Faithfully Live will perform Saturday Sept. 28  night at the Taste of Morgan Hill

Faithfully Live will perform at the 2019 Taste of Morgan Hill. Photo courtesy Faithfully Live.

By Mark Fenichel

I had the opportunity to ask Faithfully Live lead singer Jeff Salado a few questions to learn more about this hardworking premier tribute band that will perform Saturday Sept. 28  night at the Taste of Morgan Hill.

What makes Faithfully Live different from other Journey Tribute bands?

Other than the obvious love for the music of Journey, I feel the passion and believe in recreating the feeling behind each song as if they were my own. Merely having the tone or just hitting the notes doesn’t do it for me. I have to bring that true sound and spirit of Steve Perry to audiences.

Do you and the band ever get tired of playing the same Journey songs over and over?

No, and the reason being is it feels new each time to recreate these classic performances before the fresh faces at every show. It’s exciting to bring this live experience to people who may not be steeped in-depth beyond Journey’s radio hits and seeing their reaction to these deeper cuts and live arrangements is particularly gratifying.

I see in your bio you can sound like other artists when you do their music. Do you ever want to do your own material?

I am definitely interested in writing and performing original music. I have delved into creating songs along the way with other musicians and I look forward to exploring this creative outlet with other musicians in order to spread my wings and share my range beyond my work as a tribute artist. In terms of my evolution to establish a Journey tribute, from 2002 to 2005, I created and performed at a number of corporate venues, including a few Journey songs at that time in our set. The response to these was overwhelming. People came up to me after shows to say how much I sounded like Steve Perry. That made it easy to decide to take a crack at creating my first Journey tribute band, called Arrival. This lineup performed under that name until mid-2011 when we changed the name to Journey Revisited. But, as you’ll often find in this industry, creative and business differences can arise, and it resulted in a parting of ways in late 2016. In 2017 I rebooted with new, talented musicians and created Faithfully Live — a band that completely reflects my vision, with fresh passion for the compositions I love.

Is there anything particular you like about playing in Morgan Hill?

Yes, the positive energy is infectious, it’s a very welcoming environment. I’ve enjoyed working with everyone. We always look forward to returning to the city of Morgan Hill.

Details: Visit www.faithfullylive.com or go to their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/FaithfullyLive.

On another note, Gavilan College is celebrating its centennial all year long with a series of special events. Among them is an upcoming concert 7 p.m. Saturday Sept. 28 bringing to the campus top-notch jazz musicians who will entertain with tunes from the past 100 years. General admission is $20. Students or seniors prices are $10.

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