This Is The Moment, St Louis - Part 2

So now comes the part you’ve been waiting for.  The lights are down, the background music is starting, and the crowd is suddenly silent.  A door opens, and out comes Dave Cooke, a very familiar face to many of us, taking his seat at the grand piano gracing the stage.  The rest of the set is very simple; a tall chair, a couple bottles of water, and a mic stand.  The next time the door opened, out came Paul with a smile on his face a mile wide!  To say his reception was warm is an understatement.  The crowd was clearly in his corner.

Most entertainers start with a few songs to warm up the crowd and save their “big numbers” for the end. Of course Paul has a ton of big numbers, but I have to say I expected his CD title number would be at the end of the show.  Well with Paul you have to expect the unexpected and this show is no exception. He walked out, stood at the mic, and promptly belted out the title track from the album “This Is The Moment”, and what a moment it was.  All I can say is as many times as I’ve heard him sing live, and as many times as I’ve listened to his recordings (and that included the new CD on my 3 hr drive to St Louis), I’ve never heard him sing like he did that night.  He captured everyone in the theater, and put us all under a spell with that first song that lasted far longer than that evening.  I firmly believe the crowd was on its feet before he released the last note.  Of course Paul took advantage of our standing O and said “thanks and good night” and headed toward the door.  That got a good laugh from everyone and set the tone for the rest of the night.

From the get go, Paul took us on a journey through his life and the transportation was song and story because it seems he can’t sing a song without telling a bit of a story, which is what all the great entertainers throughout history have done.  If you doubt that just look at old recordings of variety shows, or shows recorded by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, and the like.  All of their shows included stories that created a connection between the performer and the audience. Without that personal connection, you might as well stay home and listen to the CD! 

His next song was preceded with a story of how he used to audition for different plays and one particular encounter he had when he landed the role of Lt. Cable in South Pacific. It seems that there was an issue with his hair, and he wasn’t referring to the hair on his head.  He then told all the women in the audience we were nuts for enduring the whole waxing thing.  This brought howls of laughter from everyone and then we were immediately brought back to the primary reason we were there and that was to hear him sing, and sing he did.  He performed the one song I really wanted to hear him sing and that was “Music of the Night” from POTO. All I can say is WOW!! Paul Byrom should be the Phantom, and I hope someday he gets that opportunity. His rendition left me speechless!   He also sang “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables and knocked that one out of the park as well. Actually about ½ the songs he sang had either my friend Kelly or me in tears because of the emotion he portrayed.

I’m not going to go through the whole set list or I’d be writing for days and besides I’m quite sure I can’t remember every song he sang much less the order it came in. I can tell you each song in his concert means something and he shares that meaning before he sings it.  Obviously he does a lot of songs from the new CD, but he also includes many that aren’t.  One song that I really enjoyed was “They All Laughed” from his Velvet CD. I love the song and he encouraged us to clap and/or sing along which we happily did.  He also sang “She” that was on the first CT DVD and tour.  His preface to that was that he used to sing it right after “the girl” ran off with another man (Ryan) and what a preposterous scenario that was.   At some point he sang “Rio Serenade” but had to tell us the story behind it.  It seems it was written for him by Phil Coulter for the new CD because Phil terms him the “ultimate lounge lizard”.  Again we had to laugh and Paul seemed to feed off that feeling.    When he finished he “apologized” for the cheese factor, but he always did like cheese.  I’m sure all my descriptions sound a be cheesy as well, and really, you had to be there to get the full affect of his stories, but believe me, most of us were in tears from the laughter as well as the songs. 

I’m only going to talk about a couple more songs that were particularly poignant.  "Danny Boy"of course and primarily because of the meaning Paul gave to it before he sang and the fact that it’s as meaningful to the Irish today as it was when it was first written.  The other is "Ave Maria". This was my mother’s favorite song and is has always hard for me to listen to since she passed away nearly 15 yrs ago. When Paul put it on his Christmas CD I was at once happy and sad.  Yes it’s hard to listen to but at the same time it brings back so many wonderful memories.  That said, I thought it would be very hard to listen to him sing it in person, but I was wrong.  Maybe it was the hilarious tangent he went off on about the changes in music you hear in Church these days, or maybe it was just because he sings it so beautifully.  Either way, it wasn’t hard at all to hear.  Yes, it made me tear up, and yes I’m tearing up just writing about it, but the over all feeling I had was one of joy because I know my mom could hear him sing it as well. She would have loved Paul’s music and I know for a fact she heard him sing that night.

As the night drew to a close, nobody in the room wanted it to end, including Paul. He joked that he was going to cancel his other dates and stay in St Louis, but of course we knew that couldn’t happen. However, he did promise to come back and play The Sheldon again. It’s a beautiful little theater and just perfect for an intimate evening with a performer of Paul’s caliber.  He sang one last song, and for the life of me right now I don’t remember what it was. Kind of sad on my part, but the whole event is almost a blur.  What I do know is he left the stage to a thunderous standing ovation only to return to do “1 more song”.  And then we got the song that first knocked my songs off when I heard him sing it in Waukeegan 4 years ago, “You Raise Me Up”. 

To be truthful when I saw that song in the CT program instead of “She” I was disappointed because I really wanted to hear “She” live.  What happened though was something a bit magical, especially in a production like Celtic Thunder.  Paul came out and started the song so softly you could hear a pin drop.  He built suspense with each phrase until the ending crescendo and every single person in the2500 person audience was on their feet.  He literally stopped the show and that doesn’t happen very often in shows of that nature. They are designed to keep moving. I remember Keith coming on to do a number and saying “how can I follow that”.  And every single time I heard Paul sing that song on the CT tour, the exact same thing happened, a standing ovation that stopped the show.  That is the power of Paul’s voice.

I know I kind of digressed, but it’s time to wrap this up for a bit but not without a little bit more about Paul’s storytelling.   Much of his opening conversation centered on his time with Celtic Thunder, what being in the group had done for him, and what lead him to decide to go back out on his own.  It was all so personal and genuine I could have just listened to him talk the whole night.  I really just felt like I was sitting in the kitchen with a friend.  As I said early on the stories were part of the journey he took us on through his life.  From a wee lad singing at weddings and funerals for toy money, to riding in the car to school with his father, to his older sister that was a 2^nd mum and her children who he sings to when he’s home,  and of course to his mum, Kathleen, who he clearly adores and credits with all his success.  This is the side of Paul that we’ve seen glimpses of over the years, but never this full out. He is sharing his life with us and I for one am grateful he made that choice last year.  He is singing with abandon, and the joy clearly shows on his face.  His songs light up the room and everyone in it.  This was a night the people at The Sheldon will never forget.

And to top it all off, Paul went upstairs after the show and signed merchandise, took pictures, and chatted with every single person that stayed.  I was near the end of the line with a 3 hour drive ahead and I wouldn’t have left for anything.  He stayed over an hour and never rushed anyone to get through quicker.  I watched him make new friends with people he had never met and I watched with amazement as he remembered people he had met before and made them feel so special.  That’s the way to treat your fans.  He truly appreciates each and every one of us, and that is why we will be fans for life.

If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed my recounting of Paul’s St Louis show. I’m a bit short on specifics about the songs, but I’m going to see him again in New York, and Baltimore and plan to at least keep track of the songs he sings.  The day after my show a friend said I was on “swanky overload”, and I have to agree she was right.  I think I’m still on that overload and hope I stay that way for a long time.

Thank you to all my friends that made this night one I’ll never forget!

Ciao for now,

Pat