Crack the Sky at 50 is ‘Blessed' but not soft

This is the kind of thing that happens when a band sticks around for 50 years:

"At one point in time, every member of Crack the Sky left the band and got back into the band," says guitarist Rick Witkowski.

That includes Witkowski and frontman John Palumbo, who formed the progressive band in 1973 in Pittsburgh and Weirton, W.Va., and introduced it with a 1975 debut that Rolling Stone called one of the best of the year.

The band play Jergel's in Marshall on Friday at 8 p.m.

Over the past year, Crack the Sky has been celebrating that album by playing it in full, captured on "Live 1st Album: 50th Anniversary." Now, the band returns with fresh material.

"The new record is called ‘Blessed,' Witkowski says, "and that's exactly what we feel like, 50 years after our first release."

The title track, though, is not a feel-good power ballad about a band at the half-century mark. It's a bass-driven rocker with Palumbo, in his darkest register, singing, "I could be in Ukraine/running for my life/I could be in Gaza with my kids and wife.… Instead I'm blessed/to be here with you."

Released in November, "Blessed" finds Crack the Sky sounding, as ever, like only Crack the Sky - some mixture of The Beatles or Cheap Trick with the adventurous flair of Genesis and King Crimson.

"Prog songs get into all that mystical imagery," Witkowski says. "John's approach is more hook-oriented. He has a unique way of putting a story together."

Palumbo also sidesteps the typical prog frontman mold, at times bringing a quirkiness more in line with Tom Petty or Joe Walsh.

This time around, Palumbo - based in Baltimore, where the band built an early following through radio airplay - supplied demos that were fleshed out by the rest of Crack the Sky: Witkowski and original members Joe Macre (bass) and Joey D'Amico (drums), along with guitarist Bobby Hird and keyboardist Bill Hubauer.

"The thing I like most about this record is that we came up with our creative parts with everybody sitting in the room at the same time at my studio, with the exception of John," Witkowski says.

"We laid down the tracks as a unit, and that's something we haven't done since the early days. That's what's different about this compared to all the stuff we've been doing since digital media has taken over recording.

"The songs are more groove-oriented. There's not quite as many tempo shifts and signature changes. But it's Crack the Sky. It's a very eclectic record, drawing from a lot of sources."

Witkowski and Hird catch fire in the guitar jams, the rhythm section cooks and Hubauer (from the Neal Morse Band) either rocks along or provides dreamy textures. Brownie Mary frontwoman Kelsey Friday joins Palumbo in a playful battle of the sexes on the funk-rock song "Stare," one of the standouts,

In February, the band gave crowds a taste of it on the 2026 Cruise to the Edge, alongside progressive rock heavyweights like Marillion, Steve Hackett, Adrian Belew, Queensryche and Symphony X.

"It was a lot of camaraderie and nonstop music all over the boat," he says. "We're not a big social network kind of band. We never were. I was concerned that there weren't going to be a lot of fans on the boat, but I was taken aback by how many people we had from all over the country."

Crack the Sky plays Jergel's, Marshall, at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $37; jergels.com.

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