This past Saturday evening, I had the pleasure of going to the Appell Center of Performing Arts in York, PA to see The Hillbenders perform their bluegrass rendition of the music of The Who. The beautiful, Strand-Capital Theater now branded The Appell Center, made a perfect setting to witness this event.

The band opened up with several songs by The Who along with some back stories on conversations with Pete Townsend on their path to open for The Who. “Pinball Wizard” and “Tommy Can You Hear Me” were among the songs they opened up with. Nolan Lawrence lead in song and picking the mandolin. Jim Rea on guitar and Gary Rea on bass, with banjo by Mark Cassidy and the exuberant Chad “Gravy”Graves on Dobro.

The 5 well polished musicians ended the evening with a few of their originals. They played “Rubens Train”, one of my favorites. All in all it was a great show at a picturesque theater. The show ended much too quickly for me, as I could have listened to them for hours! Enjoy these photos from the show!