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Latest Releases.........
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MOST PARTS OF THIS SITE ARE IN BLUE
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ST. JOSEPH — After retiring in 2011, Bobby Vee has concentrated on finding the joy in every day, minute by minute. Some days are better than others, however. “You know, right now is good,” the hit-making 1960s rock legend said. Bobby was diagnosed with mild stages of Alzheimer’s disease in January 2011. He has waited to go public with the diagnosis until today. His wife of 48 years, Karen Velline, also is dealing with serious health issues (hypersensitivity pneumonitis/pulmonary hypertension) and is preparing to get on a waiting list for a lung transplant at Duke University in Durham, N.C. There’s also good news. Bobby is announcing plans to release a new album of songs that were recorded with his family in the garage at his winter Tucson home. A release date has not been set. Keeping in line with his retirement, he does not plan to tour. Bobby said it’s a weight off his shoulders to finally tell fans, friends and community members both the good news and the bad. His website, www.bobbyvee.com, has been updated with a message from Bobby, a video featuring “If I Needed You” by Townes Van Zandt from the new CD and a link to Vee’s blog where fans are encouraged to post their stories, favorite memories and best wishes for Bobby and his family. Bobby chose to keep his diagnosis private until now to focus on what is most important: his family and his music. “My concern was with Karen,” Bobby said. “I took mine out of the picture so I could be there for her.” He also used the time to reflect and just be, he said. He has been creating memories for his grandchildren, fishing, riding horses and, for once, being the audience. Bobby said some symptoms of Alzheimer’s had been apparent for about a year before it was diagnosed. “The toughest part is when I mumble on something and I don’t even know what I’m talking about,” he said.
However, he never let the symptoms
get in the way of performing and touring his final stretch of retirement shows,
including Joetown Rocks in St. Joseph on July 3, 2011, an annual event he helped
create. “(Music) has been such a long part of my life and I love it,” Bobby said. “But there’s no playbook for this.” 'Tucson odyssey'Bobby has continued to perform with his sons Jeff, Tommy and Robbie Velline at small gatherings, a few hole-in-the wall venues and family get-togethers. It’s all part of Bobby’s new mantra: “Don’t turn down any parties.” Shortly after Bobby’s diagnosis, he and his family embarked on what they now call the “Tucson odyssey,” an RV trip from Minnesota to Tucson, Ariz., to move Bobby and Karen into their winter home. “We all just got absolutely broadsided by the news,” Jeff Velline said. “Everyone just had their minds blown and flipped into this mode that kind of took on its own life. Robbie, who hadn’t been playing with us for almost 10 years, didn’t think twice about hopping on the RV at a moment’s notice.” Jeff said they didn’t know exactly what to do, so they just did what they could do: lived every day minute by minute, traveling miles of highway they had come to know well through decades of touring. They sang songs while bouncing down the road in the RV and took time to stop and see the sites. In Tucson, they assembled a makeshift studio in the garage, similar to the garage band days of Bobby’s youth in Fargo, and started recording family-favorite songs just for fun. They were recorded live with little extra production. Those songs make up the majority of Bobby’s upcoming album. “It’s really coming full circle,” he said. New albumBobby and his family recorded songs by some of his favorite songwriters and musicians including Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot and Townes Van Zandt; songs that had become family standards around the campfire. “They were in my brain and easy to access,” Vee said. “They were songs I grew up with.” They also recorded a Hank Williams medley featuring “Half as Much” and “Window Shopping” that they used for years as a song played during sound checks while on tour. Bobby has had a deep admiration for Williams since he was young, he said. “It was a part of what was going on at the time and paved the way for early rock ‘n’ roll,” Bobby said. “Everything about him was sensational.” They included a few Vee-penned songs as well and one song featuring lyrics by daughter Jenny. “It became more like a family scrapbook,” Jeff said. They quickly realized the songs they were recording were worth releasing as a CD – a tribute to the music that has become a common thread throughout Vee’s family and his musical career. It’s a career that has spanned more than 50 years with 38 Billboard Hot 100 singles, 10 top-20 hits and numerous gold records. “What he has created is firmly in the fabric of somebody else’s life,” Jeff said. “That’s what has kept us coming back.” |
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BOBBY VEE |
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Bobby has laid down the
guitar and is going to take it easy. He has been working since 1959 and
should now take some time to enjoy his family and just do nothing when
he wants. My very best to Bobby and his family. Here's wishing you a
long life with retired as your current status. June 30, 2011 A Note from Bobby Vee Here we are again gearing up for another fabulous "Joetown Rocks" on Sunday July 3rd. Nothing says small town USA, Minnesota and for me... "home" than this terrific annual festival. Ah... I can almost smell the "Joe-Burgers" from here! Once again the Vee Family & Friends musical caravan will be coming at you with an independence weekend barrage of good music and good times. I must confess that after this year's show (and 52 years of performing) I'll be pulling back the touring schedule to test the "semi-retirement" waters. It's a chance to concentrate on a few of the things going on in my life, namely grandkids, a new winter place that Karen and I just built at the base of the Catalina Mountains in Tucson, Arizona (with a LOT of daughter Jenny's help) and of course - recording music. |
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SINGING AFTER
OVER
52
YEARS ON STAGE 52 on February 3, 2011 BUT STILL IN THE ROCK N ROLL HALL OF FAME
Sadly, Bobby and Paul Anka
will not be going
ROCK N ROLL !!!!! |
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 FROM A MINNESOTA NEWSPAPER NOVEMBER 2006 |
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THE
HOME OF
ROCKHOUSE PRODUCTIONS
1963 - JAPAN -
K22P-9148
(Bobby
Vee Meets The Ventures)
Side: 1
(Goodnight Irene)
(Walk Right Back)
(Linda Lou)
-1-4.jpg){kind=small}
(Caravan - Inst.)
(What Else Is
New)
(Candy Man)
Side: 2
(This Is Where
Friendship Ends)
(Honeycomb)
(Pretty Girls
Everywhere)
-2-4.jpg){kind=small}
(Wild Nights -
Inst.)
(I'm Gonna Sit
Right Down And Write Myself A Letter)
(If I'm Right Or
Wrong)
