Kenny Loggins in Concert

My review and photos!

This is Kenny Loggins while he sang Celebrate Me Home. These photos show the passion and total immersion into the music that is Kenny Loggins. It's amazing, considering his 40 year career, that what he gives in every song is all of him.

I'll add more to this tomorrow after I've had a chance to let it all sink in. Right now, I'm still very much caught up in the feel of it and not quite able to find words to describe the experience.

Ah, a good night's sleep does a body - and a brain - good. And so does going through all the concert photos on my camera. I have a lot of great ones! I'm surprised with how good they came out since I wasn't very close to the stage.

The venue was the Riverfest Amphitheatre on the bank of the river in Little Rock. We've had rain, a lot of it, for days, and it was still raining off and on when the gates opened for the concert. While the stage itself is covered, all the people in audience were not, and I'm sure that the crappy weather played a major part in the size of the crowd. If I had to guess, I'd say there was about 500 people there that braved the elements to enjoy Kenny Loggins. Most were middle-aged people that had followed from Loggins and Messina through his long and successful solo career.

Loggins started his show with a few acoustic tunes; with an invite to the audience to sing the choruses of Danny's Song. Crystal clear and pure, the man's voice was flawless - and strong. He is one of the rare musicians that is much better live and in person than his recordings, which are great.

When his band joined him on stage, the energy was non stop. Bass, lead guitar, keyboards and drummer set the stage for a set of rock and country rock and jazz that is the range of Loggins' music. He introduced a few songs, joked about how he was honored that others chose to do the songs he wrote, but there were times he wished they didn't put their stamp on them so much. He laughingly said that he had to steal This Is It back. Comfortable, relaxed and often grinning from ear to ear, the band was as flawless as he was.

The songs ranged from Loggins and Messina days through his new CD. Timeless as they all are, the choice of voicing covered them perfectly. I was very happy to hear Angry Eyes, one of my all time favorites. Before the last notes rang silent, the next song was started so that the music was non stop.

The weather had a major part to play in this concert as well. The high humidity caused the guitars to wander in their tuning quite a bit. The army of stage hands were busy tuning and swapping guitars throughout. And the night was cut short by the sudden "frying" of much of the sound system. The sound people were able to restore Loggins' microphone and the keyboards, so the concert ended with a beautiful song instead of the anticipated Footloose.

Loggins has a killer tour schedule with a lot of miles to cover each day. But you can't tell it by his performance. He and his band dig in deep, smile a lot and relate and communicate with each other while playing. Musically, they are a seamless unit. The set list changes for each tour stop, and every night is a different show (I looked on his site for previous set lists, and last night's was much different than the one he did two nights ago).

Kenny Loggins is the personification of music. His talent is unparalleled and timeless. He goes way beyond "star."