Winter Family

February 3, 1959 will always be remembered as ‘the day the music died.’ On that frigid occasion, a small plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper crashed in a frozen Iowa field, killing all touring three rock and roll luminaries and their pilot. Bear Family’s posthumous tribute disc to the tragedy brings together some of their greatest recordings on this one-of-a-kind collection, along with key sides from the surviving participants of the tour Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Sardo, Waylon Jennings, even Debbie Stevens, whose cover of If You Can’t Rock Me is an unheralded classic.

Raised in Montana by a family of musicians and music educators, cousins Dave Peterson, Rob Kohler and Lee Kohler each went their own way after school, forging rich and varied music careers with teaching, performing and tours throughout the world. Forty-five years later, the cousins assembled in Seattle for this reunion of sorts, gathering compositions, mutual musician friends, and their collective inherited musical taste. From the impressionism of Peterson's lyrical title tune, to the quirky funk of "M&M Blues," composed by the Kohler's late father, or their two rangy group improvisations, "Winter Colors" exudes the warmth of family and the cousin's depth of musical kinship.