Meet The Cruisers, a Hagerstown, Maryland-based Oldies band
The Cruisers, a Hagerstown-based Oldies band, is being inducted into the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame in November 2025.
- Hagerstown-based Oldies band The Cruisers is being inducted into the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame.
- The band’s longest-tenured member, Mike Lushbaugh, was previously inducted as an individual in 2019.
- The Cruisers have been performing for around 40 years, starting in the mid-1980s.
- The induction ceremony was delayed from 2020 due, in part, to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Cruisers, a popular Hagerstown-based band known for playing oldies music, is getting wider recognition as it joins the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame.
Mike Lushbaugh, the longest-tenured member of the band, was inducted into the hall of fame in 2019.
Lushbaugh said it’s cooler this time, getting the honor with current and former bandmates.
“We love each other dearly. It’s a family,” said drummer Joey Leggett, who has been with the band for 35 years.
The band’s current members:
- Lushbaugh, of Martinsburg, who plays the saxophone
- Leggett, of Hagerstown, who plays drums
- Danny Dawson, of Hagerstown, who plays guitar and has been with the band for 23 years
- Stevie “D” DiLaudo, of Hagerstown, who plays guitar and has been with the band for two years
- Christine Cersley, of Hagerstown, who plays bass and has been with the band for about 10 months. Cersley is the band’s first female member.
Some past band members also are expected to attend the Nov. 23 induction ceremony in Baltimore.
The Cruisers also will perform during the ceremony.
Lushbaugh, a well-known local saxophonist who performs the national anthem at local events, including ones honoring veterans, said he will play the anthem at the induction ceremony.
The band was first nominated to go into the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in delaying the induction ceremony, Lushbaugh said.
History of Hagerstown’s The Cruisers
The Cruisers have their roots in an oldies band, Brown Sugar, that Guy Taylor and the late Sonny Franklin started in the early 1980s, Lushbaugh said.
That band turned into The Cruisers right around the time Lushbaugh said he joined the band, in the mid-1980s.
The original Cruisers members were Lushbaugh on sax; Franklin and Ronnie James on bass; Keith Carter on drums; and Taylor and Phil James (Ronnie’s brother) on guitar.
Ronnie and Phil James are brothers. Their brother, Randy, also was part of the band at one point.
Among the musicians who performed with the band the longest were Lushbaugh, Leggett, Franklin, Taylor and Dawson.
Lushbaugh likes to say the band played the “animal circuit,” referring to fraternal organizations like the Elks, Moose, Eagles and Owls.
They also play at a lot of local carnivals, like the ones in Boonsboro, Smithsburg, Clear Spring and Fairplay; and at other local events like the National Apple Harvest Festival in Biglerville, Pennsylvania, and special events at Meritus Park in downtown Hagerstown.
Among the songs and artists The Cruisers cover are “Rock Around the Clock,” “Amarillo by Morning,” “Born to be Wild” and hits from the Beatles.
The Cruisers are scheduled to perform at Live at Hub City Vinyl in downtown Hagerstown on Wednesday, Nov. 26.
The band’s motto is “Still Cruisin’ after all these years!”
“We’re professionals so we go out there and do the best job we can. And we enjoy doing that,” Leggett said.
Lushbaugh said he’s fortunate to be paid for something he likes to do.
He’s old enough, Lushbaugh said, that “it’s got to be fun or I just wouldn’t do it anymore.”
Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame inductions’ return
Clyde Allen said he’s been working to restart the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame inductions after they “fell by the wayside” during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then with the passing of some key organizers.
Founder “Buddy Love” (that was his stage name) died last year and drummer John Sankonis, the treasurer who “did all the work,” died in 2023, Allen said.
Allen said he learned of the Hall of Fame when Love approached him in 2012 in a tavern, complimenting him on his singing voice, and telling him Love was putting Allen in the Hall of Fame.
Allen said he wasn’t sure if Love was serious, but he got a call the next year about the induction ceremony. His induction was due to his performing lead vocals for different bands, including Crossroads and Gene Vincentt and the Cadillac Cruisers.
Allen was one of about 53 people inducted that first year, he said. “Mama” Cass Elliot, of The Mamas & The Papas, also was inducted that year.
Love considered naming it the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, but Vincentt convinced him to make it the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame so it could include more than rock musicians and even expand beyond musicians, according to Allen.
The Hall of Fame has several hundred members, including the late Roy Clark of “Hee Haw” fame. Clark was inducted posthumously, having died shortly before the ceremony.
Former Orioles catcher Rick Dempsey, the Most Valuable Player for the 1983 World Series and who entertained fans during rain delays by pantomiming an inside-the-park home run and sliding home on the wet tarp, also is a Hall of Fame member.
Allen said he hopes to have the website for the Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame up again next year. For now, he’s focusing on the induction ceremony, with around 14 individuals and four groups going in this year.
“There are so many guys out there that played music and sticked to it and did it for a long time, and it’s just nice to be recognized,” Allen said.
The Cruisers roll call
With 40 years of history, there have been almost two dozen members of The Cruisers over the years.
Beyond the original and current members, according to Lushbaugh other members of The Cruisers have included:
- The late Phil Turner on guitar
- The late Gilbert Boggs on guitar
- Robert Keefer on guitar
- Thurston “Fuzz” Faulder on guitar
- Jeremy Smith on bass
- Bill French on guitar
- Tony Callendrelle on bass
- Bob Demeza on keys
- Randy James on vocals
- Tommy Dawson on bass
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.heraldmailmedia.com ’
