The
Living Room Tour review
In 2004, Carole King
embarked on the Living Room Tour, her first in over a decade, and
offered her legions of fans an opportunity to glimpse the iconic
singer / songwriter in the most intimate of settings. For over two
hours each night, she performed songs that drew from her 40
year-plus career, from her early hits, to her overlooked gems, to
two new songs all with acoustic arrangements. King's unique ability
to captivate an audience with her compelling voice and expressive
piano playing won rave notices from critics and audiences across the
country. Now, her new Rockingale Records/Concord Records/Starbucks
Hear Music™ release, documents the magic of the concert dates on
The Living Room Tour, a 27-song, double CD suffused with King's
legendary warmth and wisdom.
If ever an artist has
belonged in America's living rooms, it's King. In the 1960s, she and
co-writer Gerry Goffin quietly defined a generation with over 50
songs that landed in the Top 40. In 1971, she gave us the landmark Tapestry, one of the best-selling and best-loved albums ever made.
To date, over 400 Carole King compositions have been recorded by
over 1000 artists, resulting in 100 hit singles -- many reaching the
coveted #1 spot. She is arguably the most successful and most
revered female songwriter in pop music history.
King was first inspired to
mount the Living Room Tour while she and her long-time guitarist
Rudy Guess were performing in private homes and small venues for
environmental and political events and fundraisers. "I realized
I could do the same thing in a large venue and make it feel like a
living room," she recalls. "The idea of bringing the show
back to basics really appealed to me."
"A lot of people were
skeptical: 'How are you going to have an intimate living-room
feeling on a big old stage in the theaters and outdoor amphitheaters
that you play?'" King says of the initial reaction to the
premise, "We just brought furniture with us and set it up in
the approximate size of a living room." The concept worked. The
San Francisco Chronicle declared, "Songwriter that she is, King
sang her greetings to the crowd, an open and witty piece about what
her concert was going to be called 'Welcome to My Living Room.' For
the next two hours, she did indeed act for all the world like that's
where she was and that everybody there was her dear friend. That
kind of honest warmth is timeless and so rare on the concert
stage."
"I see the audience as
one collective friend," King says in explanation of her
remarkably intimate vocals, "and I address my collective
friend. I'm sharing things with my friend, and the members of the
audience give back. I don't know why it works, but it does."
Lending subtle but solid
support on the album are Guess (vocals, guitar and bass), who's been
working with King for close to two decades, and Nashville-based
songwriter Gary Burr (vocals, guitar, bass, and mandolin), who has
co-written a number of songs with her in recent years, including
"Loving You Forever," which they sing as a duet on The
Living Room Tour. The magic on the CD, however, is created by King
herself whose performances make the listener believe that she's
singing just for them rather than a hall full of people. And, of
course, no one can sing Carole King classic songs better than she
does.
In all, The Living Room
Tour CD features King performing 27 of her classic songs, including
7 #1 hits. From "It's Too Late" and "So Far
Away," to "I Feel the Earth Move" and "(You Make
Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman," she brings to the melodies and
lyrics a deep level of familiarity and understanding that the
audience embraces. Listening to the album, it's clear that King's
music evokes memories of a special time and place, like catching up
with a dear, cherished friend. It's hardly surprising then that the
timeless classic "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"
receives perhaps the warmest and most heart-felt reaction from the
crowd. King co-wrote the track, which became a #1 hit for The
Shirelles, when she was just 17 years-old. Her own performance of
the tune was one of Tapestry's myriad highlights. "When I get
to that song, people just shout out, 'Yeah,' and they sing
along," she says affectionately.
On a deeper, more personal
level, King admits that she enjoys performing live "You've Got
a Friend." She is joined by Guess and Burr for what she
describes as "a little rotating vocal jam." "I love
the moment when Rudy chimes in, 'Carole, you've got a friend,"
the singer / songwriter smiles. The audience obviously enjoys that
moment too, along with the rendition of another familiar tune,
"Where You Lead I Will Follow." King reinterpreted this
version of the classic tune for the WB TV series "The Gilmore
Girls" as a dialogue between a mother and daughter with her own
daughter Louise Goffin. The pair shares the stage on The Living Room
Tour CD for what King describes proudly as, "a really sweet
moment."
From the ease of which King
connects with her audience and her natural performances, one would
probably be surprised to learn that The Living Room Tour was the
first time she had taken to the road in over a decade. Her date at
Radio City Music Hall in July this summer is the native
Brooklynite's first appearance in New York City in 12 years.
"When I was first starting out," she recalls, "I
wasn't sure the audience was going to like me performing, but they
did then, and I've sort of gotten in the habit of really just being
myself on stage, and I think that's what people respond to. Just
come on out and be yourself and play the songs that we all love, and
we'll be there for you.' And likewise, I'm there for them."
King's confidence is most
evident on the up-beat "Jazzman." "I'm doing that
completely by myself; I don't even have Rudy or Gary. I'm just
playing all the beats, and I ask the audience to help me by being
the drums, and they clap enthusiastically," the singer /
songwriter says. "Then, when we get to the sax part, I sing the
part. So I just try to be everybody. I love having a band, but this
way it's also fun because I can communicate the basic idea, and
people respond to that. They're being asked to stretch their
imaginations."
While King treats the
audience to inspiring renditions of her classic hits, she also
showcases her undiminished writing skills with some recent gems,
including "Lay Down My Life," "Wishful Thinking"
(both from 1993's Colour of Your Dreams), and "Love Makes the
World" (from 2001's album of the same name). The dramatic
potency of these songs elicits a rousing reaction from the
audiences. In fact, from The Living Room Tour's first track,
"Welcome to My Living Room," to the last, a stunning
reinterpretation of "Locomotion" that moves from a slowed
down, deeply nostalgic opening to a rousing sing-along climax, King
proves that artistry has no expiration date.
One of the things King most
enjoyed about the Living Room Tour was performing her lyrics and
melodies acoustic and raw, as they were first written. These
stripped-down performances are the soul of the tour, creating a
familiarity that clearly touched the audience. Everyone involved,
quite simply, just had a good time. So much so that King is
continuing the tour this summer. Given the enduring and universal
appeal of the singer / songwriter's music, no doubt the icon will be
welcoming new friends into her living room for many years to come.
"If King. . .has any notion of her brilliance, she never let
on. All she did was smile and, mostly from behind a grand piano,
belt out one classic after another in a show that covered five
decades in 2 hours." Washington Post
"King sang and played
splendidly, performing with the energy and flair of a teenage as she
ran through a significant chunk of the impressive body of work she
has crafted over the years." Chicago Tribune
"She played musicand
played it with sheer beauty and class." Boston Globe
From press release
