Elton Tribute at Carnegie Hall

Following in the tradition of the amazing Joni, Dylan and Bruce tributes it was Elton John’s turn at Carnegie Hall last night. And once again i was the lucky host announcer, aka ‘the voice of god’ (others said that about me, not me!) as I did the artist intros from offstage. BernieTaupin was in the house!! Comparatively speaking, Elton and Bernie’s music is tough to cover. True, there are so many great songs but they really rely on performances and great singers. So no surprise that Phoebe Snow was the highlight, getting a standing O as the 4th performer with her poignant version of Empty Garden. I was crying. Clearly, the artists choose their songs and many had interesting stories about their picks. The show was light on the Elton arena hits for the most part with many more coming from the prime early 70’s period. For my own research for the show I been listening to alot of Elton this past week. I stand by Nikita and Border Song as my Elton faves! All in all a great show, once again to raise money for Music For Youth. Happy to be a part of it! Special shoutout to the house band --Fools for April.

Here’s the set list:

Naked Eyes-Rocket Man

Shawn Colvin-Sacrifice

Fools for April-Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters

Phoebe Snow-Empty Garden

Page McConnell-Amoreena

Pernice Brothers-Country Comfort

Kristina Train-Ballad of a Well Known Gun

Aimee Mann-My Father’s Gun

School of Rock Allstars-Love Lies Bleeding

Roger McGuinn-Friends

Buddy-I’m Still Standing

Howard Jones-Tiny Dancer

Joshua Radin-The Border Song

Jill Sobule with Ethel-Levon

Roy Ayers-Bad Side of the Moon

Lizz Wright-Come Down in Time

David Broza-Your Song

Raul Malo-Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word

Ryan Shaw-Guess That’s Why They Call it The Blues

Peter and Gordon-I Want Love