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Plugged In: Yacht Rock Revue's dream tour with Kenny Loggins swings home to Georgia. 'It's a rush!'

May 10, 2023 12:06 PM

• Kristi York Wooten

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Welcome to Plugged In, our digital interview series on GPB.

GPB's Kristi York Wooten talks with members of Yacht Rock Revue, an Atlanta band known for playing hits of the 1970s, '80s and beyond. The band is currently on tour with one of its musical heroes, Kenny Loggins, and will perform May 13 at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta. Frontmen Nick Niespodziani and Peter Olson are here to talk about this once-in-a-lifetime gig.

Kristi York Wooten: Welcome, Nick and Peter. How are you? 

Nick Niespodziani and Peter Olson: Great. Thanks for having us, Kristi.

Kristi York Wooten: Excited to talk to you. So I want to get started with something that's in the news today, and that is that while you were on the Kenny Loggins tour in Texas, you had some things stolen, your instruments and things. Do you want to give us a little bit of an update on what happened? 

Nick Niespodziani: Yeah, we came off stage with Kenny Loggins in Fort Worth on Friday, our first show with Kenny, and it was amazing, incredible energy from the crowd, everything you would hope for. And we woke up the next morning to discover our entire trailer had been stolen off the back of one of our vans. It was wild. Very high moment, followed by a very low moment. 

Kristi York Wooten:  So I know that's disconcerting for musicians to not be with their instruments, some of which I believe you told me earlier you've had since high school or college. So what are you going to do about the next couple of shows? I know you said you might borrow some instruments and things like that to get those shows done, and until you find out what happens to the others. 

Nick Niespodziani:  Yeah, the show goes on. 

Peter Olson:  That's right. Yeah. We've had incredible support from the musician industry. All of our friends have reached out not just to offer, you know, emotional support, but lots of offers to borrow gear, anything that we need to. To keep the show going. Just Saturday night, the night after we had the gear stolen, we were fortunate in that another band was on the bill and they allowed us to play some of their gear in order to make things happen. So we cobbled it together with some rented pieces and pieces borrowed from other musicians. And that's how we'll make it happen here until we can get things replaced.

Nick Niespodziani:  And I just want to make the point, you know, we're lucky we have insurance and we're also lucky that we're big enough and our organization is established enough that we can take a hit like this and keep going. Like, if this happened to an indie rock band who's not playing on the same scale as we are, it can be a deathblow to a band. So just next time you see this happen to a smaller band, find a way to get out there and support them. Like, we're lucky we're going to be okay. But not everyone is so lucky. 

Kristi York Wooten:  Good advice. So take us back to the beginning. Nick, we'll start with you. Take us back to the beginning: You're putting your band together. It had to stem from a childhood love of these — these songs that you heard on F.M. radio in the '70s or '80s. So can you take us back to the beginning of the idea for the band? 

Nick Niespodziani:  I mean, the band kind of came about on accident. It was never intended to be a band. It was supposed to be a one-off show that we were doing in a series of other one-off shows, and this one-off show connected with people in a completely different way than any of the other ones did. And ever since that moment, we saw the way it connected with the audience and the feelings that this music gave people. And we've been kind of chasing the head of that snake ever since. 

Kristi York Wooten:  And what year did you start, Peter? 

Peter Olson:  2007 was the first Yacht Rock show. 

Kristi York Wooten:  So tell me a little bit about when  The New York Times featured you in a 2020 story about the pandemic. You guys were one of the first bands out there playing in that sort of bizarre moment of people driving cars to watch a concert in their cars in a field. Can you talk a little bit about that experience, each one of you? 

Nick Niespodziani:  Man. That was one of the most nerve-wracking weeks leading up to a concert that I've ever experienced, because the week before that, another artist, I can't remember his name, it was a country artist, had thrown a concert that was not, like, COVID-friendly and had just gotten lambasted all across the media. And, you know, we were taking it very seriously and the last thing we wanted was for our one New York Times article to be about how we were going against COVID protocols or whatever. So we had extensive talks with Live Nation to make sure that this was going to be actually a safe situation and they were going to enforce it. And it all turned out okay. But it was very nerve-wracking. 

Peter Olson:  Yeah, and it was, I think, in normal times everyone was so spread out and it was we were playing to a giant field of people that were so far away that it would be hard to harness that energy on stage and give it back. But because of the circumstances of coming from isolation and quarantine, it was like just the honking of horns from all the cars and everything. It was like we were just feeding off of that, that there were real people in front of us.

Kristi York Wooten:  That's great. 

Nick Niespodziani:  I forgot about the horns, though. That was how the encore was asked for. It was like a choir of car horns. Yeah. 

Kristi York Wooten:  So you've kind of experienced the gamut of what live performance is in ... the age of streaming. So around the time you all started your rock revue is when things like Spotify were becoming popular. So tell me a little bit about how live performance itself has changed since then — or has it? How have things changed over the course of ... obviously you've made it through the pandemic … and here we are at a new phase. How has either your audience or the way you approach music … has any of that changed since you started? Do people request different things from you? Do different songs get bigger cheers, anything like that? 

