Traffic advisory for line painting on I-81 south in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties

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Our Opinion: Treat the Wyoming Valley Levee with care; don’t trespass

<p>JIM THORPE &#8211; Gary Solomon grew up listening to music and trying out different instruments. He eventually began taking lessons and playing in his school&#8217;s orchestra, but his musical world was turned on its head when he turned 13.</p><p>&#8220;I have an older sister who was in her prime teen years during the &#8217;60s and she really introduced me to almost all the music I listen to now,&#8221; Solomon said. &#8220;On my 13th birthday she gave me &#8220;Stage Fright,&#8221; The Band&#8217;s third album that had just come out at the time. It went into my collection and it grew on me.&#8221;</p><p>By the time Solomon was in his late teen years he was playing in local groups and was frequently covering The Band. Now Solomon has bass, fiddle, drum and vocal duties in The THE BAND Band, a tribute to the group that he calls his &#8220;most beloved.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We take great care in terms of the sound we use, the instruments that we play and the vintage amps that we use,&#8221; Solomon said. &#8220;Obviously, vocally we sound like us&#8212;we don&#8217;t sound like them nor do we try&#8212;but we&#8217;re faithful to their arrangements.&#8221;</p><p>When The THE BAND Band plays Jim Thorpe&#8217;s Mauch Chunk Opera House Nov. 7, they&#8217;ll be accompanied by a 3-piece horn section that will help them pay homage to &#8220;The Last Waltz,&#8221; The last live performance of The Band. The THE BAND Band have a number of songs in their repertoire, but Solomon enjoys uniquely-arranged pieces the most.</p><p>&#8220;The songs are all great, but there are some particular ones that have the most unique and one-of-a-kind oddball bass lines that nobody would play, but it just makes perfect sense in the context,&#8221; Solomon said. &#8220;For example, the songs &#8216;We Should Talk&#8217; and &#8216;Life is a Carnival&#8217; have amazing bass lines. It&#8217;s all this offbeat stuff like weird time signatures, funky rhythms, spaces where you don&#8217;t expect them &#8230; there&#8217;s a lot of great ones, but those two come to mind.&#8221;</p><p>According to Solomon, The THE BAND Band are adding tracks from The Band&#8217;s only studio album, &#8220;Planet Wave,&#8221; to their set, but the bulk of their songs come from &#8220;The Basement Tapes&#8221; era of The Band, which Solomon said was when they and Bob Dylan were in their formative years as collaborating musicians.</p><p>Solomon said that The THE BAND Band try to emulate The Band&#8217;s high-spirited live performances by giving everything they have on stage and digging into their shows. On Nov. 7, they&#8217;ll take the Mauch Chunk stage to give a high-spirited performance to the opera house crowd and if the rest of The THE BAND Band is as passionate about their source material as Solomon is, they&#8217;ll achieve that goal.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The THE BAND Band will perform at Mauch Chunk Opera House at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7 </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_The-The-Band-Band-CMYK.jpg</photo0><caption0>The THE BAND Band will perform at Mauch Chunk Opera House at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7 </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Gene Axton</p><p>gaxton@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Gene Axton at 570-991-6121 or on Twitter @TLArts</p></shirttailMeta></div>

The Band tribute band The THE BAND Band to play Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7