By John Voket

The November 6 concert scheduled for Edmond Town Hall Theatre will not only feature A Brother’s Revival tribute to the legendary Allman Brothers, it will also mark a reunion between two professional musicians who made names for themselves as Newtown teens. Bucking pop, punk, and new wave trends of the early 1980s while performing mostly original tunes throughout the region as Southern Wind, Mike Kach and Sean Harkness will be returning to their hometown stage for the first time in decades.

According to a publicity advance, A Brother’s Revival takes Allman Brothers fans back in time to hear the music of one of the most loved and successful groups in rock and roll history. Next weekend's show, which will kick off at 8 pm, will feature numerous Allman Brothers tunes including a re-creation of the live At Fillmore East set, a hallmark of the Allman catalog.

During the show, Kach — A Brother’s Revival and former Dicky Betts keyboard/vocalist — will call on Southern Wind colleague and longtime professional guitarist and musician Harkness to sit in for a few numbers, marking the first time the two have jammed together since the high school bandmates went their separate ways back in the ‘80s.

The audience at Edmond Town Hall will likely hear A Brother’s Revival perform some of the most memorable classic hits of the Allmans, including “Whipping Post,” “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” “Southbound,” “Ramblin Man,” “Melissa,” “Jessica,” “One Way Out,” “Midnight Rider,” “Soulshine,” “Statesboro Blues,” and of course, “Revival.”

The song list may change somewhat from show to show, with unexpected jams added, just as the Allman Brothers did to keep the shows exciting for its fans. And the addition of Harkness on a few of the numbers mirrors the practice of the Allmans inviting other notable musicians to perform or sit in with them over the years, including members of The Grateful Dead, Carlos Santana, and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes to name but a few.

Harkness, along with Kach and Brother’s Revival bassist and founder David Goldflies — who also performed and recorded with the Allman Brothers, as well as Betts and the Great Southern Band — each checked in with The Newtown Bee to talk about their experiences and what jam band music lovers and southern rock fans can expect on November 6.

Bassist, author, and composer Goldflies has spent most of his life in Florida. Prior to joining the Allmans, his talents were recruited to record the hit single “Black Betty” with the group that later became Ram Jam. Then, in 1978 he landed a gig with Betts and the Great Southern Band.

In mid-1979 the Allman Brothers Band reformed after a jam in Central Park in New York City with the Great Southern Band, and Goldflies was asked to be their bass player. He played on three Allman Brothers albums: Enlightened Rogues, Reach for the Sky and Brothers of the Road.

“Performing with A Brother’s Revival takes the entire experience I had while touring with the Allman Brothers full circle,” Goldflies said in the band’s publicity advance. “I learned so much about this music from the original four members — Gregg [Allman], Dickey [Betts], Jaimoe [Jai Johanny Johanson], and Butch [Trucks]. It’s an honor to bring what I learned back to the stage.”

In addition to performing with the Allman Brothers, Goldflies performed with BHLT (Betts, Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie, Chuck Level, and Trucks).

In discussing how some casually lump The Allmans into a broad category of southern rock acts versus considering the group and its huge contributions to American music on its own, Goldflies said he believes older fans always knew The Allman Brothers were more unique, and brought something very powerful to the American music scene from the moment they first launched in 1969.

"Particularly, I think the Allman Brothers music has impressed me the more I have sunk my teeth into this Brother's Revival project," Goldflies said. "First of all it has legs — it's strong music. There's a lot of parallels between the raw strength of the Allman Brothers music and the way it's written and Beethoven's music."

Goldflies said he easily recalled his first exposure to the Allmans.

"I was 14 and playing with my dad's weekend group, but down the street there was this really, really good guitar player and he had a band. So I started hanging around with them and their bass player taught me a lot about how the bass and its amplification worked," he said.

"So they did a bunch of Allman Brothers stuff and I was just blown away. It wasn't my favorite band at the time but I learned a lot about them. I have to say that if it wasn't for that other bass player — Bill Jeffries, who taught me a lot about the Allmans — I wouldn't have been good enough to cop that gig with the Allmans. I wouldn't have been ready for it."

As the music director as well as the bassist for A Brother's Revival, Goldflies said the entire concept for how he designed the show is rooted in the original Allman material from their original recordings.

"I figured, listen to the stuff from as early in their catalog as you can access to really get a feel for their roots," he said. "I think the quintessential stuff came from the Filmore East release — that defined them in the public eye, and we should try and aim for that sound and style as much as possible while still putting our own hearts and energy into it."

Goldflies said he really enjoys playing the Allman's "Black Hearted Woman."

"We also have some fun with the Butch Trucks stuff — doing his famous drums and tympany solo. You just don't see a rock tympani solo very much," he said. "We also play one of my songs that features me on violin."

The Right Voice

When it comes to Kach, few singers have the range and passion to sing Gregg Allman’s music, but he successfully takes audience members back to the sound of Allman’s bluesy performances.

Anyone who has been to a Dickey Betts & Great Southern concert over the past dozen years has seen and heard Kach, the keyboardist who has shared lead vocal duties with Betts. During his tenure with Great Southern, Kach’s soulful vocals could be heard on Betts originals like “No One Left to Run with It,” “Nobody Knows,” and “Southbound,” as well as the blues songs such as “One Way Out,” which Betts played a key role in arranging and popularizing as a founding of the Allman Brothers Band.

Kach also performs his own gorgeous ballad “Get Away,” which appears on the outstanding Dickey Betts & Great Southern live CD/DVD set Rockpalast: 30 Years of Southern Rock (1978-2008).

