Sweet Troubadour Reunion in St. Paul: James Taylor and Carole King Still Have it!!

As soon as I saw that James Taylor and Carole King were doing a Troubadour Reunion Tour, I knew I had to make it to a show. The grooves are nearly worn off my Taylor and King LPs and Tapestry was one of my very favorite albums to sing along with. I couldn’t wait to see this pair in action. I scored a floor seat at St. Paul’s Xcel Center the morning the tickets went on sale. Since they were doing the show “theatre-in-the-round” style, I was pretty sure that no floor seat could be bad.

It was a beautiful day to make the 3 hour drive to Twin Cities. On my way I played my various James Taylor and Carole King CDs. Just singing along with those familiar tunes (oh why hadn’t I listened to this wonderful music recently???) I teared up with nostalgia and my voice broke several times. Uh-oh - was this concert going to have me weeping while I sang along? I so enjoyed re-visiting these favorite albums that when I made a bathroom stop at a Minnesota Target Store, I searched out and bought the new Taylor-King Troubadour Reunion double disk CDs - happily it was on sale for $11.98!!

I had searched out a Thai restaurant just 8 blocks from the arena and tried 3 new things (Thai Chang beer (a light, refreshing brew), Cashews fried with Holy Basil, Kaffir Lime Leaves and Thai Spices (very good but I would have liked twice the basil and spices) and Waterfall Salad(a spicy beef, veggie and cilantro salad) and my usual favorite, Chicken Coconut Red Curry. The curry was not quite as good as what I get in Cedar Falls, but all in all, a tasty pre-concert dinner.

I have never been to the Xcel Center when it was set up with a central round stage instead of an end stage. There were 24 rows of seats in each corner of the arena, plus a special area set up with cute little ‘cocktail tables”  immediately surrounding the stage. I don’t recall seeing those seats in the regular ticket sales, so maybe those were available via auction or their fan clubs. I was in row 22, so not real close but way better than up in the nosebleeds!

They included some oldies in their pre-concert music mix that had some of us in the audience singing along before the show even started. No opening act for this show - at the appointed time James and Carole simply walked out to the stage with their band members and back-up singers, circled the stage to wave hello to all the fans, and then began an evening of delightful music.

EVERY song was a pleasure, alternating between some of the really big hits (So Far Away, Natural Woman, Carolina in My Mind, Too Late Baby, Sweet Baby James, Shower the People You Love With Love,   Fire and Rain, etc.)  and some of the lesser known but still favorite tracks (the songs Carole wrote or co-wrote for the Everly Brothers and later Art Garfunkel (I'll Do My Crying in the Rain), James’ Steamroller Man or Machine Gun Kelly). They also alternated between Carole singing with James accompanying, or James singing and Carole accompanying, or the two of them doing true duets. Although the crowd - almost exclusively folks 45-65 from what I could see, was rather subdued during each number,  sitting politely during most songs, they were carefully attending to every nuance of voice, facial expression and instrument and were definitely LOVING it , standing to clap and cheer at the END of almost every number!!  Lutheran Minnesotans!

Carole and James told stories, shared recollections, cracked jokes - you really got the feeling that they were enjoying sharing this experience with the audience. James joked that he and Carole had been performing together since, what, maybe 1903 (lol) and later quipped that “we apparently performed here repeatedly” (but you know how faulty memories of the seventies can be (lmao!). The guitar and piano music was sweet as ever.  James reported that his guitar had been “born here in Minnesota” (and the guitar said that it was good to be back home!). The voices of James and Carole have aged a bit - Carole’s more so than James’ - but the heart and soul and love that they put into their music is just as deep if not deeper than ever. They introduced their band members with love and humor and had great old photos from 40 years ago -these were the same band members that were with them in the seventies! And as Carole and James sat side by side, sharing a hug, so in tune with one another, it was clear that they have a special friendship that goes far beyond their professional endeavors.

They closed the show with Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and You've Got a Friend (my 2 all time favorites!!) but then came back for not just one (Up On the Roof) but actually TWO encores!!

I’m sure you’ll notice that my favorites are primarily the sweet and slow tunes but let me assure you that James and Carole definitely rocked out several times during the evening - I just didn’t tend to capture those on video. When they were playing on the opposite side of the continually rotating stage I sometimes had to resort to the video screens for my shots. I used both an old and a new camera during the show so you’ll see a difference in quality. 