Nick Niespodziani:  I mean, I think part of what we do is definitely emblematic of the Spotify era in that we are like a playlist, an infinite playlist of songs from an era. And that's an experience that people are looking for now. But I think, you know, whether we're talking about our first shows when we were starting out, or whether we're talking about the live streaming during the pandemic or everything that's happened since then, the one constant threat is that people want that person-to-person connection of live music. And that's been our livelihood. You know, we never made a bunch of money off of selling records so those changes to the business haven't affected us. And I think that, you know, whatever changes are coming in the future, that person-to-person like live music connection is the thing. 

Peter Olson:  Yeah. I feel like from a performance standpoint, we kind of picked up where we left off. Not a lot changed. It's amazing how long ago that the pandemic phase can feel. But it was like when we started playing again, it was just like we had just had our last gig a month before. But the thing that was really different was that we kind of were at a phase in our career where we were garnering a national fanbase, and over the course of the pandemic, they had this opportunity to connect with each other via the livestream concerts that we did. So when we came out back out on tour, there was already this connection, not necessarily with the — well, there was a deeper connection with the band and our fans, but also the fan-to-fan connection was just unbelievable. And we see that live on, which is really cool. 

Kristi York Wooten:  That's a good point. So you talked about your live show being a playlist. So let's talk about this playlist. So how did you first come up with your very first gig of which songs you were going to choose? And let's tell the audience to what your personal definition of yacht rock is. I asked a member of Toto what his definition of Yacht Rock is, and he said, "I don't know because I don't have a yacht yet." But you can tell us how you came to love bands like Toto, artists like Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, The Doobie Brothers, and how you kind of put that first playlist together and how, that has grown or changed over the years as well. I know that that Yacht Rock has now been expanded to allow some songs from '90s and 2000s to sneak in a little bit.

Nick Niespodziani : Yacht Rock is now whatever we say it as far as we're concerned. [Laughs]

Kristi York Wooten:  You own it. 

Nick Niespodziani : Yeah, well, you know, there's no point in a limited definition for us because our whole thing is having fun with people at the concert and like, saying that Yacht Rock can only be made between 1976 and 1984 in Southern California doesn't really, like do anything for us or for our fans, you know. I mean, that is the that is the center of it. That's where it starts. But it goes out from there. And Yacht Rock is really less, to me, of a genre than it is a vibe. And if you set that vibe, then anything can be Yacht Rock.

Peter Olson:  Yeah, people like to put those parameters on like the date and where it was recorded and that kind of thing. But you don't do that to any other genre. It's not like grunge had to come from Seattle, right? Grunge was made all over the country. It was just a style of music. It's a feeling or a general sound. 

Nick Niespodziani : It's kind of like basketball, like it's fun to talk about, like whether, you know, Kobe's Lakers would have beaten Jordan's Bulls. But in the end, you just want to go watch people play basketball and have fun. And that's kind of my view on the whole ‘what is Yacht Rock?’ and ‘what is not Yacht Rock’ debate? 

Kristi York Wooten:  So you're out on tour with Kenny Loggins. Tell us about the first gig. Tell us about what went over well in your show. And then you said that you were able to talk with [Kenny Loggins] as well. So tell me a little bit about that first night on tour with Kenny Loggins. Peter, we'll start with you. 

Peter Olson:  It was the first time I think we all had butterflies in quite a while going up on stage, but it was incredible. It was at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, and it was a packed house, and we had a little bit of arena experience, but not like this. And so when we got up there and I think we kind of were all in our heads a little bit through the first few songs and a little nervous. But once we found our flow, it felt really good, and it was a lot of fun and then it was over like that. Our set was 45 minutes that night and it just came and went so fast. But it was a rush.

Nick Niespodziani : It was interesting because most bands who've gotten to the level that we're at spent a lot of time on the road opening up for other bands, right? Like, that's pretty common. That's what you do. And when we when we were in an indie rock band, we would play 45-minute sets opening up for, you know, whoever. But this band had actually never opened up for someone else before, so that was a new experience. And we were also — another thing we haven't done a long time, we were playing in front of a bunch of people who we needed to win over. Like we're, you know, at this point we're playing places like Chastain headlining ourselves and everyone is there to see us and we've been there already and they've bought into what we're doing. So it was kind of like being the young buck again out there, like having to prove ourselves in an opening set. It was unfamiliar territory and a lot of that kind of like nervous energy came out, I think, in a pretty positive way. 

Peter Olson:  Yeah, and we're taking that two-hour playlist that we're so used to delivering. And when laying it down, when you talk about what is the Yacht Rock sound, like doing what we're best at, we had a limited time to, to deliver that.

Kristi York Wooten:  So what songs can folks expect when they come to Alpharetta next Saturday night? 

Nick Niespodziani:  We won't be playing any Kenny Loggins songs in our set. [Laughs]

Peter Olson:  So we check out what you might call the major boxes mean you can anticipate. Doobie Brothers and Christopher Cross and Toto. We can't give away the set list. I can’t tell you everything. 

Kristi York Wooten:  We’ve got to have some surprises there. You told me earlier that Kenny Loggins had asked you all to be on this tour. That it was a request from him. So how did that feel? 

