Kim Alexander Band ready to rock
WAYNESBURG – Bass player Jay Van Scyoc of the Kim Alexander Band stopped by the Greene County fairgrounds Monday to check out the area in front of the grandstand where the band will play at the Lions Club Fourth of July Celebration starting at 7 p.m. Friday.
Preceding the band’s performance will be the Little Miss Firecracker Pageant sponsored by the Waynesburg Lions Club and the Waynesburg Sewing Center at 5:30 p.m. The pageant will take place on the main stage in front of the grandstand, and is a noncompetitive pageant for girls ages 5 to 8.
“The stage will set up here in front of those bleachers,” Van Scyoc told Lions Club member and fellow musician Nelson Fox, who is coordinating the music for Friday’s event. “This is where the drums will be. We’ll have the soundcheck done and everyone off the stage by 5:30 when the Little Miss Firecracker pageant starts.”
“It’s going to be good weather to come out and hear some live music,” Fox said. “We’ll have plenty of food for sale and everything else is free, so there should be a great crowd. People love classic rock.”
Van Scyoc looked around at the spaciousness of the fairgrounds and nodded. “This is a great space for an event. You could have a concert here with big names and fill these stands. Look at all the room for parking.”
Talking about music is a walk down memory lane for Van Scyoc and Fox. Both played in bands, sometimes in the same bands, in and around Waynesburg in their teens and early 20s.
“I remember in school hearing Jay Hammers playing some of that early Chicago stuff and I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Van Scyoc said.
When the Kim Alexander Band played the Lions Club Fourth of July show last year it was the first time Van Scyoc played Waynesburg “since I played Albert’s with Cities in 1987. We used to pack the house. Albert’s Restaurant was the place to have dinner and dance to live music. It was the Ernie’s Esquire of Waynesburg. But these days so many places can’t afford to pay a full dance band. It’s too bad,” Van Scyoc said.
“I’ve been to places where there’s two or three people and everything else is on tracks. No bass, no keyboard and the beat is locked in,” Fox agreed. “The sound just isn’t the same.”
But Friday, every track will be unlocked, live and classic.
“We went over the 300 songs we do and picked 30 songs that just rock,” Van Scyoc said. “The closest thing to slow is “It’s Too Late” by Carol King. Everyone in the band sings, which is rare. We’ll be playing everything from Elvis and the Eagles to Marley. We have two sets and there’s time in between to get refreshments and food, then kick back on the bleachers and listen to some good old rock and roll. We’ll play right up to the fireworks at dark.”
Van Scyoc has played in many bands since going on the road two weeks after graduating from Waynesburg Central High School in 1976. He still lives in Waynesburg and plays bass guitar like his older brother, Gary Van Scyoc, who played bass in 1971 for Elephants Memory, later known as Plastic Ono Elephant’s Memory Band, with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Both brothers are still making music and loving it.
“Gary just released a song on iTunes he wrote for his wife, called Eva,” Van Scyoc said.
Van Scyoc toured with Toiz from 1979 to 1985, then went back on the road in 1990 and toured with the Pittsburgh Vogues “from here to LA and back. We opened for the Temptations and Marie Osmond.”
Now, as bass player for the Kim Alexander Band, Van Scyoc is part of the Pittsburgh oldies scene, a lucrative venue for professional musicians that includes playing clubs, casinos, banquets, weddings and festivities of every kind.
Fox, a retired music teacher who also plays bass, is better known for his years of playing his keyboard at many local events. He will be playing keyboard when his newly assembled band rocks the courthouse steps July 29on Rain Day