I loved walking around Epcot's Food and Swine Festival this year. I saw more concerts than ever. It's always surprising to me; the difference between live and recorded music. I enjoy hearing the best that someone sounds and can be disappointed with a live voice, but Disney did a good job of choosing artists that sound good live.
It was a year I was impressed by voices.
I started early with Wilson Phillips, on whom I posted "The Dream Is Still Alive" earlier in the blog. Chynna is a trip, as I knew, but I had never seen any of them in person before and it was fun. She managed to draw attention to herself as true stars do. She was distracted by a firefly, and seemed delighted with it as if she might want to dust on a little pixie glitter here at "Disneyland" and fly off with it, but she gamely stayed on stage and kept singing after announcing to the crowd that she has ADHD and apologizing that as a California girl she's used to going to Disneyland, not Disney World. Then she managed to slip in an "Amen!" or two. There was the obligatory problem with the equipment and the joke about getting too close to those trying to re-hook her body mike. They are real singers, and I'm not sure why I didn't know that, but I apologize for thinking otherwise. I would like to request some work inspired by harmonies with no instruments. Just put them in an acoustic chapel somewhere and "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" it with some medieval inspired chant and long phrasing and some new inspirational lyrics. Ladies, I want to hear you revisit some folk tunes or ancient melodies seriously as Simon and Sting do, but I think you can do this in your own way which will surprise us all. Research song cycles and troubadour ballads and go from there.
Next, I went to see Christopher Cross and I knew from the opening notes of the saxophone that I was home; meaning by that, instantly transported back to listening to the radio when it held the most sway on me somewhere around 1978-82. The backup singers were great. And it was nice to be reminded that a singer-songwriter never stops even if radio play isn't current. I liked the new song and what seems to be a true musician that doesn't do anything to court the audience but lets us in on what he's doing.
The Pointer Sisters were the standout and I went to four shows. Too bad I have to work to eat and couldn't have made them all. They are showmen; especially when singing Automatic. But they are also singers. I've seen two different lineups and I'd love to see them all on stage together- even the one they kicked out. Ladies, why not do a gospel album? They cross genres seamlessly anyway and could go off in many directions- funk, r & b, country. I think they could do anything. Why not go into that amazing Gothic chapel with great acoustics (see Wynonna Judd sing How Great Thou Art) after Wilson Phillips gets done with it and see what the new ladies can come up with and see what the veterans can do that's new?
Sugar Ray worked the crowd and sounds good in person.
The S.O.S. band brought me back to the realization that theirs is the type of music I really like.
Tiffany is a real singer too. I think I was too old and jaded when she was a pop princess to be drawn in by her. But now that I know she's a real singer I am impressed. I loved her version of Call Me and think she has a great voice. It's a good idea to do crowd-pleasers at a place like Epcot, and I'm anxious to see what she does next. 50s music? 70s inspired? Sure 80s is a great fit, but let's see what else she comes up with. Her biggest hit is a re-working that she truly made her own. What can she do with some other inspirations?
Jo Dee Messina was my discovery among discoveries this year. What a voice, what a personality and what a songwriter. What's in her next act, I don't know but "You go, girl." The first night she said she had allergies. You could hear it in her speaking voice but her singing was a-may-zing. The next night she said she was plain sick. If she sings like that when she's sick- and again, you could hear it only in the speaking voice....
Boyz II Men: I was looking forward to ya, but didn't get there in time to see much except the back of the standing room only crowd. You sounded good at some points and I'm sure by the crowd reactions you brought many of them to their knees.
Chaka Khan: What can I say? We're destined to meet at another time. Schedules clashed and although I wanted to, I just couldn't. Perhaps you would have been too Every Woman for me to handle anyway. But hopefully there's next year.
Thank you Walk Disney World for giving me more excuses to just be there, walk around the lake, walk over to Boardwalk, walk through the only World's Fair I've seen and eat to the beat in 2015.
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