Nick Niespodziani:  It was so cool. He came up right before we played and introduced himself to all of us and said, ‘You know, I'm really excited to have you guys. And it was my decision to have you on this tour. It wasn't my agent. It wasn't my manager telling me I had to do it. It was it was my decision, because I see the energy that you guys bring, and I want that to be a part of my show.’ And that was really a ‘Wow, we've made it’ kind of moment. 

Kristi York Wooten:  So did you watch from the wings? You watched Kenny from the wings, or were you out in the audience?

Peter Olson:  Oh, yeah. From the wings. We watched the whole show, and it — man, he brings it. He's still incredible.

Nick Niespodziani:  Yeah. If you're out there wondering, ‘Can Kenny Loggins still sing?’ The answer is emphatic, 'Yes!' His voice is money. 

Kristi York Wooten:  Do you have a show highlight from his set list? 

Nick Niespodziani:  Oh, there were several. For me, “Danny’s Song” is always one that gets me because that was one that my dad would play. He’d play those Loggins and Messina records in the garage when I was a kid. But then [Kenny] closed the show with “Forever,” which is a song that I hadn't really remembered as well. But then it got to that, that moment where he sings the big “forever” [sings] at the at the end. And he just nailed the note after his whole set. It was ... that one just knocked me back. It was incredible. 

Peter Olson:  Yeah. “Keep the Fire” is one of my favorites. But he touches on, he does the whole span of his career, and he breaks it down and pulls out the acoustic guitar. And not only can the guy sing, but the guy can still wail on the guitar. He's incredible. 

Kristi York Wooten:  And so this tour is going for several months this year. So do you have any plans for. Is it going to Europe or just this is just the North America tour? 

Nick Niespodziani:  Just United States? I don't know. Tell Kenny that he's wanted in Europe because we want to go. 

Kristi York Wooten:  Well, thank you both for being here. Nick Niespodziani and Peter Olson from Yacht Rock Revue performing and opening for the first time on a tour when they are used to being headliners. Opening for Kenny Loggins at the Ameris Bank Amphitheater in Alpharetta, Georgia, on May 13. Thank you again.

Peter Olson:  Thank you. 

Nick Niespodziani:  See you out there, Atlanta. 

Secondary Content

About the author.

Kristi York Wooten ( she/her ) is a digital editor and journalist based in Atlanta. She works with the GPB radio and digital news teams as an editor, writes and produces features for digital and radio and leads editorial and production for the GPB News Weekend newsletter. Her work appears in  The New York Times ,  The Economist ,  The Atlantic ,  Newsweek, Rolling Stone  and others.

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Kenny Loggins Announces Final Tour

Kenny Loggins has announced his final concert tour, which will launch in March.

Loggins' This Is It tour is scheduled to begin on March 10 in Sarasota, Fla. The trek will be spread out over several months, with dates set in April, June, August and October. Yacht Rock Revue will serve as support for six of the 11 total shows.

"It's been an amazing journey since starting with Jimmy Messina in 1971, and I'm fortunate to have had such a long touring career," Loggins said in a press release. "I don't see this as the end of my professional career but certainly a halt to the grind of major touring."

You can view a complete list of concert dates below. Tickets will go on sale on Jan. 20.

"I'll be playing songs that I feel sum up the emotional story of my music," Loggins added. "This will include 90% of the hits and 10 or so percent of the deeper cuts."

Loggins has also specified that there is no pressing reason for the farewell tour, only that "after spending a lifetime on the road, I want to have more time at home."

Kenny Loggins This Is It Tour 2023 March 10 – Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall @ Sarasota, FL March 12 – Florida Theatre @ Jacksonville, FL March 26 – Good Life Festival @ Queen Creek, AZ^ April 28 – Dickies Arena @ Fort Worth, TX* April 30 – New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival @ New Orleans, LA^ June 15 – Wolf Trap @ Vienna, VA* June 17 – Virginia Arts Festival @ Williamsburg, VA^* Aug. 17 – Family Arena @ St. Charles, MO* Aug. 19 – Ravinia Festival @ Highland Park, IL^* Oct. 14 - The Mountain Winery @ Saratoga, CA Oct. 27 – YouTube Theater @ Inglewood, CA*

*Yacht Rock Revue is support ^Festival

2023 Rock Tour Preview

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Virginia Gazette News | At Williamsburg Live, see yacht rock legend…

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Virginia gazette news | at williamsburg live, see yacht rock legend kenny loggins on his final tour, kenny loggins, keb’ mo’ and the wood brothers will headline williamsburg’s signature outdoor music event june 16-18..

The three-day music festival returns June 16 with a lineup that includes American roots band The Wood Brothers, legendary singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins and five-time Grammy Award winner Keb’ Mo’.

For Loggins, who turned 75 in January, the show is part of an extended final bow as he gets ready to retire from touring after a prolific, decadeslong career.

“It’s been quite a while since I (first) hit the road in 1971,” said Loggins in a phone interview. “It’s my last of the solo career tours, as far as I know. I may do a benefit here or there in the future, but right now I just want to close this segment and this part of my life out so I can move onto the next section.”

