Still the Ones: Orleans Brings Farewell Tour to the Colonial Theatre

Friday, September 11, 7:30pm | Pittsfield, MA

Orleans plays the Colonial Theatre on September 11 as part of the band's farewell tour, bringing five decades of soft-rock hits to the berkshires.

John Hall founded Orleans in Woodstock, New York in February 1972 with Larry Hoppen and drummer Wells Kelly, adding Lance Hoppen on bass later that year. Hall had already logged serious time in the music business by then—he'd played guitar with Seals & Crofts and Bonnie Raitt, and co-wrote "Half Moon" with his then-wife Johanna Hall for Janis Joplin's final album, "Pearl."

Orleans built its reputation the hard way, touring clubs and colleges around the Northeast before signing to ABC Records and then Asylum, where 1975's "Dance with Me" became a Top 10 soft-rock hit and 1976's "Still the One" climbed to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. ABC-TV adopted "Still the One" as its promotional theme song for two seasons starting in 1977, cementing its place as one of the more inescapable tunes of the era.

Hall's story took an unusual turn after he left the band in 1979. An anti-nuclear power activist alongside Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Graham Nash with Musicians United for Safe Energy, he moved into electoral politics in the Hudson Valley, serving on the Ulster County Legislature and the Saugerties Board of Education before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006, representing New York's 19th District until 2011. He later wrote a memoir about the whole arc, titled, Still the One: A Rock 'n' Roll Journey to Congress and Back. Notably, he objected when Republican presidential candidates George W. Bush and John McCain used "Still the One" in their campaigns, and both dropped the song.

The Colonial Theatre, 111 South Street, Pittsfield, MA. Tickets $49 and up at berkshiretheatregroup.org or (413) 997-4444.