The pop-hued singer-songwriter who first made a splash with “Someday, Someway” in the 1980s plays St. Cecilia Music Center next Friday with a Brighton concert also on tap. The Local Spins interview.
Played in his First Band in the Detroit Area at Age 12: Marshall Crenshaw (Courtesy Photo)
Marshall Crenshaw’s first gig came as a 12-year-old fledgling rocker at an American Legion Hall in the Detroit suburb of Berkley.
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The pop-hued singer-songwriter and Detroit-area native who’d go on to Top 40 success and a 40-plus-year career as a performer and recording artist figures the band got paid all of about $5 for the night.
“It was like the first band I was ever in,” he recalled during a recent interview with Local Spins. “There was a friend of mine on drums who was also about 12 or 13, and then the two other guys in the band were high schoolers, so it was like two little kids and two big kids.
“We rehearsed in the basement of the American Legion Hall and played our one and only gig at the American Legion Hall. So, the band had its whole entire life cycle inside this one building.”
Classic, Beloved Debut: “Marshall Crenshaw”
Of course, Crenshaw, now 70, has advanced far beyond the “standard garage band repertoire” of the 1960s that his first band unleashed – songs such as “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” and “Louie Louie.”
But he’s always reserved a special fondness for Buddy Holly (as well as resembling the ’50s star and even portraying him in 1987’s “La Bamba”) and his favorite Michigan cover band experience came with his brother, Robert, as part of Denny & The Robots.
“We just had fun laughing at the whole thing ourselves, like the whole thing was a big private joke to us. But I liked the music,” he said, noting they’d sometimes play six nights a week and come home with $200.
“I like playing the ’50s and ’60s stuff. That was the most fun I ever had in any band in Michigan that I was in.”
Crenshaw – a longtime New Yorker – returns to Michigan for a special homecoming this week, playing St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids on Friday (after a Thursday show at Mount Brighton Ski Resort in Brighton).
Tickets for the St. Cecilia Music Center at 8 p.m. Friday are $35 in advance and available online here. Day-of-show tickets are $45.
A ‘WELL-ROUNDED’ SHOW WITH SOME OLD FAVORITES MIXED IN
It’s part of the guitarist and singer’s 40th anniversary tour, recapping a career that first earned acclaim with the early ’80s single, “Someday, Someway,” with other fan favorites from his debut album such as “Mary Anne” and “Cynical Girl” still part of his regular concert repertoire.
Crenshaw noted that he really didn’t start writing songs until he left Michigan for New York, creating music that resonated with listeners and critics on that self-titled release.
GR in 2015: Crenshaw at Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill (Photo/Anna Sink)
“That’s when I really focused on it and figured out how that was gonna work, you know, in my own mind,” he recalled.
He’s since released nine other studio albums, several EPs and live recordings, hosted “The Bottomless Pit” radio show on WFUV and has served as a guest vocalist for the band The Smithereens, among other things.
Crenshaw insisted that his approach on this anniversary tour is “not a nostalgia show or an oldies show. I think it’s well-rounded, like a half-oldies, if that what you wanna call them. I mean the last new music I did was in 2020. I understand how to structure it (concert) so that I’m happy and everybody else is happy, too.”
Some of those happy people for his Michigan shows will include his brother and other relatives who still live in his home state.
“I still feel connected to it for sure,” he said. “Physically, I’m not there that often, but you know, it’s just in my head, of course, and always will be.”
LISTEN: Marshall Crenshaw, “Someday, Someway” (Live)
Congrats to Local Spins readers Chad Forester, Susanna Lankheet, Greg Scheer, Angie Chase and Frank Tobin. they each won a pair of tickets from Local Spins to attend Crenshaw’s March 22 show. Ticket giveaways are announced each week in the Local Spins ‘Amplified’ newsletter. Sign up for email updates here for your chance to win: https://localspins.com/subscribe-local-spins-mailing-list/
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