Loggins said he got his first taste of what a life of retirement might be like in 2020 when COVID closures put a halt to touring around the world.

“I actually got off the road for a year and started to have a home life like I haven’t had in a long time,” he said. “It was such a good time, just my gal and I together, hunkered in, and it felt so great. I thought, this is kind of what retirement will feel like. It kind of put the bug in my head.”

For Virginia Arts Festival Executive Director Rob Cross, having Loggins stop by on his final tour was a can’t-miss opportunity.

“We’re probably one of the smaller venues on this tour, which is kind of exciting that we were able to get a date for Williamsburg,” he said.

The event, which is presented by the Virginia Arts Festival along with the city of Williamsburg and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, will be held on the Lawn of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg June 16-18.

“We’ve got three really great headliners and they all bring something different to the table,” said Cross. “We try to program something that we think will reach a wide area of interest.”

Tickets are still available online at www.vafest.org/williamsburg-live/tickets , over the phone at 757-282-2822 or in-person at the Virginia Arts Festival box office on Bank Street.

On Friday, The Wood Brothers will perform with special guest Shovels & Rope, followed by Loggins and Yacht Rock Revue on Saturday. Wrapping up the weekend Sunday is Keb’ Mo’, whose real name is Kevin Moore, and Peter One.

Loggins is a two-time Grammy winner and earned an Academy Award nomination for his song “Footloose,” which appeared on the soundtrack for the 1984 movie of the same name. In addition to “Footloose,” Loggins has written a number of well-known songs for movies like “Top Gun” and “Caddyshack.” Before embarking on his storied solo career, he was one-half of rock-pop duo Loggins and Messina with Jim Messina.

Moore is an American blues musician who has garnered critical acclaim throughout his long career. He won his first Grammy award for Best Contemporary Blues Album with his 1996 output, “Just Like You.” In 2015, he performed at a special concert hosted by former President Barack Obama, “A Celebration of American Creativity: In Performance at the White House.”

The Wood Brothers are a three-piece band featuring brother Chris and Oliver Wood and Jano Rix. Before forming their band in the early 2000s, the two Wood brothers pursued music careers independently of each other. They released their first studio album as a group, “Ways Not To Lose,” in 2006.

Since then, they have released eight more albums, including 2023’s “Heart is the Hero,” which was recorded analog to 16-track tape, allowing the members to embrace “the chemistry of their acclaimed live shows by capturing their performances in real-time direct from the studio with nary a computer in sight,” their website reads.

“The live thing is definitely what we’re all about,” said Oliver Wood in a phone interview. “When it comes to recording the music, in most cases, we like to try to capture some of that live energy in the studio as well. … The idea for us when we make recorded music is to really capture a moment rather than construct something one piece at a time.”

Getting out and touring this latest album has been exciting, Wood said, not just because of the new music but also because touring has bounced back so well.

“Touring has been going strong now for a year and a half, with sort of a gradual build,” he said. “Last summer was a good touring summer but I think this one’s bound to be a little bit better … in terms of just being back to the level it was before (the pandemic).”

For Moore, getting back on the road is a chance to keep fine-tuning and growing his live show.

“It’s a two-week run and I’m really looking forward to getting out there,” he said during a phone interview. “We’re very much into the minutia of how things sound and how it comes together in the production: not too loud, not too soft, not too dense, not too empty.

“We want to create an atmosphere that’s pleasing and healing and you can hear the words of the songs and everything is all wrapped around the songs. Something that’s transformative, for us and especially for the audience.”

Beyond just the lineup, Cross said he’s thrilled that the festival’s attendance numbers seem to be getting back to normal after the long COVID lull.

“Ticket sales are going really well,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of good feedback and buzz from ticket buyers and sponsors, so we’re excited that this is probably the closest we’ll be back to normal with Williamsburg Live since before COVID in 2019.”

When Loggins’ tour ends in November, the longtime performer knows it’ll be a bittersweet moment.

“I’ve been looking at (what I’ll miss about touring) as I go, and I think the connection with the fans is the biggest one,” he said. “On a good night with a good audience, there’s a group flow that happens that doesn’t happen in other situations of my life. I’ll miss just the connection, that feeling that happens when everybody’s in the same place at the same time.”

When: June 16, 17 and 18. Gates open at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Lawn of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, 301 S. Nassau St., Williamsburg

Tickets: Start at $35 for each concert for Friday and Sunday and at $49 for Saturday; $112 for three-day package. Free lawn seating for children 6 and younger.

Details: vafest.org ; 757-282-2800

Free parking is available at the Visitor Center, and the shuttle bus service to the Historic Area will be available with or without CW admission tickets. Food and beverage vendors will be on site.

Sian Wilkerson, 757-342-6616, [email protected]

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Kenny Loggins: This Is It! His Final Tour 2023

Kenny Loggins

Yacht Rock Revue

Yacht Rock Revue

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Somerset Amphitheater | Somerset, WI

Train & reo speedwagon - summer road trip 2024.

