Sidemen of Note bring original music of Campbell, Manilow and Garfunkel

The performers Tab Laven, Eddie Kilgallon, and Jeff Dayton form a powerhouse ensemble of veteran touring musicians who have spent their careers alongside some of music’s greatest legends. With experience spanning decades – from Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall to tours with Art Garfunkel, Glen Campbell, Montgomery Gentry and more – they unite their talents to share the songs and stories that defined generations.

Laven toured the world with Art Garfunkel for now going on 24 years. He also toured with Mary MacGregor in support of her 1977 No. 1 hit single, “Torn Between Two Lovers.” He has also recorded and toured with Michael Johnson, who had the top-10 pop hit “Bluer Than Blue.”

Eddie Kilgallon has toured with his musical hero Barry Manilow and his co-writer David Pomeranz.

Jeff Dayton toured for 15 years as bandleader and guitarist with Glen Campbell. He has also toured with Kenny Chesney and Lee Greenwood.

The Beacon caught up with Dayton for a few quick questions; below are a few quick excerpts. The group will perform on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 5 p.m. as part of the Rhythm & Boots concerts of Friends of Boca Grande. The show is sold out.

Beacon: So tell us, how will you come down to Boca Grande this December?

Dayton: I was contacted about my salute to Glen Campbell show. They reached out to me about three years ago, and it was in the making that long. It was booked for December of ’23 and, obviously, the hurricanes came, and that ended that idea. I was Glen Campbell’s bandleader for 15 years, from the 1980s to the 2000s. And I’ve got a story I tell, and I do his hits, and I bring a great band and sometimes I use original guys that I had. But the problem is, we’re getting old, and some of them aren’t here anymore. I also have this other show that we just started called Sidemen of Note, with the sidemen of Art Garfunkel, Barry Manilow, and Glen Campbell.

Beacon: And then you tell stories in between?

Dayton: The hits you know and the stories you don’t, right?

Beacon: What are some of your favorite memories of being with Campbell on the road and how he was?

Dayton: Well, sometimes what a knucklehead he was, and how he was always joking around. But also how people would come around with their hat in their hand in respect for the great guitar players of yesteryear. All these people with Roy Clark just treated him with the greatest respect, and Ricky Skaggs and then Ray Charles.

And then the young guys that recognize the same thing. I remember we were in Nashville at the arena, and our publisher brought this young Australian kid. “May I meet Mr. Campbell, please?” It was Keith Urban, and everybody looks up to him.

Beacon: He was just as much an entertainer as he was a singer, right?

Dayton: That was the thing. He was consummate at both. He was unparalleled as far as the trifecta: play, sing, and entertain.

Beacon: So Glen knew how to tell the story in the song. Why is it that so many singers can’t do that anymore?

Dayton:  I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. Maybe the wheel, the fulcrum, is kind of swinging around the other way right now, where there’s a lot more presence in country music, there’s a lot more honesty. There’s just integrity in it. There are story songs, and there is some blood on the page when they write in the song.

Beacon: What will you sing?

Dayton: The biggest hits are the ones people want to hear. So we’re not going to go deep cataloging.

So, I mean, for Glen, when I first played with him and invited him to sit in with my band, he said, “You know my songs – ‘Gentle on My Mind,’ ‘Rhinestone Cowboy,’ ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix,’ ‘Southern Nights,’ ‘Galveston.’” I was like, “Sure, yeah.” We didn’t, but that still got me the spot, yeah?

And those are the ones: “Galveston,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Southern Nights,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Gentle on My Mind.” That’s all you’ve got to do to do a great Glen Campbell show.

And then if you take that with the other guys – “The Sound of Silence,” “Homeward Bound,” “Scarborough Fair,” “The Boxer.” I mean, we know what those are going to be: “Mrs. Robinson,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Maybe “Can’t Smile Without You,” “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs” – all that.

Beacon: And you do the harmonies for the Garfunkel stuff?

Dayton: I flipping love what we get to do with those songs. We’re all Nashville musicians, which means we’re a tier above most other places.

Beacon: I don’t know what you do with the music, to take it from this level to this level, and not be just the tribute show.

Dayton: It’s an actual, first-person reiteration, right? When you’ve got people that have been there. And then you have Nashville-quality musicians. I think this is as good as you can get.

I’ve been doing Glen’s music for a dozen years, and the response has been universally terrific. Some people say you didn’t do that one part like Glen did. I had one promoter from overseas say, “Well, you people think you don’t sound enough like Glen Campbell.” Well, nobody does.

If Glen Campbell were here, that’d be scary. It’s going to have its own character, right? But the quality is there, and we honor the beauty of the song. So we honor the chord changes. We don’t bore you with nine-minute solos on the guitar or something like that.

Beacon: What do you miss about him?

Dayton: His care for me, his mentorship, the way he encouraged me.

Beacon: There’s that other question I wanted to ask you; maybe you don’t have that much insight into it. Alzheimer’s is a big issue down here in Florida with the aging population. Did you watch that with him? That was such a big part of the life of Glen Campbell.

Dayton: I saw the healing power of music a couple of times in my life, years, decades before. When I went to see Glen, he was in a memory care center; it was after he was done touring. And he just lit right up. And we had a great visit. Go to YouTube and look up “Long Slow Train Out of Town.” And that’s my song about our last meeting. I didn’t know it was the last meeting.

Beacon: What else?

Dayton: Waylon Jennings said to me, “I’ll tell you about old Glen.” He said one thing about Campbell is that when he got his TV show, he never forgot who his friends were, and he had all of us on his show, and this is the kicker: we all owe our careers to him.

Beacon: So last thing. Do you have a favorite thing of Campbell’s? Do you have any, like, a sheet of music or note, or is it just all in your mind?

Dayton: I have some mementos and memorabilia. I think it was just the memory, the connection. That’s the most important – when he hugged me, and he was crying, and he said, “I love you, JD.” He knew who I was when I walked in that day. “Hey, JD,” yeah. So pretty unforgettable there. And the stuff is just stuff. My grandmother passed away. She had all of my great-grandmother’s stuff, and then my mom passed away. So I’ve got three generations of ladies in my life, and we’re going through the stuff, and my grandmother’s checking in from heaven. She goes, “It’s only stuff.”

Beacon: It’s only stuff. It’s only stuff.