Bob Dylan’s Grandmother squeezes into Boccherini’s

By Heather Crabtree
The Entertainer

ALBANY — Singer-songwriter, musician and poet are all words used to described legendary songwriter Bob Dylan, whose songs became the rally-cry for change in the turbulent 1960s.

As much as Dylan has contributed — and still is — over his 40 years in the music industry, it’s only fitting that his influential music has found a home on a mid-valley band’s set list.

Bob Dylan’s Grandmother, — no, not really his grandmother — specializes in Dylan covers. But, this group of four adds its own flavor to the old favorites.

Bob Dylan’s Grandmother will play Friday evening at Boccherini’s Coffee & Tea House.

Guitarist and lead vocalist Tom LePage and bassist Bob Veley are the only members of the band who play regularly at Boccherini’s. It is too small for the full band. Other members of the band are drummer Mike Sessa and guitarist John Stadler.

Sessa will join LePage and Veley for the first time at the venue Friday.

In addition to adding Sessa to the playdate, the band’s repertoire will include covers of Credence Clearwater Revival and Tom Petty to accompany its Dylan tunes and originals.

Just because Bob Dylan is in its name, doesn’t mean the group sticks with just Dylan covers. The legend is just a starting point for Bob’s Grandmother. The guys like to play the game “One Degree from Bob” (like “The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”). They will cover it if they can connect Dylan with it in anyway.

“We’ve been cheap enough to cover something done by someone in a picture with Bob Dylan,” LePage said.

Anyone familiar with the Monterey Pop Festival can guess how LePage found the name for this foursome. But for those that don’t:

Jimmy Hendricks introduced a band of white, English guys with their hair “fro”-ed out. As he’s introducing them, he comes up with names and when he gets to the bassist, he says, “and Bob Dylan’s grandmother on bass.”

“Since we started with Bill and I, I just thought it worked,” LePage said. “It just stuck. One of those rare occasions you name a band on a whim and it takes.”

The mid-valley band has been around between two and three years. The guys met in the summer of 2001 while playing in a blues jam at Sweet Waters Family Restaurant in Albany.

“We kind of gravitated to each other,” Veley said.

Stadler joined the “Grannies” about a year ago, completing the current roster.

The band doesn’t take itself too seriously, LePage said, and that extends into their nicknames for each other, which are:

Tom “Edith Jumpenshouten” LePage; John “Agnes Bendenstringen” Stadler; Bill “Jemima Jammengrooven” Veley; and Mike “Martha Bippenboppen” Sessa.

“One of the attributes that is nice with this band is we all get along, and so do the wives,” Sessa said. “It’s definitely laid back. We hang out together, outside of music.”

LePage is currently writing songs in the studio of his North Albany home. Although he is the only writer at the moment, his bandmates don’t have any qualms about suggesting changes, he said.

For more information and sound clips, check out Bob Dylan’s Grandmother at the following Web sites:

Sonicbids — www.sonic

bids.com/epk/epk.asp?epk_id

=49456

Tom LePage — http://home.

comcast.net/~midvalleyblues/

If You Go

WHAT: Bob Dylan’s Grandmother, a mid-valley band that covers Bob Dylan, and plays originals and more.

WHERE: Boccherini’s Coffee & Tea House, 208 First Ave. S.W., Albany.

WHEN: 8 to 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24.