‘MOTOWN GOLD’ TRIBUTE TO ‘HITSVILLE U.S.A.’ GENIUS BERRY GORDY AND SIXTIES SOUL BROTHERS, SISTERS TELLS THEIR STORY THIS FRIDAY AT GRAVENHURST OPERA HOUSE
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — Motown founder Berry Gordy was serious about his sound.
“The records Motown releases to the street … we’ve got to maintain our high standards, because if the records are not pretty, properly, then we’ve got a bad image.”
Almost 70 years later Detroit’s original Motown Sound is as alive as when ‘Hitsville U.S.A.’ became a household name on the “street,” in the music business across North America and worldwide.
It’s a philosophy Rudy Salerno lives by today.
“I said ‘if we do it, let’s do it right.’”
The Toronto musician and musical director of Motown Gold brings that same show sound and hits to the Gravenhurst Opera House this Friday night, May 22.
See ‘Motown Gold’ YouTube promo here
The drummer — and Michael Jackson look-alike — is a consummate professional. A stickler for detail not unlike James Brown — the Godfather of Soul — who was renowned for docking musicians’ pay for bad notes.
But Salerno also “cares about his performers and that’s where I want to be,” says Malia Love the lead female singer. “I want to be where I’m appreciated and where my talent is used in a positive way.”
No wonder she puts her heart and soul into singing Aretha Franklin’s anthem “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”
“I love what Rudy’s doing. Good vibes.”
It’s Salerno’s driving beat that leads Rudy and the Angels, a five-piece band backing the two lead performers and backup singers Kimberley Wetmore and Geri Defoe.
“Their band is really tight, they’re solid,” says Love.
Gavin Williamson, the male lead singer, looks forward again to singing with Love.
“I’ve known her for a number of years.” They sing in a soca band.
“She’s a phenomenal artist in her own right. We have great stage chemistry. We bring the best out in each other.
“So it’s a really nice, fun show. We bring the hits and people have a great time.”
Salerno leaves the singing to Williamson and Love.
“I just do backup vocals. But not like Michael.”
Love covers a couple of Jackson songs when Motown recorded the Jackson Five.
In phone calls with them last week, Salerno said the show pre-dates COVID.
While there are number of Motown cover and tribute bands, including one with the Toronto-based show’s original producer, “it’s all my own stuff now.”
“I’ve got my own production company called Angel Wing Productions,” says the 63-year-old — whose day job has been running his tattoo parlour in Etobicoke for 21 years with his studio and drum kit in the basement. Check out his YouTube channel for more show videos and where he also teaches percussion.
“I’ve always been doing gigs as a drummer and then about a year and a half ago, someone approached me and said you gotta do your own thing. I got a small roster with me and a bunch of different shows. We do we do all the tribute stuff like Elvis, Orbison, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Tom Jones and Tina Turner.
“We have the Motown Gold shows primarily. I put it back together with new singers, but the same band. We’re in the second year now.”
He says Motown Gold is “a tribute to the record label. A celebration, a really cool show. A story that takes you back. You learn about Motown and the hits of the era and the artists on the label. It’s like a documentary song.
“We’ll start off the set with an artist and talk about them — but not for long. It’s the biggest hits.”
Starting around 1963 when the Motown Sound was beginning to peak.
“It was a big year. But we go back as far as when the label started,” when Gordy began with the Tamla label in 1959 and 15 months later when it officially became Motown April 14, 1960.
Although Salerno’s never been to Hitsville U.S.A., he first co-wrote the show with his former producer.
“I’ve been meaning to go — just not now with things down there.”
“There’s a lot of legend shows and a couple of Motown shows, but to do Motown, right, you need the band and singers to do the four- and five-member group sounds.
“So it’s really neat the way we wrote it as a celebration to the record label.
“We start with a narration and some slides, and then Gavin and Malia come out with the Temptations hit “My Girl” originally sung by David Ruffin.
“Then we get in to the male groups like the Four Tops with Williamson.”
Love leads the female songs like the Supremes.”
In the second set Williamson and Love return with their big duets.
“So it’s really neat the way it’s laid out,” says Salerno, who grew up in North York and studied music at Humber before playing for decades in all kinds of GTA bands and musical groups. “I was all over the place.”