For anyone who has ever been a Carole King or James Taylor fan this reunion show is an absolute must. Run, don’t walk to buy tickets and enjoy the trip down memory lane with songs that are actually timeless!

The Last Rodeo Hits Bloomington: Brooks & Dunn, Jason Aldean, and Tyler Dickerson

     I had hoped to have company on my Brooks & Dunn roadtrip but it turned out that my best buddy couldn’t make it and neither could my sister or daughters. After offering a  free ticket to online friends but finding no takers, I ended up selling my extra on Ebay and making the trip on my own. Although I would have loved company, I also love the freedom of being on my own and felt the excitement of hitting the open road to a town I had never visited. It was a lovely day for a drive across the Mississippi. 

     I didn’t know that Bloomington and Normal, Illinois were adjacent and continuous communities. When I selected a hotel close to the Bloomington arena, I hadn’t even noticed that it had a Normal, IL address (somehow it felt wrong to stay in “Normal” - I think I’d feel more at home in “Abnormal” lol). I checked in at the Candlewood Inn and had just enough time to grab a bite before heading to downtown Bloomington. I paid to park in what looked like someone’s back yard just a block away from the show.

     US Cellular Coliseum is nice small arena. There were perhaps 30 rows of seats on the floor and five sets of risers on each side. I was in the 8th row of the risers at the rear of the arena and even those seats weren’t too bad.

     Jason Aldean was opening for Brooks & Dunn but I was surprised to find that a young performer I had not heard of preceded Jason. Although he looked about 13 years old, Tyler Dickerson is actually sixteen. I was a bit dubious when he and his band appeared on stage, but I have to say I found him quite engaging. Although I wish he had chosen a smaller cowboy hat so we could more often see his eyes under its brim, he had a strong voice and wrote some rocking songs that suited his youth (“I’m just like Hank, I just can’t drink” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgL7qhvu5WA (not my video but defintely worth a listen) and “Hey mister won’t you sell me a fake ID” : ) ) I think this young man is going to be a hit!

     I’m not sure whether it was the clarity of Tyler’s voice or the absence of screams from the audience during his set that made the difference, but it wasn’t until Jason came on stage that I realized that the Coliseum’s sound left something to be desired (at least for those of us towards the rear of the arena). So I’m afraid the audio on my videoclips is not as clear as usual. 

     Before the stage was revealed for the start of Jason’s set, we could see his backlit silhouette, with his guitar, projected larger than life, on the curtains. It was clear from the screams that he had a large following there in Illinois. He rocked through all of his hits and has begun to master the art of interacting with his fans while he sings, moving around much more than when I saw him open for Keith last ear. He managed to sign many autographs on hats and posters (and one on a pink guitar), shake many hands, and even laid down on the catwalk near the end of his hour to pose for photos with some of the gals that lined the walkway. He chatted with the audience a bit before Big Green Tractor, but it would be nice to hear even more from him between songs.  I liked the ‘mood lighting’ at the start of Laughed Until We Cried but wished the sound was better. Jason closed with a rapped cover of Kid Rock’s “Cowboy” but I would have preferred that he just sing ( not rap) one of his own songs.

     Waiting for Brooks and Dunn to come on I chatted with my ‘date’ for the night (well, the Illinois State University fellow who had bought my ticket ; ). They showed a cute video akin to the BBQ video included at Keith Urban shows - Kix and Ronnie escaping from a huge bumper-to-bumper traffic jam in their Toyota Tundra, stopping at a gas station for an urgent bathroom stop for Kix, while Ronnie slides out a nifty grill  attachment from their truck bed and starts grilling for a bunch of admiring young ladies. The video ends with a nice thank you to the audience from Kix and Ronnie for their great 20 year ride. Their signature steer skull was everywhere on the set - on the curtains, on the backdrop and in many of the video images, and a particularly immense skull front and center above the stage. There was even a “mirror ball” steer skull rotating during “Neon Moon”!

Kix sat and talked with the audience for a while, wiping a tear from his cheek at one point. The dynamic duo sang hit after hit. They also sang several tracks from their very first album (being a relative newbie to country music, these songs were not familiar to me). But of course they saved the very best songs to last and I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief that their favorite “Believe” or “Neon Moon” or “Brand New Man” was not going be be omitted from this Last Rodeo show. Of course it was Boot Scootin Boogie that closed the show, with Kix spinning a young lady from the audience. It was a nice “farewell” show but I’m betting that this won’t be the last that we see of these two great country gents.