By MAT RAPACZ
Evening Times Staff Writer
DOLGEVILLE - A major highlight of this year's Violet Festival will be a band from California that features a well-known actor and includes Dolgeville native Christian Lyon on Drums.
Tenative plans call for David Carradine and The Cosmic Rescue Team to play concerts both Saturday, June 8 and Sunday, June 9 at Dolgeville High School auditorium.
The band features music Carradine has written and recorded over the past several decades. Genres covered are blues, country, rock and roll and more. With The Cosmic Rescue Team Carradine is finally getting to hear his music the way he envisioned it, Lyon said. Many of the songs are autobiographical.
Best known for his television series Kung Fu (1972-75), Carradine has an extensive musical background, including the study of music theory and composition at San Francisco State College.
Carradine plays the guitar, piano, flute, sax, drums, conga, harmonica, and dilruba (an East Indian instrument played with a bow like a cello). He also plays a bamboo meditation flute he created for himself for the film The Silent Flute. Carradine's musical background has been important in many of his television and movie roles, notably Bound for Glory (1976), the film in which he portrayed legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie.
Carradine loves to interact with the audience, Lyon said. Music critic Vickie Wright, ( who called Lyon a charismatic drummer") wrote of a Feb. 9 performance of the band in Los Angeles: "The greatest treat of the evening was to listen to David's stories, humor, and banter between songs. He was one with the music, the audience, and himself."
Besides Carradine and Lyon, the band is composed of Sharon Benson (of Soul Dogs) on electric violin, Cary Park (formerly with Bruce Hornsby) on lead guitar, and Ron Catt on bass.
The name of the band comes from one of Carradine's songs, "The Great Big Cosmic Joke."
Lyon met Carradine about two years ago when both were studying acting at Beverly Hills Playhouse. Lyon was called on to do a scene with Carradine that required a drummer. " I was a little hesistant at first, but I gave it a try. David and I really clicked - he liked my playing," Lyon recalls.
When Carradine decided to form his band about six months ago, Lyon was the first one he called. "It's funny that I'm acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse and a music gig comes from it," Lyon said.
Lyon, a 1987 graduate of Dolgeville High School, has been playing drums for about 25 years and has studied at the Berkley College of Music. "I never stopped playing music. It's been part of my career concept to do both music and acting," he said. His first significant acting break came in 1997 with a role in the film The Others.
The Cosmic Rescue Team has played two shows in the Los Angeles area and the group hopes to play several more concerts before the Violet Festival. Being relatively new, the group is still developing and changing, Lyon said. A concert tour to New Zealand and Japan is in the works for later in the year.
Although The Cosmic Rescue Team is a big part of his career now, Lyon has not neglected the acting side. He still goes to auditions and accepts acting parts when available. Also, he is in the process of developing a television series about firefighters, set in the Dolgeville area.
