SUNUP - 50+ YEARS of MUSIC & FRIENDSHIP - Final LIVE Performance - Nov. 13th, 2025
“We could never make up for all the lost time, but it’s good to see you smiling - it’s good having you nearby.” A clip of the opening song, “That Ol’ Feelin’” from Sunup’s final LIVE show in Saratoga Springs, NY. The song can also be found on the “Saratoga Sunrise” album.
Lower left to right: Brian Soule, Goon (Ethan Carey) Wilson, Garry Manuel, Charlie Castilano Middle (special guests): Marshall Manuel, Top Right: Rob Sanderl and John McNeill
THE SUNUP BASH - 50+ Years of Music & Friendship (11/18 &19/2025)
In all honesty, I am still processing all the activities and emotions that unfolded in our three days in Saratoga Springs, NY, in what I titled “The Sunup Bash - 50+ Years of Music & Friendship.” The culmination of music and friendship was fully on display without an ounce of it being manufactured. It was another living verse to my song, “The Dream Again.”
To capsulize the Sunup Bash, it was built in layers. The first layer was the performance and getting the players on board with the idea. Layer two was working on ways to have friends, family, and Sunup followers come to a “destination” gig. Layer three was about providing an opportunity for people to come together, converse, and reclaim their treasures in life. The meaning of the word treasures relates to reconnecting with friends and having meaningful conversations. It might even be about mending a broken relationship. I had written on this theme three years ago and continue to pedal those thoughts today. The final layer was acknowledging how much these musicians AND friends have impacted my life, as well as expressing the love I have for my family. In short, it might have been the most gratifying event I have ever put together. Truthfully, I’m not sure it has all soaked in yet.
SUNUP in SARATOGA (11/15/2025)
The last time we all performed together was in Victor, NY in July of 2007. We played to a packed house and had a GREAT time. My son was in high school, and his trio played. Goon’s son, EJ, performed as well. Our bass player, Kerry Peterson, who was part of Sunup, off and on for three decades played, along with Charlie Castilano, who was our first bassist, and one of the best friends anyone could have. We had no warning that in two years, Kerry would no longer be with us. Cancer took him. Those final days and talks with Kerry were precious and a privilege. He added so much to Sunup and our recordings. He has been missed. Obviously we recorded an album (The Key Is Love) a short time ago; however,, we never actually played together when recording.
It would be so easy for me to go off on so many tangents, but I’m going to do my best to stick to the topic of our event. Let’s first start with the question of why we would hold our final live performance in Saratoga, rather than Rochester, where we played the majority of our gigs? For many of us and especially me, Saratoga is “Fantasy Land”. In all the years we have travelled to Saratoga, we have never had a bad time! That is a long history and a GREAT batting average. Once again, it did not disappoint. Our three days were absolutely magical. Were there hiccups? There were. But it seemed like every obstacle turned into a diamond.
Perhaps someday I’ll tell that part of the story. Instead I’ll just give you one abbreviated example of trying to find a lunch spot for our group of 18 people. I attempted to put us in three spots for lunch on our Wednesday arrival. In brief, none worked. I reluctantly called the King’s Tavern (in honor of Trump - kidding of course) across from the racetrack. Although I called ahead, stating that we’d have 17 people, which turned out to be 18, the woman tending bar (Kathryn) took care of the entire room AND tended bar. She was pleasant and accommodating the entire time, plus the food was great! In the back of my mind I said, “Yes, this is the magic of Saratoga!” It is also the magic of Sunup = music & friendship!
I believe Goon called me the “author” of the event. So, I’ll accept that definition, although I might use a more musical term like, orchestrator. The idea came forth in May of this year. It began gaining steam in June, when all the core members gave it a thumbs up. I sensed some reservation, but as time went by the idea gained momentum. The next step was finding a venue.
