CLEVELAND, Ohio – On Christmas day, Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson will splash across America’s movie screens with their film “Song Sung Blue.” For two local musicians, it will be a case of art imitating life.
The feel-good film is a dramatization of the story of Mike and Claire Sardina, a couple who started a Neil Diamond tribute band and were featured in the documentary of the same name that inspired the film. Both films were directed by Craig Brewer.
For Gary and Cheryl Gomez, both versions of “Song Sung Blue” provide a very personal connection to their current lives.
Gary, 63, leads and fronts The Diamond Project, a 10-piece band that has been keeping the music of Neil Diamond alive in venues around Northeast Ohio for 15 years, ably assisted by Cheryl, the band’s manager and the singer’s wife.
The couple watched the original documentary about The Sardinas shortly after its release in 2008 and were affected by the couple’s dedication and story seeing a few parallels in their own story.
“I thought it was one of those you’ll laugh, you’ll cry kind of things,” Gary said of the documentary.
“Yes, we laughed and cried. Absolutely,” Cheryl said, recalling the trials and tribulations the Sardinas experienced in the film.
“Really interesting and how dedicated this guy was and just the whole love affair and how they met and the tragedies and how they overcame the tragedies, it was very interesting and very emotional,” Gary said.
Gomez’s journey to The Diamond Project began in earnest when after a lifetime of being a “shower singer” and someone who sang in the car but, “never in front of anybody, I would have never thought to do that,” because he was too shy to live his “rock and roll dream.”
But the few folks who did hear him sing, including Cheryl, would tell him he sounded just like Diamond.
Then one day, “I was tooling around in an office 18 years ago, and I saw an ad for a Neil Diamond tribute singer. And I don’t know what got into me, but I said, ‘Hey, if you’re gonna do it, now’s the time,’” he said.
After realizing he knew many Diamond songs, but “had no clue what the lyrics were,” Gomez honed in and practiced “Sweet Caroline” ad nauseam, repeatedly asking his wife “100 times over, does this sound OK?”
Neil Diamond performs at the Clive Davis and The Recording Academy Pre-Grammy Gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Finally, Gomez auditioned for the quintet, dubbed Diamond Mine, and he got the gig. Gomez fronted that band for three years, but when it fell apart due to the usual responsibilities of life, he decided to go bigger.
He put together The Diamond Project from a pool of musicians he’d met over the years, and he knew he wanted his project to go big and have “more of a Neil Diamond concert feel.”
“When you see Neil in concert, it’s like he’s got 100 people on stage, several percussionists, tons of singers, a big horn section,” Gomez said. “So, I wanted to at least get the horn section in,” he said.
The band now includes five members with music degrees, along with a VP of marketing and media, an attorney, and a retired CEO.
The professional backgrounds and regular “adult world” responsibilities of the band members necessitate a limit on performances: 20-25 shows per year, to accommodate work schedules and family commitments.
Across the band’s history, Gomez has earned recognition as best male vocalist at the Cleveland Music Awards in 2022 and has been nominated every year since. The band has also received awards, including Best of Cleveland entertainment and was named the Music Box Supper Club’s number one brunch show.
Cheryl admitted to previously being familiar only with Diamond’s biggest hits, has since become a huge fan like her husband and now she knows every song, lyric and stage move. But her awareness has grown like Diamond’s legend status.
Cheryl, who works in sales, also stepped in as the band’s manager, marketer, booking agent, and biggest cheerleader. She said her husband’s idea to expand the size of the band quickly expanded their popularity.
“It became like a Vegas-style show band, which a lot of our venues literally tell their audience, then we exploded in popularity within like two or three years,” she said.
“We didn’t even know what hit us,” she said, drawing one of the parallels between The Gomez’s dream and the Sardinas.
“So when you watch the Sardinas, the same thing happened to them. They’re just tooling around little bars and then they got the big state fair and they exploded. So that actually happened to us, which was crazy. We did not expect that.” Cheryl said.
Gary said it’s been wonderful to watch how “ingrained (Diamond) is in American music lore” and how his songs affect people.
“Especially after shows. `Oh, my God, I can’t believe you pulled that song out. That was my wedding song, thank you so much!’ You definitely see either excitement or tears, hopefully tears of joy. You hit certain points in people’s lives and they bring back certain memories. [The] music just affects people,” he said.
During the shows, the band takes a moment to shout out any veterans in the audience which Cheryl said becomes an emotional moment at every show.
“We clap them out, applaud them, we go over all the branches, and then we ask all the people in the audience to stand and sing with us the national anthem as an audience. And then he goes into ‘America.’ Talk about crying and emotion. It’s a big deal,” she said.
Cheryl noted that at one show they had no less than five World War II veterans, all of whom were brought to the show by other veterans.
The Gomez’s are very excited to see “Song Sung Blue.” But they will have to wait one full day.
“I want to go Christmas Day when it opens, but we host our family, so Gary won’t let us go,” Cheryl said.
“We’re going to go the next day. I told him we’re going the 26th. I want them all to leave so we can run go see the movie,” she added, she and her husband laughing.
Fans can next catch The Diamond Project at the Celestia Theater in Wadsworth on Saturday, Jan. 24, celebrating Diamond’s 85 birthday. Tickets are available now at wadsworthsquare.org.
