Al Stewart Year of the Cat Tour Review

Image Credit: Lori Stoll

Information technology's rare to be able to hear ane of your favorite albums played live all the way through, but I was lucky enough to experience this when British folk musician Al Stewart brought hisYear of the True cat bout to the Edmonds Center for the Arts in Edmonds, Washington on Friday night.

Joined past Chicago area band The Empty Pockets, who served as both an opening act and backing ring, and multi-instrumentalist Marc Macisso, Stewart brought the iconic Alan Parsons produced Platinum album to life in front end of a sold out crowd. Featuring corking musicianship and storytelling, Stewart breathed new life into his iconic anthology and put on a bear witness that was a existent treat for anybody in the audience.

The show on Nov. 10 got off to a groovy showtime with The Empty Pockets putting on an energetic prepare that more than than won over the crowd. After a brief suspension, travel writer extraordinaire and local favorite Rick Steves came on stage and gave Stewart a lovely introduction. Throughout the set, Stewart remarked that he unremarkably plays solo acoustic shows, but praised the musical talents of Macisso and The Empty Pockets. Though an acoustic ready from Stewart would accept been lovely, the extra musical accompaniment brought out a liveliness and edge to many of his songs. He began the set with the songs "Sirens of Titan," "Antarctica," and "Time Passages," a vocal he said was indicative of his song writing as he always writes about different time periods and events, before getting intoYear of the Cat.

Epitome Credit: Fred Kuhlman

He played the album tracks in club, starting with "Lord Grenville," a vocal about Sir Richard Grenville, an English crewman who died in boxing in 1591. Stewart and so moved onto "On the Border," which he said was inspired by the conflicts in Kingdom of spain and Rhodesia. After playing "Midas Shadow," Stewart told a few stories relating to the next track on the album, "Sand in Your Shoes." He explained that the song was a Bob Dylan "pastiche" because after hearing Dylan on the radio (Stewart does a spot on Bob Dylan impression, by the fashion) he felt he might exist able to make it too. His tape label was actually pressuring him to write songs that would be popular commercially, and though Dylan and folk music were becoming popular, "Sand in Your Shoes" was only a hit in Southward Africa.

Stewart connected on with "If Information technology Doesn't Come up Naturally, Leave It" and "Flying Sorcery" before jumping into crowd favorite "Broadway Hotel." The vocal, he explained, came about from his label's desire to have him write something near sexual practice. The songwriting process included wine and Albert Camus, among other things, and ended with "Broadway Hotel." Next was "One Phase Before," of which he said he wasn't sure what the song was actually about. He talked a fiddling most his usual writing process in regards to the song and how he normally writes upwardly to 12 verses when writing a song and and then picks the all-time ones. For this one, however, he said that looking back some of the all-time verses didn't make the cut. The song was originally inspired by Lewis Carroll, but those lyrics didn't make the cut, and thus he wasn't really sure what it ended upwardly being about.

Image Credit: RCA Records

When it came fourth dimension to talk well-nigh the title track, Stewart told a story of beingness on tour in America with Linda Ronstadt and how information technology wasn't really a peachy feel for him. But ane night during soundcheck, his pianoforte player played a melody similar to that in "Year of the Cat." He asked if he could write lyrics to information technology, and though the piano player said no, he did information technology anyhow, and "Year of the Cat" was born. The oversupply, myself included, was ecstatic to hear the song and gave Stewart a standing ovation every bit he left the phase. When he reappeared for the encore, he played "Valentina Way" with The Empty Pockets before playing a lovely version of "In Brooklyn" by himself with his guitar. Though having a backing band for theTwelvemonth of the Cat anthology was wonderful, Stewart really shines when he'south solo, and as someone who had never seen him in concert until now, I imagine that a solo Stewart bear witness would exist just as large of a treat to encounter.

Throughout the gear up, Stewart was incredibly mannerly and showed off a self-deprecating sense of sense of humor. He talked a lot nearly his characterization wanting his 7th album to be full of hits and exist commercially successful, and how even though he went about information technology his mode, Year of the Catconcluded up being a success anyway. He also shared a story about learning to play the guitar from King Reddish's Robert Fripp. His anecdotes were insightful, merely he also made the oversupply express joy a lot when talking about how the anthology and certain songs came almost. Stewart was in top form Fri night, and everyone who was lucky enough to be there truly witnessed something special. If yous're lucky enough to catch Stewart'southwardYear of the Cat anthology tour, yous're in for a existent treat.

Al Stewart is currently on tour across the U.s.a. playing his iconic album Year of the Cat. For tour dates and other information, visit alstewart.com.

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Source: https://thehudsucker.com/2017/11/13/concert-review-al-stewart-year-of-the-cat-tour/

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