On 11 May, I went to see Johnny Mathis in concert at the beautiful Louisville Palace Theatre. For those unfamiliar, the Palace is a gorgeous venue, and it's definitely worth attending something there if ever you're in town. Mathis's voice has held up amazingly well after all these years. It's rare that anyone can continue performing for six decades, but it's rarer still that they can give the caliber of performance Mathis gave. My only regret is that we didn't get even more of his songs, but his beautiful voice and performances made up for any disappointment in that respect, and for any awkwardness caused by being notably younger than 99% of the crowd. Before the intermission, we were treated to the comedic stylings of Gary Mule Deer, which were amusing enough, although his set mainly consisted of old jokes which I've heard several times or been forwarded via the Internet. Eh, whatever. Mathis made up for any of his shortcomings too.
Some of these I'm labeling as medleys, but it's not so much that as the end of one complete song segueing into the beginning of another in some cases. This should still give the basic idea, anyway.
1. Medley: Two for the Road/Charade/The Days of Wine and Roses/Moon River
2. It's Not for Me to Say
3. Chances Are
4. Gina
5. It's All in the Game
6. Medley: Let Me Be the One (the Nichols-Williams one)/Let Go (a song I'd not known before that I greatly enjoyed)
7. I'm on the Outside Looking In
8. When I Fall in Love
9. Misty
10. To the Ends of the Earth
---Gary Mule Deer, Intermission---
11. Pure Imagination
12. Medley from Kismet (his first Broadway show): Sands of Time/Baubles, Bangles, and Beads/Stranger in Paradise
13. Secret Love
14. You Make Me Feel Brand New
15. Walk On By
16. 99 Miles from L.A. (didn't expect this, but he did an amazing job with it)
17. The Twelfth of Never
18. A selection of Portuguese songs - couldn't say what, but it ended with an English rendition of "Brazil"
19. You'll Never Know
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1 comment:
Yours is the first review of any kind that I've seen on Mathis' Mother's Day concert in Louisville, Kentucky. There's nothing like Mathis in a beautiful venue backed by a full orchestra. Seems as if he only did two songs from his new album. If you haven't sampled this on iTunes yet, please do so. It's titled, "A Night To Remember".
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