Dan Kirouac, a multi-instrumentalist from Westminster, is inviting South County seniors to follow him back in time to Paul McCartney’s days center stage with the Beatles and Wings in a musical tribute on Friday, March 27 at the Whately Town Hall.
The program, funded by the Deerfield and Whately cultural councils and organized by the South County Senior Center, is titled “The Music of McCartney: The World’s Most Successful Songwriter.”
With Beatles hits and ballads along with Wings tunes and the famous hitmaker’s solo tracks, Kirouac, 59, described the performance as “a retrospective of Paul McCartney.” Besides songs that lingered on the “Billboard Hot 100,” Kirouac said he “[dug] a little deep” for many of his picks for the performance.
“I hope that people will be reminded of how deep [McCartney’s] catalogue goes and that his music appeals to everyone,” Kirouac said. “You go to a Paul McCartney concert, and you see 80-year-olds and you see 25-year-olds, and that’s a pretty amazing range of fans.”
Between songs, Kirouac will take a break from playing the piano keys to share glimpses of the songwriter behind the hits, from McCartney’s influences to those he influenced and stories of the songs’ births.
Among these fun facts, Kirouac was most surprised to learn that no Beatle earned a formal music education.
“They couldn’t read music and they couldn’t write it out either, they basically put together these masterpieces by finding chords on guitars and making up chords,” Kirouac said. “As untrained as they were, they’ll be looked at historically as musical geniuses just like Beethoven and Mozart.”
To collect the tidbits of context, Kirouac did not do any research. Instead, he relied on his “45-year love affair with the music.”
The Beatles marked the first band that gripped Kirouac and never let go. At around 13 years old, he picked up his drumsticks and learned his first song on the instrument: the 1969 Beatles classic, “Something.” For his first song on the guitar, he learned, “Yellow Submarine.”
Kirouac said the band’s wide scope of sounds first caught his ear.
“I liked the variety,” he said. “It was almost like listening to 10 bands in one.”
Now, about 45 years and two Beatles tribute bands later, his list of McCartney favorites includes “Let It Be” by the Beatles, “Maybe I’m Amazed” by Paul McCartney and “My Love” by Paul McCartney and Wings.
“It’s like asking, ‘What’s your favorite kid?’” Kirouac said with a laugh. “There’s so many, I hate to give out one or two, because then I’m leaving out 10 or 15 that I really love.”
He traced McCartney’s popularity to his knack for writing earworms that stick with the listener, without asking them to solve a lyrical puzzle.
“Paul is one of those people that has a rare gift for melody and catchiness. [The Beatles] all have their different strengths as songwriters. John [Lennon], it was his lyrics and his poetry and his honesty and social causes, but Paul just knew how to write songs that people would listen to over and over again,” Kirouac said. “It’s incredible because he’s not so deep that people don’t know what he’s talking about, and I think that’s the case with a lot of musicians. Especially his choruses, he just knows how to have that hook, as they call it, that part that you just really jump on and you know and you enjoy singing and being a part of it.”
At the March 27 concert, he hopes to hear the audience sing McCartney’s words back to him.
“It’s gratifying to see people singing along,” Kirouac said. “That’s the best way to know you’re connecting with people.”
The concert will kick off at 11 a.m. on March 27. The program is free and open to Sunderland, Deerfield and Whately seniors as space and interest allow, according to the event announcement. Sign-ups are required. To save a spot, call the South County Senior Center at 413-665-9508.