The Mystics (featuring Idaho Press columnist Tim Woodward) and The Chancellors event posters and music-themed artwork as featured in the now closed Mardi Gras event center.
The original Mystics. From left: Scott Eberhart, Justin Bonner, Tim Woodward, Dean Jackson and Vance Shirley.
Courtesy Tim Woodward
The Fabulous Chancellors.
Mark VanderSys/Pixel Light Photography
The Mystics (featuring Idaho Press columnist Tim Woodward) and The Chancellors event posters and music-themed artwork as featured in the now closed Mardi Gras event center.
Yeah, yeah, yeah! The Mystics and The Fabulous Chancellors, two '60s bands, will be playing together for the last time on Friday, May 26 in the Riverside Hotel ballroom.
Both bands have been playing their music around the Treasure Valley and beyond, separately, since the '60s. They've also played together before in 2019, and have produced their own album.
The Mystics
The Mystics began in 1961 with Tim Woodward and Justin Bonner. Over the years, the band has changed members multiple times, and the band now consists of Tim Woodward, Lawson Hill, Rico Weisman, and Don Cunningham.
Throughout the years, the band has disbanded and reformed multiple times due to life commitments such as college, marriage, and the military. Today, the Mystics still play what they've always played: '60s rock music. And more.
“That was such a time of musical creativity,” Woodward said. “And we still play a lot of that kind of music. But we do some of our own original music too.”
After the band reformed again in 1982, they played festivals, private and company events, reunions, wedding receptions, cruise nights, fund-raisers, benefits, the governor’s ball, Alive After Five, Nampa Nights, the Western Idaho Fair, Boise River Festival, Boise’s Fourth of July Celebration, the Idaho Botanical Gardens summer concert series, and other events. They opened for names such as Guess Who, Rick Nelson, and Chad and Jeremy. Their original record, "Weekend People," now only has four known copies in existence and purportedly is worth up to $1,000 dollars.
“[It’s] bittersweet; it's kind of the end of an era in a way,” Woodward said. “We're looking forward to Friday night and to have a good time, too. So it's a little bit of both.”
The Fabulous Chancellors
The Fabulous Chancellors began in 1959 and have since produced nearly 30 original recorded songs on six completed album collections. The band gained popularity in the early '60s in the northwest region and sold out local and regional teen clubs. They have opened for or workers with many notable bands and artists such as: Merrilee Rush, Brian Hyland, Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Tokens, The Diamonds, The Byrds, The Turtles, Gary Puckett, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Bill Haley's Original Comets, Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters, and others. The current band members are: Ross Miller, Joe Baldassarre, Jamie Jensen, Jake Ineck, Randy Steward and Stephen Baldassarre.
While none of these members are founders of the Fabulous Chancellors, Ross Miller considers himself “closest to original as possible.” According to Miller, the Fabulous Chancellors is an ongoing institution with changing members.
Miller and the other members of the Fabulous Chancellors have played at multiple local and regional events. Their largest audience was 20,000 people at a women’s fitness run in Boise several years ago.
“We've got this wonderful history this group, [we] survived all these years still playing,” Miller said. “That's the main thing, rather than seeing the curtains being drawn. Being able to see we're still on stage and we're still at it.”
Miller is still deciding whether to pass the reins of the Fabulous Chancellors to someone new.
For their last set at the Riverside Hotel, the doors will open at 6 p.m., and the bands will play from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Each band will play a 75 minute set. Tickets are $30 and available at eventbrite.com.
