Letting the good times roll

St. James-Assiniboia

Crescentwood

North Kildonan

After 15 years, many bands have either burned out or faded away. But for REWiND, the rock just keeps on rolling — despite some sad departures along the way.

“Fifteen years being as long as it is, you’re going to encounter challenges along the way,” said Larry Ruppel, who co-founded the group with Gord Kudlak in 2011. “We’ve grown from five to 11. People in the band have their own interests and lives and you’ve got to be able to accommodate that. Everybody is committed to the band and it’s very much like a family. We all enjoy the time spent together performing.”

Apart from growing the band’s size and scope over the years, perhaps the biggest change the group has faced was the loss of Kudlak, who died in 2020.

“That changed the dynamic,” Ruppel admitted.

The band wrote and recorded When You Love Somebody, a song about and dedicated to Kudlak, which appears on REWiND’s new double album, Put a Little Love in Your Heart. The record, which was recently completed and is now available in stores and at shows, contains 41 songs, all covers of popular rock songs that span from the 1950s through the ’80s.

“We like to have the legacy of what we’ve been up to for us to appreciate, enjoy and listen to, as well,” Ruppel said. “One might argue why are we doing so many cover tunes? We like to do them the REWiND way, to embellish on a song the way that we can with what our people can offer. We try to make them our own versions of those songs. The variety of songs is also representative of the talents within the band. When we put together the album, we were trying to put together the diversity of what we can offer as a band of 11.”

Indeed, all the members of REWiND all bring something different when performing.

“Of those 41 songs, there are actually 10 different lead singers,” Ruppel said. “Every one of those people are performers in their own right. The representation of singers is one thing, and also the representation of instruments. At this point, we have got people who are playing the standard guitar, drums, and bass, but also keyboard, saxophone, violin, flute, accordion.”

While recording an album is an achievement and milestone unto itself, the members of REWiND are now focused on getting back out on stage before audiences again. So far, the group has two shows lined up this summer — July 11 and Aug. 15 — as part of the Corydon Avenue Summer Concert Series (weather permitting).

“Music has the ability to transport you,” Ruppel said. We get energized by the people dancing and responding in the way that they do. That’s only something you can get in that fashion. You’re inspired to do that much better when you’re connected with them. It takes them to a time and place where maybe they hadn’t experienced in some time.”

Two members who bring a wealth of talent to the group are duelling lead guitarists Len Chalmers, the musical director at River East Collegiate, and Kasey Kurtz, who teaches music at École Ness Middle School. The two really show their stuff when the band plays Santana’s Black Magic Woman.

“Each (is) such phenomenal guitarist, the song allows the talent to shine,” Ruppel said. “It’s a showstopper.”

Put a Little Love in Your Heart is available now at Into the Music and McNally Robinson.