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Birmingham, AL 03/10/ 2007; Alabama Theatre
Topic Started: Sep 5 2008, 06:18 PM (486 Views)
mouser
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BIRMINGHAM, BIRMINGHAM!
PRETTIEST TOWN IN ALABAM


March 10, 8:00 p.m.

ALABAMA THEATRE
1817 3rd Ave. N.
Birmingham, AL 35203
205-252-2262

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SEATING CAPACITY: SOLD OUT!! 2187
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HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS:

http://hotel-guides.us/alabama/alabama-the...-al-hotels.html

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2806...BjqSJTaCgQpFmoL



THE VENUE:
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Alabama Theatre. photo by San

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photo by San

The Alabama Theatre Pipe Organ is Wurlitzer Opus 1783. The legendary theatre organist, Jesse Crawford, laid out its design for use in delux venues for Publix Theatres, thus the designation by Wurlitzer as Style Publix 1. Its basic design included 4 manuals (keyboards), 20 ranks (sets of pipes), 8 sets of tuned percussion units, and all the sound effects needed to accompany silent movies. Eight additional ranks of pipes have been added to expand the tonal capabilities of the organ, making a total of 28 ranks (2008 pipes). Posted Image

SET LIST

Gonna Move
Heaven Knows
The Maze
-Want Ads (Honey Cone),
-Let’s Get it On (Marvin Gaye)
-You Make Me Feel So Free (Van Morrison)
Wherever I Lay My Hat
-Nightshift (The Commodores)
-Chain Gang (Sam Cooke)
Just to Feel That Way
Compared to What
Hell of a Day
Give Me Tonight
Hold on to Your Love
Heart and Soul
-Brown-eyed Handsome Man (Chuck Berry)
-Harlem/Cold Baloney” (Bill Withers)
Dream Myself Awake
Soul Thing
Young Turks ( Rod Stewart )
The Right Place
Take the Long Way Home ( Supertramp )

ENCORE:

The Runaround with live Homewood High School drumline

http://www.gofish.com/player.gfp?gfid=30-1087502
Taylor with the Homewood High School Drum Corp


REVIEW AND MEDIA:

1.
Taylor looks backFriday, March 09, 2007By MARY COLURSO
Taylor Hicks is in bed.

That's the first thing he says after picking up the phone in Knoxville, Tenn., on a recent Saturday afternoon.

But don't swoon, Soul Patrol. Calm those fluttering hearts.

Hicks isn't trying to make a provocative statement; he's simply recovering from a long night on the road during his national tour.

"We got to the hotel around 8:15 a.m.," he says. "Then you eat breakfast and go back to sleep for a while. This schedule is about as abnormal as you can get for normal folks."

There's nothing normal about being a celebrity - especially an "American Idol" winner who's been catapulted to fame on television. During six crucial months in 2006, Hicks went from Birmingham bar singer to worldwide star, all because of a singing contest on a top-rated reality show.

Now he's on the road with a seven-piece band, performing tunes from his self-titled debut disc on the Arista label. The Gray-Haired Guy, 30, will be back in his hometown this weekend for two sold-out shows at the Alabama Theatre.

Much has happened to Hicks since he took the "Idol" crown. He's had sit-downs with Jay Leno, Ellen DeGeneres and Dr. Phil. He's performed at the tree-lighting ceremony in Rockefeller Center. He's done crafts on TV with Martha Stewart. He's tossed beads as the grand marshal of the Krewe of Endymion parade at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Which events, post- "Idol," have been the most memorable and exciting? We asked Hicks to name the top five moments in his "you know you're famous if ..." category. Here's what he said:

1. "Riding in the tour bus and getting on the Jersey turnpike, with a full moon over New York City. This happened on the "Idol" tour, when it first started coming into New York City. You make a little circle, right under the tunnel, and come out in this brand-new tour bus. And I was in the passenger seat; I wasn't driving. It was one of those moments when you know you've moved on to a different level in your career."

