The Allen Room at Lincoln Center

January 15, 2009

New York, NY

Review By: Richard

The Allen Room is one of several small listening rooms within the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts. It is located near Central Park in NYC within an upscale shopping mall. At first glance, it may appear similar to the Opry at the mall in Nashville, but this place exudes class, not the tackiness of the Opry. As we got off the elevator from the ground floor of the mall to the fourth floor of the Center for Performing Arts, it felt like we were headed for a jazz recital rather than a PL concert. The halls were lined with magnificent prints of jazz greats and there was an ongoing audio/video documentary of some of the greatest players in jazz history in a small enclave near the Allen Room.

When they opened the doors to the Allen Room, however, that is when we received our greatest surprise. The stage of the small hall backed up to Columbus Circle and Central Park, providing a panoramic view of New York. When Patty opened the show, she turned her back to the audience, threw her hands upward, and shouted "how about this view"? She joked that she may be doing the show facing backwards. We sat at a table for four off of the left side of the stage, near Marcia and Deanie. Each table had a complimentary bottle of wine. The hall held about 450 people. It appeared to be a sellout.

Clearly, this is not a typical venue for Patty. We beamed with pride that she was being appreciated at a state of the art hall in NYC. Moreover, this was not a typical PL audience. It seemed to us that a majority of people in the house were seeing her for the first time. They were not disappointed. She appeared rested and excited and her voice was in perfect form. In fact, they had Patty's voice up in the mix, powerfully projecting her vocals throughout the 19-song set list, blowing away the crowd. Each song was met with enthuiastic applause. You could not hear a pin drop between numbers. She looked magnificent, dressed in a long brown sequined coat. She commented that she was sweating, despite the frigid temperatures outside.

As Patty began, she acknowledged the presence of Jim Lauderdale, who was in the audience to play the same venue on Friday night. Jim was part of The American Beauty Experience, a tribute to the Grateful Dead album of the same name. Patty said that the first time she played New York City was as an opening act for The Desert Rose Band in 1989.

The band, as usual, was in fine form. Fortunately, Patty was able to keep Deanie, Marcia, Garry, Jimmy, Martin, and Tom on board for this show in the middle of the winter. Given the temperature outside, Marcia wore shoes and Martin wore long pants.

There were no surprises in the set list, but the show was longer than most on the tour, a total of 19 songs.

Blame
On Down the Line
You Don't Seem to Miss Me
Wheel
Lovin' All Night
Windows

Why Baby Why
Crazy Arms
Sleepless Nights
Color of the Blues
That's All It Took
My Ole Friend the Blues
Here I Am
Halfway Down
You Don't Even Know Who I Am
Lonely Too Long
You Can Feel Bad
Elvis

Cold, Cold Heart (encore)

Patty had to be most pleased with her performance and reception in The Apple. I am hopeful that at least one New York paper did a review. This was a Grammy winner's preview.