During his call-in with The Bee, Kach thought back to when he moved to Newtown just before kindergarten.

"I went to Sandy Hook Elementary School from kindergarten through fifth grade, went on to start at Newtown Middle School, spent a year in Southbury, and then came back to Newtown and graduated from Newtown High," he said. "I lived a lot of my young life there. And after high school, I moved down to Florida," where he still lives today.

Kach recalled starting his first band with Harkness in sixth grade.

"These days, Sean is an acclaimed guitarist who plays a lot around New York City," Kach said. "But you'll probably find an article or two about us back in your archives."

The keyboard/vocalist said he believes a lot of people tend to lump the Allman Bothers into the southern rock genre, but Kach thinks the group — who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 — carved out its own unique place in the music world of the '70s and '80s and beyond.

"The Allmans kind of stand on their own," he said. "I was a fan of a lot of different bands of the time, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, The Outlaws, and Molly Hatchet, but the Allman Brothers weren't necessarily the same. They didn't really identify with the 'Southern Rock' label — but in the music business, they have to call you something — to label you somehow."

Kach said he was just a kid when the Allman's breakthrough single "Ramblin Man" first hit the radio airwaves.

"So I certainly heard that song a lot — but I had no idea who the band was until I was about 14 and I figured out who The Allman Brothers were and went out an purposefully bought their first record," he said.

From when I was a little kid Kach said he thought he was going to start his own band, "and it was going to have all sorts of different elements, blues, rock and roll, and maybe a little jazz thrown in."

"Then I heard The Allman Brothers and went, man, I thought I had this unique idea — but they were already all over it," Kach recalled, laughing. "They were doing exactly what I was thinking about, and I took quite a liking to it. I always loved the Hammond organ so they fit right in."

While coming into his own as a vocalist happened a few years later, Kach said once he started, it all came really naturally. "There wasn't much hesitation because I had been listening to them for so long," he said.

He said Betts was so much a part of the Allman Brothers sound and style, and he had played along beside the former Allman guitarist, singer, and songwriter for so long that when the time came to put A Brother's Revival together and find a singer, Kach told Goldflies he thought he was the right guy for the job.

Kach said he is not sure he still has 500 friends around Newtown who will snatch up all the tickets to the November 9 show, but the last time he played Connecticut with Betts, the turnout was great.

"Aside from my friends, who I hope will come, it's going to be kind of surreal to come back and play a hometown show," Kach said. "It's delightful, really!"

A Long-Awaited Reunion

Harkness, who is very much looking forward to jamming with his old pal and bandmate at that show, is a musical artist and guitarist living in New York City’s unofficial borough of Jersey City Heights.

He composes and arranges music for solo guitar and for small ensembles, and accompanies many singers, musicians, and theatrical productions. He has collaborated with many artists in numerous capacities from Jon Bon Jovi, to jazz artist Charles “Tuck” Andress of Tuck & Patti, and Broadway star Lucie Arnaz.

Known especially for duets and ensemble work with singers from Broadway, television, and screen, Harkness performs extensively both as a solo artist and sideman worldwide, and in New York City’s finest jazz, rock, folk, cabaret, blues, R&B, and singer/songwriter venues.

Harkness recently garnered the Outstanding Instrumentalist of 2011 Backstage Bistro Award, 2014 Broadwayworld Cabaret Award for Best CD Release, six MAC Awards [Manhattan Association of Clubs and Cabarets] for ensemble instrumentalist, his solo shows, a CD with duo partner, Canadian trumpeter Mike Herriot, and Major Duo/Group with Lina Koutrakos & Marcus Simeone.

Harkness recalled getting his first guitar right about when he turned 11-years-old and immediately fell in with a few of his other 6th grade classmates who also played instruments including Kach. He started taking lessons at The Music Hut in Sandy Hook center, and a few months later, his drummer's father who was tied in with the Downtown Cabaret Theater ended up getting their band Odyssey a gig playing during children's theater matinees at the Bridgeport venue.

"We played there for years, a couple of other cats circled through the band, but Mike was a constant. And by the time he got in the band he was already really good," Harkness said.

The most interesting thing during an era when rock, disco, and pop were dominating the charts, was that Harkness and Kach ended up in the local band Southern Wind. The band not only remained loyal to the southern rock genre as fans, its members actually wrote and played mostly their own original music of that style.

"We played around town, did some concerts and parties, and I remember there was a talent contest at one of the hotels in Danbury, and we won it. So it wasn't a cover band at all," Harkness said. "Here you had a group of high school kids writing and recording in the spirit of southern rock greats."

The players eventually went their own separate ways, with Harkness heading to the Berklee College of Music in Boston and on to his own career in the music business. After losing touch with Kach, the two got reacquainted in recent years but always missed opportunities to catch up because they were both so busy gigging.

So when their mutual friend Dave Brooker, the artist liaison for Edmond Town Hall, booked A Brothers Revival, he told Harkness, who proceeded to go out and grab front row tickets. A few weeks later, Harkness received an e-mail from Kach inviting his high school bandmate to sit in on November 6 and the reunion was on.

"I had a hard time sleeping that night," Harkness said. "I can't freakin' wait!"

For tickets to A Brother’s Revival, visit edmondtownhall.org.

Check out a medley of clips featuring A Brother's Revival:

Sean Harkness performs House Of Cards with The Unusual Suspects live at New York City's Metropolitan Room:

Editor John Voket can be reached at john@thebee.com.