Kenny Loggins Made Ives Set

A Family Affair With Son Crosby In Tow

Review & Photos By John Voket

DANBURY — Grammy winning musician Kenny Loggins has amassed enough material to please at least four distinctly different audiences.

There are the old school fans who crave to hear him picking and grinning to their favorite Loggins & Messina tunes; those primarily female fans who melt when Loggins applies his unique lighter than air treatment to a selection of wispy ballads; the latest generation of fans eager to sample Loggins’ most recent creative offerings; and the shameless music consumers who just want to hear the big hits.

It seemed from the enthusiastic attendees packing nearly every reserved seat, and stretching back to the farthest reaches of the lawn, that Kenny Loggins brought enough musical ammunition to his Ives Concert Park set on August 13 to satisfy them all. And he is preparing the next generation of fans who may want to sample the Loggins family franchise by introducing his talented son, Crosby Loggins, who opened the show and backed up his dad on several numbers.

The Danbury show hit its stride by the second number of the evening as the haunting a cappella intro of “Whenever I Call You Friend” wafted over the crowd. Loggins subtly altered the arrangement from its original radio-friendly formula by purposefully slowing the tempo down slightly, giving the tune a more soulful, ballad-like flavor. Taking things up a notch, Loggins then led his accomplished band through “This is It,” before trotting out the title track to his brand new CD How About Now.

The first of four new tunes certainly proved Loggins still has what it takes to be a adult-demographic contender – let’s just hope commercial or satellite radio gives him a shot to appeal to an even greater audience than his enthusiastic concert fans, who were snapping up copies of both the father and son Loggins CDs from the vending stand. (FYI: Crosby Loggins’s new CD is entitled We All Go Home.)

What began as an attempt to produce a special song for his youngest daughter’s christening morphed into a decidedly more introspective project, Loggins explained before launching into “The Real Thing,” the first of several numbers from his 1991 album Leap of Faith. He then broke out the acoustic format, sitting in with guitarist Gene Miller and weaving a lovely, intricate opening for a “House At/Return To Pooh Corner,” medley which progressed nicely into “Danny’s Song.”

The latter brought the band back with members breaking into a nice bluegrass jam at the end.

On both of these numbers, and at several other points during the set, Loggins held out his microphone signaling the fans to sing along. And they obliged on every occasion, even splitting into opposing rounds during an extended and emotion-packed “Celebrate Me Home.” While many others may identify with more clichéd songs, just hearing the few first piano lines to that early solo Kenny Loggins hit instantly arouses my holiday spirit.

During this number Loggins ventured from the stage and way up into the crowd, standing on a chair at one point to conduct his audience as backup singers surrounded by ecstatic fans who eagerly reached out to shake his hand or pat him on the back. As Loggins made his way back to the stage, “Celebrate” also provided Mr Miller an opportunity to play an extended electric guitar solo.

At that point, members of the local Howard Taylor Choir convened to center stage where they remained for several numbers adding an even more entertaining layer to the already diverse catalog of material. They remained on stage through an invigorating gospel treatment of “That’s When I Find You” and “If You Believe,” both from Leap of Faith.

Moving into the final segment of the show, Loggins continued with favorites including “I’m Alright,” that got nearly everyone on their feet doing the comic gopher boogie, mirroring the pesky rodent from the popular film, Caddyshack. Loggins kept everyone up, wrapping the main set with “Your Mamma Don’t Dance,” from his Loggins & Messina days.

His encore featured more classic material with a medley of “Angry Eyes” and “Vahevala,” closing out the two-hour show, but not before paying tribute to Loggins’ Hollywood legacy with a mash-up of “Danger Zone,” from Top Gun, and a can’t stand still take on his monster hit, “Footloose.”

The Kenny Loggins set at the Ives was made even better by the cooler and less humid weather which certainly helped keep the fans energized, but with such an amazing catalog of material to choose from, and such a perfect venue for this type of music, it was undoubtedly an evening local music lovers will cherish for some time to come.

A special note of thanks goes out to an old friend and fellow musician Chris Gardner, who shouted me out from his front row seat as I arrived at the venue. After being out of touch for almost a decade, he turned into an assignment-saver by offering me the use of his camera when mine completely crashed just before the senior Loggins hit the stage.