Hip To Be Square – Cory Weeds Plays Huey Lewis & The News

In 2013 Chris Hazelton invited Cory Weeds to the mid west for a few gigs and workshops. The last gig was in St Louis Missouri which is about a 4 hour drive from Kansas City. The only option for music on the trip was a CD that was stuck in Chris’ dad’s vans CD player. That CD was Huey Lewis and News’ Greatest Hits. While listening to these songs Weeds recognized something in the music that would lend itself to the classic organ quartet setting and Hazelton concurred. While Weeds was contemplating the validity of the idea Hazelton got to work and started piecing together some arrangements on come classic Huey tunes. The project was shelved a few times until fate intervened in 2024. On a tour with the James Hunter Six opening for Bonnie Raitt that both Weeds and Hazelton were on , they found themselves at a record store in Portland, Oregon. While the two were chatting in the store a staff member accidentally bumped in to Weeds. When Weeds turned around he saw the employee standing there with 25 LP copies of Huey’s 1983 classic Sports. From that point on the project was fast tracked! Plans were hatched and what started out as kind of a lark turned into a 13 day, 12 gig tour where the quartet jammed on the fabulous arrangements done by Chris Hazelton. The Cellar Music Group is partially funded by FACTOR Canada and as such there are some rules around what can be recorded. No contemporary pop! While tunes recorded in 1983, well over 40 years ago can hardly be considered “contemporary” they were deemed ineligible hence the inclusion of some original material, and a few other classic organ tunes. While this group is the hardly the first organ band to interpret popular songs, it is most certainly the first one to tackle the music of Huey Lewis & The News. As Weeds so aptly stated during their tour “it’s so nice to see what could be the dumbest idea I’ve ever had one to fruition and be a total and complete success!!”