Annual Community Concert at school annual meeting dedicated to Bob Woods

by Dan McClelland

A crowd that almost completely filled the bleachers in the high school gym greeted over 100 music students and about 25 band and concert alumni and community members during the May 20th Community Concert.

The event has happened at every annual district meeting and budget vote. As the music flowed from the gym, the voting continued in the high school library next door.

The musical event this year was dedicated to the memory of the late Robert “Bob” Woods, who played in every concert band at the school over the years, with the exception of the last one or two.

In making the announcement, Wayne Davison, a former band instructor here for a number of years and the husband of the current band director, Laura Davison, said Bob Woods was a 1945 graduate of Tupper Lake High School, who participated in a lot of musical events in the community- both during his student years and for many years at school and other events after that.

“He is an example of a lifelong musician. He played with this group from the time it started and at his last concert with us he was 95 years of age.”

Bob played trumpet with the school’s Community Band and with a number of bands before it over the years.

He brought to the attention of our music department “The Tupper Lake Fight Song,” that had been lost, Mr. Davison told the big crowd. He said it had been played by school bands in the 1930s and 1940s. “-And tonight we are going to perform it again...so this concert is for Mr. Robert Woods.”

Loud cheering and clapping.

The combined band and chorus opened the concert that evening with “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the school alma mater, followed by the resurrected “Tupper Lake Fight Song,” which the audience joined in with clapping. The crowd loved the return of the lively fight song, judging by the vigorous applause.

“Bob gave me the words to the song and told me ‘it goes like this’,” Mrs. Davison told the crowd. “And then he actually sang it to me!”

She explained that Bob told her the song had actually been another popular college song years ago and the words were changed here, “and that’s how it became the Tupper Lake Fight Song.”

“What a wonderful way to kick off our alumni and community concert,” began her sister, Chorus Director Liz Cordes.

“We are always excited to do this concert, because we get to welcome back old friends and community members and some of our alumni,” she told the packed house. She said at the sole practice session that afternoon, people just kept coming in and we were adding singers and instrument players left and right.

“Our first song this evening is NeverEnding Story, and for those of us like me we know it from the movie of the same name.” She said for many of the younger folks there that evening, know it’s from Stranger Things.

After that song Mrs. Cordes asked the various participants in the chorus and band- students, faculty, alumni and community members- to stand to be recognized.

The next song was Lovely Day, a song about finding joy and optimism in the presence of a loved one, written by soul and R&B artist Bill Withers.

After that song the chorus launched into the lively Mamma Mia, from the movie of the same name and the Broadway play, based on the songs of ABBA. Mrs. Cordes described it “as a fan favorite,” which it always is.

For the choral only finale, the singers and Mrs. Cordes selected a medley by Andrew Lloyd Webber, featuring Phantom of the Opera, Memory from Cats which has been sung by many vocal stars like Barbara Streisand and Barry Manilow and Go, Go, Go Joseph from Broadway’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

The singers and the band came back together for two more songs, the first one the very patriotic You’re A Grand Old Flag. The song, a spirited march written by George M. Cohan in 1906, is a tribute to the American flag. It went on to become one of the most popular U.S. marching band pieces of all time. Years later Mickey Rooney sang and danced to it in the hit musical, Give My Regards to Broadway.

The next combined piece was Neil Diamond’s smash hit, Sweet Caroline, one of our personal favorites. The local musicians nailed it.

For decades it was the theme song for the Boston Red Sox at all its home games.

Wrapping up the enjoyable concert were five pieces played by the community, alumni and student band.

The first was the service medley that the band plays at each and every Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day observance at the Veterans’ Park in the uptown business district. It was again played there this past Memorial Day.

Band Director Laura Davison told the crowd they recently added to the collection of service anthems, The Battle of the Green Berets.

She said that years ago she had been asked to add it to the medley by a Green Beret veteran. “We didn’t have the arrangement and I couldn’t find a copy.” She said she tried to contact the original publisher and was put on to a subsequent one, who couldn’t find the arrangement. After a long run around, she said, she finally obtained a copy so the Vietnam-era ballad could be added to their medley.

So that very moving song became the medley opener that evening.

Mrs. Davison said too that each group in the community band got to select one song. She said the service medley was selected by the high school student musicians. Every time she introduced one of the groups she asked the members to stand and loud applause broke out for each.

The fifth graders present that evening selected Bunyip Blues, that has been a regular feature at many elementary concerts over the years.

She next introduced the two dozen or more alumni and community members who joined them that evening. Their choice apparently was the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, a song that the director invited people to sing along, which they did.

The sixth graders in that night’s performance selected Cowboy Cattle Drive. What cattle drive song could be complete without the cracking of a whip. So the song featured Cash Hollingsworth slapping together a two-board device that Wayne Davison had made for the show, which sounded like a whip cracking.

The final song by the band was the Seven Nation Army, which was the pick of the seniors in the band.

The song culminated an evening of great music by the very talented school singers and instrumentalists, with support from more than 25 alumni of the school’s music programs and from the community at large.

Bob Woods would have been proud!