During the penultimate song of his 75 minute set, Robbie Dupree pulls out his harp, never far from it, though a little stingy, and plays his best solo, the rest of his seven piece band falls out and Robbie goes up the harp. reaching higher higher higher, and when he reaches the highest note he stops. not basking in the applause but racing to join his backup singers and bring it all back home.
It is another moment to appreciate in the once popular singers first rate performance. At 65 years of age, Dupree's years on the radio are over, but his set is anything but a nostalgia trip. Leaning heavily on two albums, Time And Tide, and the recent covers album, Arc Of A Romance this is no trip backwards. So if you are in this for the hits, except for the inevitable "Steal Away", you aren't going to get them. No "Hot Rod Hearts" and even more surprisingly no "Brooklyn Girls". Instead Dupree spends his time mining his own musical inclinations: blues, r&b, jazz and a smattering of AOR pop.
Though, with thining hair and a goatee replacing his iconic beard, Robbie looks his age (but not older), he sounds the same, he hasn't lost much off his top end. His voice is light and smooth, and can be as effective as you choose to let it. This gives the voice a protean quality not at first associated with him. The band, a good one, has the precision of a Steely Dan, and the blues-jazz mash up has Robbie sounding eerily like Donald Fagen. Just as good is a dark notes "Blue Monday" where the jazz instincts settle in the rear of the song and the 6 bar blues "comes creeping" on you in the tastiest of licks at the break.
Robbie's in town from Woodstock to promote Arc Of A Romance and we get two great songs, he wonders if the 1934 vintage "I Only Have Eyes For You" was written in this, the former Brill, Building, and a song by the great English band Prefab Sproat is nearly as good. Then he rolls out one of his few seriously old songs, "I'm No Stranger" and it sounds just about the same as everything else. Makes you think "Steal Away" gave you the wrong idea about the man.
As the MC, Robbie is funny and friendly, honestly humble but obviously DA MAN and he handles his band very well. He lets them breath but in a controlled and friendly environment, the service to the songs of paramount. Especially the two back up singers who shadow him carefully and the entire band who crack up and Robbie's kidding around.
After the show our mutual friend Richard Davis introduces me to Robbie. "I only play my harmonica two or three times during a show" Robbie tells me. He passes on a couple of hits, he dolls out his instrumentals like it was gruel and we were Oliver Twist, and his re-defining artistic achievement Time And Tide came and went with minimal publicity. Robbie calls himself lucky, but he isn't lucky enough, perhaps the self-effacing man should get somebody to awaken the graying of America's denizen to the great musician in their midst.
Grade: A-