“You can’t talk about rock in the 70s without talking about Grand Funk Railroad.”  - David Fricke, Rolling Stone Magazine   Mark Farner is the reason. As one of the founding members, lead singer, lead guitarist, and wrote 90% of the Grand Funk music catalog, Farner has always been known as the energetic driving force on stage, the engine that pulled the original Grand Funk Railroad to the top of the charts. From his soulful voice and power rock riffs, to fueling the Funk with his atomic stage presence. His story and his imprint on music starts with Flint and since 1969 from his humble beginnings and a blue-collar outlook, Farner has captained a global crusade for love and freedom and became a rock ‘n’ roll icon.     50 years later – he commands the stage with the same intensity performing epic hits that defined a generation – “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home)”, “Bad Time”, “Some Kind of Wonderful”, “Foot Stompin’ Music”, “Heartbreaker”, “Locomotion”, “Mean Mistreater” and “We’re An American Band”.   Today, Farner’s amplifying his remarkable career another full decibel selling more than 30 million records worldwide, including 16 gold and platinum albums. Mark Farner’s American Band will honor Farner’s golden anniversary in music, as well as shine a spotlight on his legendary contributions to society, in his 2019-2020 50th Anniversary Tour. Farner, 70, is also about as real as they get: he’s a husband, a father and grandfather and in his fourth decade of marriage to wife Lesia. He’s a family man. “I am who my songs say I am,” Farner said. Farner’s first years in music were with the band Terry Knight and the Pack and The Bossmen. When GFR formed in 1969 they named the group after the Grand Trunk & Western Railroad that runs through Flint. Like a Spartan, Farner was intent on bringing rock destined for arenas. What began as rehearsals at Flint’s Federation of Musicians Union Hall led to some of rock music’s watershed moments. At the 1969 Atlanta International Pop Festival, they shared the stage with rock luminaries such as Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. GFR thrilled the audience and further cemented its place as a live band full of loud, ferocious rock, soul, and funk!   “I think our fans connected to our songs because we were sincere,” Farner said. “My lyrics were about Mother Earth, stopping the war, and all about love. They still have a point of reference with me in their heart.” The same year they formed – 1969 – the band further defied expectations by releasing two albums (via Capitol Records) in a four-month period. Farner wrote all but two songs from On Time and the platinum-selling Grand Funk. He said they wanted to take advantage of the meteoric rise that was building in terms of the band’s popularity. “It wasn’t much pressure because the songs were coming fast,” Farner said. “I had nothing but time for songs.” By 1970, Farner’s songs were pivotal to the band’s success. The epic composition, “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home)” became an anthem for Vietnam War Veterans and audiences alike. Farner would later perform the iconic song at the Vietnam Memorial Wall, on the 25th Anniversary of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Farner also received the Vietnam Veterans of American Presidents Award for Excellence in the Arts.   “That was a cold day temperature wise,” Farner said, of performing at the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. “But the warmth of the hearts of the people that actually showed up, not just the US GIs, we had Canadian Nam vets there, as well…I’m thinking…how am I gonna sing with a softball in my throat?’ I was so choked up because I’m watching, looking out in the audience and watching these guys that were standing there, crying.”   The son of a World War II veteran, four-time bronze star recipient and career fireman also knows the importance of brotherhood and commitment. On his mother’s side, he champions his Cherokee heritage and the fact that his mother was the first women welder in the United States to weld on a tank during World War II. It just happened to be the same type of Sherman tanks his father drove. Farner’s work on and off the stage is focused on honoring service personnel and veterans and offering support to American farmers, individuals with disabilities, and downtrodden populations. Farner, the rock patriot that he is, continues to work tirelessly to honor service personnel and Veterans everywhere. He wants everyone to remember the huge sacrifices the men and women of our armed services give up to protect our amazing country and our freedoms. In July 1971, the trio sold out Shea Stadium in New York; 55,000 tickets were sold in a record 72 hours – besting The Beatles’ previous record.   Farner’s penned composition “Bad Time” was Grand Funk’s last Top 10 single reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, in June 1975. Although it never topped the charts, the song was the most played tune on radio that year due to demand.   Farner released his first solo record in 1977. He has also enjoyed success in Contemporary Christian music with the No. 2 and Dove-nominated “Isn’t It Amazing” in 1988. He’s a three-time Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame member – inducted as a solo member in 2015 and an inductee as part of Grand Funk Railroad and Terry Knight & The Pack.   More than 50 years later something magical still happens when Farner takes the stage. His voice still strong and on key, his guitar playing slick and lighting quick and his trademark prancing all of which is still memorizes his audiences around the world. “Love is unconditional,” he said. “Just like when you hold a baby, the love transfers. I feel that when I’m on stage from the audience. It’s all about the fans, and all about love.”

