Mini Concerts Review

 

I started this month going to two concerts on the same weekend.

If you know anything about me, you know I'm not too keen on anything I have to do twice on any weekend.  Yes, my indigenous American name is "Stick In The Mud."

The first concert was by Michael W. Smith.  Smith is huge in a genre of music known as Contemporary Christian Music, or CCM. 

His primary instrument is the piano, and frankly, the guy can flat out play the piano. He has written several songs that are now in hymnbooks. If churches even use hymnbooks anymore.

The concert was terrific—no two ways about it.

At first, I thought it would be a little bit hokey.  He came out, sat a the piano and said a few words, and played some snippets of his songs.  

The audience was er, older saints who loved and appreciated this artist.  The artist loved and appreciated his aging audience. 

The second concert was by Van Morrison, who I am not sure even likes his audience even though they have made him very rich and a legend.

Everybody knows Van Morrison, but they don't know Van Morrison.  

Everybody has heard "Brown Eyed Girl," his most famous song, which came out in the '60s. Unfortunately, due to some contractual issues, Morrison never made a lot of money from this song, and for years, he never played it.

He plays it now. It doesn't sound like the record.

Van doesn't care.

He's sort of like Bob Dylan because he's always working on his songs and he gets bored playing the same thing the same way all the time.

He's Van [insert bad word here] Morrison and he doesn't care if you like it. 

His music can be described as a sort of jazz.  It is not rock and roll.

Here is a transcript of my wife and me during the Van Morrison Concert.

My wife: "What's this song called?"
Me:  "I don't know."

I have been a big fan since 1970.

Even though I didn't know many of the songs, I enjoyed the concert.  I have always wanted to see Van Morrison.

It was great.  He wasn't introduced. He just meandered onto the stage with his saxophone wearing an Auqa Blue suit with a scarf and an Aqua Blue fedora.  My wife said he looked like a garden gnome.

He didn't talk to the audience except to say "Give  it up for the band" after the last song.

I'm not sure he knew he was in Alpharetta, Georgia.

That's okay.  He's Van You Know What Morrison and he doesn't have to talk to me.