Tuneful Lincoln Drive in high gear: Hill area lawyers guilty of making great music

Posted 7/24/19

Lincoln Drive (formerly Pleasant Avenue) plays at one of its many Weavers Way First Friday gigs. From left to right are Jim Sturdivant, Craig Stutman, Erik Sabo and Chuck Marion. Drummer Scott Galper …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Tuneful Lincoln Drive in high gear: Hill area lawyers guilty of making great music

Posted

Lincoln Drive (formerly Pleasant Avenue) plays at one of its many Weavers Way First Friday gigs. From left to right are Jim Sturdivant, Craig Stutman, Erik Sabo and Chuck Marion. Drummer Scott Galper is hidden in this photo.

by Len Lear

In the fall of 2017, Chuck Marion, 55, a Wyndmoor attorney with the major center city law firm Blank Rome, received an email about a charity, battle- of-the-bands event at the World Café Live in West Philly called “Law Rocks.” Each band was required to have at least one lawyer in it (doesn’t every band?) and would be performing to raise money for a charity of its choice before an audience of about 200.

Marion had previously filled in for the keyboard player in another band that friends Craig Stutman and Jim Sturdivant play in and had played tennis regularly (and had occasional music jam sessions) with Erik Sabo. Stutman knew and invited Scott Galper to join them. The band performed a six-song, 30-minute set at the event. They did not win but got a lot of positive feedback, thus giving birth to the classic rock band Pleasant Avenue, whose name was recently changed to Lincoln Drive.

Although they all have professional careers outside of music, somehow the band members manage to find the time to rehearse both original and “cover” songs and perform all over the Delaware Valley. For example, in their two years of existence, Lincoln Drive has performed at World Café Live (as noted above), the Grape Room in Manayunk, seven times at Weavers Way in Chestnut Hill (including as part of its “First Friday” events) and Ambler (as part of the Ambler Music Festival) and Marion’s neighborhood’s block party in Wyndmoor. They have also applied to play at the Fall for the Arts Festival in late September and plan on playing in the Law Rocks event at the World Café Live again next spring. And this Friday, July 26, starting at 9 p.m., they will play at Chestnut Hill’s venerable Mermaid Inn.

“We play primarily for fun,” said Marion, the band’s spokesman (after all, he’s a lawyer), as we all are lifelong musicians who greatly enjoy performing, composing and listening to music. We would like to continue expanding our repertoire and will be adding more original songs to it, as some of us write songs. We are currently playing a few originals but mostly cover songs. We also hope to eventually record some of our songs.

“We have enjoyed all of our gigs, but probably the Law Rocks event at the World Café Live the most since it is such a great venue, had a great sound system, the crowd was very enthusiastic, and Erik had his wedding ceremony and reception there! However, when we performed at Weavers Way in Chestnut Hill for the First Friday event in June, no one told us in advance that in addition to being First Friday, it was also ‘Petapalooza,’ and everyone was encouraged to bring their dogs, cats and other pets to our show! But it turned out to be a lot of fun and not too much barking!”

Lincoln Drive consists of, from left, standing: Jim Sturdivant, Scott Galper and Chuck Marion; sitting, Erik Sabo and Craig Stutman.[/caption]

In addition to Marion, who plays keyboards, vocals and harmonica, the band consists of Stutman, 50, of Wyndmoor, lead guitar, vocals and assistant professor of history and policy studies, Delaware Valley University; Sabo, 42, of Flourtown, bass, guitar and music industry professor (at St. Joseph's University), professional musician and attorney; Galper, 57, of Mt. Airy, drums and clinical systems analyst at University of Pennsylvania Health System; and Sturdivant, of Haverford, lead vocals, rhythm guitar and communications specialist for Princeton University. (Also former editor of the Local during a tumultuous period in the paper’s history; who knew he was so multi- talented?)

Stutman and Marion’s daughters have been best friends since preschool. Marion and Sabo have been playing tennis together for more than 10 years and music together for about five years. Stutman and Sturdivant have known each other for approximately 10 years and play in another band together. Stutman and Galper have known each other for about five years and used to live in the same neighborhood. All band members have also played in other bands and performed over the years in Pittsburgh, Portland, Oregon, South Florida, etc., in addition to the Philly area.

When asked about the names of spouses and children, Marion said, “We would rather not include that information.”

Since the band members all have time-consuming day jobs and have to rehearse in addition to gigs, how do other family members feel about all this time taken away from them?

“They have been incredibly supportive,” said Marion, “putting up with our rehearsing at various members’ houses, sometimes at odd hours due to our work schedules and family obligations, coming to our performances, etc.”

From the beginning, the band has played a mix of classic and alternative rock. They play music by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, REM, the Kinks, the Who, Bob Dylan and Nirvana, among others.

Each band member at various times has considered pursuing music as a full-time career, but Sabo has pursued music as a full-time career the most. He studied music at Syracuse, has run and represented a number of record labels, has given music lessons and for many years been a professor at various institutions of higher learning, including St. Joe’s, Drexel University, the University of the Arts and the Art Institute.

Why change the name to Lincoln Drive after being known as something else?

“We wanted to have a name that referenced the area where we are all from and live or have lived. ‘Pleasant Avenue’ is the street Chuck lives on in Wyndmoor, where we usually rehearse, but we felt that ‘Lincoln Drive’ had a cooler, edgier sound to it while still retaining the local reference.”

What was the hardest thing the band ever had to do?

“It may not be the most interesting answer,” said Marion, “but because we all have families and very busy jobs, the hardest thing for us to do is block out time to rehearse and perform, which we love to do.”

Lincoln Drive can be contacted through its Facebook and Instagram pages.

arts