2. "Giving high-fives with the President of the United States, on several occasions, and he calls you by your first name. It's all fun when it happens, but when you have time to think about it later, it's pretty amazing. This happened when I was doing the Christmas special on TNT in Washington. It was a pretty festive atmosphere. He called me Taylor. I called him Mr. President."

3. "Being so close to Ray Charles' people. Being in his studio, my mentor's studio. Getting a jacket and sunglasses that belonged to him, to put on the wall of a house I don't have yet. On my next album, I'll record a song in that studio.

"I was really interested in music performed live by Ray Charles, so they took me down to the music vault and everything was labeled in Braille. I bent down and picked up a box; in it was Ray Charles live in Tokyo, on a reel-to-reel. It was nice. It confirmed and validated me, being there with those people. It couldn't be more relevant. It felt like I was supposed to be there."

4. "Having my name called out in the gallery at a PGA event - not just to sing the national anthem, but to hit a freaking golf ball. It was one of the most nerve-wracking things I've done in my whole life. That particular event allowed me to be a natural entertainer, in a completely different atmosphere, without the pressure. If I made a good shot, it was really cool. If I made a bad shot, everyone laughed.

"Alice Cooper and Scott Hamilton and I made a pretty good team (in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic). On the fairway, people were having a party, bowing down to Alice and going `We're not worthy!' Then they'd look at me and go, `Whoo!' `We're not worthy!' `Whoo!' `We're not worthy!' `Whoo!' It was a blast."

5. "Really feeling the energy of all the people who are fans. I've always wanted to perform for crowds of people. The more people I perform to, the more energy they give me to give back to them. It's easier to reciprocate that energy. I walk into some of these theaters, and it's standing room only. I've created an audience for myself as an entertainer. When it happens, it's the greatest gift God can give you." I did an outdoor event for 22,000 people at Universal Studios. It was a tour stop. There's a Mardi Gras parade that goes through the park and everybody plays. They closed Universal Studios down to see me perform. That was great."

Mary Colurso covers pop music for The Birmingham News. E-mail her at mcolurso@bhamnews.com.


2.
Good vibrations: Hicks clicks at Alabama Theatre
By Mary Colurso
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review rating: Four out of five stars
Huntsville people, you should have come to Birmingham.

When the sound mix is right, it makes all the difference. For that reason, Taylor Hicks' Saturday concert at the Alabama Theatre far outshone Tuesday's performance at the Von Braun Center Concert Hall.

There, it was tough to hear Hicks' voice, which often seemed to be straining over the universally blaring instruments.

Here, Hicks' singing came through strong, warm and clear, blending with a band that sounded tight and muscular, yet nicely balanced.

Thank goodness. Thank Taylor. Thank the new sound guy, who obviously knows what he's doing.

It's certainly possible to mess up acoustically at the beautiful old Alabama, depending on the expertise of the technicians and the equipment used. But Hicks didn't let such mistakes happen during his 8 p.m. show.

This was the first of two sold-out dates in the "American Idol" winner's hometown, and a fitting way to return on his national solo tour. Hicks will perform again at the Alabama, Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

On Saturday, Hicks, 30, eschewed an opening act and launched straight into his soul-on-steroids set, which featured several songs from his debut disc on the Arista label.

They included "Gonna Move," "Heaven Knows," "The Maze" and "Give Me Tonight," all of which epitomized the hybrid style Hicks calls "modern whomp."

Part soul, part blues, part pop, part swampy rock, it fits Hicks as neatly as his natty suit jackets.

Also, Hicks has devised a clever trick for his tour, tacking vignettes from R&B classics onto the end of newer tunes. "The Maze," for example, morphed into Honey Cone's "Want Ads" and Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On." That really worked.

Hicks performed a few adult-contemporary ballads from his new CD, including "Dream Myself Awake" and "Just to Feel That Way." Maybe these will increase his profile on mainstream radio, but they aren't Hicks' forte in concert.

To make the maximum impact, the Gray Haired Guy's gotta dance, and Hicks usually exhibits enough energy to light up a theater marquee. That's his magic, as "Idol" judge Paula Abdul would say.

