Nationwide Entertainment, personal management for the New Reformation Band, and Allied Concerts worked together to produce the band's 4th Annual Farewell Tour which ended when the group returned home on Friday, October 7th. 

The tour started in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in Menominee near the Wisconsin border on September 24th and ended in Warren, Indiana two weeks later, after traveling as far west as Gallup, New Mexico.

The rhythm section on this tour was made up of the same four musicians who joined forces in 1979 when the band went through a complete reorganization: the Oppermann Brothers (Nick on banjo/guitar and bandleader Dave on the piano); Craig "Hurricane" Hodnett from Buffalo, New York, on bass and tuba; and Rick Bryant from Millington, Michigan, on the drums.

The front line featured longtime veteran Gary (or call me Kenny) Sutton from North Branch, Michigan, on trombone; veteran bandleader Bud Bechtold from Bellaire, Michigan on clarinet; and a young horn player from Toledo, Ohio, making his debut with the NRB: John Grafing on trumpet and cornet.

Other stops on the 5,500-mile tour were Burlington, Iowa; Austin and Brainerd, Minnesota; Belle Fourche, South Dakota: and Loveland, Colorado.

The band received warm and enthusiastic welcomes on all the stops, and CD sales were terrific. The group departed with what they thought would be enough CD's to last through the end of the tour, but to their surprise, found they had sold out of their complete supply by the end of the 3rd performance. An additional supply was airlifted from NRB headquarters to the next stop on the tour.

Review: The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa - September 27, 2011

The new Civic Music season began calmnly Monday with short speeches by president Barbara McRoberts and Two Rivers Insurance vice-president Jeff Rucker.

Suddenly, the stage was rushed by a swarm of white-hair geezers in matching ties.

All seven members of The New Reformation Band were resplendent in white shirts and black slacks when they kicked off the road portion of their "Fourth Annual National Farewell Tour" at Burlington's memoiral Auditorium.

 Applause fell like the autumn rain on the building's windows and continued unabated.

Piano, guitar, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, bass guitar and drums make for a great Dixie sound, and everyone knew their roles and played them well. They remained true to the originals for the most part, but under that cloak of tradition were glimpses of the kind of hard polish only achieved by decades of road work.

The band ran a nice hand, filled with Dixie, New Orleans jazz, and ragtime. Their version of Duke Ellington's swing tenet "A Train" swung, but they dressed it up like it belonged in a Mardi Gras parade, complete with a clarinet solo that would make Pete Fountain smile.

"Sugar" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" were crowd favorites, but the evening's sleeper was a sneaky little ragtime-flavored "Little Rock Getaway."

Clarinetist Bud Bechtold is a legend in American traditional music and has played with the likes of Eubie Blake and Billy Butterfield. His lanky presence reminded concergoers of Jimmy Stewart, and his smooth and tasty riffs were the highlight for many.

"They're playing our kind of music," one patron gushed at intermission.

Trumpeteer John Grafing, young enough actually to be the grandson of any other band member and himself not actually whitehaired, teamed with trombonist Gary Sutton, a former school band director, to set up the Dixie and ragtime interplay that so often buoyed Bechtold's licks.

But the pair exited to the wings to make room for Bechtold on "Memories of You," a sweet and poignant glimpse into a time when music felt more like an evening stroll than a trip to the dentist. 

Bechtold got the biggest ovation of the night with "Memories," but the unsung hero was bassist Craig "Hurricane" Hodnett, who stayed right on top of the beat all night, giving everyone else the foundation needed for the controlled chaos of Dixie.

Drummer Rick Bryant first appeared with NRB in 1979 and reunited with Hodnett on this tour.

Pianist Dave Oppermann and his guitar-slinging brother, Nick, have been playing together off and on since 1970, when NRB began. The band has previously appeared in Burlington at Steamboat Days and the original Pzazz restaurant.

Oppermann provided an easygoing standup routine between songs, a refreshing bit of icing between the cakewalks.

And they really weren't geezers after all. They just wore their ties that way. -Bob Saar, for The Hawk Eye