With the calendar ticking off the days til the 25th, today’s edition of Red Bank oRBit brings you an exclusive interview with a character who, once each year, journeys here from some frozen far-north outpost to set up shop with some crafty helpers — on a mission to bring toys, clothes and essentials to our neediest neighbors.
If you guessed our “get” was Saint Nick, well, that’s close enough for rock and roll, we suppose. It’s actually the saintly Glen Burtnik (right), who returns to the Count Basie Theatre this Saturday night for the nineteenth edition of his long-running Xmas Xtravaganza, an annual Good Samaritan groovefest that’s helped even more people than it’s managed to crowd onto the stage.
A veteran of both Styx and Beatlemania, the hitmaking singer and songwriter (he’s just returned from the Russian front on a tour with the latest edition of Electric Light Orchestra) is also famous for his little black book of big scary friends — an unspecified set of which will be showing up in Red Bank for this weekend’s concert. We’ve got the goods from Glen right here — along with a reminder about a special day of care and feeding at JackÂ’s Music — in Red Bank oRBit!