Finding a spot to play was more of an effort than I ever anticipated. The first spot was a place that we often go to hear music when in Saratoga. They said they were booked until the end of the year. I hope that response was true, but I have my doubts. The second attempt was a place that we go to almost every time we’re in Saratoga. The club didn’t respond to my email or my two phone calls. I won’t go out of my way to grab a glass of wine there in the future. Without boring you with the rest of the story, there were five other clubs. While on vacation in August, at The Great Sacandaga Lake, I asked Goon if he’d accompany me while I checked out a couple places. I operate better when my brother is hanging with me anyway. I had a list. The second place we visited was Kraverie. It almost had this “hippie” vibe to it and we were warmly greeted. The space was small, but the vision was to have a place where it would be intimate and the majority of the people would be there to listen and have getting drunk as their top priority. The club got back to me within a couple days, giving a thumbs up, and I said I’d talk with the guys and get back to him by the weekend. Kraverie became the spot where we’d land. Michael, who operates the restaurant, was easy to work with, and it wasn’t long before we started taking reservations. At first I coordinated that aspect of the gig, because I wanted to insure that “our people” had a place to sit. After a few weeks, the restaurant was nearly booked up, and I turned the reservations back over to the club. We worked well together and the evening of the performance offered up the proof.
Getting back to the concept, the main focus was bringing our friends, family, and followers together for Sunup’s last blast in a live show. Would a destination gig work? It wasn’t long before we realized it would. There were, of course, people from the Rochester area, Syracuse, Saratoga, Schenectady, North Carolina, New Jersey, Florida, Maine, and downstate NY that showed up! The vibe was alive and real, right out of the gate. Of course, we were across the street from the racetrack.
There was love and joy in the air instantly on our arrival, but that wasn’t all. One of my best friends, who is 92 flew up from Florida and shocked me with her presence! I had met she and her family on the beach at the Great Sacandaga in 1968! Her son Kevin was instrumental in getting her there. While his plan didn’t exactly go perfectly - it was perfect! The next day, Marie’s daughter, Carol, would show up, driving in from Maine! There were people present that hadn’t seen each other in almost 50 years!
The second planned portion was a dinner celebration in downtown Saratoga. We wanted to hold it at Chianti’s; however, we quickly realized that we were going to be over capacity. I was very disappointed. We switched to their other DZ Restaurant, Boca Bistro. It turned out that location worked perfectly, though a little tight, and they worked with me, as the number of people began to escalate. It turned out to be a wonderful location for this special evening. The room was full of smiles, hugs, laughter, and joy. People connected! The food and service was fantastic. I had prepared two videos to show - one before dinner and one after. The video before dinner was about how I got hooked on horse racing and included what will probably be my favorite race of all time, with Jackson Heights (a horse that I’m part owner) winning by a nose. The presentation after dinner was a tribute to my friends and bandmates. I wanted people to realize how connected they were, even if unaware., It was also paramount that I show them how much they meant to my life. There were three major ingredients that connected us all: Music, The Great Sacandaga, and family. Any one of those topics would have spurred a conversation and connection with little effort and the very real possibility of going deep. Although, I do understand that is difficult to pull off in a small room with 50 in attendance.
SUNUP BASH at the BOCA BISTRO (Saratoga)
One important aspect I wanted to include in the two days, was simply to let people just hang out together on Friday afternoon. I purposely didn’t attempt to engineer the activity prior to the dinner. I mentioned to people that I’d be at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame at 11;30 am, if people wanted to meet. The afternoon was intentionally left open ended so people could connect or reconnect as they wished. The main point was to have people being together and sharing joy, life, and their stories. Reclaim the treasures of life! Keeping it loose seemed to work. I cannot attest to whether everyone experienced what I had felt (but hoped they would). I thought it best to just let things fall into place naturally. For most, I believe that happened. Personally, I loved going back to the King’s Tavern after the Racing Museum and catching up with everyone.
My son, Marshall, was instrumental (pun intended) in helping with some of the tougher, less glamorous aspects of our days in Saratoga. I had purchased a used power amp for the PA and we needed to test it out. Additionally, we needed to go through all the cables, mics, and amps to make certain everything still worked. Some of this equipment hadn’t been used since 2007! The amazing thing was everything still worked and the system sounded great! Then, of course, we had to load all the equipment into our cars. It goes without saying that we also had to unload our cars and set things up in the club, then tear it down after we finished playing. Marshall worked diligently at getting the sound together. He also played with the band and did a solo performance of John Mayer’s tune, “Stop This Train”. When he played the room quieted. I admit to being biased, but in my view, he has great ears and is a very talented recording and digital engineer. He’s working with others writing and producing some red hot tunes. I’m confident something will break for them. In the end, I was absolutely thrilled that he was an integral part of these three days. The main reason for my delight in his participation is that he was able to witness how I chose to express the value of my friendships while getting a full dose of what it takes to pull together such a monumentally, meaningful experience.
