The year was 1964. The place was the working-class Chicago neighborhood of Berwyn.
The British musical invasion was underway, but four homegrown schoolboys from the Chicago blue-collar western suburb had just formed a rock band of their own, called The Ides Of March.
Turned out that one of them, a young Jimmy Peterik had a knack for songwriting. One of his early songs, "You Wouldn't Listen" actually got played on radio and reached #7 in Chicago and #42 on Billboard Magazine's Top 100.
The dreams started getting bigger...
Today, 46 years later, those four friends are still together, still playing music with each other, releasing a new album titled Still 19, being the oldest notable classic rock band performing with its original members.
After being two years in the making, we find the boys from Berwyn reaching back into the past and drawing an arc into the future - standing up to the challenge of the 21st century.
Since leaving Survivor, Jim has been touring with the Ides inbetween his work with Pride Of Lions, World Stage and solo work, but this is the first album of new material in quite some time.
Peterik is the main creative force behind the album as usual, and as usual the songs are first class.
There are a couple tracks that were re-recorded from his other work such as “Secrets Of A Woman” and “Live Life” from his 2006 solo album Above The Storm and the beautiful ballad “Come Dancing” from the recently released Lisa Mclowery album Time Signatures, which he wrote and produced.
The songs were re-recorded with The Ides Of March's signature classic rock sound and are still great.
Along with those we have 7 new Peterik-penned masterpieces including the title track “Still 19”, which is a recapping of the career of The Ides Of March, set to a great melody.
Like all of the other projects involving Jim, Ides Of March’s “Still 19” is a wonderful album filled with great songs and melodies.
Jim Peterik himself slaved over the mix and mastering in intense sessions, resulting in a pristine document.
Still 19 is a state of mind. It is the age this band feels when they play together, with energy, defying age, gravity and location - a sum of every mile they've traveled, every show they've played, and all the records they have made.
