The late Jerry Hludzik, left, was a long-time musical collaborator of Bill Kelly, right. Hludzik and Kelly were the force behind national artists The Buoys, Jerry-Kelly Band, and Dakota.
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Bill Kelly, along with his current musical partner, Jennifer Kane, will perform at the Pittston Tomato Festival on Saturday, Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m.
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Bill Kelly, a graduate of Wyoming Area, has been a successful musician for most of his life as part of The Buoys, the Jerry-Kelly Band and Dakota. Kelly and his musical partner of 18 years, Jennifer Kane, will make a special appearance at the 2021 Tomato Festival to perform his old hits along with a current charting songs by the duo.
It is without question, the West Wyoming native Kelly, now 71 years old, has had commercial success in pop and rock over the decades, but since meeting up with Kane, he has turned his musical attention to Christian Country music and Kane & Kelly have been scoring chart hits in the genre.
“I am psyched,” Kelly said, of his trip back to Greater Pittston to perform at the annual Tomato Festival. “Dakota to me will always be me and Jerry (Hludzik), and the band and Richie (Kossuth) has always been bugging me on coming back to the festival, so I had to figure out how I’m going to do this. I decided to do our songs like I was doing a demo on the acoustic guitar.”
Kelly knows the rich harmonies that he and Hludzik created were magical and will never be performed again. Hludzik passed away on Easter Sunday 2020 after a lengthy battle with frontotemporal dementia.
He admits performing old crowd favorites without his sidekick could never be duplicated, so he decided to rework the songs acoustically as if he were performing them for the first time.
“Let’s say I was going to do a song like I would have done it for the very first time for Jerry, what would that sound like,” Kelly explained. “So I reworked “Dear Love” and a few other ones acoustically and it sounded pretty good. All the songs needed were high harmonies, so I asked Jennifer to accompany me back north to perform with me.”
Kelly approached Kane, knowing she was never a “rocker,” and she excitedly accepted.
“She was totally up for it and we started rehearsing,” Kelly said. “I’m glad that she’s excited and this is something totally out of her wheelhouse, and we’ve got about an hour and 10 minute set ready to go.”
The Tomato Festival audience will hear all of hits by The Buoys, Jerry-Kelly and Dakota along with a few of Kane & Kelly hits.
Kane & Kelly have scored a number-one song, “The Storm” on the Christian Country music charts along with another hit on the rise entitled “It’s All Gonna Be Alright.”
Inspirational Country Music Association recently informed the two on their nomination of Vocal Duo/Performance of the Year and New Artist of the Year for 2020.
Just as harmonies were a big part of the Kelly/Hludzik combination, so too are they with Kane & Kelly.
“I’m so grateful having to do this gig (Tomato Festival),” Kelly admits. “My mind has been closed doing anything acoustic and this gig has forced me to sit down and make it work, and I’m excited about that. If I can come back to the Valley once in a while and do Dakota music, with or without Jenn, I can still do that. I’m grateful to find out I can.”
Even though the thought of never doing music that he and Hludzik created and/or performed entered his mind, he slowly came to the conclusion that their music is for everyone, not just himself.
“Taking the attitude and posture that I’m never going to do it again is a selfish thing,” Kelly said. “When you create music that resonates with people from high school age to whatever, it’s not mine anymore. Those songs belong to our fans and the crowd that came to the Heartstone Pub and to the people that made the trek to Madison Square Garden to see us. It’s their music. It’s a part of their growing up.”
Jennifer Kane, who has never been to Northeastern Pennsylvania, will be in for a treat when she gets to witness Kelly’s popularity in his hometown area.
“She’s well prepared to visit the area,” Kelly said on Kane’s first-ever visit to Greater Pittston. “I even schooled her on “Valley” speak.”
The Pittston Tomato Festival and Greater Pittston will be out in droves to see Kelly perform once again, and there’s no doubt, Jerry Hludzik will be heavily on his mind during the performance.
Kane & Kelly will take the stage on Saturday, Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m.
