Photo/Courtesy of Oreo Blue   Gary Hutchison and Brian Crowne with Oreo Blue perform a song in their Jimi Hendrix tribute at Dave's on Dickson in Fayetteville, Ark. The band will present a CD/DVD release concert at 10 p.m. Saturday at Two Frogs in Ardmore. Tickets are $10.

Fans of Jimi Hendrix and Oreo Blue will get the best of both worlds Saturday night during a special CD/DVD release party to introduce the blues band's latest project, "The Oreo Blue Experience: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix."

The band will perform at 10 p.m. at Two Frogs in Ardmore, one of the 14 stops on its release tour this summer.

Brian Crowne, sax player and vocalist with Oreo Blue, said the idea for this project has been discussed for years, but it took kudos from a group of high school students to set the ball in motion.

"It's something that we've talked about doing for several years just kind of for the fun of it. We've always enjoyed covering some of Hendrix's songs," Crowne said. "A couple years ago, we were doing a high school prom, of all things, at Texarkana, Texas, and we closed out the night with our version of 'All Along The Watchtower,' which is actually a Bob Dylan song, but I kind of think Hendrix had the most famous version of it. And they just went nuts and they came up said, 'We loved Hendrix's version, but we thought Dave Matthews had the best version. But now we like yours the best.' It was just very flattering, a huge compliment."

Right then and there, Crowne and guitarist-vocalist Gary Hutichson decided the time was ripe for a Hendrix salute.

"I said I think it would be a great way to tap into a new audience for our music if we went ahead and did the tribute and garner younger fans or even Hendrix fans that like what we did with that and want to go back and hear some of our music," Crowne said.

So Crowne hired a set designer, a lighting designer and film crew and on Feb. 22, the band filmed a live concert at Dave's on Dickson, a 700-seat concert club in Fayetteville, Ark., playing a full set of Jimi Hendrix tunes.

"It was a tremendous night. It was a lot of fun. I couldn't have asked for it to turn out any better that night," Crowne said. "The energy to perform with was just kinetic. It was everywhere. Everybody was fired up. I wanted it to feel like a rock 'n' roll concert and it really was. All in all, I'm personally really satisfied with the end product that we did."

 

Photo/Courtesy of Oreo Blue   Oreo Blue

The result is a full-length concert DVD and audio compact disc set than includes Hendrix favorites like "Purple Haze," "Changes," "Watchtower" and "Hey Joe," among others.

Fans of Hendrix shouldn't expect a verbatim regurgitation of his performances. Instead, they will get a unique Oreo Blue twist on the works of a legend.

"We're not doing it like Elvis impersonators. We're doing our interpretation and hopefully people will get it," Crowne said. "I feel like we stick pretty close to the Hendrix arrangements and with our guitar player, Gary, I felt very confident about doing a strong Hendrix show because I consider Gary to be a world-class musician. He's phenomenal and he really embodies the passion and the energy that Jimi Hendrix played with."

Crowne said that the idea doing a visual and audio presentation of their Hendrix tribute was a no-brainer.

"I felt like to do a Jimi Hendrix tribute, at least with Oreo Blue, a lot of what Hendrix was about was visual stimulation," he said. "The videos that I've watched of him, he's such a showman. And with the different personalities and moods that he wanted to personify in his songs, I thought the only way we could do it justice was to have it in a video, as well."

The video concert also gives Hendrix fans an up-close view of Oreo Blue in action, which, hopefully, will have them coming back for more.

Saturday's concerts will open with a 90-minute Hendrix show that closely follows what's on the DVD. Then band will come back and satisfy their fans, too.

"We're going to try to put on a Jimi Hendrix rock 'n' roll concert and, when we get through that, we're going to come back and close out the night with an Oreo Blue show so our fans that want to hear some of our music will get the opportunity," Crowne said. "We just wanted a chance to kind of showcase what's going to be on the DVD."

Tim Jones, talent buyer for Riverfest in Little Rock, Ark., said of the concert, "I thought that the show was extremely well done. In the true spirit of a tribute, your love of the music shined through without any semblance of attempting an actual recreation, like the Elvis-impersonator syndrome."

Since this is a tribute project, the band is donating $1 from each unit sold to VH-1's Save the Music Foundation in Hendrix's honor.

Leah Simmons can be reached at lsimmons@ardmoreite.com, or by calling (580) 221-6525.