Burton Cummings

Burton Cummings - Jan. 11, 2025 - Wild Horse Pass Casino, Chandler, AZ

One of the great voices of rock 'n' roll, Burton Cummings, began his US tour January 11, 2025 with a sold out concert in the showroom of Wild Horse Pass Casino in Chandler, Arizona. The show was part of Burton's 60th Anniversary Hits Tour that celebrates not only his solo material but the long list of songs he wrote or co-wrote and voiced during his tenure as front man of hit makers The Guess Who. And play the hits he did as just about every song in the set list was a chart topper or fan favorite.

Backed by a five piece band that featured guitarists Tim Bovaconti and Joe Augello along with bass man Jeff Jones (formerly of Ocean), drummer Sean Fitzsimons and singer and percussionist Nick Sinopoli, Cummings sat at his electric piano as the band rocked through opening numbers "Bus Rider" and "Clap for the Wolfman," a song that he introduced as being from "back in the Jurassic era" before explaining how he got to be friends with legendary disc jockey Wolfman Jack, who the song honors. The audience gladly clapped along at the appropriate times during the song and Cummings did a little joyous wolf howl at song's end. The early part of the set also featured takes on big The Guess Who hits "Laughing" and "Undun," both of which were co-written with former The Guess Who bandmate Randy Bachman. Cummings also played an impressive flute solo on "Undun." A nice interpretation of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was performed as was a rip-roaring version of Burton's solo hit "My Own Way to Rock."

Cummings, very humble and appreciative of the audience's warm response, mentioned more than once how grateful he was to be back touring in the US. Legal tussles over the rights to use the name The Guess Who had put a damper on stateside touring for years as Cummings and Bachman, ultimately victorious in court, fought an entity that was touring as The Guess Who and whom Cummings referred to as "fakes." Cummings often gave background information on the songs he performed, like before "These Eyes" when he explained that he and Bachman wrote the song in the house of Burton's mother, where the young star-to-be still lived. He also marveled at how he was still singing the song more than 50 years after it was written. The middle part of the show also featured a take on J.J. Cale's "Trouble in the City" that with both Bovaconti and Augello going nuts on electric guitar rocked much harder than Cale's version. Fun sing-alongs "Star Baby" and "Albert Flasher" also were played as was one of Cummings' big solo hits, "Stand Tall." For the biggest The Guess Who hit "American Woman" Cummings played the song's album version which includes a bluesy vamp before the familiar chunky guitar riffs kick in; of course the crowd went wild for the all-time favorite. The show moved to an end with "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" where Cummings played, as he did throughout the show, rollicking electric piano runs; the two-fer oldie segued directly into "No Time" where, for the only time in the show, Cummings picked up an electric guitar and joined Bovaconti and Augello for a searing three-man guitar attack. That ended the show but the guys came back to perform the hopeful "Share the Land," a The Guess Who stand-out from the tail end of the hippie era. Cummings has an excellent new album out called A Few Good Moments but he did not play anything from it or for that matter even mention it, but fans were snapping up copies at the merch table.

Burton Cummings' 60th Anniversary Hits Tour continues through late March and tour dates can be found here.

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