Note: “I AM, HE SAID” with Matt Vee and The Killer Vees comes to Mary W. Sommervold Hall at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25. The production features members of the Vee/Velline family alongside a full ensemble.
The first song in Matt Vee’s story isn’t even a Neil Diamond song.
It’s “Peggy Sue,” played by a 10-year-old kid in North Fargo on a 1959 Fender Jazzmaster that already carried more family history than he could have understood. Matt’s father, Bill Velline, had given him the guitar, taught him a G chord and showed him the Buddy Holly song.
Matt remembers an acoustic guitar coming first, though not a particularly good one. Then his father decided to hand over the real thing.
The Jazzmaster is still with him.
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