It was about the most low key concert I've see. Before he came out, I saw the stage set-up was two stools and two microphones. I guessed we wouldn't have to worry about being overwhelmed. We weren't. I'm not saying it wasn't a great concert. There just weren't a lot of action. It was him and a guitar player. When I saw Paul McCartney a few months ago it was different. For Live and Let Die, during the chorus there were huge explosions with giant flames shooting 40 feet in the air. I nearly wet myself every time they did that. After a while I knew it was coming and I still almost wet myself.
Anyway, Art was the complete opposite. Twice he got off his stool and walked at most three steps away - to the left and to the right, then he sat back down. That was all the movement that was going on. I saw Gordon Lightfoot once. Another good concert, but again, pretty easy going. He actually never got off his stool. He made Art look like he was on uppers.
I'm not complaining. It was a great concert. No one seems to know why, but he lost his singing voice for about four years. He's just been able to sing in concert the past year or so. He sounded like the same guy as always, but you could tell he had to work at it a little bit to get to some of the notes. His voice is pretty amazing. When he sings, it sounds like a musical instrument with words attached. It's like maybe if an oboe or a clarinet could sing, that's what it would sound like.
In between songs he did some of his poetry. Not my favorite part. I made an effort once to get into poetry. It didn't take. At least the poems were short. But the songs were amazing. The crowd game him two or three standing ovations just at the end of songs - I think one after The Boxer and one after Scarborough Fair. Anyway, you should hunt him down and go see him if you can.
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