Whittaker’s Versatility Almost Too Much

Roger Whittaker Spokane Opera House, Monday, Sept. 18

First of all, let me say that I like a lot of things about Roger Whittaker.

He’s as lovable and as personable as your grandpa or your favorite uncle. He has a warm, soothing voice that was mellow to begin with and at age 59 has mellowed even more.

As a musician, he’s versatile and open-minded. He’s receptive to all kinds of music, from Irish to African to country to old-time rock ‘n’ roll (he closed with a version of Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally”).

The best part of his show was when he took us on “musical safaris” to places like Kenya (his native country) and the Isle of Skye. On the latter song, “The Skye Boat Song,” he demonstrated his talent for whistling. His whistling sounded uncannily like a flute or an Irish tin whistle, or even at times like a flock of seagulls.

The near-capacity crowd gave him two standing ovations. They loved his warmth, his humor and his easy-to-listen-to music. I loved a lot of the show, too. But there were a few things I could have done without.

For one thing, Whittaker is too versatile for his own good. Instead of sticking to his own folk-tinged songs, he did bad cover versions of two of the most overplayed songs of the ‘90s, “I Will Always Love You” and “Wind Beneath My Wings.”

Also, he did two love-song duets with each of his two young women backup singers. I’m sorry, but I do not want to see my favorite grandpa cooing to some young blond thing about how easy she is to love. Would Burl Ives do these showbiz-style duets? I don’t think so.

And even though he did some fine authentic folk songs from other countries, at one point he introduced a song as “the most famous song ever to come out of Africa, especially East Africa” and proceeded to launch into “Born Free,” a song written by a British film composer. So much for world music.

And even though I enjoyed his banter, I was a bit alarmed by one story he told in which a friend supposedly asked his wife what she wanted for her birthday. She said, “A divorce.” The friend replied, “I wasn’t thinking of spending that much.”

I laughed, but the trouble is, this is the exact same joke I heard at the Crystal Gayle concert in Sandpoint last month. I have a feeling Whittaker got this from a corny joke book, not from any friend.

Finally, Whittaker performed exactly two songs from Broadway shows, “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Ol’ Man River.” Apparently, someone forgot to tell Whittaker that this show was advertised as “Roger Whittaker On Broadway … The Hits and More.”

I’m certain that most of the audience did not share my quibbles. His smooth, comfortable style was enough to make it an enjoyable evening with a veteran entertainer. But for me, all of these things added up to make it a slightly-less-than-peak experience.

, DataTimes