Back to the ‘Day the Music Died’

DiNizio has never made a secret of his admiration for Holly, yet is taking it to a new level in the next few weeks. First there is the February tribute at Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, the last place Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson performed before a fatal Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash. Then there is DiNizio’s solo album, dedicated to Holly’s music.

“In those 50 years [since Holly died], we lost something that will never come back again,” said DiNizio. “Buddy meant something to us and said something to us, and we want to say something back.”
DiNizio’s latest CD — “Pat DiNizio/Buddy Holly” — is slated for release on Jan. 27 on Koch Records and features 11 songs from the Holly catalog. A new album of original Smithereens music is slated for release April 7 followed by the band’s rendition of the classic rock album “Tommy” by The Who scheduled for May 7 release.

These new CDs follow two Beatles tributes. With all of these glances back at rock history, one wonders what DiNizio and his bandmates are trying to tell us.

“I was a tremendous fan of both,” DiNizio said, noting U.S. promoters often compared The Beatles and Holly. “And when they came around, it turned the world upside down.”

In paying tribute to Holly and The Beatles, DiNizio took extra care to approach the music with some reverence but not to delude listeners into thinking it is a re-creation. The sound, he said, is pure DiNizio.

“If you do faithful live renditions of the songs as [audience members] remember them, you hit them where they live and take them back in time to where they lived,” he said. “It is a total experience, a sensory overload experience where they feel like kids again.”

Yet DiNizio realizes fans want to hear his classics and he promises The Smithereens will feature both old and new material at the Annapolis show.

“This is an evening with The Smithereens,” he said. “There will be a good mix from all of our albums.”