Rock n’ Roll of the 1950s and 1960s with Route 66 Band (Concert in the Amphitheatre)

Camden Public Library welcomes Route 66 Band for some Rock n’ Roll of the 50s and 60s on Saturday, August 1 at 2:00 PM in the Amphitheatre! Bring your own camp chair or blanket for comfy seating. Picnics, dogs, families, and dancing welcome!

Maine’s Route 66 band is a newly (March, 2025) formed group of experienced Maine musicians who have played in orchestras, salsa, bluegrass, folk, rock n’ roll, country, R&B, and blues groups. The band was formed to bring an original acoustic and electric sound to classic songs with flute, saxophone, guitar, bass, percussion, and vocals. Get your kicks with Route 66!

This live performance will feature popular song from the 1950’s and 1960’s during a period of explosive change in American music and society.

• What song is often considered the first rock n’ roll song?
• Who recorded a debut single with the Blue Moon Boys in 1954?
• Where was Hitsville USA?
• What song performed on Ed Sullivan’s TV show kick-started the British Invasion?

Alan Freed, a disc jockey in Cleveland during the early 1950s, popularized the phrase “rock and roll” which grew from the blues, boogie-woogie music of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Teenagers embraced rock n’ roll music as a form of rebellion against established norms and the authority of their parents. They listened to:

• Jackie Brentson, Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash

Influenced by rock n’ roll, rhythm and blues, country, and folk music of the 1950s, the 1960s saw the birth of soul and funk, folk-rock, surf-rock, psychedelic rock, and the influence of the British Invasion bands. The 1960s were a period of change in music technology, production, and distribution to wider audiences as events influenced music and social changes. Popular 1960s artists included:

• Chubby Checker, Ben King, Del Shannon, Four Seasons, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Ronettes, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Beach Boys, Roy Orbison. Beatles, Animals, Dave Clark Five, Herman’s Hermits, Rolling Stones, Mamas and Papas, Wilson Picket, and Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, The Monkees, Creedence Clearwater Revival
• During the 1950s and ‘60s, Johnny Cash performed thirty live prison shows.

1960s started with the first astronaut in space, the civil rights movement, the Newport folk festival, and ended in 1969 with Apollo 11 moon landing, the Beatles break-up, the Woodstock festival, and Elvis’ return to live performing in Los Vegas.