The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Strong sibling bond
Kent Stage-bound Bacon Brothers have been making music together for years
These two accomplished siblings don’t really need to make it big with their band for money and fame. Born and raised in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, one is a famous actor you will recognize instantly thanks to his decades-long career in film and television. The other is an Emmy-winning composer and college professor. Driven by their passion for music developed as kids, Michael Bacon and younger brother Kevin Bacon have been paying their musical dues on the road and recording as The Bacon Brothers for nearly 25 years. The group rolls into Northeast Ohio for a show at The Kent Stage on Aug. 17.
“Sometimes it rocks and sometimes it’s very intimate, so we try to go all over the map as possible,” Michael Bacon said. People will also hear brand new music at the shows since The Bacon Brothers recently released a new single called “Play!” The song is a response to a question Kevin Bacon is asked a lot during interviews — how he and fellow actor Kyra Sedgwick have stayed married for so long (they tied the knot in 1988) — with such busy Hollywood careers. “People often like to say, ‘It must be so much work, so much work.’ Well my response is it’s really more about play,” he said, meaning enjoying the good times they share together. But there was some work involved with the video for “Play!” which includes clips of fans singing the song’s chorus. While people submitted videos of themselves, Michael, who teaches music at Lehman College at the City University of New York, recruited some of his students for the video. “I think the video came out great, I’m really happy with it,” Michael said. Born nine years apart, the brothers’ love for music dates back to their childhood growing up in an artistic home. “I don’t remember a time once Kevin was walking where we didn’t share some kind of musical experience…our parents valued creativity over everything else and so we didn’t play Little League but we had art lessons and dance lessons and acting lessons,” Michael said. He taught his younger brother how to play the guitar and nurtured his songwriting talents and Kevin idolized his older brother and was one of his first fans. “I saw him playing in the very first band that I really ever saw, which was him and my sister and a few other guys. They would rehearse in our basement and I would hear him also constructing songs, writing songs,” Kevin said. The pair played around together until 1995 when they officially formed The Bacon Brothers and began recording and touring. By that time Kevin, who currently stars as Jackie Rohr on the Showtime series “City on a Hill,” was already a famous actor who had been in films such as “The River Wild,” “Tremors,” and “Footloose” when they officially formed the band. And he was well aware that it’s very difficult for famous actors to be taken seriously as musicians since their work is often judged as being just a vanity project or casual side gig. “I guess I’ve always known that was going to be the reaction from people. But I don’t let it consume me because it’s too much of a distraction for putting on a good show,” Kevin said. “You can’t focus too much on that because that gets in the way of being good,” he added. And these talented brothers are just as committed to the band as they are to their day jobs. “It is a lot of work and we take it very, very seriously. I wouldn’t say ‘oh this is just the fun time,’ like the rest of my life is work and this is the fun time. This is equally as challenging, but the part that’s almost always good is the playing (live) part,” Kevin said.