There are tribute bands whose sole intent is to revive a sound that’s been lost in the onslaught of new music. Then there are the ensembles that share a true love of the artists they emulate and position themselves as dedicated fans on a musical mission.
After all, it’s the music that really matters.
Chi-Town Transit Authority falls into the latter category. An eight-piece Atlanta band dedicated to the music of Chicago — the band that started life as Chicago Transit Authority — Chi-Town was formed in 2017 to replicate the Chicago concert experience. They’re well equipped to do so. Chi-Town’s lineup features vibrant horns and woodwinds, a searing rhythm section and four vocalists, three of whom trade off lead, layering precise harmonies. The band — made up of Michael Cahen (guitar, vocals), Tom Davis (drums), Chris Horton (trumpet), Thom Jenkins (alto and tenor sax, flute), Jeff Joiner (vocals), Mark Lloyd (keyboards, vocals), Neal McElroy (trombone), Will Maron (bass, vocals) — performs the familiar fare Chicago made famous over the decades.
They’ll prove that once again when the group returns for a second appearance at the Clayton Center for the Arts in Maryville on Thursday, Oct. 15.
Founding member Chris Horton was working at a New York talent agency before returning to Atlanta by way of Nashville, hoping to venture out on his own. “The whole time I was driving I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to do a band that I can book myself,’” he recalled. “Then it came to me just out of the blue. An old friend of mine called me and said, ‘Is this the Chris Horton that used to be in Flint?’ That was the band I was in in high school and college. He said, ‘We need to do a Chicago tribute band.’ That’s when the light went off. It was obvious I was going to do a Chicago tribute thing, and it worked almost from the beginning. That was nine years ago. People still listen to this music quite a bit.”
Today, their calling card is authenticity. “We don’t have any backing tracks,” Cahen explained. “We are strictly bringing it to the stage, just like Chicago did back in 1969.”
Devotion is the other half of it.
“We’re trying to get a very raw, energetic, hard-rock sound like Chicago had at the beginning,” Horton added. “That’s our model. We’re trying to do the Terry Kath and the Danny Seraphine sound, that sort of thing. I see their concerts every year because it’s still one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. I was there when Robert Lamm retired. I go every year to their fan club. I’m a member.”
“Even though we are all big fans of the early days of Chicago, we understand that there is still another generation that followed them in the ’80s, and we bring just as much energy and continuity all the way to the original sound, the studio sound of some of those ’80s ballads,” Cahen said. “We have a lot of respect for the band, the brand, the sound. They’re still keeping the sound alive.”
While they say they’ve never had a chance to meet any of Chicago’s charter members, Cahen said a handful of Chicago members’ relatives have been to Chi-Town concerts. “We had Robert Lamm’s sister attend one of our shows, and she personally stayed after and talked to us and thanked us for performing one of their ’80s ballads, ‘Hard to Say I’m Sorry.’ They understand what we do. And Chicago is still a very, very popular band.”
These days, Chi-Town performs between 50 and 60 concerts a year, and they say they get an enthusiastic reaction every time.
“In a way, to me, it’s still amazing because 90% of the time, people are going absolutely nuts by the end of the show,” Horton said. “It takes us 45 minutes to just talk to everybody who wants to talk to us after the show. It’s astonishing, because everybody’s on their feet and they’re yelling so loud that sometimes we need to turn up the monitors just so we can hear the band. It’s magic.”
Cahen concurred. “We have so much fun onstage,” he said. “This is two hours of just complete joy, and I think that resonates with the audience. This is not a job for us. We always joke around and say the job is to travel, the job is the setting up of the gear and doing the sound check. The job is all the stuff that’s behind the scenes. When we’re onstage, that’s where we’re having fun.”
If you go
Who: Chi-Town Transit Authority
When: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 15
Where: Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre, Clayton Center for the Arts, Maryville College, 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville
How much: $41.81–$62.15
Tickets: claytonartscenter.com
