These two musicians were immortalized Sunday night as Jim Witter and his bandmates, Ian Tanner and Tony Lind performed some of their classic hits in The Piano Men concert in the Shenandoah Valley High School auditorium. The concert was sponsored by Downtown Shenandoah Inc. What I really set out to do originally was to take us back to the 70s, Witter said before the concert. I researched the music and began to see Billy Joel and Elton John popping up with my favorite songs year after year.

For continuity s sake I decided to focus on their music but it really is a trip back to the 70s. Witter said it is amazing to see the audience getting involved in the show, singing along with the songs and remembering past events as images are projected on a screen behind the piano. Yes of course the music is special to the people that grew up in the 70s, but it is now being enjoyed by a second generation or even third generation in the same family, Witter said.

The music is passing through parents and grandparents to younger generations because these songs are timeless. Witter, a native of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has been doing the show for about six years but this was his first performance in Schuylkill County. Joking with the audience that he changed his name to Witteravage to fit into the Coal Region, he said the only thing he was disappointed with was that he and his band didn t get to eat any of the region s delicacies.

Here we are in the pierogie capital of North America and we didn t have any pierogies, or kielbasa, he said. The concert had a few spots where audience participation was a must and Witter had no trouble getting a group on stage to help with the chorus of Crocodile Rock, an Elton John classic from 1972, the year NASA ended its Apollo missions, HBO was the first cable network and minimum wage was $1.60 per hour.