WPCNR’S BIG BEAT WITH BIG MELVIN MEAD "With all the hits you need," The Boss Jock on KKIX  THE MIGHTY1440 "The Rock of America," Host of Your Saturday Night Rock and Roll Party. May 17,2009: Back in the 60s, his voice boomed out of your transistor and 77 WABC RADIO’s Dan Ingram Show after school, or Cousin Brucie, and crystallized all the anxiety and longing and torture of your first passions. His songs, Woman, Woman, Young Girl, It’s Now or Never, Don’t Give In to Him,  dealt with the tortured gut-churning abysses of awakening passions, adult stuff, unrequited love, and relationships gone bad in driving beats fully orchestrated that made the pain, and the longing bearable and still do. When you heard his songs you knew he knew how you were feeling .

GARY PUCKETT FOREVER -- SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE IRVINGTON TOWN HALL. Photo, Peter Katz, Courtesy Westco Productions.

Last night, Suzy the K, White Plains Susan Katz, brought the great Puckett back and the soundtrack of those days back again. It's been one hit after another since Westco Productions started the Gold Star Concerts 4 years ago, and the hits just keep on coming. When a Westco concert hits Irvington, Irvington restaurants JUMP. Saturday night continued Suzy the K's mastery of Westchester entertainment.She brings you the stars you'll always love, the music that makes you forever young, and the personalities up close and personal.

Saturday night in a return engagement,  Gary Puckett and his band brought out the faithful in another shoulder shifting, finger-snapping, head-bobbing concert just right. Irvington Town Hall was sweaty, reminiscent of those high school dances where you took a chance putting your fragile male ego on the line when you asked an angel to dance. Or, for locals, those dark evenings in Dipaulo’s Dugout over on West Post Road where the 45s spun – one of Suzy the K’s old haunts.

Suzy the K of course, is Susan Katz, the  Ron Dolzner, Richard Nader, and Murray the K of White Plains and Westchester whose WESTCO GOLD STAR CONCERTS have been the most successful rock pop series in the county the last four years having developed a loyal following.

Next fall, the Marshall Tucker Band, Johnny Winter and Judy Collins are in the Suzy the K lineup of legends.

Gary Puckett, back for a return engagement in the Westco March of the Rock Icons, had the audience from his debut song, Woman, Woman.  With his voice suffering from a cold, Gary reached back and delivered all the tortured angst – pushing himself and the emotion was all there.

Once again, he delivered, Keeping the Customer Satisfied After the concert, over 100 fans part of the house, hanging from the rafters on the little theatre on Main Street,  lined up to meet him, get autographs and connect with the master of  delivering the high and the low of love as no other rock artist does. Photo, Peter Katz, Courtesy Westco Productions.

Mr. Puckett enthralled the audience, which hung on his every word, with inside rock anecdotes, how he got started, recording his first record  (hard work and self-promotion with his own record portfolio); he told of meeting  Elvis Presley in the hall at the Hilton International in Las Vegas and how Elvis sent him a message after watching Gary’s set, “That boy sure can sing,” then Gary launched in an Elvis-style “Dixieland” that was poignant. It was the King, but it was Gary’s song too.

Gary and his sidemen paid homage, doing Help Me,Rhonda, and Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman, and delighted the crowd with “Na-Na-Hey-Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye” a cappella.

The emotional high of the show is Mr.Puckett’s traditional salute of veterans in the audience where he asks vets to stand and sings an emotional, tear-inspiring ballad of what a soldier dreams of each night. Very classy of Mr.Puckett to include this.

Playing for an hour and a half straight, his performance delivered what the customers came for—“a little of that Gloria” – we used to feel and still do whenever we hear Mr. Puckett’s songs – so true to the way you were growing up when you were experiencing those first serious relationships, or relationships that had grown old.

Mr. Puckett’s deep emotional connections in his songs hold the key to rock and roll’s 50 years of longevity. Rock lets artists express how we really feel in a most personal way.

Gary and The Queens Jester, the funniest man on the East Coast -- John Joseph. Book em, Dano! Photo, Peter Katz, Courtesy Westco Productions.

The Queens Jester, John Joseph, a comic with "the gift" opened the show with 45 minutes of glib, rapid fire stand-up and keep-em-laughing comedy about marriage, kids, rest rooms, and rock and roll styles. His cellphone bit where he played his daughter's ringtone greeting  ("Message," "MESSAGE" "MESSSSSAGGGGGGEEEE!" screams") was one of many hilarious bits.

Mr. Joseph plays his own guitar, imitating rock styles. These bits ended with the audience giving him a standing ovation. When was the last time an opening act, a comedy act, got a standing ovation? I wish Mr. Joseph could open School Board and Common Council meetings.

 Joseph’s send-ups with his own guitar accompaniment with clever master riffs of rock icons stunned the audience with laugh-riffs of recognition.

When was the last time you saw a comic play guitar who was actually funny? Never, baby.  Joseph’s rendition of Bruce Springsteen singing Eentsy, Weentsy, Spider was dead-on, and Springsteen could make a hit of that song.  Joseph hits the High Seas next, doing a week on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship (you lucky people) then appearing next in Las Vegas at the Tropicana.

Westco, under the uncanny, put-your-finger-on-the-pulse-of-the-audience-and-give-them-what-they-want savvy of White Plains First Lady of Westchester Theatre, Susan Katz – better known as Suzy The K—delivered another crowd-pleasing, scanner-beeping show. People come out for Westco concerts. Next fall the Marshall Tucker Band comes back and Judy Collins is another on the fall schedule.