Lance Lipinsky’s Rock Baby Rock is coming to the Treasure Valley this weekend. Following the already sold out show on Friday night at Boise’s Sapphire Room, Lance will be bringing his show celebrating the birth of rock and roll to a second show Sunday night, January 28, at the Sapphire Room, as well as a show at the Brandt Center in Nampa Saturday night, January 27.
Lance Lipinsky’s Rock Baby Rock is not just a concert—it’s a tribute to the music that Lance grew up with and loves. It covers the time from the birth of rock ‘n’ roll in the late 40s and early 50s through the Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll and into the early 60s, when girl groups and the British Invasion came along. Lance told the Boise Beat, “Rock ‘n’ Roll, besides being a huge part of our American culture and identity, was a lot of styles coming together into one, in what we call Mid-Century Roots Music. Rock ‘n’ Roll is part of our American identity, our fingerprint and our culture as Americans. It’s also a lot of great styles coming together. Mid-century rock ‘n’ roll was the aftermath of World War Two music with swing and jazz and big band; and then here comes blues, rhythm and blues, Western swing; and then what would become the early invention of rock and roll which is rockabilly, which is a cross between that hillbilly Western Swing, country music and a combination of rhythm and blues music that would morph into rock ‘n’ roll and later on do-wop, then later on surf and all of the great stuff that came out of the 60s”.
Lance continued, “It was such an innovative time; and if you really dive back into the archives of history you’re going to be very fulfilled with the music that you hear. I think of music—I thi9nk most music lovers do—as food; you know it’s something that is fulfilling; and it’s sad that people limit themselves with their palate, if you will, of their musical taste, because what society has done in the past twenty years is convince us that what is new, whether it be art or technology, whatever is new—that’s acceptable. But people just refuse to look at stuff that’s older and they don’t see it as art, they see it as—well, I’m only going to listen to it if it’s new—that’s why rock ‘n’ roll is mostly important, I think, because it contributes so much to a fulfillment of a lot of great styles coming together—it’s so much more important then the music going on today”.
Lance obviously has a passion for this music. Intrigued by his father’s life-long record collection, he taught himself piano and guitar at a young age. At age 6, he would sing with his father’s band as well as the jukeboxes in the places they visited. Buoyed by his parent’s blessing, he dropped out of high school, headed to Las Vegas—and the rest, as they say, is history. Following his successes in Las Vegas including a stint in the famous Legends in Concert where he portrayed Jerry Lee Lewis, he moved to Chicago. In Chicago, he brought Jerry Lewis to life for 2,500 performances at the Apollo Theater in the acclaimed Tony-Award winning musical, the Million Dollar Quartet. Adept at songwriting too, he recently produced his own debut album, Roll, a tour de force of original songs, recorded at some of the top analog sound studios, including Hi-Style and Custom in Illinois. Several tracks were also recorded at the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where Lance recorded in the same studio that once produced hits by Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and of course, Jerry Lee Lewis. Roll will be released February 5th.
These days, Lance has his own production, Rock Baby Rock, which the Treasure Valley is lucky to have for a fun, music-filled weekend. Lance described the show to the Boise Beat, saying “I like to blend a lot of styles that we’re talking about, rhythm and blues, a little bit of do-wop, western swing, rockabilly and all this stuff; so basically that’s what you’re going to hear tonight. A little bit of Chuck Berry and Bill Hailey and the Comets—Jerry Lee Lewis, I play piano so there’s a lot of piano-based artists—Fats Domino, Little Richard and a little bit of Floyd Cramer—a whole lot of Jerry Lee Lewis for sure!”. It promises to be a great show, with music you know—and will never forget.
Lance Lipinsky’s Rock Baby Rock
Brandt Center
Nampa Civic Center
311 3rd Street S
Nampa, ID 83651
Saturday, January 27, 2018
7:3pm-9:30pm
Info and tickets website or ictickets
Phone: (208) 468-5500
The Riverside Hotel
Sapphire Room
2900 W. Chinden Blvd.
Boise, ID 83714
Sunday, January 28, 2018
7:30-10pm
Lance Lipinsky and the Lovers Website
All photos courtesy of Lance Lipinsky
