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Exile
Concert
Reunion Tour
of original band members
Freedom
Fest Event -- Saturday, July 23, 2011
Event opens at 6pm with dinner and auctions, concert following Live Auction
left
to right: Les Taylor, JP Pennington, Marlon Hargis, Sonny LeMaire,
Steve Goetzman
EXILE:
The Short History of an Endless Career
In
1963, the year before the Beatles scored their first American hit,
a group of kids calling themselves The Exiles climbed onto an
outdoor stage in the small midstate town of Richmond, Kentucky and
proceeded to make musical history - not just with their songs but
with their longevity as well. 46 years later, that same band -
Exile - is still rockin' with a mix of original and seminal
members. Nations have had shorter life spans.
Nowadays,
J.P. Pennington, Les Taylor, Sonny LeMaire, Marlon Hargis and
Steve Goetzman can look back on a career arc that embraces eleven
Number One country and pop hits, two gold albums and fans by the
hundreds of thousands. best of all, Exile is still touring and
creating and recording brilliant new music.
Following
the band's debut in Richmond City Park, which, as founding member
Pennington recalls was "upstaged" by a fist-fight in the
crowd, The Exiles steadily moved on to regional and then national
fame. In 1966, pop music godfather Dick Clark tapped the band for
his "Caravan of Stars," a touring company headlined by
the likes of Freddy Cannon, Bryan Hyland and B.J. Thomas.
Over
the next few years, the band (which had pared down its name to
Exile in 1973) chased and secured record deals in New York,
Chicago and Los Angeles. But it always fell short of achieving
that one giant radio hit that would launch it to superstardom.
Then, in 1978, it happened, thanks to a three-and-a-half-minute
surge of heavy breathing called "Kiss You All Over." The
song rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart and
stayed there for four weeks.
From
then on, it was a blur. The band appeared on Midnight Special and
toured with Fleetwood Mac, Boston, Heart, Aerosmith, Dave Mason,
Seals & Croft and other rock luminaries. Now the guys from
tiny Richmond, Kentucky, were pounding out music on giant stages
throughout the US, Europe and South Africa.
But
one hit does not a career make. A series of albums and a few
personnel switches failed to re-ignite Exile's pop fire.
Fortunately, the band had been noticing the artistic changes
taking place in country music, how it seemed to be opening itself
to rock and pop influences following the Urban Cowboy
craze. "Going country" certainly wasn't a stretch for
Pennington, whose mother, Lilly Mae Ledford, was the pivotal
figure in the Coon Creek Girls, an "old-time music" band
that once played at the White House to entertain President
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the King and Queen of England.
Through
their manager Jim Morey, Exile attracted the attention of
Nashville superproducer Buddy Killen. A deal with Epic Records
soon followed. Then the No. 1 hits began pouring out, every one of
them written by Pennington and LeMaire. The first, "Woke Up
In Love," topped the country charts in 1984.
Over
the next three years, Exile reigned with "I Don't Want To Be
A Memory," "Give Me One More Chance," "Crazy
For Your Love," "She's a Miracle," "Hang On To
Your Heart," "I Could Get Used To You," "It'll
Be Me," "She's Too Good To Be True," and "I
Can't Get Close Enough." When it came to light-the-candles
and warm-the-brandy love songs, Exile was country music's answer
to Barry White.
By
the late 1980s, though, the band was suffering from
road-weariness. So, one by one, the members peeled off in
different musical directions. After a hiatus of several years,
during which Pennington headed and toured with various
permutations of the band, the original members of Exile's country
incarnation reunited in 2007 for what they believed would be a
one-time benefit show. But the audience response was so
encouraging - and the music still sounded so good - that
Pennington, Taylor, LeMaire, Hargis and Goetzman decided to
regroup and do it all over again.
After
46 years, they certainly know what they're doing. And the new
crowds they've attracted know it, too.
from
Norris PR, Nashville, Tennessee
www.exile.biz
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