Holyoke feels the earth move with Tapestry

    The dictionary defines nostalgia as a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. Music can be a powerful trigger to evoke a feeling of nostalgia and, if for just a moment, take us back to an earlier time in our lives.
    Those who came of age during the 1960s and ’70s, especially the designated baby boomer generation, had the ever-present companion of the portable transistor and AM car radios and 45 and LP records providing the sounds of the current popular songs. These songs became a strong tie to those long ago days. One of the most prolific songwriters of that era was Carole King. King, along with her husband, Gerry Goffin, wrote some of the most memorable songs in the history of popular music.
    Last Monday evening, Nov. 5, was truly a nostalgic journey back to the ’60s and ’70s as the Phillips County Arts Council presented Tapestry, The Carole King Songbook, in the second concert of the 2018-2019 season. Singer/pianist Suzanne Davis and her band, featuring Cody Alan on tenor saxophone, flute and vocals, and Peter Mueller on guitar and vocals, provided an evening of superb musicianship, heartfelt performances of King’s music and outright fun to an audience of 140 music lovers at the Holyoke High School auditorium.   
    Opening the concert with “Jazzman,” King’s homage to the purveyors of America’s original music genre featuring some soaring tenor sax lines by Alan, the evening kicked into high gear. Wending her way through the classic King catalog of songs such as “Sweet Seasons,” “It’s Too Late,” a poignant version of “So Far Away” that Davis dedicated to her mother and a King song recorded by the Carpenter’s, “It’s Going to Take Some Time,” Davis and her cohorts proved worthy of the task.
    A highlight of the first set was a solo piano/vocal by Davis of King’s plaintive “Home Again.” Davis reached deep inside to express the loneliness of the road and the longing for home. The first set closed out with the clap-along classic, “Smackwater Jack,” featuring some soulful lead lines from Mueller’s red Stratocaster guitar, and the self affirmation classic and title of the Broadway musical about the life of King, “Beautiful.”

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