Skip to content

Ford’s Colony Dance Band Halloween concert swings at Williamsburg Library

Author
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

The Ford’s Colony Dance Band hopes to once again relive the swinging big band music of the 20th century with its latest concert, a Halloween-themed shindig at the Williamsburg Regional Library Wednesday.

“I grew up listening to it,” said Larry Stowe, the band’s founder, who lauded the genre’s beautiful harmonies and strong, often positive lyrics. “I just love that kind of music.”

Stowe formed the band in 2009 after picking up the saxophone and clarinet some 45 years after playing the instruments in college. His skills quickly returned, accompanied by a desire to do something grand with them.

The band’s first rehearsal in November of that year featured seven musicians; the band has grown to feature more than 60 local musicians rotating to fill 17 slots.

“We want to enjoy playing big band music,” Stowe said. “We’d like to share that enjoyment with the local community whenever we have the opportunity.”

That includes performances both inside Ford’s Colony’s gates and beyond. Through it all, Stowe said the main focus is having a good time.

“It’s great dance music. It’s got a lot of soul and rhythm,” said singer, alto saxophone player and Walsingham Academy teacher Rebecca Hartt, the band’s sole female member. She emphasized the feel-good nature of the genre. “It’s important to keep that type of music alive.”

Spooky tunes for the spooky season

Wednesday’s concert falls just in time for Halloween, and the theme fits.

“It’s our spooky Halloween concert,” Hartt said. “We’ve got a lot of great music that I think everyone will enjoy. We’re doing some good songs, some good tunes.”

Those tunes include Classics IV’s 1968 song, “Spooky,” “Stray Cat Strut” by the Stray Cats, “Beauty and the Beast” from the 1991 Disney film and most recently, 1997’s “Zoot Suit Riot” by the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. The band’s repertoire spans from the 1920s through the ’90s in an effort to attract a wide audience.

“We’ve got some interesting songs to sing and play,” Stowe said.

He added that they like to give all of their shows a theme and, along with it, a story weaving throughout the songs. Sometimes the focus turns to love, travel or the holiday season, as nostalgia makes way for a cheerful evening.

The band takes the Williamsburg Library Theatre stage for their holiday show last year.
The band takes the Williamsburg Library Theatre stage for their holiday show last year.

“We like our audience to recall pleasant memories and try to use our music to set the stage for that,” Stowe said. “We get a lot of enjoyment out of just playing, but some more enjoyment comes from hearing the audience react to us.”

The band also invites the audience to participate, through singing along and laughter and sharing their own stories.

Hartt hopes members of the audience will grow from the experience.

“I think it’s important to see live music, especially when everything is so canned now,” she said. “It’s important to have music out there so the young adults can see that this music actually exists, and it takes a lot of skill and a lot of practice to put together a band of that size, and it’s important for the community to see that we’re alive and well.”

As Stowe emcees the concerts, he provides context for songs, such as who composed them and what inspired the process. In the midst of it all, he also hopes the concerts remind the audience of the broader context of what’s so special about being alive, here and now.

“It’s something that we always need to try to encourage people to remember, what it feels like to love and to be loved,” he said. “These songs do that.”

Want to go?

The Ford’s Colony Dance Band Happy Halloween concert haunts the Williamsburg Library Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Admission is free; donations are encouraged.

For more information on the band, visit facebook.com/fordscolonydanceband.

Birkenmeyer can be reached by phone at 757-790-3029.