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Date: 12/26/2023
AMHERST — For John Dobrydnio, his love of music started in 1964 when he was three years old and dancing with his aunt to the sound of the Beatles’ first album, “Meet the Beatles.”
From that moment on, he told Reminder Publishing, he was hooked.
Now, Dobrydnio has entered a new phase of his love of music with the release of a single with his two original songs, “Memphis Rain” and “Lonely Way.”
While this is not his first recording — he released a cover album of favorite songs in 2016 – this is the first recording with his original songs.
He said that he recorded “Memphis Rain” before but that version “sat on the shelf.” It was when he attended a Christmas concert last year that “bells went off” when he heard the voice of Jacqueline Wallace, the leader of the Amherst Gospel Choir. He recalled, “This is the voice I need.”
He described the recording as having a “big Amherst connection.” Besides Wallace, Doug Hewitt, the owner of Motif Music Recording in Amherst, produced the recordings.
Dobrydnio is the lead vocalist and played the guitar and the bass. Chris Caron of Springfield played the drums. The group’s name is Johnny and the Moonlighters.
Dobrydnio said that growing up listening to rock/pop songs of The Monkees was also a great influence on his youth. He was happy to note that he has met most of the members of that band, among many other musicians.
He started playing the guitar when he was 16 years old, receiving the instrument for his birthday. Dobrydnio was inspired to play by the iconic Peter Frampton album, “Frampton Live” and by Frampton’s song “Show Me the Way.”
This recording of “Memphis Rain” is a long time coming as Dobrydnio said the song was born out of a trip to Memphis, Tennessee, he and his wife took in 1998.
They visited the city because of Dobrydnio’s love of the music of Elvis Presley.
He explained in a Facebook post, “I’m on a river boat in the Mississippi in 1998 and the skies opened with rain like I’d never seen … For some reason the thought of the rain cleansing things came to mind and the song was born from there. But the whole trip to Memphis really informed the song. From the guy who told us all about W.C. Handy, Graceland, Sun Studio, Beale Street and the street musicians. We went for Elvis but found so much more. Including a song.”
Both songs can be heard on You Tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oorRX86otU) and are available on Amazon, Apple Music and Spotify.
He added that a music video for each song is in the works.
Dobrydnio added that a new episode of his “Graveyard Cinema” show has been produced and made its national debut on The Monster Channel recently. He and his partner Marty Caron have been producing the program, seen locally on cable access channels, since 2016. The new show features the pair of “Mad Marty and Horrible Henry” commenting on the Mexican horror film “The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy.”