By Mark Ambrogi
John Ford Coley loves to share stories, songs and laughs with the audience.
“The audience can come in for an hour-and-a-half and forget about all the nonsense going on outside those doors,” Coley said. “They can take a trip down memory lane and enjoy themselves and not think about what’s going in Milwaukee (recent riots) for the moment.”
Coley and former Hollies singer Terry Sylvester, 69, will play at 8 p.m. Sept 10 at The Warehouse, 254 1st Ave. SW, Carmel.
Coley, 67, plays his 1970s hits with England Dan such as “Nights are Forever Without You,” “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” and “Love is the Answer.” Dan Seals, younger brother of Jim Seals of Seals and Croft, died in 2009.
Sylvester and Coley typically play a few times together through the year..
“I play piano and guitar and sing with him and he plays guitar with me on my songs,” Coley said. “Terry is really funny. I translate for him because he’s got that thick English accent. I tell the audience, ‘Don’t worry, I can translate. I speak perfect English.’”
Some of the Hollies’ hits include “Carrie Ann,” “Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)” and “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” Coley said the Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe” is his personal favorite.
The Warehouse’s listening room style suits Coley well.
“Playing acoustic is something I really enjoy because you can play a wide variety of songs and pretty much play the songs in their original form,” said Coley, who performs internationally.
Coley is finishing a new album, Eclectic, with 26 songs.
“Man, they are eclectic, they range from classical to pop to rock to swamping to Americana to county to folk,” Coley said. “I was trained eclectically. I wasn’t trained with one style of music.”
Coley said he likely will only play one selection from the new album.
“Since Terry and I have a lot of songs we play together, we don’t play a lot of new things,” Coley said. “We try to keep the new things down to a minimum because by and large they want to hear the songs we were known for.”
For more, visit liveforthemusic.com.
