The Limeliters will showcase new members and new material in concert at McCabe's Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica on Saturday, June 27 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $17.50. Phone: (310) 828-4497. This famous venue has hosted every great name in modern folk and popular music in the last twenty years. Seating is limited to 150 - call quickly to reserve your seat.
The Limeliters , (Alex Hassilev, Lou Gottlieb and Glenn Yarbrough) launched their career in 1959 at San Francisco's famous Hungry I and were immediately successful. A string of best-selling LPs for RCA Records and frequent appearances on every major TV show quickly made them a household name. Time Magazine summed up the appeal with the following quote: "If the button-downed scrubbed looking Kingston Trio are the undergraduates of big-time U.S. folk-singing, The Limeliters are the faculty." In 1963, at the pinnacle of their success, the individualistic members of the group decided to call a halt to their career. For the next ten years, they pursued separate interests.
During the seventies, the Limeliters embarked on a series of yearly reunion tours. They were so successful that in 1981, Lou and Alex decided to put The Limeliters back into the mainstream of entertainment with an outstanding young tenor, Red Grammar. After eight productive years, Red Grammer left the group to pursue a solo career as a children's artist and was replaced by another extraordinary tenor, Rick Dougherty. The Limeliters continued to successfully tour until the sudden death of Lou Gottlieb in 1996. Bill Zorn, formerly with The New Christy Minstrels, and The Kingston Trio was enlisted to try to keep the group going.
Since Bill Zorn joined The Limeliters, presenters and audiences tell the Limeliters that there is new power to the sound, more heart in the material, and that a warmer relationship exists among the three and with their audiences. The humor is still there (with its satirical edge), but it's less cerebral and more accessible. The concert at McCabe's will feature new material by some of today's outstanding song writers, as well as some old favorites from the Limeliters vast repertoire.
Last update: June 16, 1998