A hard day's night for these rockers

By: Darrell Laurant | The News & Advance
Published: August 03, 2009

(Second in a two-part series)

If Ed Embrey starts forgetting who he is, it’s not advancing age — it’s music overload.

“I’m reading up on multiple personalities,” Embrey said recently with a laugh.

So far, he has acquired three. He is, first and foremost, Ed Embrey — husband, father, sales rep for Fisher Auto Parts. But then he’s also Roger McGuinn, lead singer and head honcho for the Byrds. And now, yet another personality he thought he had exorcised is coming back.

“We’ve decided to bring back A Hard Day’s Night,” he said. “It was weird, because several of us who were in the group seemed to have the idea at the same time.”

So Embrey got his Beatles suit out of the closet and found that he had not outgrown the role of George Harrison in the now-dormant Beatles tribute band.

“I can still get into it,” he said, “so I took that as a sign.”

A Hard Day’s Night had a brief but popular run in Central Virginia and beyond. At some point, though, the competition became stifling.

“It seemed there were Beatles groups everywhere,” Embrey said. “We felt like we were one of the best ones out there, but a lot of them were underpricing us. The field was just too crowded.”

But Embrey, a musician and music junkie all his life, couldn’t stand the thought of not being somebody else. So he started Second Flyte, a Byrds’ tribute band that did that group so well that it was included in a re-creation of the Monterey Pop Festival in California.

Tribute groups are, of course, the ultimate cover bands. Not only do they have to sound like their subjects, but they have to act (and, if possible, look) like them, too.

That’s why Tommy Cox is playing his bass lefthanded — because Paul McCartney did.

Cox, long recognized as one of the most skilled guitar players in the Lynchburg area, is back on board as Paul. Will Newman (who is also Gene Clark in Second Flyte) will assume the John Lennon role, John Corocran will man the drums as Ringo.

The refurbished Hard Day’s Night will make its debut (or re-appearance) on August 8 at the Spring House Restaurant in Concord. There are more gigs down the road for both groups, because Second Flyte remains aloft.

Only Embrey and Newman are in both bands. Other Second Flyters include Steve Arrington, John Johnston and Mark Moehlenkamp.

“It’s getting kind of interesting as far as practice is concerned,” Embrey said. “One nice thing about a tribute band, though, is that you can practice by yourself, listening to the recordings.”

And now, he said, “We’re looking at some shows where we’ll do the Byrds and the Beatles on the same bill. Two for one.”

That’s what I’d call a hard day’s night.