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Ruoff Music Center | Noblesville, IN

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Riverbend Music Center | Cincinnati, OH

Credit union 1 amphitheatre | tinley park, il.

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Blossom Music Center | Cuyahoga Falls, OH

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Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre - St. Louis, MO | Maryland Heights, MO

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BankNH Pavilion | Gilford, NH

• BNHP Event Parking & Camping: Train 7/28
• Coors Light VIP Club Add-On: Train
• Sam Adams Brewhouse Add-On: Train
• Fast Lane Access - NOT A CONCERT TICKET: Train
• Lawn Chair Rental: Train

Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview | Syracuse, NY

• Premier Parking - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Fastlane Access - Train & REO Speedwagon - Not a Concert Ticket
• Lakeview Lawn Chair Rental: Train & REO Speedwagon

PNC Bank Arts Center | Holmdel, NJ

• VIP Club Access: Train & REO Speedwagon - This is NOT a Concert Ticket
• Shore Club Cabanas:Train & REO Speedwagon-This is NOT a Concert Ticket
• VIP Fast Lane: Train & REO Speedwagon - This is NOT a Concert Ticket
• Lawn Chair Rental: Train & REO Speedwagon-This is NOT a Concert Ticket
• Party Decks: Train & REO Speedwagon - This is NOT a Concert Ticket

Xfinity Theatre | Hartford, CT

Train & reo speedwagon- summer road trip 2024.

• Reserved Parking: Train & REO Speedwagon
• Xfinity Theatre VIP Club Access: Train & REO Speedwagon
• Xfinity Theatre Unplugged in the Hot spot :Train & REO Speedwagon
• Xfinity Theatre Fast Lane:Train & REO Speedwagon
• Xfinity Theatre Lawn Chair Rental: Train & REO Speedwagon
• Xfinity Theatre Blanket Voucher:Train & REO Speedwagon

Xfinity Center | Mansfield, MA

• Xfinity Center Parking : Train & REO Speedwagon
• Xfinity VIP Club Access: Train & REO Speedwagon
• Fast Lane Access - NOT A CONCERT TICKET: Train & REO Speedwagon
• Live Nation Blanket Purchase: Train & REO Speedwagon

Jiffy Lube Live | Bristow, VA

• Dominion Lounge: Train & REO Speedwagon (Not a Concert Ticket)
• Fast Lane: Train & Reo Speedwagon (not A Concert Ticket)
• Lawn Blanket: Train & REO Speedwagon (Not a Concert Ticket)
• Early Parking: Train & REO Speedwagon (Not a Concert Ticket)
• Oversize Parking: Train & REO Speedwagon (Not a Concert Ticket)

Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach | Virginia Beach, VA

• Premium Parking: Train & REO Speedwagon (Not a Concert Ticket)
• VIP Club Access: Train & REO Speedwagon (Not a Concert Ticket)
• Flight Deck Access: Train & REO Speedwagon (Not a Concert Ticket)

Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek | Raleigh, NC

• Premier Parking - Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)
• VIP Club - Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)
• Coastal Fast Lane - Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)
• Live Nation Blanket - Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)
• Early Parking - Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)

PNC Music Pavilion | Charlotte, NC

• Parking Upgrades: Train - This is NOT a Concert Ticket
• VIP Club Access: Train - This is NOT a Concert Ticket
• Fast Lane: Train - This is NOT a Concert Ticket
• Lawn Chair Rental: Train - This is NOT a Concert Ticket
• Live Nation Blanket: Train - This is NOT a Concert Ticket

Live Oak Bank Pavilion | Wilmington, NC

• Vip Club Access - Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Fast Lane - Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Lawn Chair Rental -Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Clear Bag Voucher -Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Blanket Voucher - Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Coat Check- Train - Not a Concert Ticket

Oak Mountain Amphitheatre | Birmingham, AL

• Oak Mountain Premier Parking - Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Oak Mountain Preferred Parking - Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Oak Mountain VIP Club - Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Oak Mountain Fast Lane - Train (Not A Concert Ticket)

Ameris Bank Amphitheatre | Alpharetta, GA

• Beaver Toyota Lounge: Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Fast Lane: Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Oversized Vehicle Parking: Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICK

FirstBank Amphitheater | Franklin, TN

• Premium Field Parking

MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre at the FL State Fairgrounds | Tampa, FL

• Premier Parking: Train (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)
• VIP Club Access: Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Fast Lane: Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Lawn Chair Rental: Train (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Live Nation Blanket: Train (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)

iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre | West Palm Beach, FL

• Parking Upgrades: Train & REO Speedwagon (Not A Concert Ticket)
• Ford Fast Lane: Train & REO Speedwagon (Not A Concert Ticket)

Daily's Place | Jacksonville, FL

The wharf amphitheater | orange beach, al, the cynthia woods mitchell pavilion presented by huntsman | woodlands, tx.

