|
Fredericksburg musician Wil Gravatt and his band warmed up crowds for Bush. |
John Kerry picked Bruce Springsteen to play his musical introductions at rallies as the presidential campaign wound down.
George W. Bush chose Wil Gravatt to do the same for him.
The rest is history.
Yesterday Gravatt, a Fredericksburg country artist, laughed at the notion that he had won an electoral battle of the bands with the iconic Springsteen during the last couple of weeks of the campaign.
But it had clearly crossed his mind that he was playing the role of Springsteen's counterpart, in spite of the huge difference in name recognition.
When he played Tuesday's Bush official election night party in Washington in the Ronald Reagan Building's atrium, Gravatt drew cheers by joking: "Sorry. We're not playing any Springsteen tonight."
The Wil Gravatt Band anxiously played on and on from the main stage in front of an electronic tote board as the president was stuck just below the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. The group didn't pack up and head home till 4 a.m.
It was the end of a grueling but thrilling two weeks for the band, which drove from rally to rally, making trips as long as 17 hours. The band played for a crowd of tens of thousands at a rally at Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark--the home of the Cincinnati Reds--in the final week.
Another huge crowd gathered for Bush in Saginaw, Mich., Gravatt said.
The band became a favorite of Bush adviser Karl Rove when it used to play parties for former Republican House majority leader Newt Gingrich. And that led to the gig warming up crowds for the Bush campaign.
The band includes singer and guitarist Gravatt, steel guitarist Jimbo Byram of Stafford County, bass player Nick McAlister of Spotsylvania County and drummer Gary Crockett of Alexandria.
Five hours before the big Cincinnati rally, Gravatt decided to learn "America the Beautiful," then played it for the first time as the crowd waved flags and the ballpark JumboTron screen focused on him.
"That was an incredible experience," he said. "I didn't think it could get any more incredible, but the election night gala was pretty amazing.
"We felt like we were a part of history," Gravatt said. "We really did. We felt like we were right in the midst of an historical event unfolding."
The biggest thrill, however, might simply have been the fact that the president thanked the Wil Gravatt Band onstage, he said.
But Gravatt didn't get carried away.
Before the Bush campaign asked Gravatt to join the president for the last two weeks on the road, the band had promised to play last Saturday's benefit show for the Moss Free Clinic. So the band skipped a Bush rally to play the benefit. Then, it packed up and drove to Ohio to rejoin the campaign.
The end of the campaign brings a return to normalcy for Gravatt, who books music acts for Cheeseburger in Paradise at Central Park. His band plays there next Friday night.
A memory that stands out is having played at 6 a.m. Monday in a rural Wilmington, Ohio, airport hangar at a rally with the president and Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.
The band was running late and got stuck in traffic on an airport access road. So the bleary-eyed bus driver crossed over into oncoming traffic and then was stopped by police. In spite of everything, the group still managed to make it onstage by five minutes to 6.
"It was all worth it," Gravatt said. "Pretty amazing. We're exhausted, but exhilarated."
To reach MICHAEL ZITZ: 540/374-5408 mikez@freelancestar.com
