“Tonight” signifies Friday, May 8.
PORT ANGELES — This pair were raised on music: the kind you play for family and friends. And since their early days as a band were spent near the Sol Duc River, it’s natural that they would call themselves the Soul Ducks.
John Rollston and his wife Phyllis Gale Rollston, the band’s instigators, were practicing at the West End home of harmonica man Peter Larsen about five years ago when John thought up that name.
Now the Soul Ducks and their rockabilly-blues repertoire are booked for back-to-back gigs: tonight at the Metta Room, 132 E. Front St., and Saturday night at the Elks Naval Lodge, 131 W. First St.
The cover charge tonight is $3; on Saturday, admission is by donation to the Elks’ building fund.
Both events start at 8 p.m. and both have dance floors, and the Ducks plan on filling those with songs by Chuck Berry, Patsy Cline and Wilson Pickett, plus “Fever” and “Sway.” There should be some originals on the agenda too, such as “Your Lips Are on My Mind.”
Corey Crozier is the harmonica player now; he succeeded Larsen, who moved on last year. Burnell Caldwell is the saxophone player for this weekend’s shows, though he plans to fly off to Hawaii soon.
John has been playing since his mother, Donna “DJ” Sackett, gave her 8-year-old son an acoustic guitar.
“Our whole family was musically inclined — not Juilliard grads by any means, but we’d sit around the living room, with my mom playing a mean accordion,” he recalled.
“She always sang around the kitchen and in the car. And she encouraged me,” unstintingly.
Meanwhile, Pat and Neal Bolton made sure their daughter Phyllis had access to music. She took piano lessons while growing up in Port Angeles, and then Neal encouraged her to take it up again as an adult. But since a piano is a hassle to carry around to club gigs, she adopted the keytar, a synthesizer slung across the body.
“She plays flawlessly,” said John.
He remembers the summer night when he discovered Phyllis’ pipes.
“When we first started dating, we were sitting on the deck. I was strumming the guitar. Phyllis started singing, and I said, ‘Wow. Holy mackerel.’”
She hadn’t done much performing at that point. Nowadays, the voice of the Soul Ducks looks quite at home on stage, thank you.
Then there’s Crozier.
“Corey just has this fervor. He explodes out of the gate with his harmonica,” Phyllis says.
“He’s spot on,” adds John. “He plays his heart out; that’s what we love.”
Together, the band likes to get people moving. And Phyllis’ folks are among those happy to oblige.
The Boltons “love to dance,” said their daughter, “to any band, not just at our shows.”
