Hey Jamie! Was Randall Bramblett in Winwood's band?

Negative. Had a pal that caught Friday night's show at the Fox. RB opened for him there but did not sit in for even a single song.

Anthony Crawford/Sugarcane Jane opened up last night. AC has played/toured w Winwood, too, and did not sit in with them, either.

I would've loved to have seen Anthony Crawford. He's mostly known for his involvement with Neil Young. A Birmingham native (Mountain Brook High School ... class of 1975, I think). 😉

I thought Winwood was amazing in Atlanta Friday...certainly not going through the motions....but yes, definitely too short at 90 minutes. I knew that going in.

He focuses 90% on his 60s and early 70s work which is great and his band is world class, but he had some great songs in the 80s too including Arch of Diver and others (and yes, he had some pop-ish stuff like Valerie too that I'm glad doesn't get played). He did Higher Love as his only nod to his popular 80s period, but he could do some renditions/arrangements of some others (If You See a Chance Take It, Back In the High Life) in the early-70s style of his current band. 2-3 of those tunes mixed in makes it a 1:45 show and I'm not sure anyone is mentioning how short it was.

Dirty City, released a few years back, was one of the highlights. Dear Mr. Fantasy in the encore was just epic. Winwood on both of those reminded us that he is one of the great guitar soloists. And his voice is a thing of beauty. He sounds like it's still 1973, and he is a week away from 67 years old.

His band of Richard Bailey (Drums), Jose Neto (guitar), Paul Booth (sax, flute, keyboards, percussion, background vocals), and Edson "Cafe" Da Silva (congas, percussion) are all just amazing players.

Randall & band were very good in a 38 minute opening slot (could have used more!). Driving to Montgomery was one of the best songs of the entire evening. I too was surprised Randall didn't get a sax solo with Winwood. Stevie did talk about Randall for a 45-60 seconds between one of the songs.

He focuses 90% on his 60s and early 70s work which is great and his band is world class, but he had some great songs in the 80s too including Arch of Diver and others (and yes, he had some pop-ish stuff like Valerie too that I'm glad doesn't get played).

That's my feeling too. When I saw him a few years ago, I wanted more Arc of a Diver material - Spanish Dancer and Night Train would be good to stretch out on.

[Edited on 5/6/2015 by Shavian]

Arch of a Diver is one of the best songs of his career and got a couple decades of radio airplay. Odd he doesn't play it.

How Ironic. I love the Arc of a Diver album. Have always wondered why he never plays those songs.

Was just flipping through my vinyl and put on Arc of a Diver. Don't know the last time I actually listened to this.

Great. Great album.

I love albums with a really good first song. And this has it. Wonderful.

[Edited on 5/8/2015 by cmgst34]

This album is so awesome!!! It's so neat to rediscover cool music.