BARBARA DICKSON - PHILHARMONIC HALL
(Liverpool Echo - 27th February, 2007)
By Peter Grant
It was billed as an evening with Barbara Dickson. It was more than that. It was a musical travelogue through the work of a versatile musician who takes her work very seriously.
Barbara said: "This is a home-coming." She added that if she said more she would blub. So she didn't. So no tears there.
The Dunfermline-born singer turned actress and musical star let the songs speak and sing for themselves.
She opened with George Harrison's If I Needed Someone - a track from her last commissioned album Nothing's Gonna Change My World - and that wistfully led into In The Bleak Mid Winter and Here Comes The Sun. This went back to her superlative work on John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert by Willy Russell, who she praised throughout the gig.
Barbara is a perfectionist not just in the studio but about how she is perceived as an artist.
This was a show that had something for everyone of all ages.
Her tributes to Dylan were faultless aided by her four-piece band, notably Troy on Pipes and Pete on sax.
While she did a bluesy Blowing In The Wind you could also enjoy her folk roots with the Lowlands of Holland and then Corpus Christi Carol.
Then she throws this musical pack of cards in the air and provides a James Taylor classic with Mill Worker.
She did a few Fab songs, notably Things We Said Today that sounded like a pop song that would not look out of place in the charts today.
But then back to her stage hits: I Know Him So Well from Chess and Willy Russell's heart-tugging Easy Terms from Blood Brothers.
Caravans sealed a night for her fans and for those not familiar with her work it was a concert that captured 40 years of this consummate performer.
She left the stage to a standing ovation. She didn't blub ... but some members of the audience did.
RATING: 9/10
