Steve Tyrell: That Lovin’ Feeling

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Steve Tyrell

That Lovin’ Feeling

Feinstein’s at the Nikko, San Francisco, CA, April 16, 2015

Reviewed by Steve Murray for Cabaret Scenes

Photo: William Claxton
Photo: William Claxton

Everything about Steve Tyrell’s new show will be familiar to his fans—his saloon crooning style, the friendly chit chat banter, the unadulterated easy-listening arrangements and, now, the songs of the mid ’60s/’70s that helped shape a generation. A sweeter time is remembered in tunes like “Up on the Roof,” Neil Sedaka/Phil Cody’s “Laughter in the Rain,” “Stand by Me,” “On Broadway” and his new CD’s title track, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” Who can’t go wrong with songwriters like Carole King/Gerry Goffin, Jeff Barry, Leiber and Stoller, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, whose sound fueled the radio airwaves before the onslaught of heavier, more electric rock ’n’ roll.

Buoyed by some excellent guitar riffs by longtime collaborator Bob Mann, Tyrell mixed in some bread-and-butter Great American Songbook numbers to balance out the decades. Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne’s “It’s Magic,” 1934’s “What a Little Moonlight Will Do” and Cole Porter’s “All of You” added some upbeat light jazz/R&B rhythms to the evening. In over four decades in the business, Tyrell shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Steve Murray

Always interested in the arts, Steve was encouraged to begin producing and, in 1998, staged four, one-man vehicles starring San Francisco's most gifted performers. In 1999, he began the Viva Variety series, a live stage show with a threefold mission to highlight, support, and encourage gay and gay-friendly art in all the performance forms, to entertain and document the shows, and to contribute to the community by donating proceeds to local non-profits. The shows utilized the old variety show style popularized by his childhood idol Ed Sullivan. He’s produced over 150 successful shows, including parodies of Bette Davis’s gothic melodramedy Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and Joan Crawford’s very awful Trog. He joined Cabaret Scenes 2007 and enjoys the writing and relationships he’s built with very talented performers.