WHAT: Mark Shurilla’s The Day the Music Died
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20
WHERE: Pickard Auditorium, Neenah
INFO: grandoperahouse.org

By Jim Lundstrom

Don McLean immortalized it in his epic song “American Pie” as “The Day the Music Died.”

The day in question is Feb. 3, 1959. The event – the early morning crash of a small airplane just outside of Clear Lake, Iowa.

In addition to the 21-year-old pilot, three rock ‘n’ rollers – Ritchie Valens, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and Buddy Holly – who had just played the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake were killed on their way to Moorhead, Minn., the next stop on the 25-city Winter Dance Party tour.

But Milwaukee musician Mark Shurilla isn’t about to let the music die.

“There are a lot of people who are doing winter dance parties now. It looks like it’s never going to die. People want to celebrate that music. It’s a part of American history,” Shurilla said.

The 2009 Wisconsin Area Music Award winner for Tribute Artist of the Year brings his own version of the Winter Dance Party to Neenah’s Pickard Auditorium Feb. 20.

“It’s not just music. It’s a fun history lesson,” Shurilla said. “It’s also part of Wisconsin. The Winter Dance Party started here in Wisconsin, in my own hometown of Milwaukee. Then Kenosha, Eau Claire and Green Bay (the Riverside Ballroom, Feb. 1, 1959). Here in Wisconsin, it’s one of the great states for the ’50s and ’60s music. The music lives.”

For 25 years – three years longer than Buddy Holly was alive – Shurilla and his band, The Greatest Hits, have been recreating the music of Holly and keeping the Winter Dance Party alive.

“I’ve played around with a lot of different elements to bring it to life. I’m always looking for different ways to bring the music alive,” said Shurilla.

Like the Winter Dance Party and other early rock ‘n’ roll tours, Shurilla packs his shows with talent.

“It’s an all-star show. The performers I have are really talented and I think they all shine in the theater context,” he said. “We have Liam Ford doing Johnny Cash. Marvelous Marla. Danny J, the Pavarotti of rock. You’re going to hear more about him. Might be the greatest singer in the state. Unbelievable! We have Jayne Taylor, my 17-year-old high school student. She sounds a lot like Brenda Lee, Connie Francis. She’s a young singer who has internalized that stuff. People are getting a big kick out of that. Then we have this 4-year-old kid, Valor Yost, that does Johnny Cash. He’s been getting standing ovations.

“We have a great Elvis Presley performer. From studying the music of Buddy Holly, he would not have become a rock ‘n’ roller without Elvis Presley. It’s as simple as that. He was quoted when Elvis Presley came to Lubbock. Holly saw him and he just blew everybody away. He was doing Hank Williams with the Buddy and Bob band on KDAV Radio in Lubbock. He was doing more of a country thing. Then he saw Elvis Presley. His whole life changed It gave him the direction he took his career in. He became a rock ‘n’ roll artist and was adept at coming up with his own sound. But there would have been no Buddy Holly without Elvis. Simple as that.”

Shurilla, who also collects and appraises fossils, believes imparting the history of the times is also a part of his mission.

“I’m telling stories about where the music comes from. That really gives it a lot of context, too. Who was thinking what. How these songs were composed. I think people get a kick out of it.”

Shurilla and some of his musical comrades return to the area for a 7:30 p.m. show at the Meyer Theatre in Green Bay on March 20. This one is called Johnny and Buddy, starring fellow WAMI winner Liam Ford as the Man in Black.

“There are a number of other Cash tributes going around and some of them don’t cover the spectrum of what Johnny Cash was really about,” Shurilla said. “We researched Billboard charts and all the compilations to really get a total panorama of the very best 20 hits Johnny Cash did. I think a lot of people will be surprised. The Highwaymen are in there. Early Sun hits like ‘Ballad of a Teenage Queen’ and ‘I Guess Things Happen That Way’. They were big hits. I wanted to put together a retrospective of his career, 20 greatest hits of Johnny Cash.”

Johnny and Buddy includes Jayne “The Firecracker” Taylor performing Carter Family material and Shurilla and his band doing the greatest hits of Buddy Holly.

See meyertheatre.org for details.