The 2nd annual ‘Rocking the Grapes’ festival took place at the Willow Creek Winery in Sheridan, NY recently, and if you haven’t come to visit the winery, which also has a pretty good size stage for bands to perform, then you don’t know what you’re missing!
Joe Lynn Turner headlined the 2nd edition of the festival. Joe has a storied history of performing with legendary bands such as Deep Purple and Rainbow. Joe also was the voice for guitar virtuoso’s Yngwie Malmsteen’s most successful album to date “Trial by Fire.” Joe came to the WNY area to put on a classic rock show with his band which consisted of Rob DeMartino on bass, Paul Morris on keyboards, Bobby Marcs on drums and Karl Cochran on guitar.
Even though the band experienced an array of technical difficulties during the early part of the set, it didn’t stop from Joe and the rest of the band from improvising in order to fend off the issues. Joe even crooned his way through Johnny Mathis’ “Misty” when the stagehands were working feverishly to get things corrected. Turner and the band showed tremendous professionalism throughout the entire performance.
Joe’s voice held strong throughout most of the set, as he managed to hit most of the high notes. It also should be noted how much of a showman Morris (also a Rainbow alum) was on the keys. He also improvised by playing the beginning part of the Deep Purple classic “Perfect Strangers” while some technicalities were being worked out.
A heavy dose of Rainbow tunes, and a few solo songs sprinkled in, kept the classic rock fans that were in attendance very happy the entire night.
Set List:
Death Alley Driver (Rainbow cover)
Power of Love
Surrender (Rainbow cover)
Street of Broken Dreams (Rainbow cover)
Can’t Happen Here (Rainbow cover)
Stone Cold (Rainbow cover)
Jealous Lover (Rainbow cover)
Blood Red Sky
Paul Morris solo (Perfect Strangers interlude)
Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple cover)
Spotlight Kid (Rainbow cover)
Long Live Rock N’ Roll (Rainbow cover)
Burn (Deep Purple cover)
Encore:
Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple cover)
We would like to thank Ross Catalino from Back to Back Entertainment for allowing BackstageAxxess to cover the show. Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Joe that was conducted before the show.
