Rockers honored for legacy
It's been a whirlwind couple of months for Mike Vale, Ron Rosman and Eddie Gray, Westmoreland County natives who are members of the Crystal Blue Band and former original members of the 1960s rock band Tommy James and the Shondells.
Two years after they reunited, the new phase of their careers is well under way. The latest honors for Vale, Rosman and Gray include their induction as part of Tommy James and the Shondells for a 2017 Pittsburgh Rock 'N Roll Legends Award. The ceremony was held April 27 at Jergel's Rhythm Grille in Marshall, as a fundraising event for the Cancer Caring Center.
Accolades for their success will continue May 4, when Westmoreland County commissioners issue a resolution proclaiming a week be set aside in their honor in recognition of lifetime achievements in the music industry.
Following the proclamation at the 10 a.m. commissioners meeting at the county courthouse in Greensburg, the Crystal Blue Band — comprised of Vale, Rosman, Gray and Mike Wilps — will perform a mini-concert at noon for the lunchtime crowd in the S&T Bank Courtyard of the Palace Theatre.
Mike Langer, president of Westmoreland Cultural Trust, says the recognition is well deserved for the three native sons.
“When they got the band back together, there was such a public outcry of ‘This is great, this is wonderful,' ” Langer says. “People from the community called me on their behalf and said, ‘You have to book them at the Palace, it's good for the region.' ”
Langer took the advice and booked the Crystal Blue Band for a Homecoming Concert at the Palace Theatre, which will take place on May 27, featuring Pittsburgh's 10-piece show band Johnny Angel and The Halos and vocalist Terry Brock, lead singer of Louisiana's Le Roux and formerly with Kansas.
“At the Palace, we don't get a chance very often to honor folks from our area. This is our chance to recognize and thank three of them who grew up here,” Langer says.
The musicians were first “discovered” by Tommy James and a promoter in 1966 while playing as the house band, the Raconteurs, at the former Thunderbird Lounge on Otterman Street in Greensburg. The singer was in Pittsburgh promoting his new release, “Hanky Panky,” and looking for new musicians.
“Quite frankly, we were a soul band, not paying much attention to pop music,” Vale recalls. “When James liked our sound and asked us to become the Shondells, we told him we're doing our own writing and doing well in Pittsburgh.”
The next morning he was driving to his day job and heard KDKA disc jockey Clark Race on the radio, playing “Hanky Panky.”
“He said, ‘This is going to be a hit record all over the country.' I made a U-turn in the middle of the highway and went home to call the group,” Vale says.
They had a long run with James, writing and recording 19 hit records, including “Crimson and Clover,” “Mony Mony,” “I Think We're Alone Now,” “Sweet Cherry Wine” and “Mirage.”
After the Shondells broke up in 1971 as James launched his solo career, Vale, Rosman and Gray formed a new group, Hog Heaven, releasing two albums over the next three years, until they decided to go their separate ways to pursue other interests, both in and out of music.
They reunited in 2015 as the Crystal Blue Band, a tribute to “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” a 1968 song composed by Gray, James and Vale and originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells.
Vale, who was from New Alexandria and Greensburg, now lives in Deep Creek, Md. Rosman, who first got the friends together to form The Raconteurs while he was a student at St. Vincent College, resides in DuBois, Clearfield County. Gray, from Connellsville, has a recording studio in Scottdale.
Rosman says he feels the songs of the Crystal Blue Band remain popular, especially with baby boomers and their families.
“People want to hear our music. It's classic and it will be around forever,” he says. He and his wife, Maryann, have a daughter, Jodie, and nine grandchildren.
Vale and his wife, Valerie, have a son and two daughters (and another daughter who has passed), eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He says it was because of his family that he wanted to reconnect with the band.
“We've got 17 grandchildren between us, and they had never heard us perform. They've only seen our gold records on the wall. They couldn't relate to that. These kids needed to have a tie to this legacy,” he says.
These days, his kids and grandkids come to almost every one of their shows.
Candy Williams a Tribune-Review contributing writer.
