*Music legend Oleta Adams took the stage just after 7pm for the first of her two shows in the Bay Area at Yoshi’s with “It’s Alright With Me,” the lead track to her exceptional new album, Third Set. Her voice is still an absolute wonder, albeit a bit rawer than that of decades ago, but timeworn, battle-scared, wise.
Adams tore into her performance with a ferocity of a woman who perhaps thought she had something to prove. It almost felt as if she questioned whether she could still thrill a crowd as she had decades ago with her breakout hit “Get Here.”
She could. And she did.
Other highlights of the show included searing versions of Frank Sinatra’s “Only The Lonely,” Joni Mitchell’s “Don’t Interrupt The Sorrow” and “River,” and Nina Simone’s “Do I Move You,” all from her new Third Set collection.
“To be quite frank, I struggled with [recording] that one because I’m on the brink of being an old lady, and I just keep hoping that even though I’m not quite as subtle as I used to be, people can still feel the soul of my music,” Adams had confided with me by phone, before the show.
We could. And we did.
Read more of Michael P. Coleman’s review at EURThisNthat.
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