It was 64 degrees in Manhattan Saturday afternoon, the world had taken a turn for the milder and though it was the dead of winter, Spring felt in the air and I'd downgraded from full coat to jacket.
An apt metaphor for later that evening at the Town Hall where the country legend Glen Campbell brought his farewell tour to the city. And it was like a reawakening, a place where the horrors awaiting Glen as he declines and fades and dies once the dreaded Alzheimer's disease he announced to be sufferring from. grabs hold of him, were not on view and Glen Campbell wasn't wintry at all.Rather an artist in the Spring of his life. Literally, jumping up and down, playing perfect guitar solos and very comfortable with his back up band.
And why shouldn't he be? Glen's musical director and keyboard player is T.J. Kuenster, who has been with him since 1977. And three members of his band Campbell has known since the day they were born. His daughter Ashley and his sons Cal and Shannon. It is a wall of familiarity and despite the back up band itself, Instant People, maybe should have been a little better. they ciuld not have been better for Campbell. T.J. blows a line during "Make Believe" and cracks Glen up, Ashley joins her dad on "Dueling Banjos" and Glen just beams at her. These are memories that will sustain his children a life time.
Opening with "Gentle On My Mind", Glen took a trip through his excellent musical history with occasional off the cuff remarks. An Elvis Presley impression during Conway Twitty's "Make Believe", a remembrance of John Wayne during "True Grit" and many a shout out to Jimmy Webb. A friend of mine went to see Jimmy at Iridium and met Glen there a week ago, though there needs no explanation for a meeting of those minds. "I wouldn't be here without Jimmy", Glen notes.Webb gave Glen "Wichita Lineman", "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" and "Galveston' -all of which he performs, sings great, doesn't flub a lyric, and gives us the whole song, adding a guitar solo on"Lineman" that was a thing of beauty.Still, Webb at Iridium just before Campbell arrived at Town Hall was a nice piece of synchronicty.
Luckily for him, Glen's final tour includes promoting a new album, Ghost On The Canvas, one Bill Holdship included in his Top 10 of 2011, and made my top 20, so he could push the product and not dilute the spirit. He performs 5 songs off the album, including former Replacement Paul Westerberg's title track. Both encore songs are new, both are first rate. But the best moment of the night is a song Campbell covered in 1974 and which he sang better on Saturday: "Lovesick Blues". Glen tributes how Hank Williams could sell a song and then he sells the hell of the classic. His vocal range was unreal and he is so true to the original while hijacking it. An amazing performance in a night filled with amazing moments.
At the age of 75, Campbell is a fine looking man, tall, unbowed, and he carries the weight of his history with enormous ease. The hits flow throughout the set: "Gentle On MY Mind", "Try A Little Kindness", "I Can't Stop Loving You" – 81 times he hit the Billboard charts. and he gives every song in this set its full debt: fronting a young country-rock band, he makes em fresh and fun and the audience gives him three standing o's.
Whether seductively unbuttoning his shirt, careening through his history, trading guitar licks with his son, cracking jokes, laughing, dancing, playing guitar solo after solo and just plain having so much fun we could share in it, Glen brought an early Spring to the middle of this winter. A giant. He'll be missed.
Grade: A