During a year of milestones for musical groups, the Wapsipinicon Singers, featuring Wartburg College alumni, will return to Waverly for a reunion show this month.
While Liverpool celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Beatles formation and the Beach Boys embark on their golden anniversary reunion tour, the Wapsipinicon Singers, a folk/pop group that performed throughout the Cedar Valley from 1967 to 1969, will reunite for a free concert at Joe’s KnightHawk in Waverly at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 23.
As college students, the quintet performed regularly at the Cedar Falls Holiday Inn and at a variety of area events.
“We often sang three or four nights a week,” recalled Tim Schumacher, now of Marshalltown, noting that money from the gigs helped pay their college bills. The group disbanded after graduation.
Four members of the original Wapsipinicon Singers will perform, including Schumacher, Pat Maxon Larson of Grinnell, Diane Schalkhauser Repass of Dubuque, and Marc Goldenstein of Downers Grove, Ill. Steve Soltow, a Northeast Iowa native who sang in the popular band Chance and now lives in Younkers, N.Y., will join them on guitar.
The Wapsipinicon Singers reunion coincides with the release of “Men of Cotta,” a book by Schumacher based loosely on life in Cotta Haus, which provided off-campus housing for Wartburg male students during the 1960s and ’70s. A book-signing and reception for the author will precede the concert, beginning at 5 p.m. at Joe’s KnightHawk.