Cellar Sessions: Crack The Sky April 20th, 2019 City Winery New York Full Session

Setlist:
Skin Deep
From The Greenhouse
Red Rosary

Active on and off since the early '70s, long-running progressive rock group Crack the Sky built a loyal following in the Baltimore area that stuck with them as they rode the tides of the music industry over the next several decades. Characterized by tightly wound playing, quickly shifting song structures, and high-concept lyrics from vocalist John Palumbo, the band's early albums on the Lifesong label approached hard rock with complex technical prowess. The band would break up and reunite frequently over the years, with different phases of activity resulting in albums like 1978's Safety in Numbers, 2004's Dog from Japan, and a plethora of live albums and compilations.

Crack the Sky were formed in Weirton, West Virginia in the early '70s, growing out of the ashes of two area bands, Uncle Louie and Sugar. Originally a ten-piece band, the group pared itself down to just frontman John Palumbo, guitarists Jim Griffiths and Rick Witkowski, bassist Joe Macre, and drummer Joey D'Amico. First going under the name ArcAngel, the group played often on the Cleveland and Baltimore club circuits before changing their name and signing to the Lifesong label in 1975. A self-titled debut LP was issued that year to critical acclaim, but problems with distribution made it difficult for fans to find the album and record sales were minimal. The band carried on undeterred, completing second album Animal Notes in 1976 and touring the states nonstop, even sharing stages with Rush, Yes, Supertramp, and other huge bands of the day. By 1977, Palumbo exited to pursue a solo career and the band enlisted new vocalist Gary Lee Chappell for 1978's Safety in Numbers. The album would be Crack the Sky's best performing release, cracking the Billboard chart and selling better than the first two. The band toured with Heart and released the live album Live Sky, culled from recordings from that tour in 1978. Shortly thereafter, ongoing problems with their label led the band to break up, but in 1980, Palumbo, Witkowski, and keyboardist Vince DePaul briefly re-formed the group to record the White Music album before again dissolving. From this point on, the band underwent a series of lineup changes and intermittent hiatuses, beginning when Palumbo formed another new lineup in 1981. This version of Crack the Sky released a succession of albums including Photoflamingo, World in Motion I, and Raw before Palumbo reunited with Witkowski, D'Amico, and DePaul for a series of 1986 live dates at the Baltimore club Hammerjacks and eventually a new 1989 studio LP, From the Greenhouse. Ninth studio album Dog City followed in 1990, and the rest of that decade saw the band issuing various live albums and compilations before tenth album Cut arrived in 1998. The next ten years were similar, with a slow trickle of new material, like 2007's The Sale, being released amid more archival live recordings and compilations. The 2010s were somewhat more active, as the band performed more often and released more new music, including 2010's Machine, 2012's Ostrich, and 2015's The Beauty of Nothing. 2018 saw the release of both the band's 17th studio album Living in Reverse as well as Crackology, a collection of re-recorded versions of fan favorites from their winding discography. That year there were also talks of the original lineup reuniting for some shows. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

[chasmenear]

WV's finest! Phat guitars, crazy variety pack arrangements, and some of the finest deadpan irony in musical history. This band deserves far more than it ever got!!!!

[Earmanmusic]

CTS, the best band you never heard of!

[jeffdriscoll]

So glad these guys are still performing! 40 years of great music!

[scorpioinvt]

45 Years of kick ass music!!!! And all the guys look and sound great

[wvkayaker]

Outstanding! Been a fan since the 1st ST LP. Best Band not enough folks know. A little Frank Z, some Steely Dan, Thomas Dolby and dare I say AC/DC... stir up the gumbo!

[robertkess]

I remember having "Live Sky" on cassette when I was like 15 in 1980, didn't know anything about the band, didn't know where they were from, their names, nothing, but I wore that cassette tape out completely. To this day I know ever single note on that live album, it's drilled into my head to this day. My best friend and I used to argue about which was better live, he said it was Ice, I said it was Surf City with the famous long ranger ending. We were both right, Live Sky is right up there with Live at Leeds at least as far as I'm concerned, one of the best live albums of all time. And it holds up really well all these years later, as does the band itself.

[dnick]

CTS still rocking with swag. One of the great bands that can still lay down awesome music that would shame most of the trash thats called music today.

[caramanico]

Living in Maryland, I've followed these guys since the first album in '75 (must be 25-40 shows, including one about a month ago!). Makes me cry when so many crap "artists" put out a couple of pieces of throwaway junk, they get a huge label push, they make a zillion dollars then retire to their coke and mansions in their mid-20s. These guys are all superb musicians, and they combine to make such a tight band they almost squeak. Also, I've been to over 400 concerts in my life and I've never seen a crowd more adoring to the point of insanity than a CTS crowd.

[DogDoc]

That was a great show in a great venue. Well worth the drive up from Philly! I've been a fan since 1975 but never saw them live until earlier this year. And with the Feb 9 show coming up in Ardmore, I will have seen them four times in about a year. Making up for decades lost!

[erinmiddleton]

still some bad ass guitar playing! Looking forward to see you in Easton MD on Saturday!!!

[cjryan]

Ha, Just saw a poster from 1974, them supporting RUSH...wish I could see that now.

[themojo]

I didn’t have a tie to wear to this affair

[billbrown]

Bring back carry Z! No disrespect to Bigfoot

[robertkess]

BYW I hate to say it but "Crackology" sucks, there was never a reason to rerecord their music, you can't make it any better than it was when you recorded it. The only song that was better than the original and worth doing over again was From The Greenhouse, anything to get rid of those 80's canned fake drums, and the mix was too heavy. The new version is very good, but the rest is for the trash heap, just listen to the original stuff, you'll be much better off, sorry Crack The Sky I love you, but that was a really bad decision. If you really wanted to go off, you should have released two albums of new material, Living In Reverse, and "fill in the blank" it's very hard to listen to the crackology stuff.