Taylor Hicks Shows Off Soulful Pipes at Detroit's Magic Bag

Taylor Hicks took to the stage at the Magic Bag in Detroit, MI yesterday and performed a very rare acoustic set before a full house of enthusiastic fans. Most of the set consisted of songs from his recently released album, The Distance, along with cuts from his self named post-Idol album. He was as handsome as ever, conversing lightly with the audience and seemed relaxed, happy and in his natural element playin' his music and singing his songs. He was accompanied by long time friends/musicians John Kulinich http://www.myspace.com/johnkulinich on guitar, Brian Less http://www.myspace.com/brianless on piano/keys, and Jason Parker on bass http://www.waynemillsband.com/jason_parker.html. Taylor of course blew some skillful harmonica along with guitar.

Complete Set List:

The Distance
I Live On A Battlefield
The Runaround
What's Right Is Right
Don't Let Me Down
The Deal
Wedding Day Blues
Once Upon A Lover
Nineteen
Gonna Move
Indiscriminate Act of Kindness
Maybe You Should
My Sweet Lord
Seven Mile Breakdown
Feeling Alright

From all accounts, this was one of his finest gigs in a long time, introducing and singing for the first time three new songs , "Maybe You Should", co-written by Taylor and Mike Reid, who penned Bonnie Raitt's hit single "I Can’t Make You Love Me", "Indescriminate Act of Kindness", a gorgeous ditty penned by Foy Vance, and a great novelty cut, "Wedding Day Blues", written by Allen Little and Taylor Hicks. Quite evident is the emotional heart and soul he gives to each and every song he sings. He is one of the rare performers that actually delivers convincingly on stage and continues to be both a dynamic musical force as well as one of the biggest underrated talents of the last decade.

Currently he is starring in the touring company of "Grease" and if the show happens to roll into your neighborhood and he is playing a side gig like this in your local club, do yourself a favor and buy a ticket because talent like this deserves to be heard. Well done, Taylor.

Picture courtesy of "EJ" at the Boogie.

So, What's Taylor Hicks Been Up To Lately?

First off, let's get one thing straight. Taylor Hicks is one of today's most talented straight to the heart authentic soul, funk, pop and acoustic artists. He is not a prepackaged, formulated, or manufactured 'pop music puppet' American Idol is known for loving and promoting. He represents real music, folks - not a computer generated pop idol.

Taylor is currently on a performing hiatus as he prepares for his second major label CD on JRecords, scheduled for release later in 2008. It is also rumored he will be doing an acoustic tour early next year. In the meantime, he has a brand new DVD that will be released shortly in both HD and regular formats, entitled "Whomp At The Warfield", that was filmed at the historic Warfield Theater in San Francisco on May 9, 2007. Release date is yet to be set, but should be released before the end of the year. Hopefully many of you saw this when it aired on HDNET TV earlier this in October. This high-impact 83 minute concert showcases a dynamic 7-piece funk band and includes six of his original tunes: The Deal, Hold Onto Your Love, Soul Thing, My Friend and Heart & Soul, as well as moving and touching acoustic performance of The Fall, a tune that he wrote when he was only 19 years old. That song can be previewed on Taylor's myspace page(www.myspace.com/taylorhicks). We urge you to listen to that song because we think this is the direction Taylor is moving towards in the next phase of his musical journey. We also urge you to do yourself a favor and purchase a copy of Whomp At The Warfield. It's pure joy!

Taylor Hicks in Concert