The last time I saw him perform (it was on TV, not at a performance I attended), he sounded very shaky indeed. And it also made me quite sad.
Yes, I saw James Taylor on the Today Show (or something like that ), a couple of years ago and thought he did seem shaky. I do love his music .
I saw James Taylor recently at a political rally. He was to low key a choice in my opinion.
My one and only Red Rocks concert was Joni Mitchell, backed by Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays and Jaco Pastorious. Would love to go back there, but would be hard to top that.
My long time exes good friend was Pat Metheny’s drummer back in the late 70’s, early 80’s. Saw them Telluride , Co. and actually shared a townhouse for the night, as I remember. Hahaha. Things that happened in our youth.
Danny Gottlieb?! One of my favorite electric jazz albums is the eponymous Pat Metheny Group album with him on drums. Wore out the vinyl on two copies of that one.
There is a renovated opera house in a town 20 minutes from me, who have had a number of artists from the old days. The concerts are intimate, and a friend gets organized to order tickets when they come out so we get great seats. Some of my favorites have been Asleep at the Wheel, Judy Collins, and Roger McGuinn from the Byrds. I adored Guy Clarke-better known as a song writer, who passed away a few years ago. I had front row seats to Jackson Browne here in town a few years back-just wonderful. When Joan Baez comes to town it is always a great show. Her voice has changed, but she is always a professional and works with her more limited vocal range to great effect. One of the better shows this past year was Lyle Lovette and James Earle Keen touring together.
As more of the greats from my youth pass away every year, I treasure these concerts. Too, for some of the lesser knowns, music was not a great retirement plan, and like to support them economically as they still tour in their 70s.
@mathmom:
lol…Neil Degrasse Tyson was at Harvard at the same time Yo Yo Ma was there, and he (I hope jokingly) has spoken about groaning when it was announced Ma was playing another recital in the dorm:).
It is funny when someone asked about why all the groups people mentioning were old music, and I kind of chuckled, in pop music new music is often eagerly anticipated, in classical music it is generally met with apprehension…funny part is that with classical music a lot of what is played is old, but musicians do find ways to make it different and interesting.
@garland : The Old 97s ain’t no spring chickens! Rhett Miller, who was only a teenager when they first got together, is a great-looking 40-something, but I am pretty sure the rest of the band has passed the half-century mark. And – having never been as pretty as Miller, and having failed to sign whatever pact with the devil he did – they look it.
It’s very disconcerting to me – the whole crop of artists with whom I fell in love in the 90s when I resumed listening to current music that wasn’t pitched at preschoolers, and whom I thought of as young, are now old. Maybe not as old as the Rolling Stones, but still not young.
@doschicos et al.: There’s a big difference among trained vocal technique, a beautiful voice, and being on-key. Dylan and Young never had trained voices, or ones that sounded conventionally beautiful, but they were rarely if ever off key in their recordings. Young at the one concert I saw was off key for some of almost every song, including the acoustic portion of the concert where his voice mattered.
(Speaking of vocal technique and beautiful voices – there’s a recent Fresh Air where Rhiannon Giddens talks about and demonstrates the different techniques she uses for opera and folk music. She’s an operatic mezzo and very much an alto folk singer – I don’t think anyone would ever associate her opera voice with her folk voice, although each is dazzling. Giddens is a solo artist and founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops who went to the Oberlin conservatory as an opera singer and still periodically takes operatic roles.)
^^^
By the same token, I generally see The Fab Faux every year when they come to town. They are a group of crack NY session musicians (Will Lee from Letterman’s former band, Jimmy Vivino, the band leader of Conan O’Brian, etc.). They say The Beatles are our generations classical music and so feel justified in playing an entire Beatles set. This is not like Beatlemania or any of the other touring Beatles tribute bands. No costumes, just fantastic musicians playing the music that they love.
This breaks the rules, since he’s dead, but I’d really like to hear my uncle’s work played. He was a modern classical composer. The Kronos quartet recorded one piece, but other than that he might as well not exist.
I love Rhiannon Giddens. I would love to see her. She’s also just really interesting to listen to. There was a short interview with her on Dinner Party Download (podcast) I believe.
I listen to a lot of current music by artists who are younger than I am. I haven’t listed any in this thread, because (a) I’m lucky enough to live in a place where almost everyone who tours shows up regularly, so if I really want to see an active artist I usually can, and (b) I can think of very few artists I like in their 20s and 30s who are really compelling live performers. (I am not talking about the highly professional pop-star performance art of a Katy Perry or Ariana Grande. I respect it, but that’s not my jam.) In too many cases (e.g., the xx), seeing them live diminishes one’s enjoyment of their work.
It used to be that bands made their bones by playing in bars, clubs, and anywhere else that would have them. And if they weren’t doing that, they would be playing with one another in someone’s mom’s garage or basement. Now, artists come of age working on their Macbook Pros in their bedrooms, and uploading stuff to the internet. They don’t go to the trouble of putting together a live performance until they are already popular. That’s not the way to develop the stadium acts of the future.
I want to see Foo Fighters - I hear they put on an awesome show!
I would like to see Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, and Adele. I just probably wouldn’t be willing to pay the ticket prices, as I never seem to get in on it at the outset when tickets are purchased through the venue.
I have shelled out some bucks to see Michael Buble, and would be willing to pay a fair price to see Ed Sheeran, but he hasn’t come to my city since I became aware of his music.
I was just deciding whether to pick Elvis Costello or Tom Petty and thought, “First, I better see if they’re still touring.” In fact, both are appearing near me within the next month with plenty of tickets available! (This probably means that I’m old or don’t have good taste in music or some combination thereof :(, but I don’t care).
Thank you @morrismm for starting this thread! Without it, I would never have thought to search for these tickets.
Is saw Sam Smith last year. He was good, but the acoustics were bad. I don’t ever remember being at another concert where so many girls were screaming, and he even said HE didn’t think he’d ever done a concert where so many girls screamed. I really wish I would have gone to see Adele. I liked her before she was quite so popular, but just didn’t make it. I’d like to see Ed Sheeren also. I’ve found that I don’t like venturing out to the huge venues, so my “current huge name” concert going days may be over.
@JHS–I’m well aware! But they’re still a lot younger than your basic Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, ad nauseum. I think wanting to see a group that started in the 90s is not quite the same as the over-rated 70s (don’t hit me anyone–that’s the decade I grew up in, too.)
And I mentioned Brandi Carlile in the same sentence. (She’s a year older than my daughter—is that young enough?)
i’d like to see adam levine and james taylor.
we saw ed sheeran opening up for the stones 2 years ago. He was tickled to be there and introduced his parents who he flew in to see the stones after him!
my kids are all into awolnation.
I would like to see Jack White, but I heard he had a tantrum and ended a show early a couple of years ago, so I am wary.
Jackson Browne went to my HS, would love to see him.