Some older material from Hicks' independent catalog was on display here, and it had sufficient sparkle. Even when the tempo slowed on "Hell of a Day" and "Hold On to Your Love," the songs never became sluggish. Think of them as ballads with bounce.

Source: Mary Colurso's Blog
Date Published: March 10, 2007

3. From Birmingham Weekley

Hicks, Hicks, hooray!
Taylor talks about Idol worship
By: Courtney Haden

Unlike a lot of American Idol graduates who’ve rolled through here, Taylor Hicks will be genuinely glad to see you this weekend, wherever he runs into you. It’s not just homesickness, although the sense memory of a Marty’s cheeseburger is powerful indeed. It might have more to do with the hacklash Taylor has suffered of late in the popular press.

After some snide tabloid reportage in the Sun, there was a rather feline Simon Cowell comment in People, implying that talent is somehow directly corollary to the number of CDs one moves: “Just because you win the show doesn’t mean you will sell a lot of records. Chris [Daughtry] is the one who sold the albums. Not Taylor.”

Then there was an AP story by Erin Carlson adding Carrie Underwood to the equation and ominously quoting a Billboard analyst’s suspicion that Taylor might be the first AI winner not to sell a million units, as though that might be grounds for impeachment. The story got picked up by papers around the country, under headlines using words like “flop” and “fluke” to describe our hometown hero.

Befitting one endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, and favored by the gods — OK, I was afraid the American Heritage Dictionary definition might not cover non-mythological heroism; let me try that again.

Befitting one endowed with unique pipes and stagecraft, celebrated for his ability to charm cell phone voters and favored by Randy and Paula, Taylor Hicks is unperturbed as he rolls into his first headlining national concert tour. Or, at least, he sounds that way over the phone from Mobile:

BIRMINGHAM WEEKLY: How’re the shows going so far?

TAYLOR HICKS: It’s bigger than I thought. The band’s eight pieces, y’know, so it’s a big wall of sound. It’s in theatre settings, which is where I pictured my music in the first place.

Are you surprised to be headlining the first time out?
I think starting small is a good idea. Start small, get bigger.

How do you like the way your CD [Taylor Hicks on J Records] came out?
I thought it was good, I thought it definitely had my mark on it. That’s all I can ask for.

Did they make you cover a Diane Warren [wildly successful LA hit machine, author of “Places I’ve Been” on the CD] song? Because she’s about the last songwriter in America I figured you’d be covering.
Well, the song was soulful, and it had some really great lyrics. It was kind of an atypical Diane Warren song. It was just a good tune.

And she’s money in the bank, no question, but I’d much rather hear you dig into the Stax-Volt catalog than Diane Warren’s.
Yeah, and I will grow into that mindset. This is my first album on a major label, and that’s the direction.

Are you having to be more calculating now in your choice of material?
I think it’s just instinct. That’s what you really have to go by.

And you have to be lucky enough to have a label that’ll let you follow your instincts.
Yeah, and their mentality is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s kinda good, the way I was received by my label.

If you could go back in time and pick a recording studio with any session band you wanted to record a record with, who would that be?
I’d probably say Fame [studio famous as the wellspring of deep Southern soul music], with all the Muscle Shoals guys.

Wouldn’t that be good? A lot of those guys are still around, and they dearly love playing that stuff.
Well, that’s a definite thought going into this next project.

Now, how soon will you get to go back into a studio, because you’re touring a bunch?
I’d probably say fall of this year, I believe.

And at some point you’ll have to address this whole download phenomenon. Are you an internet guy yourself?
I get on it every now and then, but I know there’s a lot of my fan base dwelling there, the community, and you have to caress that.

What have you got planned for your Birmingham return?
We’ve got a couple of shows [at the Alabama Theatre] and some in-store signing [at Laser’s Edge in Homewood] and then maybe some barbecue and some good music.

What’re you missing about Birmingham cuisine?
Everything.

Are you not able to find the home cooking on the road?
Well, I’m just starting, so the quest is on.