• Train & REO Speedwagon - Garage Parking
• Train & REO Speedwagon - Lawn Chair Rental

Dos Equis Pavilion | Dallas, TX

• Dos Equis Parking Upgrades- Train & REO -this is not a concert ticket
• Live Nation Lounge Presented by Citi - Train & REO Speedwagon
• Lonestar Cabana: Train & REO Speedwagon. this is not a concert ticket
• AmegyBank Fast Lane Access: Train & REO Speedwagon
• Lawn Chair Rental: Train & REO Speedwago. this is not a concert ticket
• Live Nation Blanket - Train & REO Speedwagon - Not a Concert Ticket

Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre (formerly USANA Amp) | West Valley City, UT

• Gold Parking - Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)
• Premium Parking -Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)
• Fast Lane Access - Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)
• Lawn Chair Rental -Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)
• Live Nation Blanket -Train & REO Speedwagon (NOT A CONCERT TICKET)

White River Amphitheatre | Auburn, WA

• Star Parking: Train & REO Speedwagon - Not A Concert Ticket
• Fast Lane Entry: Train & REO Speedwagon - Not A Concert Ticket
• Eagle Club Access: Train & REO Speedwagon - Not A Concert Ticket

Hayden Homes Amphitheater | Bend, OR

• South Lot Premier Parking-Train & REO Speedwagon- Not a Concert Ticket
• Lawn Chair Rental - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET

RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater | Ridgefield, WA

• ilani VIP Club Access - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Fast Lane Access - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Live Nation Blanket - Train & REO Speedwagon x96 NOT A CONCERT TICKET

Toyota Amphitheatre | Wheatland, CA

• Premier Parking: Train & REO Speedwagon
• Fast Lane - Train & Reo Speedwagon
• Lawn Chair Rental - Not a Concert Ticket - Train & REO Speedwagon
• Club Upgrade - Train & Reo Speedwagon

Shoreline Amphitheatre | Mountain View, CA

• Citi VIP Terrace: Train & REO Speedwagon
• The Hideaway: Train & REO Speedwagon
• Fast Lane: Train & REO Speedwagon
• Live Nation Blanket - Not a Concert Ticket - Train & REO Speedwagon

Kia Forum | Inglewood, CA

• Parking | Train & REO Speedwagon

North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre | Chula Vista, CA

• VIP PARKING - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Parking Upgrades - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• VIP Lounge - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Kona Beach Pass - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Fast Lane - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Lawn Chair Voucher - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Chateau Ste. Michelle Garden at NICUA - Train/REO - Not a ticket
• Live Nation Clear Bag - Train & REO Speedwagon - NOT A CONCERT TICKET

Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre | Phoenix, AZ

• Premier Parking - Train - NOT A CONCERT TICKET
• Casino Arizona VIP Lounge - Train - Not A Concert Ticket
• Oasis Lawn Lounge - Train - Not A Concert Ticket
• Deck Access - Train - Not A Concert Ticket
• Lawn Chair Rental - Train - Not a Concert Ticket
• VIP Upgrade - Train - Not A Concert Ticket
• Live Nation Blanket - Train - Not a Concert Ticket

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Yacht rock revue on april 26, 2024.

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Thursday 17 August 2023

Kenny Loggins and Yacht Rock Revue

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2002 Arena Parkway 63303 Saint Charles, MO, US familyarena.com

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Get your tour dates seen everywhere.

• But we really hope you love us.

Final Concert Tour: ‘This Is It’

January 17, 2023

Kenny has announced his final concert tour.  The “This Is It” tour will kick off on March 10 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, FL, and will include stops in New Orleans, Chicago, and Los Angeles metro areas among many others throughout 2023.

“It’s been an amazing journey since starting with Jimmy Messina in 1971, and I’m fortunate to have had such a long touring career,”  Loggins says. “I don’t see this as the end of my professional career, but certainly a halt to the grind of major touring.”

He stresses that there was no overarching reason to say farewell to touring, other than “after spending a lifetime on the road, I want to have more time at home.”

On the “This Is It” tour, he’ll trace his remarkable musical history with a brand-new, career-spanning stage show sure to thrill his loyal legion of fans.

“I’ll be playing songs that I feel sum up the emotional story of my music,”   Loggins says. “This will include 90 percent of the hits and 10 or so percent of the deeper cuts.”

KL Connection (Fan Club) members and the public will have an opportunity to also purchase one of two VIP packages being offered specially for this final tour:  the Footloose VIP package , which comes with a premium seat and exclusively designed merch offering; or the “This Is It” package which offers purchasers an inside look into Kenny’s world on the road with a guided backstage tour, access to soundcheck, group photo with Kenny, and special autographed items.

Public on sale is Friday, January 20, 2023.  Please check Kenny’s Tour Page for exact details as on sales may vary per date.

Confirmed dates are as follows :

March 10 – Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall – Sarasota, FL March 12 – Florida Theatre – Jacksonville, FL March 26 – Good Life Festival – Queen Creek, AZ^ April 28 – Dickies Arena – Fort Worth, TX* April 30 – New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival – New Orleans, LA^ June 15 – Wolf Trap – Vienna, VA* June 17 – Virginia Arts Festival – Williamsburg, VA^* August 17 – Family Arena – St. Charles, MO* August 19 – Ravinia Festival – Highland Park, IL^* October 14 – The Mountain Winery – Saratoga, CA October 27 – YouTube Theater – Inglewood, CA*

* Yacht Rock Revue is support          ^ Festival

More dates will be announced soon!

