Classic rockers Wishbone Ash are once again coming back to the U.S. for a tour.
The “Take It Back” tour, celebrating their 47th anniversary as a band, opens on September 8 in Denver and ends on September 29 at Daryl’s House in Pawling, NY.
Founding member Andy Powell said “We’d like to mix it up a little. Perhaps include a different epic instrumental, dust off a couple of the old harmony-driven songs, feature an unexpected track from our latest album, Blue Horizon.
Wishbone Ash is led by Powell on guitar and vocals, trading licks with Finnish guitar master Muddy Manninen. Bassist Bob Skeat, an 19-year veteran of the band, sets the pace with Joe Crabtree, one of the best of Britain’s new breed of drummers, himself an 8-year Ash veteran, who also handles a lot of the band’s tech requirements.
Through the years the band has delved into various musical genres, from folk, blues and jazz to pedal-to-the-metal rock and electronica. Whatever the style, Wishbone Ash’s hallmark is the distinctive twin-melodic lead guitar interplay that has influenced such bands as Thin Lizzy, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Iron Maiden and, more recently, Opeth.
True road warriors, each year the band logs around 30,000 miles, roughly equivalent to circumnavigating the earth.
“The hours, days and weeks we spend touring and recording results in a close-knit group, for sure,” says Powell. “It allows us to bring a level of intensity to the table that people seem to pick up on and appreciate.”
The fruitful results of near-constant touring are evident on the latest DVD release, Live in Paris, recorded in May 2015 during a three-day residency at Le Triton Theatre in Les Lilas, Paris.
Powell says, “We recorded three nights of material, including current versions of some classic songs, plus some deep tracks that people won’t necessarily expect.”
The band recently released a four-disc Road Works box set, a compilation of four separate shows recorded in Germany and the UK. In October 2015, Powell completed his autobiography, Eyes Wide Open: True Tales of a Wishbone Ash Warrior, co-written with Irish music journalist Colin Harper. The book, published by Jawbone Press, has met with public and critical acclaim.
“Our concept was to root my musical story and that of the band’s to the times in which I came of age,” says Powell. “That is to say, relating it to those times, decade by decade, so that the reader could get a picture of how I was impacted by the social and musical trends and how I weathered those changes. We also wanted to keep it breezy and poke a little fun at this music game at the same time.”
The tour dates:
09/08 – Denver, CO – Soiled Dove
09/09 – Colorado Springs, CO – Stargazers
09/10 – Kansas City, MO – Knuckleheads
09/12 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theatre – Turner Hall
09/13 – Minneapolis, MN – Famous Dave’s
09/16 – Edwardsville, IL – Wildey Theatre
09/17 – St. Charles, IL – Arcada Theatre
09/18 – Auburn Hills, MI – Callahan’s
09/19 – Fort Wayne, IN – C2G Music Hall
09/20 – Pittsburgh, PA – Rex Theater
09/21 – Buffalo, NY – Sportsmen’s Tavern
09/22 – Albany, NY – The Upper Room
09/23 – Jim Thorpe, PA – Mauch Chunk Opera House
09/24 – Norfolk, CT – Infinity Hall
09/25 – Londonderry, NH – Tupelo Music Hall
09/26 – Annapolis, MD – Rams Head
09/27 – Sellersville, PA – Sellersville Theater
09/28 – New York, NY – Highline Ballroom
09/29 – Pawling, NY – Daryl’s House Club
