Relapse band performing benefit concert Sunday for former band member

ALBANY — One of Albany’s longest running party bands, Relapse, is gearing up for a video shoot during a benefit show Sunday at Newman’s Bar and Grill on Meredyth Drive.

Sunday’s performance is a fundraiser for Bill Harrell, who was the original bass player for the band when it formed more than 25 years ago. Harrell, who hasn’t played with the band for several years, suffers from a hereditary genetic disorder known as hemochromatosis, in which the body absorbs too much iron.

“It has been a long journey,” Harrell said. “I have been watching it for about 22 or 23 years. It is basically an iron overload. It just piles up the iron in your liver and slowly wears it away.”

Harrell was positive and optimistic about his upcoming liver transplant, crediting his faith for giving him strength.

“It is a scary thing, but I am a man of faith, so I will be OK either way,” Harrell said. “Hopefully, this will be a new lease on life.”

Some of Harrell’s friends got together and began planning the benefit to help with medical costs and other expenses associated with the transplant.

“A group of folks, some of Bill and Laura’s friends, came together (for the benefit) and since he was an original member of Relapse, we wanted to raise money for him,” the band’s frontman, Dr. Davis Kinney, said. “We are going to do a video shoot at the benefit and have invited all of our friends and Relapse fans to come out for a great cause.

“Tickets are $10 and we hope to have as many people as possible come and show Bill some support. There are a lot of expenses associated with a transplant and the treatments following it. It is a lot more than just the surgery.”

Kinney said he and Harrell “go way back. I have known him since I was a kid, a teenager. I used to live on 10th Avenue and Bill had a three-piece band at the time that rehearsed in the building behind his print shop. So, all of us neighborhood kids used to hang out in the back and listen to them play. I bought my first electric guitar from Bill. It was a solid-body Rickenbacker single-pickup guitar. Boy, I wish I still had it.”

Kinney credits Harrell as being an inspiration for him to pursue music.

“I have always looked up to Bill musically,” Kinney said. “I learned a lot just watching him play over the years. So, this thing was a no-brainer. We are going to enjoy doing this for him and we are going to try and get him up on stage to sit in with us. It will be a fun event and we’ll help out an old friend.”

Harrell helped to form the now 10-member strong party band over two decades ago when he and good friends Russell Martin, Henry Hart, Tommy Lashley, Larry Foreman and Mills Rooks had a “relapse of rock ‘n’ roll.”

“That was Russell and Mills’ brain child,” Harrell said. “I enjoyed playing with those guys. Russell was such a generous person. He was the type of guy that if he was your friend, he was really your friend and would do anything for you.”

Over the years, and particularly after Martin died in 2008, the band went through several lineup changes.

“When Russell passed away, there were a couple guys in the band that decided that without Russell they were done,” Kinney said, “but there were other guys in the band that wanted to keep it going.”

Since that time, Relapse has continued to entertain crowds, keeping music lovers rockin’ the night away just as they plan to do Sunday.

“It is going to be a really great time,” Kinney said. “I can’t wait to get Bill back up on stage with us.”

According to Kinney, Austin Newman, owner of Newman’s Bar and Grill has played a pivotal role in bringing the event together.

“Austin has been a really awesome help in putting this thing on,” Kinney said. “He is giving us the venue, doing a full buffet and cash bar, so we hope people will just come out and make an evening of it.”

Sunday’s event is 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Newman’s is located at 2807 Meredyth Drive. Tickets are available at Newman’s and Onesource Healthcare.