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He Sang ‘What a Fool Believes.’ But Michael McDonald Is in on the Joke.

The singer and songwriter with a silky-smooth voice has written a memoir with Paul Reiser that recounts his story of pain and redemption with dashes of humor.

Michael McDonald’s new memoir is titled “What a Fool Believes,” after the Grammy-winning hit he wrote in 1978 with Kenny Loggins. Credit... Ariel Fisher for The New York Times

Supported by

By Alexandra Jacobs

Reporting from Santa Barbara, Calif.

• Published May 9, 2024 Updated May 16, 2024

The voice of Michael McDonald has been compared to velvet , silk and sandpaper , melted chocolate and last year, by a besotted 11-year-old girl, an angel . He has harmonized with the best in the business. But his latest duet might cause even the most Botoxed foreheads of Hollywood to furrow.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

“How you like us so far?” joked Paul Reiser, the actor and comedian, from one corner of a squishy sofa in McDonald’s Santa Barbara, Calif., aerie on a recent Tuesday morning. He was there to talk about the singer’s memoir, which they wrote together and will be published by Dey Street Books on May 21.

In the other corner, emanating the equanimity that’s as beloved as his baritone, was the man whose 50-plus-year career has included backup vocals for Steely Dan, Elton John , El DeBarge , Toto , Bonnie Raitt and on and on — backup so extensive and distinctive it’s inspired playlists on Apple Music and Spotify . He was wearing a paisley-patterned shirt, black trousers and, as one might expect of an angel who must tread this cursed Earth, puffy Hoka sneakers .

McDonald, 72, has also spent decades in the spotlight, albeit sidlingly, often with his famous blue eyes shut . (“Singing is such an intimate act,” he explains in the book, “and like kissing, it does no real good to see what the other person is doing.”) He led the Doobie Brothers in various iterations with his gospel-inflected keyboard style; released nine solo studio albums traversing multiple genres and continues to make live appearances at venues from Coachella to the Carlyle .

The book is titled “What a Fool Believes,” after the Grammy-winning hit McDonald wrote in 1978 with Kenny Loggins, though with some hesitation. “I thought, ‘Well, that’s just too obvious,’” he said. “I wanted it to be something clever and mind-provoking, and I couldn’t really think of anything because, you know, I have a problem provoking my own mind.”

He was convinced by Reiser, who among many other projects wrote the best-selling books “Couplehood” and “Babyhood” in the 1990s, and a follow-up, “Familyhood,” in 2011.

“I mean, how lucky am I?” McDonald said.

“Awwww,” Reiser said. But seriously: “He’s very introspective, which you don’t see at first and then you go, ‘Oh, this guy is deeper than you think.’” A beat. “Not that I thought you were shallow!”

As if in a marathon therapy session, they plunged together back to the past. McDonald grew up Irish Catholic, bracketed by two sisters in a suburb of St. Louis. His father was a streetcar driver and ex-Marine, a teetotaler with an eye for the ladies and a beautiful singing voice. His mother worked in a trading stamps store and had a weakness for pep pills. The marriage didn’t last.

He had an Aunt Mame with a Victrola from which, at age 5, he learned to imitate Mario Lanza warbling “ Love is a Many-Splendored Thing ”; an Aunt Bitsy who introduced him to Rodgers and Hammerstein; and an Aunt Ann Catherine whose record collection included, revelatorily, Ray Charles. Burt Bacharach was a big influence, too. Beatles-wise, he gravitated more toward McCartney than Lennon.

“I always related to him,” McDonald said, “because I could sense from him that he heard a lot of the same music I heard — that kind of barroom, Tin Pan Alley chord progression.”

In one devastating passage, McDonald writes of getting his girlfriend pregnant in eighth grade and biking over to confront her parents, who insisted, along with his own, that she give the baby up for adoption. Too young to sort through this emotional wreckage, he steered away. “Disappearing became my MO,” he writes. “Distancing myself from whatever it was that might require accountability.”

He dropped out of high school and joined a series of colorful-sounding bands — the Majestics, the Sheratons, the Delrays, the Guild, the Blue. Old ballrooms; natty threads. Beer and marijuana became staples, and later, after he moved to Los Angeles and began breaking into the big time, cocaine.

Referred to Steely Dan by the drummer Jeff Porcaro in 1973, he “came to rehearsal a few days later and knocked everyone out,” Donald Fagen, the band’s surviving founder, wrote in an email. “There was a serious discussion about whether he should replace me as the lead singer, which would have been my personal preference. But, for some dumb reason, I was voted down. I didn’t insist, and I’ve regretted it ever since. I mean, here’s this monster singer and musician, and he’s also really funny and a sweetheart of a guy. What’s not to like?”

Patti LaBelle called about recording “ On My Own ” (1986) with McDonald, after a solo version went sour. “I said, ‘The person I would love to sing it with is quiet, beautiful Michael,’” she remembered. Recently they crooned it together on a jazz cruise on the Norwegian Pearl where, she said, he confessed nerves beforehand; when he emerged onstage, the crowd went bananas. “He’s one of a kind. He comes out whispering and then — all this power. It’s like he doesn’t even open his mouth, he’s just so laid back.”