I’m not much for the American Idle, myself, but I’d be willing to wager that Taylor Hicks will go down in cultural history not only as the oldest winner — jeez, he was almost 30! — but as the last contestant with an authentic personality to be allowed to triumph. There’s too much money riding on the AI juggernaut now, not much tolerance for diverging from the formulae that constrict the blood flow of popular music anymore, not much room for fatal character flaws like affability and sincerity. Future Idols will likely conform to the worldview of Simon Cowell, illuminated by his People summary of Taylor’s cursus honorum: “They loved him. I couldn’t stand him. I didn’t get it.”


Meanwhile, the talented Mr. Hicks, tempered by genuine struggles, like getting over to audiences at the War Eagle Supper Club or trying to pay the rent with Birmingham club gates, should be able to continue entertaining audiences long after Simon, Randy and Paula have been relegated to late-night infomercials.

It’s the sort of poetic justice even Diane Warren could write a cool song about.


Taylor Hicks homecoming concert is scheduled for Saturday, March 10, at the Alabama Theatre. Good luck getting tickets at this point.



SOUL PATROL MEMORIES:


Posted Imagecourtesy of maryann

By JSNorris from Birmingham, Alabama on 3/16/2007
Pros:
Crowd Was In To It, Engaging Stage Presence, Great Encores, Great Lighting, Great Sound, Perfect Set List
Best For:
Casual Fans, Completely Unfamiliar, Die-Hards Only, Everyone
When Taylor Hicks hits the stage...he takes you for a wild ride!!! He is the ultimate performer!!! He loves what he does and it shows!!! He loves the audience and makes sure that they are having as much fun as he is. He is a natural talent...his voice is clear, strong and perfect...and his dancing...well, it's chock full of a perfect blend of raw sensuality and fun. Taylor is perfect for all ages...at the Huntsville show, he smiled, winked at and made eye contact with some little girls on the front row who were reaching for him...and, to their great delight he reached for each and every one of their hands. No two shows are exactly alike...and the shows are NEVER boring...Taylor makes it a point to do a song dedicated to the particular city he is in...and makes the audience feel supremely special for having been in attendance. Taylor Hicks is PERFECTION in concert and when it's over...Taylor leaves you breathless and wanting for more!!!! Taylor...a FIRST-CLASS, Dynamic and AWESOME ENTERTAINER...with a TRULY AMAZING, GORGEOUS VOICE!!!


OUTSTANDING...AMAZING!!! Taylor Hicks...absolutely THE MOST entertaining singer to hit the stage in ages!!! From start to finish you are on a wild, fantastic ride with this Soul Man. Pure, Raw, Boundless Energy...and an AMAZING SINGER on top of all that!!! A JOY to watch perform...by the time the concert is over...you have had a real work-out!!!

Posted Imagecourtesy of didnotexpectthat

Posted Imagecourtesy of didnotexpectthat

2. MommaMo

The beautiful old Alabama Theater, built in 1927, and obviously constructed to withstand all sorts of occurrences---natural and otherwise. I by-passed the over-priced watered-down white wine and headed for my seat. I don't know why they sell seats, because nobody used them after the band came onstage. But before that happened, I looked around to case the audience-- and was surprised. Besides the barely over-forties, there were body-pierced/tattooed teenagers, young marrieds, children under twelve--we ran the gamut, agewise. At the end of two hours of standing and waving my arms (I do try to blend in) and cheering, my sciatic nerve had kicked in and my head was splitting. Just when I thought it couldn't get any louder, the Hoover High School drumline made its appearance. That's Taylor's high school, you know. Stroke of genius, having that group incorporated into the act. The packed theater went wild as Taylor reappeared and performed Runaround with the kids. Taylor, I have two words for you, "glucosomine" and "chondroitin," believe me-- you're going to need them! His second encore was Birmingham, which brought tears from him and his audience, not to mention more than a few Southern mom "Bless his hearts".

My Home's in Alabama: credit to TaylorHicksConnections
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