I died and went to rock and roll heaven – at least it seemed that way for about 90 minutes Tuesday in the Savannah Center.
Phil Dirt and the Dozers, the Ohio band with strong ties to The Villages and local Shriners, kicked out the jams in hard-rocking style. They made old Savannah seem like paradise by the dashboard light.
The Dozers brought back the sounds of Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, the Platters, Mitch Ryder, the Beach Boys, Four Seasons and even were able to sneak in a little Dean Martin. Watch video of their performance below:
Mark Frye, the Emmy-winning musician who heads the Dirt crew, was in vintage form on his rollicking tribute to Chuck Berry with “No Particular Place to Go.” Frye has been coming to The Villages for nearly two decades and raising money for Shriners.
His late father-in-law, Gene Wilson, was a leader in The Villages Shrine Club. Frye and the Dozers play here a couple times a year in benefit concerts. They have raised over $120,000 here to help kids at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa.
“It’s something that we’re proud of and we love to do,” Frye said. “The people in The Villages grew up with this music and it’s a joy to play it for them.”
Wayne Bryan of the Villages Shrine Club was part of the audience.
“These guys put on a great show and they’re doing it to help sick kids,” Bryan said. “Mark is a good entertainer and he never forgets The Villages. We can’t thank him enough. This is our music and the people here love to rock and roll.”
That’s exactly what happened when Hadden Sayers of the Dozers ripped through Sam Cooke’s “Twisting the Night Away.” Frye pulled out a saxophone and the rest of the band – Steve Cabot, Tony Alfano and Tony McClung – romped through the number with guitars and drums.
Before long, everyone in the Savannah Center was singing along and a few people were doing the twist.
Sayers, who plays a nasty blues guitar, was also in top form on Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home to Me.”
But Alfano saved the best for last.
Near the end of the concert, he sounded like a Detroit Wheel as he tore into Mitch Ryder’s “Devil With the Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly.”
Then Alfano brought back memories the great Jackie Wilson on a wildly, soulful “Higher and Higher.”
The mood was a bit slower earlier in the show.
“I grew up in an Italian neighborhood,” Alfano said. Then he started singing Dean Martin’s “Amore.”
“We know they’re having the Italian Festival in the (Spanish Springs Town) Square,” Alfano said. “We thought we’d have one here.” And so he sang “when the moon hits your eye/like a big pizza pie/that’s amore.”
Despite all their rocking ways, the band has a way with a ballad. “Now we’re going to do a romantic number from the ‘70s,” Alfano said. “Let me see, oh I know, “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath.”
Naw, he was just kidding. The Dirt boys were spot on with their versions of such slower, romantic numbers as “God Only Knows,” “My Prayer” and Steve Cabot’s vocal tribute to Eddie Holman on “Hey There Lonely Girl.”
But rock and roll is what give this band its juice. Frye proudly held up a black tee-shirt that read: “old guys rock.”
“This is the music we grew up and you grew up with,” Alfano told the crowd. “Thank you for letting us sing it and help to keep it alive.”
