The most recent of a number of occasions I have seen Steve Winwood in a small midlands venue. This time is was Leamington Assembley Rooms. The formula has been much the same in the last few years - Steve mixes in songs from his most recent album with a good trawl of his more famous tunes from over the last four decades. For me the guy is a legend. The Spencer Davis Group did great pop songs and Steve was only around fifteen when he sang and played with them. Traffic were legendary in the sixties and seventies and Blind Faith were definitely one of the first 'supergroups' despite the fact they didn't last very long. To top all that Steve's solo career has delivered some great albums - particularly for me the early ones. He still has that same deeply soulful but angelic voice and he still plays with all four limbs on his battered old organ beating out the bass lines with his legs as well as playing with his hands and singing.
Much as I rate his keyboard skills I enjoy his guitar playing even more. He generally plays three or four tracks on the guitar; "Dear Mr Fantasy" as standard and "Can't Find My Way Home" pretty regularly. At Leamington he also played lead guitar on "Dirty City" from his most recent album and that was a stand-out track. As usual "Higher Love" featured as well as "I'm a man" and an encore of "Gimme Some Lovin". The other memorable track for me was "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" which segued into "Empty Pages".
All in all two hours of classic Winwood as usual.
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