Revived classic rock legends BTO to headline Darke County Fair today

“When I play a concert now and I yell ‘rock is back,’ the audience goes nuts.”

That’s Randy Bachman, the Canadian guitarist best known for his work in seminal classic rock bands like the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the latter of which will soon headline the Great Darke County Fair.

The BTO show is today, Aug. 22.

Last year BTO revived for a fall tour that has continued into 2024. The tour follows the passing of Bachman’s brothers and founding BTO members, Robbie and Tim, in 2023. BTO’s latest lineup includes Mick Dalla-Vee, Brent Knudsen, Marc LaFrance, and Bachman’s son, Tal, known for his 1999 indie power pop hit, “She’s So High.”

But while Tal’s ubiquitous earworm seemed to make the soundtrack of every coming-of-age movie in the early aughts, Randy’s work has occupied our collective ears since the mid-1960s.

His smooth and innovative lead guitar style can be attributed to his early violin lessons (see: BTO’s “Lookin’ Out for #1″ for how smooth he can get). He eventually translated what he learned from violin to the guitar, and was never once discouraged by the two extra strings.

“My solos are singable,” Randy said. “Really good guitar players might wow one or two other guitar players, but by playing real simple the average person can sing your guitar solo or sing your song the next time they hear it.”

Randy Bachman has penned some of the most recognizable songs in the classic rock genre, including BTO’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” and “Takin’ Care of Business,” along with the Guess Who’s “American Woman” and the first half of “No Sugar Tonight / New Mother Nature.”

While Bachman’s career was frontloaded with hits, he never stopped working — he found his way in and out of bands and solo ventures, but has arguably been making “classic rock” since its heyday.

“There were 15 years of magic where all of us kids took all the Elvis and Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and made it into our own music,” Randy said. “And then that kind of morphed through the 1960s. We started to play heavier rock. That became classic rock which is just very melodic pop music with louder guitars.”

Bachman says the genre’s golden age was from 1962 to 1978: years that constitute most of the Beatles’ and Beach Boys’ catalogs, as well as Bachman’s bands, BTO and the Guess Who.

Those bands are all still in heavy rotation on radio stations that play this type of music. Even if a station doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of classic rock, there is a good chance that “Takin’ Care of Business” is underscoring an ad that plays between the music blocks.

So when Randy yells “rock is back” at his concerts (with an unfounded “rap is gone” as its setup), it seems a little strange considering rock never really went away; it just evolved into hair metal, alt-rock, pop-punk and other descendants of those classic sounds.

Coming from an analog background, it’s no surprise Randy also takes exception to AI, autotune and other current music production methods: those are normal sentiments of an 80-year-old guitar legend who built his career making music other genres eclipsed, albeit temporarily.

But if most popular music comes in waves, classic rock is more like a beach: an established genre often washed over by fleeting sounds that eventually retreat back into the waters of music that time forgets.

Classic rock, against all odds, persists.

“A band playing great music… it’s not one guy sitting there playing one instrument at a time to a click track and everything is perfect,” Randy said. “[Classic rock] is guys playing live in a studio, looking at each other, watching each other’s hands move and how the singer’s conducting with his body movements. You’re all playing together. Your sound bleeds into the drums and the drums bleed into the bass.”

On this latest BTO tour, that raw meshing of instruments and lack of perfection seems to be refreshing for some audiences.

Randy says fans call out songs the band has never played on stage, and in between the hits, BTO attempts them. The crowd beams despite a few misplaced notes and varying tempos because that is rock music at its core.

“They love to hear you try it and make mistakes because it shows that you’re human,” Randy said.

Another BTO record is on its way, and the tapes from a 1976 concert at Budokan were also recently discovered.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive is back, and playing classic rock hits at a county fair near you.