Yesterday and Today is a band of brothers that have dedicated time out of their lives to playing the music of yesterday for the music lovers of today. The band’s purpose is to take long time followers of The Beatles through a journey that highlights the tranquility and refreshment the music brings while at the same time giving new fans an opportunity to delve deeper into the iconic band’s catalog.
Yesterday and Today is made up of three brothers Billy, Ryan and Matthew McGuigan.
Billy McGuigan said the three brothers have such a strong dedication to the music of The Beatles because of their childhood.
”Growing up, The Beatles and their music were sort of the religion in our house. Our dad raised us loving it, and it just stuck,” he said.
William “Bill” McGuigan, the boys’ father, had a deep love for two things; his sons and the music of The Beatles. The family did not have much, monetarily speaking, but one thing it did have was every Beatles record possible. Instead of spending money on entertaining his boys, Bill and his sons would sit around and listen to the music, and share in the love of the group together. When their father passed away after a long battle with leukemia, the boys decided the best way to live out a tribute to their father would be to play the music he taught them to love.
These three brothers decided to shake off the stereotype of the average Beatles cover bands and make it all about feeling the music. The McGuigan brothers stripped off the ruffled shirts, stepped out of the bell bottoms, dropped the fake British accents, lost the wigs and realized they were not trying to fit the mold of The Beatles persona but simply play the music to the best of their ability as often as they could.
The men of Yesterday and Today pride themselves on being a group of musicians that not only love the music it plays but do it in a way no one has ever done before. One unique aspect of these gentlemen’s performance is the fact they create their set-list literally five minutes before they step on stage, and they create it solely based on requests they receive at the door.
“Sometimes Ryan and Matthew won’t even look at the set-list until we are actually on the stage about to perform. I’m personally not that brave; I look at it about five minutes before the show, and I won’t lie, sometimes a song just doesn’t work out for us, but at least we are real and doing the best we can,” Billy said.
When audience members walk into the venue, they are given the opportunity to request their favorite Beatles songs that mean something to them. Not only does Yesterday and Today want to know what songs the crowd wants to hear, but it also wants to know why and the personal story between the request and the song. The requests that are given by the fans are taken to the band to ensure what the audience wants to hear is actually what they hear.
“The reason we do our set-list like we do is to give everyone the opportunity to hear their personal favorite Beatles songs rather than just the mainstream, popular songs we hear all of the time. We want to give everyone an opportunity to really experience the music that has touched them before, again,” Ryan said.
Today, Yesterday and Today will be playing a blues night at State Theatre and showing off some of its own musical handiwork as well in the illusive world of blues and jazz.
Wednesday, the group will be ready for an audience to give their requests and simply be there to experience the music with them and be touched again in a way the tunes of The Beatles seem to have the ability to do.
“If you’re looking for a night of good rock ‘n’ roll and a good concert environment then this is the show for you,” Matthew said.
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YESTERDAY AND TODAY
EMMA HOLMES
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October 9, 2011
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