This Hope band is mischievously named ‘Triple D’ and they are here to make you move.
All being about the same age, these three women are unified as mothers who have 13 children between them. And as their children grow up, a new phase of life is opening up for Diane Long, Dorsey Summers, and Dagmar Lucak, alike in the first letter of their names (so Triple D), but ‘diverse’ in their approach to music, and their backgrounds.
Growing up by the PNE in Vancouver, Long always wanted to sing, and was inspired by her father, and grandmother. But life led her in another direction, first as an elite competitor in gymnastics, then as a young mother of six. It wasn’t until she was 30 that she first took voice lessons, and at 39 picked up the guitar. Blending her love for music with a career as a mental health worker, Long and her band “Cover Charge” performed at various functions and festivals.
Summers on the other hand made music a career, studying at the King Edward campus of Vancouver Community College, touring B.C. and Alberta for five years with a Janis Joplin tribute band known as Pearl Band, and the Maximum Blues Band. Along the way there was studio work, recording, producing, managing the business, as well as the very enjoyable employment on the luxurious Alaska and Caribbean cruise ships.
Lucak is a bit of a blend of them both, like Summers having a long involvement with music, but like Long advancing informally. Her earliest memory singing solo is at her Christmas kindergarten show in Quebec. In 1975 she moved to Hope, and started singing radio and TV jingles at age 14.
A few years later she met her husband, Bill Lucak, formerly the lead singer of Antrodemus. They went on to be foundational in the local Hope band, Foul Play, where a bunch of young players, who would all go on to long playing careers, congealed. The band included Gary Triplet on bass guitar, drummer Dennis Bucher, guitarist Landon Le May (several years with Skinny’s Blues Crew), and guitarist Greg Bradbury, currently with The Crew and The Hoodlums.
They “played 70’s and 80’s cover tunes,” as Bill puts it, but, already dating themselves, it is now called “classic rock.”
“I have always sung and still do, especially in the shower.” Bill Lucak confirmed this by looking down with a pursed lip smile. “I even sing to the ‘musak’ in the retail stores...” although she really, at the roots, now, just wants to make people move.
And charity work is a strong thread tying these women together.
Lucak has played a variety of charity events, from the Fraser-Hope Lodge extended care wing of the hospital, to the local branch of the diabetes association, to Hope’s first annual International Woman’s Day celebration, to helping raise funds for Darryl and Susan Hootnick after their house fire. Dorsey supported the Skin Bank of Canada, Children’s’ Hospital, Aim Association, and many cancer runs etc.
‘Triple D’ met here in Hope, and would jam with the guys in “acoustic-guitar, local- legend Dominic Palladino’s basement for years.”
They eventually formed a woman’s jam.
‘Triple D’ admits that when women jam it is different. Support and backup roles fluidly change. Lucak and Long agree, women are more polite, courteous, more attentive to feelings, and are more likely to help one another in other ways, like to “roady” for one another.
Bill Lucak, who is a featured guest on bass, agrees that guys can be more territorial. “Guys do their own thing.” He observes that when the women do their music they never fight, and the “egos are parked at the door.”
Long, who came into the music scene the latest of the three, has advice for other women like her: (just) “do it”.
“Don’t let anybody tell you can’t.” Even so she admits she really “gets the butterflies” before a gig...
With Triple D good solid tempo is big.
Summers brings with her songs from Patsy Cline to Janis Joplin offering a huge range of vocals. Blues Rock Swing is her favourite, a “swinging groove solid drummer” as she puts it.
Musical instrument aficionados will look forward to hearing her custom drums by Drums Only, Ayottes.
On Saturday, at the Hope Station house, you can hear them perform Puddle of Mudd’s, She Hates Me (the PG version), and What I Like about You of the Ramones. Long sings gutsy songs, not being a “sweet feminine voice”, so “enjoys the ‘Born to be Wild’ genre.” They will make you move with Stealing, Uriah Heep, Running Down at Dream, Tom Petty and Wild Nights, and Van Morrison.
Be moved this Saturday, March 19, at the St. Patty’s Day dinner and show at the Hope Station House. Tickets are available at Backstage Pass Emporium.