Indeed, so constitutionally low-key is McDonald that Loggins, with whom he also composed “ This is It ” and “ I Gotta Try, ” and who released his own memoir, “ Still Alright ,” in 2022, didn’t even know his old collaborator is about to join him on the bookshelves.

On the phone, Loggins remembered the first time he heard McDonald in the Doobies’ “ Livin’ on the Fault Line .” “I just felt like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a major American voice,’” he said. “He kind of goes into a trance when we write, and if I say ‘play it again,’ he won’t remember, so I have to record all the time. We have completely different styles vocally, but blend really well. It’s not logical.”

In 2005, the duo, along with Hall and Oates, Christopher Cross, Toto, Steve Perry and others, were affectionately spoofed in J.D. Ryznar’s web series, “ Yacht Rock .” A strain of the much-maligned catchall “adult contemporary” category was suddenly rebranded as “smooth music”: gleaming with high production values and a general mellifluence; the polar opposite of punk. McDonald was portrayed as the genre’s earnest common denominator: its anchor, its intergenerational secret sauce, who stumbles out of fashion and then rises again when “ I Keep Forgettin ’” is sampled by Warren G in 1994.

McDonald compared the yacht-rock phenomenon to oldies radio. “Even though I was a little ambivalent about both, at first, they turned out to be the two best things that ever happened to us from the ’70s,” he said, “because we kept getting airplay.”

This wasn’t his first time as a figure of comedy. In 1981, in an SCTV sketch, Rick Moranis portrayed McDonald driving intently down a highway in a convertible to clap on headphones and sing bits of backup for Cross’s “Ride Like the Wind” before rushing off to his next gig. McDonald contributed a song to the 1999 “South Park” movie and sang at a fictional “30 Rock” benefit . In “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (2005), an electronics-store manager played by Jane Lynch is excoriated by an employee for broadcasting a McDonald concert video ad nauseam. (“If I have to hear ‘ Yah Mo B There ’ one more time I’m going to yah mo burn this place to the ground!”) And in 2013 Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake donned silver McDonald wigs to sing “ Row, Row, Row Your Boat ” with him.

We have his current writing partner to thank, or blame, for the chapter title “Doobie or Not Doobie, That Is the Question.” Reiser, an accomplished musician himself who can sit down at the Yamaha and spontaneously ripple off a Rachmaninoff concerto, first encountered McDonald performing during an event at a neighbor’s house. “And in a surge of moxie, I went, ‘I live literally next door, and I got a music studio with two pianos that I put in just in case this ever happened,’” Reiser recalled. “Would you like to come over?’”

A jam session ensued. A friendship developed. Then the pandemic descended. McDonald thought that during lockdown he might apply himself with renewed vigor to his painting hobby . Reiser had another idea. “He’s the only reason the book exists, as far as I know,” McDonald said. “Putting one foot in front of the other was never my strong suit, on my own power. By myself, I become like a blob.”

McDonald’s wife, the singer Amy Holland, wandered briefly into their living room, which is large, cozy and barnlike, with plenty of blankets and candles and a banjo mounted on the wall bearing the visage of her mother, Verna Sherrill Boersma, who did a hillbilly routine as Esmereldy in the 1940s and resembled …. was it Bette Davis? “Celeste Holm,” McDonald said.

He and Holland were married in 1983, with David Pack, the lead singer of Ambrosia performing “Biggest Part of Me” at the reception. They have two adult children, a submissive golden retriever, and a possessive Chihuahua who sleeps in between the couple.

One of their previous pooches cringed at his singing, McDonald noted, and would try to pry his master’s hands off the piano keys every time he played.

“Everyone’s a critic,” Reiser said.

Working with McDonald, he said, was often just a process of having him slow down and fill out anecdotes that, to him, seemed like no big deal — Steely Dan partying in the penthouse of a London hotel, for one. “I’m going, ‘That’s like a Fellini movie!’” One chapter is devoted to an extended bender with the band’s co-founder, Walter Becker , who died in 2017; another features an unintentional acid trip. ( David Gest also makes an appearance.)

“I remember looking to the guys who seem to manage it well — guys who did a little of this and did a little of that but didn’t have a problem like I suspect that I already did,” McDonald said. “Their whole thing was ‘You just got to manage it — you can’t overdo it, man.’” He paused. “And every one of those guys, to a man, is gone.”

Sober since the mid-80s — he said his current vices are “food and sloth” — McDonald is not only still here, but discreetly ubiquitous.

Forget about velvet and silk: The more you read and think and listen, the more his voice seems like a connecting thread running through America’s popular-music tapestry that, if pulled, might unravel the whole thing — or at least, leave a significant, unmendable hole.

And yet, he said, “to this day I keep expecting the doors to fly open and the impostor police to come and grab me and take me out.”

Read by Alexandra Jacobs

Audio produced by Jack D’Isidoro .

Alexandra Jacobs is a Times book critic and occasional features writer. She joined The Times in 2010. More about Alexandra Jacobs

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