Kickin' off my Sunday shoes.

Last night, Amy and I attended the Kenny Loggins concert at the VooDoo Lounge inside Harrah's casino in North KC. It is a small venue with 800-1000 seats and a fairly small stage. Our seats were along the rail in the balcony directly to the left of the stage. Although this was probably not the best location acoustically (right next to speakers), it was a great place to watch the singer in action with his band.

Kenny played all the good stuff and only the title track from his new album. From the open of the show (Whenever I Call You Friend), it was apparent that Kenny still had the voice I knew from his CDs. This was a relief after my experience at the Gordon Lightfoot concert that I blogged about here.

Although it was a short show (about 1:45), it was one of the best I have been to. Kenny kept it interesting by describing how he came up with songs, his writing partners, and stories from the road. He playfully responded to the audience members who felt the need to shout something. And he went down into the crowd for part of what is probably my favorite Kenny Loggins song.

Celebrate Me Home is my favorite because it showcases an artist who knows his voice is an instrument and knows how to use it. My favorite version of this song, by far, is the live version off his Outside from the Redwoods album. That version is similar to the one in the link in that there is a long musical interlude in the middle, but the Redwoods version involves a saxophone, a harmonica, and Kenny's voice riffing off each other. One instrument would play something, and then in turn the other two would repeat it, and then someone else would take the lead. This 4 minutes of singing and instrumental dueling is absolutely fantastic and can lift my spirit to a higher level anytime I hear it. Although I will say it is much better to just listen to than it is to watch in the video I linked - Kenny looked a little weird back then.

I don't remember which was first, but my first two memories of this song are riding in my friend Aaron Moeller's car on our way from Iowa to St. Louis to visit his brother (I'm not sure I can still call him a friend after this recent post on his brothers blog). We put in the Redwoods CD on the way and when this song came on, Aaron let me borrow his harmonica that he had in the car and try to play along (it was fun, but probably didn't sound too good). The other memory, and probably where I really fell in love with the power of the song was in Greg & Theresa Pink's house (friends of the family when I was in high school). They had a nice stereo system that I used to listen to the CD with the volume turned way up and in a much higher quality than I was getting out of my boom box at home.

I discovered the song's ability to lift my spirit a few years ago when I was stuck in a job that had more stress than I ever really wanted. The best way I found to relax and relieve stress was to put on some headphones late at night and just lose myself in the music. Well, the Redwoods version of Celebrate Me Home became a staple of those headphone sessions. There are other artists and songs where the vocals are so pure and powerful that they have the same affect on me, but this will always be my "go-to" song when I need to get away from life for a few minutes.

Kenny ended the concert last night with two encores, the first was a trio of rock tunes - Your Mama Don't Dance, Danger Zone (from Top Gun), and Footloose. The final encore was a lovely song titled Forever. It was a final reminder that Kenny's instrument is till in tune, even as he approaches his 60th birthday.