They say good music never gets old.<\/p>\n
Devon Gilfillian proved that adage Sept. 20 at Musikfest Cafe, ArtsQuest Center, SteelStacks, Bethlehem, with a concert of classic soul that not only revived the 1960s and \u201870s sound successfully, but integrated it with rock, pop and more.<\/p>\n
Backed by a talented three-man band, singer-songwriter-guitarist Gilfillian, a Delaware County native who clearly has Philly soul ingrained in him, played a 15-song, 81-minute set that not only reminded the audience of how good that music was, but showed them it also still can sound contemporary.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean it was a concert of oldies nor that it was without surprises.<\/p>\n
One such surprise was the opening song, \u201cTravelin\u2019 Blues,\u201d from Gilfillian\u2019s 2016 self-titled debut EP. It was, indeed, a very bluesy trip through \u201870s psychedelic blues \u00e0 la Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cWhole Lotta Love,\u201d with keyboards and slide guitar (Gilfillian switched guitars mid-song).<\/p>\n
That led right into \u201cGet Out and Get It,\u201d which he introduced as \u201csomething to bring back home to Pennsylvania,\u201d immediately connecting to his roots (he now lives in Nashville).<\/p>\n
Before 2019\u2019s \u201cUnchained,\u201d his first Top 10 hit on the Adult Alternative chart, Gilfillian reminisced about playing Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks in 2018 and later opening for Chicago at Bethlehem\u2019s Musikfest.<\/p>\n
On the song, dedicated to his disabled brother, Ryan, he showed his guitar chops, as well, with a two-minute ambient guitar solo.<\/p>\n
Gilfillian was at his best when displaying his command of classic soul, such as on his 2017 single \u201cHere and Now,\u201d which sounded very much like master Motown and had the audience, intimate at perhaps 125, clapping along.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s Stop (Messing) Around,\u201d a song from his newest album, \u201cTime Will Tell,\u201d released in June, was very soul-Motown, and on it, Gilfillian displayed his voice \u2013 wailing and holding a long, soulful note at the end.<\/p>\n
Similarly, on \u201cTime,\u201d the new album\u2019s opening track, he opened his heart through his vocals on the slow, intense, voice-and-piano song.<\/p>\n
\u201cHold On (Hourglass),\u201d a Top 40 AAA hit from the new disc, was so connected to classic soul that you literally hear the influence, seemingly snippets and samples of songs as it chugged along.<\/p>\n
He introduced the lighter, slower soul of the new \u201cGlad to Be Here,\u201d by explaining he wrote it after his veteran musician father had a heart attack, then introduced \u201cAll I Really Want to Do\u201d by telling the audience, \u201cI got a love song for you.\u201d And the slower, lighter and seductive song, sung with high falsetto, edged him close to early \u201870s Al Green.<\/p>\n
Gilfillian again shifted styles with a worthy, heavy blues-rock version of The Allman Brothers\u2019 \u201cMidnight Rider,\u201d which he said he performed recently at the Grand Ole Opry, and which the Musikfest Cafe audience enthusiastically applauded.<\/p>\n
He took another turn after the audience-engaging 2026 single \u201cIRL\u201d and \u201cThe Good Life,\u201d which Gilfillian said he sang at his Levitt Pavilion appearance, by bringing opening act Jon Muq on stage for an a cappella version of Bill Withers\u2019 \u201cLean on Me.\u201d It wasn\u2019t Withers, of course, but it was a valiant effort.<\/p>\n
And then Gilfillian ended where he started, closing with the forceful classic blues rock of his 2018 single \u201cTroublemaker,\u201d then right into the closing (there was no encore), five-minute version of his latest single, \u201cBlack Dog Rabbit Hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an appropriately named dive into the soaring sonic blues rock of Led Zeppelin, losing all of that soul subtlety for more hard rock and falsetto vocals. It got a standing ovation.<\/p>\n
It clearly showed good music never gets old.<\/p>\n
Muq\u2019s opening set of six songs in 38 minutes also traced a trip: the personal journey of the singer, who emigrated from Uganda to Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n
He opened with \u201cLove You Anyway,\u201d which he said was the first English-language song he wrote and which he appropriately described as \u201cspicy,\u201d then continued through a set of guitar-and-voice songs.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlight Away From Home\u201d was pleasant and jaunty; \u201cA Big Smile\u201d more whimsical, with a whistled section, and \u201cBend\u201d was quiet, reflective.<\/p>\n
Before \u201cRunaway,\u201d he spoke about the release of his debut album, \u201cFlying Away,\u201d produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, then closed with perhaps his best, the new \u201cI Believe in Angels.\u201d<\/p>\n
A bit faster, more accessible, more deliberate, it may be a turning point in his journey.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY JOHN J. MOSERDevon Gilfillian, Sept. 20, Musikfest Cafe, ArtsQuest Center, SteelStacks, Bethlehem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They say good music never gets old. Devon Gilfillian proved that adage Sept. 20 at Musikfest Cafe, ArtsQuest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-293609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}