America, a land of immigrants, is enraptured with festivals and parades. Boston has its annual Southie Parade. The District has its beautifully costumed Caribbean parade. New Orleans has its intoxicating Mardi Gras. And the brothers Bacon want their Mummers.
In Michael Bacon’s Emmy Award-winning music career, the project that makes him most proud is his work to save Philadelphia’s historic Mummers Parade. Michael is one half of the Bacon Brothers band, which includes movie-star icon Kevin Bacon on guitar, bongos, vocals and harmonica.
The Mummers festival traces back to the mid-17th century, relating to England’s Mummers play tradition. Performers have been strutting up Philadelphia’s Broad Street for 108 years, wearing elaborate feathered costumes and playing music.
Most public figures want to save a lonely fern or donate a park bench. For the Bacon Brothers, the Mummers festival is a unique and important cause because it’s living, vibrant and unites the city.
City officials have been cutting funding for the festival because of Philadelphia’s $1 billion budget deficit.
Michael Bacon describes the significance of the festival to Philadelphia as “uniquely defining. Like Mardi Gras to New Orleans.”
“People get ready for this parade all year. The Mummers are working-class, blue-collar people. But once a year, these macho guys put on makeup, multilayer tutus, and play music in the streets. It’s one of the strangest phenomena I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing, a joyous thunder,” he said.
Kevin Bacon told The Washington Times about his favorite memory growing up and going to the parade,
“I was really, really young, with mittens and all,” he said. “The parade would start, and it would be this crush of humanity. My dad would put me up on his shoulders. When I grew up and left Philly, I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a parade like this in every town.”
Kevin wrote the lyrics to the title track on the brothers’ sixth LP, “New Year’s Day,” about a young boy moving to Los Angeles to become a star and dreaming about getting back to the Mummers Parade, which takes place Jan. 1.
The band remixed the song and recorded a video featuring Mummers Parade marchers and will be selling it to raise money for the parade.
The Bacon Brothers are gracious about cynical inquiries on whether the “Footloose” star can really cut loose on a guitar.
“Hey, we’re cynical too when we hear about actors starting bands. But, really, there’s no reason why some actors can’t also be competitive musicians,” said Michael, who won an Emmy for his film scoring of PBS’ “The Kennedys” and studied under Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano.
At their sold-out Birchmere show Oct. 2, no was cynicism in sight. The band rocked solid with its sound blend of Beach Boys bounce, blue-collar country, and classic rock undertones.
And the 51-year-old Kevin? He’s still got it.
One gray-haired female fan stood in the back for most of the show to get a better view, dancing and precisely mirroring the moves Kevin was doing onstage. Before each song she shouted to her friend, “No, this one’s my favorite.” She was first to rise for the standing ovation the crowd gave at the end of the show.
After the show, groups of blond middle-aged women flocked toward the backstage door and fans waited in the alley for more than an hour hoping to catch a glimpse of the brothers.
The band will be headlining a Save the Mummers benefit concert on Dec. 5 at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory.
“Even if people come to our shows because there is a movie star in the band, we can turn them into music fans,” Michael said. “If we weren’t doing that, then we wouldn’t have been able to succeed. We’ve been playing for 14 years now.”
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