Squeezed into a practice space between a printing company's
folding machine and boxes of finished fliers, the Paisley Project could be
anybody's garage band, rattling the ductwork with loud guitars and playing
oldies out of love for the music.
But they aren't a bunch of local youths dreaming about becoming rock 'n roll
stars. In fact, they're not youths at all. Now pushing 50 years old, these
five musicians with deep ties to the western suburbs started playing individually
before the real Beatles broke up.
They've each been in a number of bands, playing at local nightspots, such as
Timothy's Too, back when the Framingham area had nightclubs and the Rolling Stones
were playing the former Sir Morgan's Cove in Worcester.
Sporting a touch of gray, the musicians in the Paisley Project have honed their
skills and accumulated a repertoire of songs from the 1960s and 1970s that they hope
will entertain several generations in the western suburbs and beyond. Playing oldies
doesn't bother them.
"It's music we like," said David Lavalley, who plays rhythm guitar. "A lot of
music today is absent strong melody, which is why many of these older songs get
covered by contemporary artists."
The group has already landed a couple of big gigs this summer, including opening
for Tommy James and the Shondells at the Boston Hatch Shell on Saturday and opening
for Beatlemania at Boston's City Hall Plaza on July 5. They're booked for the Center
for Arts in Natick on July 26.
At a recent practice, they slid easily from the Beatles' "If I Needed Someone" to
"California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas and then "Somebody To Love" by
Jefferson Airplane.
"The nice thing, now that we're over 40, is that we played these songs when they
they were new, but after 35 years playing guitar we can do it very well," said Tom
Yates, who plays lead guitar.
The members' varied backgrounds contribute to the group's success. Lavalley, who
carts his guitars from his Natick home to the West Roxbury practice sessions, recently
left a career at Compaq to teach music students privately, which he calls a "musical
sabbatical." His marketing savvy, according to fellow band members, has brought the
high-profile engagements.
Singer and bass guitarist Tim Leavitt of Southborough is a manufacturing manager at
Hopkinton's Control Technology Corp. by day. The award-winning songwriter recently
made a splash at his 30th St. Mark's school reunion by bringing the band along to
entertain.
Drummer Michael Macrides lives in West Roxbury and provides the practice space.
While all flirted with musical careers, two of the band members have maintained music
as a way of life. Yates, of Hudson, was known locally for his role in the band Fair,
Yates, and Betschart, a house band at the now defunct Timothy's Spirits in Framingham. He
won a statewide country songwriter of the year award while working as a chef for a Sudbury
restaurant.
At the keyboard and contributing lead vocals is Linda Chase, who works in music all day
as a vocal coach and jingle writer. She has toured extensively, including with the Boston-based
rhythm and blues band Soul City. She also sings cabaret at Ken's Steak House in Framingham.
Chase said she was surprised when the others showed up there one night to ask her to join
them. It was a reunion of sorts among musicians who had known and admired each other's talents
despite never playing together.
Now as the Paisley Project, the group feels like it's hitting all of the right notes.
"Being older takes the edge off. There are no egos; everybody's doing it for the benefit
of the whole," Chase said. "And it's weird, the more we do it for the fun of it, the more
people pay attention. It's great to watch it grow, doing what you love to do."
The man who booked the group to play in Boston this summer, Howie Cusack, president of
Pretty Polly Productions, said the Paisley Project has mastered the oldies sound so well
that the group sounds just like the real thing.
"They sent me an email with a sound sample of a Hollies tune that was so good I thought
they were thieves who had copied the Hollies' song and put it on their website," Cusack said.
Alison O'Leary Murray can be reached at amurray@globe.com.
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