By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
Maybe you’ve heard him at The Fort – or Tucker’s Restaurant or Uno’s or The Mick at the Delaney House. He might have been the voice you heard drifting down from the choir loft at a wedding, or during mass at Springfield’s St. Patrick’s or Sacred Heart churches on a Sunday morning. Or maybe you caught his disco-inspired performance one New Year’s Eve, or occasional musical role at the Majestic.
There’s so many facets to this singer.
“I have but one mistress in my life, music. She’s given me some of the best moments of my life, and some of the most heartache. But I wouldn’t trade it,” he penned for the liner notes of a CD produced by friend and fellow musician, Dan Kane.
It’s not everyone who can turn a passion into a career. But for Holyoke’s Freddie Marion, his love of music has always been a guiding star.
Following the notes
“At a younger age, I was not the most athletic or outgoing kid in school,” Marion told Prime during a recent interview about making music in the Valley. “Music gave me my personality.
“We all search for acceptance,” the 56-year-old Marion continued. “And music truly gave me my place to be.”
It gave him more than that. At an early age, it gave him a taste of what the spotlight was like.
“When I was 13 years old, I played at my father’s club [in South Hadley], Marion said, adding that his family owned the Halfway House at the time. “I played with my best friend Brian Moriarty – we played for $10 and a roast beef sandwich every Friday and Saturday night.”
A year or two later he had a band named Strawberry Hill, and they were playing parties and the nursing home circuit. By high school, his group was called Freddie and the Phoenix.
Always a singer – his website says he was “singing alone with his 45s and the radio starting at the age of five” – Marion credits his junior high school music teacher, Bob Ezold, with being one of the “most influential” forces shaping his early musical career.
“Going through junior high and high school choirs, and singing at Holy Cross Church in Holyoke, that was a big basis of music growing up,” he said.
But he didn’t just rely on raw talent, polishing his vocal style with lessons from Cass Elliot ‘s vocal coach xxx xxx at the Hartford Conservatory of Music during his teen years, and even, once, trying to slip a demo to Wayne Newton when he was in the area.
“When I was 15, Wayne Newton came to the Chateau de Ville [in Framingham],” Marion said. “We went into a recording studio and cut a demo and my dad had a bound book made and we drove out there.
“Nothing came of it,” he added.
At 16 Marion connected with fellow Holyoke musician Dan Kane. The two teens performed briefly together, but their careers took different paths when Kane stayed in the area and launched the Dan Kane Singers with his father, and Marion moved to Boston to study music at Berklee. After graduation, Marion hit the road with Tiffany, a show band that played the hotel circuit throughout the East Coast and parts of the Midwest until 1988, when his eldest daughter turned 3 and he began looking at schooling for her.
Coming home to Holyoke
That life change “took me away from the traveling end of my career and grounded me” back in Western Massachusetts, said Marion, who now lives along the St. Patrick’s Day parade route in his hometown of Holyoke.
Coming home, however, meant re-launching his career in a new market. The singer – who also played guitar and some keyboards – landed a gig performing with the house band with the club Geraldines in West Springfield five nights a week and also picked up a role or two in the musicals being produced at Elms College.
He also started deejaying at Geraldines’ as a side job, which opened up another opportunity, performing with The All-Star Dynamite Disco Revue, which Marion refers to as his “retro ‘70s project.”
“The lead singer left and they asked me to fill in,” Marion said. That was 22 years ago, and he still slips back into his alternative persona, Tony Bolaro, for retro performances such as the Review’s annual New Year’s Eve party at The Log Cabin.
“We worked with everybody [over the years] from KC and the Sunshine Band to The Village People,” Marion said of the Dynamite Revue. “I’ve had a blast.”
The Kane connection
About 10 years ago Marion said he reconnected with Dan Kane.
“My two youngest daughters – who are now 22 and 20 – went to Dan Kane’s music camp,” Marion said, adding the girls very much wanted to follow up that experience with private lessons with the local music legend, but Kane’s schedule couldn’t accommodate them.
“He asked us to come and join his big group [the Dan Kane Singers],” Marion said. In the end, all three of his daughters, his current girlfriend, Patty, and he all joined the group, singing with Kane at events large and small until he dissolved the Singers about three years ago.
Now Marion said he performs with Kane as part of the Dan Kane and Friends group, which have become Thursday night regulars at The Student Prince in downtown Springfield, among other engagements throughout the Valley. Kane also tapped Marion to work with him at St. Patrick’s and Sacred Heart when his father, James Kane, passed away.
“He and his dad had been doing the masses at St. Patrick’s for 30 years, and he asked me to step in, “Marion said. “I do the St. Patrick’s 8 a.m. mass, run out of there and do the 9 a.m. mass at Sacred Heart on Chestnut St., then bounce back to do the 10:30 a.m. mass at St. Patrick’s,” he said of his typical Sunday morning. “My day starts at 6:30 a.m. and I’m home by 11:30 a.m., having gotten three masses in.”
And though he does have a day job – Marion has worked for Hannoush Jewelers for 25 years – he said he’s grateful for a position that gives him the flexibility to continue making music the focus of his life.
“I ‘m working all the time – just look at my schedule. On a typical day I might do a funeral in the morning, a nursing home [show] in the afternoon and a club at night,.” he said. “I’m lucky enough to have a girlfriend who will put up with the craziness and a company that will give me the slack to do this.”
Holiday music with Freddie
This holiday season is no exception. Marion said beyond his regular schedule of private events and retirement community shows, he and Kane would be appearing together in a Christmas show at the Iron Horse in Northampton on Dec. 7 and 8.
Marion will be appearing by himself on Dec. 2 at the Holyoke Merry Go Round Christmas event during the day, and then the Tree Lighting in Salem, CT. at night.
He’s also appearing in Christmas shows on Dec. 6 at the Monson Senior Center, Dec. 10 at the Holyoke Senior Center and Dec. 13 at the Longmeadow Senior Center.
And then there’s his annual Tony Bolero performance as part of the Dynamite Review show at the Log Cabin’s New Year’s Eve Party.
The song goes on
It’s a busy life, and Marion readily admits that being an entertainer can also be a “selfish” career.
“You can give and give and give to others, and the ones you love most get the least of your time,” he said. “But if you find a person who can stand by you, it’s worth it to everyone.
“I don’t regret the path my music career has taken,” he continued. “Had I pursued a music career bigger than this, I’m not sure I would have been the success I am. I’m pretty pleased.”
And he said to tell his fans to stay tuned; he and Kane have some new things planned.
“Now that Dan has retired [from his school position], we are looking for new and exciting directions to take our careers,” Marion said. “I’ve found my [musical] partner in him.”