“You’re never going to be as good as something you copy. So, we want to invent our own space,” says Phil Leavitt, one half of the stalwart rock/blues duo 7Horse. “And if you want what we’ve got, we’re the only ones who have it.”   Formed in 2011 by Leavitt and longtime friend and musical partner Joie Calio, 7Horse has blazed their own trail across three well-reviewed albums: Let the 7Horse Run (2011), Songs for a Voodoo Wedding (2014) and Livin in a Bitch of a World (2016). Along the way, their raw, swaggerin’ catalog of “dark, sexual rock’n’roll” has racked up 13.5+ million streams on Spotify and been featured across TV shows (Amazon’s The Grand Tour, the NFL playoffs on Fox), video games (Far Cry 5) and one very, very big movie — The Wolf of Wall Street, which showcased the band’s left-of-center hit “Meth Lab Zoso Sticker.”   “There’s a level of validation when Martin Scorsese thinks your song is good enough for his movie,” says Calio. “That was the proverbial shot in the arm for us. We weren't looking for it, but we had worked our asses off — sometimes stuff like that comes to you."   But ever restless, the band has toyed with their musical formula on their new album Superfecta. Written and recorded in the Hollywood Hills over a six-month span, it marks a true sonic evolution for the group, and adds a few new voices to their swampy mix.   “We started as a two-piece, blues-influenced, Black Keys-styled band, but we couldn’t stay there,” says Leavitt. “We have all these influences. I’m a product of growing up in Vegas, so I love showbiz, and I love rock’n’roll. To me, it’s like Dean Martin fronting the Stones. Is there room for that? We want to find out.”   In lieu of self-producing, the band brought in Grammy-winning mixer/producer Dave Way (Ben Folds, Jakob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney, Pink). “He’s mixed some of our stuff before, and he’s a great collaborator,” says Leavitt. “He has the same appreciation for the ‘60s and ‘70s bands we like — and he cut his teeth as an engineer/mixer for a lot of R&B records, so he gets the groove that’s part of our sound. And he’s a great hang.”   As well, the band also started working with Brian Whelan, a multi-instrumentalist who recently served as the guitar player for Dwight Yoakam. “He’s a great bass player and keyboardist, and he really frees us up live,” says Calio.   For Superfecta, the group upended their unorthodox songwriting process. “We live in two different cities, so we used to send each other lyrics and ideas, and finish the song when we went into the studio, to create that last-minute spark,” says Calio. “That worked for three records. This time, we did a lot of pre-production and wrote for several months together. It was a conscious effort to up our game.”   The result is an expansive, daring take on 7Horse’s blues-rock sound. Take the thunderous opener “Victorious,” a foot-stomping anthem that plays like “We Will Rock You” cycled through classic ZZ Top. It’s certainly a diverse record, but a cohesive one: the spaghetti western vibe of “What Kind of Man” and sped-up rockabilly of “Die Behind the Wheel” pair nicely with the more languid break-up rocker “Broken String” (featuring Joie on lead) and the slow din of “Burn,” a song written at 5 a.m. after Leavitt witnessed images of the 405 on fire.   Lyrically, Superfecta, the band’s fourth record, centers on four themes — death, money, love and the duo’s relationship to music (hence the title, a reference to betting on the four winning horses in a race). The album also touches upon the frazzled state of our country — see the toe-tapping, what-do-you-believe first single “What Is America.”   In support of the September release of a rollickin’ cover of Johnny Cash’s “Man in Black” (recorded for the movie VENOM) and their newest album out in late 2018 — the band is itching to hit the road. “We want to tour. A lot,” says Leavitt. “I love playing in front of people. That inspires us.”   Interestingly, the group found great success touring with rather unexpected musical pairings, including country/Southern rockers The Cadillac Three and blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd. “Those were great tours, and that’s the kind of tour I want to be on.” says Calio. “You’re there to show up and change minds. I love doing that.”   For Leavitt and Calio, 7Horse marks the incredible evolution of a friendship and musical partnership that goes back over two decades — with some brief detours into book writing, solo records and the Blue Man Group — starting when the two served as the rhythm section and Joie sang lead for the platinum alt-rock trio dada. “We’ve always been unified in thought,” says Calio. “We agree on almost everything. And we know that even as we expand our band, the two of us will always be the foundation.”