Marshall, Mary, and Steph in the back of Kraverie (club)
A night of performing was enhanced by many friends sitting in for a song or two. They were: Mark and Caroline Rohlin, Dave and Stephanie LaBarge, Kevin Cuatt, Nick Wahlers and Laura Wilson. We could have done a entire set just jamming on tunes.
If I’m to be completely honest, while these few days in Saratoga were predicated on music, love, and connection, I suspect the fact that I was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer earlier this year most likely provided the extra shove that motivated people to go the extra mile (literally).
The diagnosis certainly removed any hesitation on my part in trying to pull these events off. While the dinner celebration was supposedly about my and other bandmates birthdays, that certainly was not the highlight of that event. This was meant to salute the people in my life and was built into the photos, music, and video that I presented toward the end of the evening. The portion celebrating the horses had to come into play. After all, we were in Saratoga! The evening was peppered with fun, food, friendship, and a sincerity of expression, that would bring me on the verge of tears more times than I can count. To go a step further, there were times that all I had to do was look at a person and I could sense their love for what was transpiring, and for me as well. The tears began to swell in my eyes. There were instances that were not necessarily a part of the dinner celebration, when I looked at a friend, and in that glance all they meant to me was so powerful that it burst through the dam inside. In this whole process of orchestrating the vision, I never strayed from desiring to create an atmosphere and an opportunity where people could unequivocally sense love and connection. It was my hope that it would be undeniably spiritual. Words cannot adequately describe it all. In the end, it was an honor and privilege to give everything I had inside to be present with this group and fulfill the dream of Sunup. My plan is to continue to write and record as long as I am able, as well as for as long as I can keep the standards high. In other words, “take my songs, and give and give.”
Mary put this board together showing our 50+ years together as SUNUP!
In closing, I wish to thank Rob Sanderl, who did such an incredible job on the drums, with almost no rehearsing. He has become a great friend, is a super talented percussionist, and is certainly now an honorary member of Sunup! Rob and Kaylin’s daughter, Elise, surely showed her budding talent as well, when she sat in on the drums.
My thanks also go out to the folks at the Springwater Inn! They took such great care of us and provided such wonderful home cooked breakfasts. The service and accommodations were impeccable. It has become Mary and my home when visiting Saratoga.
Our home away from home…
Thanks to my sister, who ordered the beautiful and wonderful tasting cake, that resembled my custom made electric guitar!
The majority of our group that stayed at the Springwater Inn
Thanks to the best friends anyone could ask for, who make up the group Sunup: Goon (Ethan Carey, Jim) Wilson, Brian Soule, Charlie Castilano, John “Boom Bah” McNeill, and Rob Sanderl.
There were times that I got so choked up watching my incredible wife interact with all those in attendance. She has an undeniable warmth, charm, and infectious demeanor, that is second to none. She designed the Sunup poster board, like she had done 18 years ago, and picked up the drink tab for everyone’s first cocktail. Mary has let me run free with crazy ideas, like the one we just experienced, or starting the non-profit, Project URGE. Without her, I could not have accomplished all these things.
Mary Manuel
The handouts express all that needs to be communicated. For those who could not join us, I will post it for all to read.
If you have a difficult time reading this post, Reclaiming Treasures can be found elsewhere on this website.: https://www.sunflaresongs.com/news/2024/2/22/someday-by-sunup
The sun lights up, like a bright orange lamp, to give you peace, to give you warmth, to give you love…
~Garry
THE DREAM AGAIN - This was the final song performed in “Fantasy Land” (Saratoga). Please forgive the cell phone video quality, but it does capture the vibe and emotion of this magical evening!
Would you like to take a step back and relive some of those moments through music? Just click here: SUNUP BASH
GARRY MANUEL - TAKE MY LOVE