Neil Young impersonator Roger Potter fondly remembers his first car, a 1967 Pontiac, Beaumont he bought for $500 and fixed up with his father芒鈧劉s help.
Of course, that car is no longer. Part of Potter wishes he still had the Beaumont.
But failing that, he said there芒鈧劉s a slight chance he芒鈧劉ll find a replacement at this year芒鈧劉s 91原创 Good Times Cruise-in. That is if the old car lover has time 芒鈧�� between his shows on the Douglas Park bandshell 芒鈧�� to check out the hundreds of automobiles that will line the streets of downtown 91原创 Saturday during Cruise-in.
The 50-year-old Cloverdale singer and guitarist who芒鈧劉s also prone to picking up the harmonica on occasion, started a band called Live Rust back in 2007 as a tribute to one of his heroes in the music industry, Neil Young 芒鈧�� someone he describes as a fellow car lover.
This band 芒鈧�� whose music, Potter said, is popular among the classic and hot rod car aficionados 芒鈧�� is the newest addition to the Cruise-in芒鈧劉s entertainment roster.
And the four-piece band is scheduled to perform four different, 40-minute sets, at 11 a.m., noon, 1, and 2 p.m.
芒鈧揥e芒鈧劉re going to be covering everything from the first band that made [Young] famous, which was Buffalo Springfield (1956) up to the 1990s with Crazy Horse芒鈧� We芒鈧劉re going to cover four decades of music,芒鈧� Potter elaborated.
At age 11, he started teaching himself guitar. In short order, people started telling him he had a style similar to Neil Young. While Potter had heard of the man, he admitted he wasn芒鈧劉t a fan.
That all turned around for Potter when, at age 14, he received Young芒鈧劉s triple album, Decade.
While he broke onto the music scene at age 15, playing cover tunes in Ontario bars, it wasn芒鈧劉t until he moved to B.C. in 1995 that Potter began thinking of setting up a tribute band to his idol.
With prompting from a friend, he heard a Young impersonator out of Maple Ridge. Convinced he could 芒鈧揹o a better job芒鈧� he started Live Rust.
While there have been a number of changes through the years, Potter芒鈧劉s been playing with the existing band members for the past two years, and describes their synergy as nothing short of 芒鈧搈agical.芒鈧�
Adorning a flannel shirt like Young芒鈧劉s and pulling a felt hat down over his head, Potter said many audience members commend him for his realistic Young sound 芒鈧�� even if there isn芒鈧劉t much of a physical resemblance.
芒鈧揥e try to look the part,芒鈧� Potter said. 芒鈧揃ut it芒鈧劉s all about the music. That芒鈧劉s the most essential part for us.芒鈧�
Potter has seen Young perform live 24 times and admires not only the man芒鈧劉s talents but his perseverance. Young is a Canadian singer-songwriter who first emerged onto the music scene in the early 1960s and who is still on stage at age 68.
Potter hopes he too can still be performing at that age. He last saw Young in 2007, but said his favourite concert of all time is still the Live In A Rusted Out Garage tour in 1986 at the former Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
He vowed to give the Cruise-in audience just a taste of what won him over all those years ago.
