Storytellers brought back the period from
1965 to 1973, when Bethlehem’s reconstructed mill was a center for
music.
The show was long at three and a half hours. Of course, the performers
had a lot to recall. And it was difficult to get so many musicians and
former hippies away from the free food buffet at intermission.
There were plenty of stories, as Tom Morganelli, Neal Neamand, and
Mary Faith Rhoads told of the beginnings of the Illicks Mill music and how
it was affected by sixties culture.
Neamand and Rhoads also contributed folk music of the type played in
the Mill’s early days. Frank Natassee did some tasty acoustic blues,
including “Crossroads” and “Rock Me Baby”.
Reflecting the later days of Mill concerts, there was an eclectic mix
of bands. Envibroment, a band of Liberty High students, even did some
pleasing jazz in the lobby before the show, as people gazed at mill
pictures of days past.
The Lee Daniels Jazz Trio provided two exciting John Coltrane
numbers, featuring Dave Smith on an unusual curved soprano sax (most
are shaped like a clarinet). Bob Hemmerly and the Glory Hounds saluted
rock with “Little Wing” and “Love Me Two Times”.
Steve Molchany ended with impressive vocals as he recreated the band Dooley, a Mill favorite. It included Dave and Wayne Smith, Wayne Maura, and Liberty High student Peter Fritz.
--Dave Howell, 2/03
(This article first appeared in The Morning Call newspaper.)
The IMP (Illicks Mill Project) Storytellers brought back the period from
1965 to 1973, when Bethlehem’s reconstructed mill was a center for
music.
The show was long at three and a half hours. Of course, the performers
had a lot to recall. And it was difficult to get so many musicians and
former hippies away from the free food buffet at intermission.
There were plenty of stories, as Tom Morganelli, Neal Neamand, and
Mary Faith Rhoads told of the beginnings of the Illicks Mill music and how
it was affected by sixties culture.
Neamand and Rhoads also contributed folk music of the type played in
the Mill’s early days. Frank Natassee did some tasty acoustic blues,
including “Crossroads” and “Rock Me Baby”.
Reflecting the later days of Mill concerts, there was an eclectic mix
of bands. Envibroment, a band of Liberty High students, even did some
pleasing jazz in the lobby before the show, as people gazed at mill
pictures of days past.
The Lee Daniels Jazz Trio provided two exciting John Coltrane
numbers, featuring Dave Smith on an unusual curved soprano sax (most
are shaped like a clarinet). Bob Hemmerly and the Glory Hounds saluted
rock with “Little Wing” and “Love Me Two Times”.
Steve Molchany ended with impressive vocals as he recreated the band Dooley, a Mill favorite. It included Dave and Wayne Smith, Wayne Maura, and Liberty High student Peter Fritz.
--Dave Howell, 2/03
(This article first appeared in The Morning Call newspaper.)