Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Romantic Brickman Embraces Audience

Mary Sagal Correspondent

Jim Brickman Saturday, March 28, Opera House

The lone sentence on the program read: “America is falling in love.” Spokane kept up its end of the bargain Saturday night as romantic pianist Jim Brickman took control of the Opera House stage, and every couple in the audience.

Proof of his talent was the difference in the audience’s preconcert and post-concert behavior. Pre-concert observations of the decent-sized crowd mostly revealed dreamy-eyed women dragging lessthan-enthusiastic men by the hand. Sprinkled among these were a few families; even fewer pairs of men; and a father and his pre-teen daughter, he in a black suit and tie and she in a red crushed velvet gown, seemingly celebrating her debut into the adult world.

And then there were the feminine clusters - groups of teenage girls, of professional women and of mid-life mothers, many enviously eyeing peers talented enough to have convinced a husband or boyfriend to go to the concert.

Brickman took the stage knowing exactly who his audience was, and immediately set out winning over each and every one. He succeeded. After opening with a poetic piece, he immediately addressed the men in the crowd.

“I know you may have traded me for a night of Monday Night Football,” he said to knowing laughter. But, Brickman added, if the husbands and boyfriends would just let him, he could lead them to a romantic payoff that would begin as soon as they got home.

With that, Brickman launched two hours of music that included hits “Valentine” and “The Gift,” with vocal accompaniment by Anne Cochran, plus many instrumentals, all set against an austere yet beautiful set.

Cochran is truly gifted, and her clear, powerful voice perfectly matched Brickman’s emotional keyboarding. But Brickman’s strong suit is in the instrumental category, and there the two best songs of the evening were not love songs about a lover, but rather love songs about a landscape.

“Heartland” perfectly captured the essence of the Midwest’s woodlands and gently rolling farmland. And Brickman’s song about a rainstorm on Lake Erie was as powerful and immense and stunning as the Great Lake itself.

Were it not for his selfdeprecating humor, Brickman would fall into the same category as so many New Age instrumentalists - too self-important and too cliche. But, as Brickman said, a musician who started out by writing commercial jingles for everything from Cheerios to kitty litter can’t take himself too seriously.

What was serious, however, was the audience’s transformation. As they left the Opera House Saturday evening, couples - young, middleaged and old - were holding hands. If around Christmas time there is an upswing in Spokane’s birthrate, don’t be surprised. In late March, there was a Jim Brickman concert at the Opera House.

, DataTimes