Eclectic Company: Michael Bolton’s Beautiful Music

In 1967, the late topical folksinger/songwriter Phil Ochs released his album “Pleasures of the Harbor,” with poetic liner notes including the often-quoted line “in such an ugly time, the true protest is beauty.” At that ugly time, America was embroiled in an escalating Vietnam War, Kitty Genovese had been killed on a New York street while dozens of passersby ignored her screams, and the seeds of discontent that would lead to riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention were being fertilized in smoke-filled rooms in Chicago. Ochs’s performance on “Pleasures” moved Bob Christgau (soon-to-be hailed as the Dean of America’s rock critics as music editor of the Village Voice (and disclaimer: later still, my editor), writing in Esquire about this album, to say “[Ochs’s] voice shows an effective range of about half an octave [and] his guitar playing would not suffer much if his right hand were webbed.” Ouch. Not beautiful to the ears of that behearer.

Imagine my surprise when honey-voiced pop singer Michael Bolton echoed Ochs’s sentiments in hyping his “One World, One Love” tour, which lands in Lake Charles August 28, at L’Auberge’s Event Center (sold out, sorry). Bolton was taking questions on a phone-call press conference, to which The Jambalaya News was invited, when he told us that for this tour especially, he’s performing to give audiences a sense of something uplifting and hopeful, to help people forget, if just for a few hours, the many difficulties we’re all going through, referencing the deflated economy, the BP oil spill, and a sense he has “that there [is] a heaviness . . . and a burden . . . felt by so many people“ worldwide. I guar-on-dam-tee-ya, you lucky 1,600 or so fans with tickets to the relatively intimate space of the Event Center, that Bolton will protest this ugly time mightily with the great beauty of his warm tenor, and you will come away with burden lightened.

Listening to Bolton answer questions about his songwriting with young hip artists – this album includes co-writes with Lady Gaga and Ne-Yo – the qualities of recording studios and the difficulties of the recording process, I especially appreciated his take on politics and world peace. He explained that the album’s title cut, “Just One Love” (co-written with Jordan Omley (a young writer/producer), had come up while they’d been working in the studio, and talking about “the state of the world and the human condition . . . and how division . . . is destructive and . . . unity is positive and empowering.” Bolton told us he believes “that the more division you experience and the more people focus on what divides us, the worse things get. And the more people who are leaders start [ ] talking about [ ] common ground, your sense of hope rises and your sense [that] some sort of chasm . . . [will] be bridged by a photograph of two leaders shaking hands [increases]. [The handshake is] a symbolic gesture and yet it[‘s] a universally appreciated gesture because it means hope and it means peace. [H]opefully it means more dignity.”

Michael Bolton is one of the world’s most successful and accomplished recording artists: he’s sold over 53 million records, been the recipient of multiple Grammy awards for Best Male Vocalist as well as countless other honors, including six American Music Awards, BMI Songwriter of the Year Award, and the Hit Maker Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and has a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame. He’d be well within his rights to step back and take it easy, but Bolton loves performing, and the “One World, One Love” tour has the 57-year old former shaggy-haired hard rock singer out on the road, circling the globe on a punishing schedule that many younger performers would find grueling. When asked what keeps him going, Bolton became even more animated. The fans keep him going, he told us, it’s all about the fans, to whom he feels he has an obligation to bring his best game, to be energetic and engaged, when he’s onstage. “The thing about a live performance,” he told us, [is] that [it’s] spontaneous energy, that it[‘s] coming to life right that moment. At the very moment in front of the audience. From what I hear [from] Tony Bennett who’s still touring the world in his 80s, that [great] feeling never goes away.”

As Bolton loped through the interview, taking questions about his career and his evolving musical interests, I found myself becoming more engaged, warmed to him, found him likeable, earnest, serious about his work. While listening to him answering questions posed by journalists from several continents and all around ours, I struggled to frame a unique question for my turn at bat. Unfortunately, all the good questions were taken by those who’d joined the call before me (we were offered our question spot in the order in which we’d called in on the press conference), and when it came to my turn, I didn’t feel I could ask if he’d have time to take in 18 holes on the L’Auberge course just to get face time, though no one had asked him about his golf swing, or his known penchant for relaxing whenever possible with a congenial foursome. But after Bolton had given thoughtful answers to serious questions, it didn’t feel right to dismiss him with something lightweight, and I was all out of deep thoughts.

Bolton closed the interview with this: “Back then when I was a kid a gold record on the wall would have been success. Then through the years you gauge success in a different way. I found myself in a room with Bob Dylan, three feet away from him, talking about what kind of song we were going to write.” As he said it, with a lot of ‘Holy, shit!’ in his voice, I could hear the lucky kid, who got to meet his idols, got to be treated like a peer, but still remained a fan. Good interview, Michael. Good luck with the show, the tour.

Thanks.