Hootie and the Doctor

Amphitheater highlights of Weeks 6 and 7 at the Chautauqua Institution.

PREVIEW by John Chacona Contributing writer

As the weather heats up, so does the Chautauqua Amphitheater, beginning with a sellout concert Friday night by Hootie and the Blowfish. With Dr. Draw’s classical/pop/rock violin heating up the Amp stage on Monday, a trip to the Refectory for very large dish of ice cream is definitely in order.

Hootie and the Blowfish
• Friday at 8:15 p.m.
Hootie and the Blowfish burst onto the scene in 1994 at the beginning of the Clinton Era. It’s tempting to identify the band with the time.

Fronted by Darius Rucker, a golf-playing, country-tinged vocalist and backed by four rockin’ white guys from South Carolina, it took a village to make this band. But there was also the matter of Hootie’s tuneful, easy-going music, the kind that went down with the ease and pleasure of a couple of Budweisers at the turn.

I recall that Hootie was considered a bit “alternative” in those days, but time (and multi-platinum sales for the band’s debut CD, “Cracked Rear View”) put them squarely in the pop-rock camp. And why not? Songs such as “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry,” and “Only Wanna Be with You” have the classic elements of pop hits: Memorable hooks, strong vocals, and hummable melodies.

All of a sudden, 1994 is looking pretty good these days, and you can bet that more than a few people will be thinking of the good old days and squeezing their mates’ hands when Darius Rucker wraps his big baritone around Hootie’s classic material.

Maybe you will be among them, but you’d better have a ticket. The concert is sold out.

Dr. Draw
• Monday at 8:15 p.m.
On his MySpace page, Eugene Draw describes himself as a “Russian Canadian with an international soul.” The Moscow-born Montrealer will become a little more international when he crosses the Peace Bridge on his way to a debut performance at the Chautauqua Amphitheater.

In a way, it’s a good place for the classically trained one-time street busker. The Amp has been home to towering pop acts and symphony orchestras, and both influences are present in the good doctor’s work.

His band gives you a clue as to what you might hear. Dr. Draw plays electric and acoustic violins, Pierre-Luc Rioux is his guitarist, Marie-Michele Beausoleil plays an electric Celtic harp, Morg is on keyboards, Francis Menor on bass and Marc Gilbert, drums.

The music (what I could hear of it on Draw’s MySpace page) is a melange of pop, rock, classical, and Eastern European influences. It falls pleasantly in the ear and is reasonably seductive as is Draw with his smoldering gaze and dramatic gestures.

Credit Chautauqua for a bold and unusual move in booking a relative unknown, and one whose next gig is at a Fringe Festival in Edmonton. Let’s see if the Doctor can, um, draw.
Chautauqua Tickets are available at all Wegmans locations; Reg Lenna Civic Center, 116 E. Third St., Jamestown, N.Y.; Turner Community Center at the Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, N.Y.; and by calling the box office, (716) 357-6250.

For More Information on Hootie and the Blowfish, visit the Web site www.hootie.com.