Head East, best known for their 1974 hit, “Never Been Any Reason,” will return to Peoria for a Friday night (2/24) show at the Limelight Eventplex in Peoria. Like most of you, that was the song that opened my ears to the Midwest band. I remember they played at my first college, Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI, when I was there, circa 1980.

That song is still played on GLO to this day. It came off their debut album “Flat as a Pancake,” which might be the most famous album recorded at Golden Voice Studio in South Pekin, owned by Jerry Milam, whose son, Dave, plays hockey with me in the Peoria mens league. Degrees of separation, I’m telling ya. We’re all connected somehow.

Original keyboardist Roger Boyd has been keeping the legacy of Head East alive through four decades. Boyd, though, took a break from music for a while and earned a doctorate degree from St. Louis University, where he became an associate professor. He recruited his current bandmates from the Kansas City music scene.

Lead singer Darren Walker and three of his musical buddies, lead guitarist Glen Bridger, Drummer Eddy Jones and bassist Greg Manahan, joined Boyd as the current Head East lineup in 2006. Walker attended his second concert, a musical festival in an Iowa cornfield, when he was 15. The headliner that day: Head East. Walker was blown away by how good the band was, not knowing that he would later take over the lead vocal role held by John Schlitt, who later became born again and fronted the popular Christian band, Petra. Walker sounds like Schlitt and doesn’t shy away from his respect for the original lead singer.

Hear the interview I did with Darren HERE or click on the “Shows” section at the top of the page and drop down to the “Podcasts” section. Head East plays Friday night at the Limelight  with the Bogart Jones band opening, from Peoria’s classic rock station, 95.5, GLO.

Doc Watson