Gary Sinise brought his Lt. Dan Band to Camp Johnson in Colchester on Sept. 25 for a free, invitation-only concert for Vermont service members, first responders and their families. It was the band’s first Vermont show and the 49th state it has played. Two days later, at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island became No. 50.
Most people know Sinise as Lt. Dan Taylor, the Vietnam platoon leader who loses his legs in “Forrest Gump.” An actor with a band can sound like a celebrity side project. Sinise’s isn’t one. He plays bass rather than fronting the group, and for more than two decades the band has played mostly for troops, veterans, first responders and their families.
Sinise has acknowledged the skepticism. He told NPR in 2023 that people don’t get too excited when they hear an actor has a band. “But this is a top-notch band,” he said.
A Band Built for the USO
The band grew out of Chicago jam sessions. Sinise met guitarist Kimo Williams in 1997, when Williams wrote music for Sinise’s production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” at Steppenwolf Theatre, according to the band’s Grand Ole Opry profile.
In 2003, Sinise asked the USO if he could bring a band on one of his troop visits. The first overseas tour, in February 2004, went to Korea, Singapore and Diego Garcia.
The band now plays 30 to 40 shows a year, and about 95% of them are for the USO, military charities or benefits, according to the Opry profile. Sinise makes his living acting and plays with the band for free, he told a Nashville TV station last year.
There’s no single count of how many shows the band has played. Recent figures run from nearly 600 to the 630 the foundation lists. Either way, it works out to roughly two shows a month for 23 years.
Who’s on Stage
The foundation lists 15 musicians: horns, percussion, guitars, violin, keyboards and half a dozen singers, with Sinise on bass. Most are working professionals and college music teachers who fly in for shows. A few served in uniform.
Danny Gottlieb, drums. A founding member of the original Pat Metheny Group, he has played with Sting, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter. He has appeared on more than 400 recordings, four of them Grammy winners, and teaches jazz at the University of North Florida.
Harry Watters, trombone. He spent 22 years in the U.S. Army Band, known as Pershing’s Own, and retired as a master sergeant.
Kirk Garrison, trumpet. An Air Force veteran who served from 1983 to 1992, he directs jazz studies at Elmhurst University in Illinois.
Ben Lewis, keyboards. A founding member and the band’s musical director, the Chicago pianist has toured East Asia and West Africa for the State Department.
Dan Myers, violin and vocals. His former band toured with Peter Frampton and Pat Benatar. He teaches commercial music at Tiffin University in Ohio.
Mitch Paliga, saxophone. He grew up in Libby, Montana, and teaches at Lake Forest College.
The band’s co-founder is no longer on stage. Kimo Williams took a $35 guitar to Vietnam, where he served with the 25th Combat Engineers starting in 1970 and was soon asked to put together a band for the troops. When the Army asked him to play, he later told a crowd, “they told me to bring my guitar and my rifle.” He retired as an Army captain.
What They Play
With that lineup, the band plays mostly covers, and the set list is built for a crowd that runs from young soldiers to Vietnam veterans. The band keeps a core of 75 to 80 songs, most of them picked by Sinise.
A typical night, from one 2023 show:
Classic rock: The Doobie Brothers, Toto, Chicago, The Who
Pop: “Uptown Funk,” “Shut Up and Dance,” “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s “Encanto”
Country: “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” “Chicken Fried”
Sing-alongs: “Hey Jude,” “Sweet Caroline”
Shows usually close with the whole band on Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”
There are originals, too. Singer Gina Gonzalez wrote “A Letter Home” for people in uniform. And this year the sets include songs by Sinise’s late son, Mac.
The Songs of Sinise’s Late Son
Sinise’s son, McCanna “Mac” Sinise, died Jan. 5, 2024, at 33. He had fought chordoma, a rare cancer that starts in the spine, for five and a half years.
Mac was a drummer who studied at the University of Southern California’s music school. He sometimes filled in for Gottlieb at Lt. Dan Band shows, and he worked for his father’s foundation.
The cancer eventually paralyzed him from the chest down. He kept writing music anyway, with a stylus strapped to his hand to enter notes on his phone. Bandmates Dan Myers and Ben Lewis helped him finish a piece he had started in college. In November 2023, he recorded in Nashville with members of the Lt. Dan Band and celebrated his 33rd birthday at the session.
After Mac died, his father found more of his music in his files and voice memos. Lt. Dan Band musicians helped finish it, and money from the album sales goes to the foundation.
The music has moved onto the stage, too. Sinise told WPRI that five songs the band regularly plays were written by Mac.
Why Vermont Came Next to Last
Sinise said he looked at the calendar last year and saw that the only states the band hadn’t played were New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island. All three landed on one tour through the Northeast.
In Colchester, the band shared the stage with Vermont’s own 40th Army Band. The Guard’s photos describe a two-hour show for current and retired service members, firefighters, EMS crews, police and their families.
Finishing all 50 states doesn’t end the run. Sinise, 71, said after Newport that the band will keep touring. “So we’re staying at it,” he said.