Stevie!

It’s undisputed that I have the musical tastes of a middle-aged African American church deacon.  As I approach 30 years of age, in order to stay hip I often force myself to listen to current music.  Some of it is fly, but after a few minutes I usually find myself grumbling (like a curmudgeon) that too many current artists sound like a recycled wailing sheep.  As my grandmother often said, “Aaron, you’ve been here before.”

That’s why I’m a huge Stevie Wonder fan.  “Stevie Wonder is a musical gee-nius!”  So, I was thrilled last night when – for the first time – I saw Stevie live.  As a “thank you” courtesy of the Pollin Family, former owners of the Washington Wizards and Verizon Center, Stevie performed a free show of at least 24 songs (with no break) for an audience of public servants ranging from teachers to hospital workers (I escaped controversy by being the guest of a teacher).  This was the sort of crowd that lived Stevie’s music, swooning together with love and utter joy.  I had a ball!  So did Roxanne, the lady who sat next to us and kept screaming “ahhh shit!” whenever her jam came on.

Throughout a decade of eight-hour drives up and down I-95, I’ve listened to Stevie’s four-disc box set “At the Close of a Century” dozens of times.  It kicks off with “Fingertips,” where “Little” Stevie Wonder – after being introduced to an audience one would imagine at the heyday of the Apollo Theater (or Charleston’s County Hall) – tears up the harmonica.  “Uptight” to “I Was Made to Love Her” and “Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day,” are pure Motown Funk Brothers classics, always making me regret never taking up the bass.  Usually around the time I hit the interminable part of the drive (near the Virginia/North Carolina border), Stevie takes a dark turn on “I Don’t Know Why” and “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer” (remember Poetic Justice?).

I think about Charleston legends Tony Burke and the Sea Breeze Band (featuring James Middleton on the organ) when the wedding music starts at “For Once in My Life” to “You and I” and “Ribbon in the Sky.”  Things get gritty, urban, and 70s when Stevie launches into “Too High,” “Living for the City,” and “Higher Ground.”  Stevie takes it Latin and reggae with “Don’t You Worry About a Thing,” “Boogie on a Reggae Woman,” and “Another Star.”  By the time I get to “Sir Duke,” “I Wish,” and “Do I Do,” I’m usually almost home and ready to dance.  Anxious to see my family, “Overjoyed” and “These Three Words” always bring a tear to my eye.

“As,” officially my favorite Stevie song, makes me think of that amazing scene from “The Best Man,” and dream that one day I might be possessed to publicly sing that song.  But, luckily for you my car is the best place for hours of Stevie covers by Aaron.

All of this sappiness is to simply say that I really had a great time, y’all.  Thanks, Stevie!

PS:  Stevie performed Uptight, All I Do, Higher Ground, All That’s Fair in Love, You and I, Don’t Your Worry About a Thing (with a great salsa interlude), I Was Made to Love Her, Hey Love, Knocks Me Off My Feet, I Heard it from the Grapevine, My Girl, Respect, For Once In My Life, My Cherie Amour, Signed Sealed Delivered, Ribbon in the Sky (with two random yet amazing volunteer audience solos), Boogie on Reggae Woman, Sir Duke, I Wish, Do I Do, I Just to Called to Say I Love You, As, and Another Star.