"Devoted to traditional jazz music in the style of early 20th century exemplified by such New Orleans bands as the Original Dixieland Jass Band and Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars, as well as Chicago area musicians like Muggsy Spanier and Jimmy McPartland, the Diehards bring an irrepressible sense of fun and frolic to their shows, including audience sing-a-longs and spontaneous dance outbursts (remember the Charleston and the Black Bottom?) The Dixie Diehards are a throwback to the good times from an indelible era in American history."

They started fiery HOT with That's a Plenty, segueing to Sheik of Araby, St. James Infirmary, and Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone.  (Thank you for keeping my notes, Pete Bullis.  Pete was here for a reunion with Al Shapiro; both played in the Dartmouth Indian Chiefs band in college.) The Diehards gave this crowd just what it wanted - the New Orleans Dixieland Jazz that moved up the Mississippi to Chicago and St. Louis and took the country by storm.

Hoagie's Up a Lazy River is in perfect character for the Diehards, with impassioned soprano sax by Paul Peterson.  Their music generally stretches from the 1890s, through the 40's and 50's, basically Dixieland, as their name implies.  Fats Waller is one of their favorites; Rick had everyone singing along with It's a Sin to Tell a Lie.  They moved back to Dixie with Chris Wadsworth playing zealous banjo on Alabama Jubilee. 

It's a Long Way to Tipperary was potent, with Dube on tenor sax and Peterson on Soprano Sax.  This four-piece front line has a lot of power, kept firmly under control by Al (for the vocals).  They are backed by fine  accented rhythms of the tuba, banjo, and drum.  They returned to New Orleans, home of many of Spencer Williams' jazz tunes, including Basin Street Blues; fine trombone intro with Dube on clarinet, and Rick vocal. 

He warned us that there would be some Fats Waller songs going back to an era where people actually wrote letters to each other - on paper.  Dolly had us reminiscing with I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.  Moving to Broadway, she took on 5' 2" George M. Cohan's Give My Regards to Broadway, and I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy.  She said she saw a production of the play where the 'George M. Cohan' was 6'4".   This petite singer's rich and powerful voice was highlighted on After You've Gone, a new tune for her, before they changed the tempo to Sophie Tucker's There'll Be Some Changes Made.  She is amazing.  They breezed through another Fats Waller tune from 1913 that started out as a waltz (people waltzed in those days), Curse of an Aching Heart. 

  They took a well deserved break for some fine cooking by Johnson & Wales Chef Paul Walsh, promising to return with more New Orleans tunes.

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First things first - every musician at the Sherborn Inn, even Neville Dickie, plays Lynn Sickle's favorite tune, All Of Me.  Sitting in her 'throne' by the piano, she was not disappointed! She and Bob both said they love this band. 

Speaking of pianos, Bill Kiesewetter learned how to play Dixieland and stride listening to records, watching performers, and playing sing-a-long songs in bars from Boston to Cape Cod.  His influences were Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Floyd Cramer and the Dukes of Dixieland, among others. 

Over the years, his playing has covered Folk, Country, Blues, Ragtime and Honky Tonk styles of music.  Today, he enjoys playing a stride piano style with the Dixie Diehards

Ellen MacDonald stopped in to see how the band was doing - they definitely will be invited back!