Closing out the 2010 Series of the WFM Listening Room was Jenny Burton with guest artist Kevin Osborne.  A magical sold-out night indeed!  Actually, we sold out 2 weeks before the gig itself and even had to move the show to a larger venue to accommodate the demand.

As it was, many people were disappointed who thought they could get reservations at normal times.  There are no longer normal times.  Get ‘em early!

You’ll be glad to know that we’re planning many more Listening Room concerts in the coming year with Julia Wade, Jenny Burton and a host of other terrific talent.  Stay tuned.

Kevin Osborne kicked things off in great style.  Accompanied by David Keyes on acoustic bass, Al Fritsch on piano, and ­­­­­­­­­­­Keith Robinson on acoustic guitar, the whole group tore into Orleans’ infectious 70s hit Dance With Me, and immediately got the room rockin’.

All sang tight harmonies with Kevin in the lead and you could just hear the sigh of confidence in the room as Kevin and Friends brought new light to the old classic.

The great thing about livin’ in NYC is the tremendous quality of musicianship available, and Kevin had out-done himself with these collaborators.  Throughout their set we all sat spellbound enjoying the sheer quality of their performance.

Kevin Osborne is a smooth and wonderfully engaging entertainer who simply lives the stage with confidence and grace.  He’s known more as a first call side-man around NYC (Billy Joel, Bobby McFerrin, Carly Simon), both as a studio singer and trombonist, but I, personally, would love to see him do a lot more of this front line work.  I sat and listened all evening and kept thinking over and over, “Well, this is what the evening’s all about – the chance to just sit and listen to great music played and sung to perfection.

I’m a fan.

Taking nothing away from Kevin, at one point during the set he brought on his 4-year old son Liam Osborne.  We weren’t sure if Liam was going to actually go on considering that this was his life debut on the stage and the fact that he kept running back into his mother’s arms who sat in the front row during Kevin’s introduction, but when the music started, a totally adorable Liam Osborne marched right out to his spot center stage and completely destroyed the audience with his rendition of Randy Newman’s You’ve Got A Friend In Me.

A star is born.

This little tyke already sings far beyond his years.  Scary.  Great sense of pitch, great and solid stage presence without the affectations that so many children develop early, and a solid rhythmic grounding.  But what really got us all laughing and weeping at the same time was his sense of style.  He just stood tall (so to speak) center stage, nailed the song and then ran back to his mother’s arms.

Highlight of the evening.  Unforgettable debut.  Must have him back!

And then, if it were possible, the evenings pitch rose again.  Jenny Burton, gone too long from the stage, came back like she was never away.  Some singers are balladeers; some singers are rockers.  Rarely comes along one that can do both on a high level.  Jenny Burton is one.

Without mic she still drove the room into a frenzy song after song.  If 5 years away was supposed to make her a bit rusty, Jenny wasn’t listening.  Having watched literally hundreds of her performances over the years, I thought there was a depth to her that was better than ever.

Highlights for me, personally, were her room rockin’ rendition of the Winans‘ Gospel classic, Uphold Me, and her definitive performances of two of my own songs, Crazy Day and I Think On These Things.  Audience favorites also were Mandy Patinkin’s ode to America’s continuing racism problems, Shorty, and The Jenny Burton Experience’s classic, On Broken Pieces. Any number of JBX fans came up to me after the performance and said that they had tears in their eyes when she started into that one.

So it appears that we have a hit on our hands here.  Audiences are building like crazy.  We’ll now have to find an even bigger venue.  Top quality NYC entertainers are calling nearly every day asking to get on board and in this town there’s no limit to the talent available.

The opportunity to simply sit in a room and listen to no frills great music isn’t a new idea.  It’s been going on for centuries.  It’s just that lately we’ve seemed to require more hoopla around the music.  Perhaps that doesn’t say much for the music.

So this experiment to get back to basics, for me, was really a no-brainer.  I think the experimental part of it is now officially over.  Now it’s simply a concept that works.  So we’re gonna work it.

Look to 2011 for the continuation of this great series.  Stay tuned!

PS — Many thanks to Carolee Goodgold for pictures!