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Blues tunes and food
A restaurant owner rocks out with his blues band
Drew Sabella is the owner of Anthony's, a well-refined restaurant on Route 3 in Plattsburgh, NY. In this low key eatery, Sabella plans out the menu, designs the look of the restaurant and even cooks for special occasions. Moreover ,this soft spoken entrepreneur leaves time to let loose as he rocks out on stage with The Basement Blues band.
“Myself and some friends just decided to get together and play in my basement and have jam sessions,” Sabella says. After jamming for two years, Sabella says the band decided to go out and see how people liked it; That was over 15 years ago. They played downtown more in the past, but now, they only play in Sabella's restaurant or for private parties only about once a month.
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Sabella has always had an ear for a soulful sound. “Probably when I was in Junior High School and even younger when I was ten or eleven years old,” he says. He used to listen to the AM radio and would pick up stations from Nashville, Tennessee from his home in Western Pennsylvania. "We were used to listening to all the pop music like American Bandstand. I'd hear them play all this soul music at night here, and I just fell in love with it." The music stayed with him, but it didn't exist within his parents. “They listened to pop music from the radio, a lot of Frank Sinatra; that kind of thing. Their era was the 30s and the 40s, so that was the kind of music they were listening to," he says. Sabella listened to the soulful style throughout his college years and beyond. He grew to like Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, all the Kings (Albert King, B. B. King, and Freddy King), T-Bone Walker and Joe Bonamassa. “There's a heart in it behind the music. Everything that they do has a lot of feeling and intensity to it that I can really feel.”
His musical interests were shone through what the band plays. The Basement Blues band plays blues, but "we seem to be doing more rock lately because the people seem to like to dance," he says. The band has their own music but mainly play covers of musicians like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. One of the band members has a different taste for sound though. Julie Hogan plays some country and blue grass music too.
This isn't the only difference that has brought the band together. Their job titles are quite different too. Bernie Clifton, the lead singer, spends his days as a stock broker for an international firm called UBS. Hogan, another singer, is an adjunct lecturer for counselor education at SUNY Plattsburgh. John Lamare, the drummer, works for the Overhead Door Company. Dana Colgan, one of the guitarists, works in a nursing home. “Everybody in the band has businesses, or they have full time jobs,” he says.
“There's a heart in it behind the music. Everything that they do has a lot of feeling and intensity to it that I can really feel.”
Out of the instruments these musicians play, Sabella favors the electric guitar. “To me, you can make it sound more like the human voice than most other instruments. You can make it sound like a lot of different things,” he says. One can't help but wonder how this diverse group of people came together. “Bernie was my stock broker at the time, and John Lamare was a customer here. Julie, I met her here while she was playing with another group. She was playing more bluegrass music, and she was really good. I had her sit in one night and everybody loved her,” says Sabella.
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The Basement Blues band doesn't keep their members for too long. “We've gained and lost some people over the years, but the basic guys are still together.” Still, the relationship of the group has grown. “Drew's my best friend,” says lead singer Bernie Clifton. The two have played together for about 20 years. “Drew is one of the most interesting people I know because he has so many interests – and he's so good at so many of them.” Clifton says the group is based on friendship as much as musicianship. “I'll say that having played for as many years as I have, the emotional chemistry between the band largely translates in what vibe comes off the stage.”
This vibe seems to translate to their listeners too. “They're excellent. They've got a great following,” says Carol Bucci, sister to John Lamare. “People call him 'Colgan' to be one of the best guitarists of the North Country,” she says. Tony Bucci, her husband, says Hogan, has a lot of charisma. The youngest member of the group, Hogan says they have a lot of fun, and they're happy. “Even for old guys,” she adds.
“To me, you can make it sound more like the human voice than most other instruments."
Sabella has rocked out with the Basement Blues band for some time, but at one point in his life, he had a different plan. He went to college for advertising and marketing and later got into the fast food business. “I was involved in a chain of all kinds of fast food places. Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dunkin Donuts, Ice Cream Parlors, Dairy Queen, pizza shops and steak houses.” He says he later decided he wanted something more interesting, so he and his wife opened the restaurant 25 years ago.
The design of the restaurant has two sides to satisfy different customers. “Our main restaurant is a white table cloth with taper candles. It’s a little more formal atmosphere, and then, we have our bistro, which is served in our own lounge area, and it’s a little more casual, less pricey,” Sabella says. The variety of customers creates an atmosphere for a variety of food. “We do a lot of basic American steakhouse kind of food, French food, Italian food, little bit of Asian food.” The owner says the restaurant makes everything from scratch. They make their own breads, ice cream, pastries and sauces, and they process everything themselves.
Working in a restaurant and with a blues band has introduced Sabella to two different worlds that has brought him enjoyment and has kept him busy. “The restaurant has a lot of thought and a lot of work. I've always liked restaurants and cooking,” Still, he says when he plays, “I get more into a trance and just go with the music. It's just different. You feel people feeding off of what you're doing.”
How well do you know the blues?