Last Monday evening, a playful posse of Loggins-loyal fans was lucky enough to be part of a Kenny Loggins concert just minutes away at the Belly Up Tavern on Cedros in Solana Beach! (On a side note, if you haven’t discovered or re-discovered the Belly Up, you have no earthly idea what you are missing! Fun, close, ZERO parking issues, NO a terminally long line exiting a Parthenon-sized parking lot, all the libations you can fathom, plus fabulous live music of all descriptions!)
But, back to my Dreamboat, Kenny…
First of all …REALLY? Kenny Loggins in our little neck of the woods? REALLY? How crazy lucky are we?
The evening started for a host of our hooligan sidekicks who dined in broad daylight just 2 minutes up the coast at the Pacific Coast Grill (…a sister business of the Belly Up which allows you sneaky side access to the Belly Up with a dinner receipt from that same date.). I finally understand why people who are not much older that we are, but who act A LOT more mature queue up for “blue plate specials”! The “early bird” food is pennies on the dollar – that’s why! (Another nod to that “Ain’t got money” notion…) Dinner was a delight and then off we sidled a ways down the street to line up for the show. Although I did my very best to sweet talk(that’s code for “weasel”) our way into an earlier entry than the 7PM doors opening, we had to wait all of 16 ½ minutes in the dazzling dusk.…On Cedros. In Solana Beach. On the California coast. On a sumptuous Spring evening…
Where ANYONE else in the free or not-so-free world would give their eye teeth to be able to linger, ANYTIME, ANYWAY they could!
After another “grueling” 18 ¼ minute wait, a divine new songstress, named Malea McGuinness shared a handful of darling tunes and then came the main event! Along with an audio bed of Loggins massive mega-hit, “Annie’s Song” slide show started with sepia shot of a toothless toddler who was so precious that it could be none other than our star performer. The came his teen years, the twenties, and a plethora of pix with Kenny and Jim Messina. Just as the song was reaching the chorus and (Of course you know where this is leading…) out came Kenny in all his sexy, svelte glory and joined the crowd who already was on their feet, joyously singing along (…mostly unnecessarily loud and off key, but who cares? Or was that just me and everyone else was managing to remain cool, calm and collected?).
After that he delivered a clear blow to our hearts with a soulful rendition of “House at Pooh Corner”, which always brings a tear (…or thirty) to the eye – especially when he keeps on singing how that poor lonely little kid “can’t seem to find his way back to the wood”!?!
Famous song after song.
Fabulous smile after smile.
Faded memory after memory.
Kenny energetically sang, cajoled and crooned his way through the evening never once letting on that he is 63 bloody years old! (One of the gang felt compelled to Google that factoid on her PDA whilst giggling and clapping like a veritable school girl.)
He was so stand-up that at one point, he even stopped the show and gave a shout out to the honorable folks who he had just learned are launching a chapter of the Dream Foundation in San Diego County. (One of King Kenny’s favorite philanthropies…) This gesture was sweeter still because along with Barry Zarling of JWM Designs, one of the duo who is starting the San Diego chapter is little old me! HOLY TOLEDO! As it came to pass, Barry and I had been told by Thom Rollerson, the Founder and President of the Dream Foundation that Kenny was a “friend” of his a couple days prior when we were in Santa Barbaraexploring this wonderfully worthy charity. It has been my experience that in Southern California when many free spirits even spot a celebrity cruising down Coast Highway, they might think that they have a new “best friend.” So naturally, in a rare cynical moment I fleetingly thought “Right. Kenny Loggins is your friend, and my husband truly is Charlie Crist, the Governor of Florida.”
Okay, so I eat crow now and then (a lot of crow…) with more frequency than I care to admit. What I will happily and heartily admit, however is that Kenny and Thom Rollerson for that matter are “it” – the real deal. Make no mistake about it. (Yep, another song lyric.)
So here’s a cheer to Kenny Loggins for making the stars and our smiles shine brighter that Spring night in SolanaBeach.
And we believe him when he sings so sweetly in “Sweet September”,
“Whenever I call you friend I begin to think I understand,
Anywhere we are, you and I are meant to be.
Forever and ever.”
(PS~ I know my blog has been on hiatus for a couple of months, but buckle your seatbelts, there are a lot of new rave reviews coming to a computer screen near you from here on in! Stay tuned!)