Angel Wing Productions also has other shows, “like we’ll do we’ll do an Elvis Christmas thing. We do maybe six, seven shows a year with that. And I still get hired to do other stuff,” he told MuskokaTODAY.com
“But every time I hear Motown, it just takes me back, They’re so great. I always liked those songs and I thought it could be really neat.
“I said ‘if we do it let’s do it right.’”
“I think those hits will never go away. When you go to the show, you know every song, you sing to every word.
“The show is written around the label. So everything that is talked about, everything that’s played is around the label. You’ll know who all the artists were, all the songs, you’ll have a brief history. It’s kind of neat.
“That’s what makes this show. That’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what people come for, right?
“Once you leave the show, you can honestly say ‘Hey, now I know about the Funk Brothers who did all the recordings. And we play a couple of their tunes for fun.
“It’s not just us playing songs. There’s a little bit of a story behind the songs.”
With a couple of photos of each group and Motown banners and stage props.
“It looks really nice and slick.
“It’s a history lesson, not like a look-alike like a lot of shows. I don’t like that idea. I think if you pay tribute properly and get smoking players and singers who do a great job it’s way better.
“This is our tribute to the label..”
Tell us about Gavin and Love.
“The number one thing was to get two people who love that music,” said Salerno.
“This was just right up my alley,” said Williamson, “given my background singing Motown for a number of years and visiting the original recording studio in Detroit and going through all the details, preparing myself for Motown Gold.
“I spent a lot of time with some great people who were in the Motown Museum. I sort of overstayed my time,” joked the 58-year-old.
He says no “I am completely soaked and drenched in the culture. The nooks and crannies of the studio where everything was recorded. I can tell you, I literally rolled myself around on the floor and blasted myself against the walls.”
He wanted to “embody all of that nostalgia, history of some of the greatest artists, including Lionel Ritchie and Stevie Wonder (who turned 76 May 13).”
Not only that, “there was a particular part of the room where the microphone is literally hanging from the ceiling — that’s how they did early recordings.”
“I was just embodying everything I could, because I wanted to transfer that energy to the stage with my vocals and performance and give the audience what I learned by giving them that classic Motown feeling, sound-wise.”
Williamson said “I have been singing Motown hits since growing up. Even when I do my private performances, five per cent of my shows are dedicated to some Motown songs, because people love them. People want to hear them.”
As a jazz studies student from Edmonton’s MacEwan College in Edmonton, who does Gavin Williamson sing most like?
“I sort of took the voices of David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations, along with maybe Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops. And I have taken bits of their structure, particularly their vocals and adapting that to my voice.”
“I have all that sweetness when I sing “Just My Imagination” or Levi’s “Tears.”
“You’re going to hear some of the smoking songs that I’m doing, that blend of all of those artists and bring that energy.”
Love and Williamson are also featured on “Endless Love” made famous by Ritchie and Ross. And another huge hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” sung by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, a early Motown hit that was inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
“So it’s a really nice, fun show. We bring the hits and people have a great time.”
Williamson has his own trio and performs many genres of music.
He just left Thursday for Ireland, where he was did a wedding gig Saturday after someone heard him at another wedding the week before and invited him to sing overseas.
“They saw me cover all of the great songs, including reggae music and culture music.”
He said told me he’d probably sing a couple of Motown songs: “Anything they want.”
“I sing over 2,000 songs, including ballads like a Michael Bublé. You name it.”
Lady Love loves, loves Aretha
Meanwhile, Love, too, was busy Friday afternoon with a couple of one-hour “corporate gigs,” which she sometimes performs with a drummer and keyboard player. “Smaller stuff during the daytime.
“I do motivational speaking, so everything I do is creative,” she told me.
What kind of talks do you do?
“I’ve been through a lot, but I’m very positive and I’ve never let that stuff be. So just experience, observation, but I do it with music so it’s really digestible.”
Do any Motown stuff?
“I mix it up, because I have a three-piece funk and soul band, ‘Malia and the Love Band.’
Whatever people like we play. I aim to please.”
Was this a young crowd?
“Obviously not. But if it’s a young crowd, I go with what’s happening now.”
Love said her personal connection to Motown comes through her mother’s brother, Tony Bailey, who worked for some of the artists in Detroit.
“Back in the day he was an American football player, but he did his intern with Gordy Berry and them. He used to drive people around and get their coffees. He loved music.
“My mom was also a writer as well. So, it was just funny about Motown, I guess it’s in my blood.”
Ever been to Hitsville?
