How Sweet It Is!

What a wonderful night.  James Taylor and Carole King brought their Troubadour Reunion Tour to the Detroit area last night.  Performing at The Palace of Auburn Hills, it was very clear that these two talent powerhouses are having the time of their lives.  At one point in the evening, James made a joke about when they first sat down to create the set list and it was "7 hours long".  Considering all the music these two have written and performed, how they whittled it down to a few hours is close to a miracle.

On this evening we got to hear all their biggest hits: Fire and Rain, You've Got A Friend, It's Too Late, Natural Women, Shower the People, I Feel the Earth Move...just to name a few.  And they clearly love each other and love performing together. 

Carole is so dynamic on stage.  I can't tell you how many times I overheard someone in the crowd say "She's 68!"  If she's 68...that's the kind of 68 I want to be.  She really gets into the music and the crowd. Not to say that her voice doesn't show some wear and tear, but the energy that surrounds her more than compensates.

James' voice is as true and pure as ever.  His shows are always amazing and I really think Carole helps off-set some of his on stage quirkiness.  (If you've ever seen him perform before, you can tell he's sometimes uncomfortable when he's not singing.)

They were also surrounded by their original Troubadour musicians which added such depth and joy to the evening.  I have to say I loved the fiddle - accordian combo during the evening.

The theater in the round set included a slowly revolving stage which gave everyone in the arena a clear view of James and Carole throughout the evening.  The use of the double-sided video screens was freakin' awesome.  It took us a little while, but we think we figured out how they did it.  Brilliant staging!

Not that there weren't a few little downers in the evening.  Who knew that The Palace doesn't have air conditioning. Also...our 6th row seats, weren't exactly 6th row seats.  If you include the "mysterious" two rows and wide aisle in front of us, it made our seats more like 10th row. Kind of bummer considering how much we paid.

And finally, that little camera nazi that hounded us....ridiculous!  Kathy and I both have Nikon D3000s with the original lens.  Nice cameras, but certainly not professional zoom lens cameras.  Our little camera police dude kept telling us we could not use "those kind of cameras".  Seriously....you have got to be kidding me.  Any idiot can look at our cameras and tell they aren't professional cameras.

But...those little things didn't take away from a simply marvelous evening.  Thank you James and Carole from bringing your show to Michigan.