A Night To Remember
Colleen Raye, Debbie O’Keefe, and newcomer Katie Gearty brought another one of “The Girl Singers'” stellar productions to The Clausen Center in Holstein last Saturday evening.
“Sirens of the ’60’s” mirrored the changing mores of the decade and the emerging women’s lib movement. Genre’s ranged from Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want To Be With You” and Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man” to the diametrically opposed “You Don’t Own Me” as sung by Lesley Gore. The times were indeed changing and the music epitomized that.
The stage blossomed with the 60’s requisite stylized daisies and peace signs and the ladies’ costumes were psychedelic wonders. Pinks and purples; lime greens and vibrant orange tones took the audience back to their Flower Power days. So, too, did The Sirens’ rendition of “If I Had A Hammer” a la Mary Travers of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame. Oh, the memories that flooded through our minds. We were all going to save the world back then and “Peace and Love” were our watch words. Were we really that young and innocent? Yes, I guess we were. We alternated between such starry idealism as expressed in “My Beautiful Balloon” and “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine” to the captivating hijinks of “I’m On To Something Good” and the iconoclastic “Down Town”.
The audience got to its feet and danced the “Locomotion” with an excited alacrity, if not the abandoned agility of their youth. It was great fun. And so was being the back up singers for “Monday Monday” by the Mamas and The Poppas.
However, the hit of the night had to have been when the ladies got local heart throb, Gail Harrison, on stage to help perform Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You, Babe”. He was magnificent in fake fur vest, headband, and mustache (also fake). The man is a natural – he belted out every “Babe” with the most delighted and delightful gusto.
The second set ended with “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” – again with folks in the audience singing along and clapping their hands to the beat. Then “The Girl Singers” topped that off with an encore of Bob Dylan’s “May You Stay Forever Young”. And we were – for the space of time they gave us. What a wonderful way to end the show.
It was quite a night.