“I’ve been down to Detroit. I performed in the States a lot, but no I haven’t been to the Motown building.”
Love came from Tobago to Toronto in 2001 and has a breadth of musical tastes, talents and performing skills.
“In my country I’m well known. So I have a lot of hits and stuff, but I never really bring that up.
“But then I wanted to come to America to do more. And that’s what I’ve done.”
How’d you hook up with Rudy?
“I hooked Rudy up with Gavin because he sings with me in a soca band. We were looking for a main vocalist. And I was like, hey, I work with him already, so why not continue working with him?”
Love previously worked with another Motown show.
“Now I just want to work with Rudy because he’s such a good person to work with. A great drummer, too. And I love peace and quiet. So wherever there’s peace and quiet, you’ll find Malia.”
She said she and Williams open the show and “we each do our own songs. But it’s a collective thing. It’s not an individual thing.
“I do stuff like ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ and ‘Greatest Love of All.’
“That is the Canadian connection to Motown, with David Foster.
“I do ‘My Guy’ by the Supremes, ‘Stop in the Name of Love,’ and ‘Mr Postman.’ I do ‘Dancin’ in the Streets,’ and ‘Heat Wave.’
Who do you sound like?
“Hopefully all of them,” she laughs.
“I’m a vocal actress, so I can sound like whoever I want to.
“Most people say I sound like Aretha (Franklin) and Whitney (Houston). Those are two people I do really well. The rest of them are just really simple, but I do them.
“But I do the powerhouse stuff really well. Like Aretha, Whitley and Chaka Khan. I have a very big voice, but I also know how to control it to do the Diana Ross and all these other people.”
Did you hear any of them?
“Well, Aretha passed. But I’ve sang with Percy Sledge. Yeah, I did a song with him as well I opened for him. I opened for the Temptations when they had just one guy left. And then I sang with Freddie Jackson. I love Freddie. And Regina Bell.
“But all the great old people are gone. It’s unfortunate I didn’t get to meet them in person.
“For me, growing up, listening to them was so influential that when I opened my mouth, I sung like the records. Because I love them so much.”
It helped that her family was musical.
“I’m a musician. I play piano, guitar, bass and drums. Those are my full main instruments. And I play the sax. My dad was a trumpet player. I love trumpet players.
“If you can’t play that mouthpiece on its own, you’re not good at all.”
Love said she likes performing with Williams: “He’s a good performer.”
She also loves Rudy and the Angels: “Their band is really tight, they’re solid, positive people. It’s really great working with them. They’re a great bunch. I have my own band and I still enjoy Rudy’s band. You have to be a team player.”
“I am a big positive person. If it’s not positive I’m gone.
“As long as you feel the light, that’s all I want — because I deal with enough unnecessary negative things.”
“I love what Rudy’s doing. Good vibes. He cares about his performers and that’s where I want to be. I want to be where I’m appreciated and where my talent gets to be in a positive way.”
And that’s why she loves singing Aretha’s anthem “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”
“It’s one of my favourites. I guess everybody’s favourite hit.”
So she has to nail it, right?
“Well that’s what I do.
“I love Aretha, love her, love her, love her, love her, love her, love.”
Why? The way she sings or her life?
“I think it’s a mixture of a lot of things, because we both grew up in the church. We both play keyboard, we have a lot in common. My mom is a minister.
“And I come from a musical background. All my siblings sing, my uncles, my mom, my dad. So I just think that we have a lot of things in common and she has a big voice like mine. I mean, you’re gonna look up to people that are similar to you, right?
“I respect her. She is the queen of soul.
“I’ll take whatever she gives me.”
Love also adores back-up singers she says are a big part of the sound.
“We’re a team, right? It’s teamwork and dream work.
“Team work is the dream work!”
Thus ends Love’s motivational gospel.
“Peace, love and light.”
She hopes they’ll fill the Opera House — then they’ll bring down the house.
After Gravenhurst, on June 6 Motown Gold moves to the Grand Gerrard Theatre in Toronto, June 19 in London and later September 12 the soul train comes back to Muskoka at Huntsville’s Algonquin Theatre.
📧 Contact, Subscribe, Advertise
Email: news@muskokatoday.com
Subscribe: E-transfer $30 to news@muskokatoday.com
Mail: MuskokaTODAY.com, Box 34, Gravenhurst, ON P1P 1T5
Advertise: Email news@muskokatoday.com for rates
