Longtime rockers Movin' On get ready for their swan song.

Byline: Carolyn Lamberson The Register-Guard

After more than 30 years of rockin' Lane County audiences, the rock 'n' roll band Movin' On may be doing just that: moving on.

The band will take what could amount to its final bow on Saturday at the Mary Cole Celebration in Marcola. The show begins at 8:30 p.m. on the festival stage.

In the next few weeks, original lead singer Steve Coates will move to Wyoming to take a job in the oil industry. After that, founding member Jerry Ritter said, the band's future is unsure.

The group formed in 1972, when Ritter, also a guitarist and keyboard player, and Coates started singing duets for private parties. Eventually, the duo added a bass player, a drummer and another guitarist.

"We played a lot of garage parties up there in the Mohawk Valley," Ritter said.

As the band drew more fans to the garage parties, offers to play gigs in local bars and nightclubs came pouring in. Over the next couple of decades, the group played a steady stream of bars and nightclubs up and down Interstate 5, Ritter said.

About five years ago, the band scaled back, and now primarily plays shows on the coast at Elks Lodges and for private parties. The bar scene was getting to be too much for Movin' On.

"We just got too old for all that," said Ritter, who at 57 is the band's elder statesman. "I need my sleep."

Ritter said he's not sure the band will replace Coates. But drummer Rick Hedges said he hopes the band will carry on.

"Even after 30 years, it's still fun," he said. "I'm hopeful we'll be able to go on a while longer."

Movin' On plays classic rock - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Neil Young - and other tunes from the '70s and '80s. The band also has been known to whip out original songs for its fans.

The biggest crowd Movin' On ever played before was at a July 4 festival at Dexter Lake - there were 3,000 or 4,000 in the crowd. "It was nuts," he said. "But it was great fun."

He also remembers the smallest crowd - about half a dozen people at the Main Event nightclub in Salem. "That was a long night," Ritter said.

In addition to Ritter and Coates, who left Movin' On for a while but rejoined the fold in 1997, the band features original guitarist Bill Craig, drummer Hedges, who is celebrating his 30th summer with Movin' On, and bassist Bruce Moore, a veteran of more than 20 years.

One of the most surprising things, Ritter said, is that the band has been around long enough to welcome a second generation of players. Ritter's son Kyle will sit in for his dad on Saturday at guitar, while Craig's son Devon will play bass.

Ritter said the Mary Cole Celebration is an appropriate place to end the band's tenure.

"There couldn't be any better place,' he said. "We have a real fan base up in that area.'

As for a final song, Ritter didn't hesitate to guess what it would be.

`Undoubtedly, it will probably be `Freebird,' ' he said. "That's traditional. It's what we usually close with.'