A few people around here sure have me pegged. I received at least two e-mails from people letting me know about the tapings for the Songwriters In the Round public television series "Legends and Lyrics", happening for the past few days in downtown Nashville and open for the public to be part of the audience. "This is so you...you would enjoy this," my e-mailers said. Absolutely. I promptly signed up for three weekend afternoon tapings.
This series brings together three renowned and established writers and one "rising star" act to play some songs they wrote and tell stories on how they were written. The "rising star" act did three songs to open the show, then the other artists came out and performed "in the round", with four or five rounds. It's taped at the Grand Masonic Lodge in downtown Nashville. The auditorium didn't have a bad seat in the house.
The first show I went to was Friday afternoon, which featured Felix Cavaliere (Rascals), Melissa Manchester, Josh Kelley and Damien Horne. I was most pumped to hear Felix, and I tell you, the guy still has his voice. He did "Groovin' ", "Lonely Too Long", "How Can I Be Sure", and "People Got To Be Free". Melissa Manchester wowed the audience with her singing and her powerful piano playing. She did "Midnight Blue" (originally intended for Dionne Warwick, but producers dug Melissa's voice on the demo and the rest was history), "Come In From The Rain" and two newer songs (didn't have my usually present pen and paper out—didn't want to get caught taking notes on camera!). Quite honestly, I wasn't all that familiar with Josh Kelley, but he was very impressive and engaging with the audience. I knew that "rising star" Damien Horne was part of the present "Musik Mafia" but hadn't heard much of his music. Once again, I was impressed and in particular my friend who was sitting next to me was quite blown away. I think we'll both be looking up more of his music.
On to Saturday afternoon...the lineup was newcomer Jessica Rae, who was excellent; in the round were Glen Phillips (known from Toad the Wet Sprocket), Guy Clark and Roger McGuinn. Glen Phillips was accompanied on guitar and vocals by Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek) and among other songs he did was the one I was hoping for, "All I Want". Storytelling songwriter Guy Clark engaged the audience and got some of the largest applause I've heard the artists receive. Roger McGuinn did an awesome version of "Eight Miles High" on acoustic guitar.
The last taping I went to was Sunday afternoon's, which had the largest crowd of the three afternoon tapings I attended. Opening as "rising stars" was a very strong duo, Sam and Ruby. In the round were Mac Davis, Peter Yarrow and David Pack (Ambrosia). In my opinion, the absolute best voice of all the artists I heard in the three days belonged hands down to David Pack. He got all of his Ambrosia hits in: "Biggest Part of Me", "You're The Only Woman", "Holding On to Yesterday" and "How Much I Feel". The beauty and range of his voice was stunning. Peter Yarrow, I think, wanted to talk as much as he did sing, but he did (accompanied by his daughter Brittany) get the audience singing with him to "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Day Is Done". I would like to know Mac Davis' secret for hardly having aged since his TV days. The audience wanted to hear his own personal songs like "Watching Scotty Grow" and "I Believe In Music".
I figured I was going to see at least a few people I knew in the audience at these tapings and indeed I did. It was a great experience for all of us. If you missed out on this group of tapings, there will be more scheduled for spring and the "Legends and Lyrics" series should start airing on PBS in April.
Need I say it? I love this town!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment