Last night I met and saw Anthony Hamilton at the very top of his game as his “Back To Love” tour rolled into Richmond for a date at the Landmark Theatre. The Grammy-winning artist has sold millions of CDs and in normal economic times may have drawn a bigger audience, but the fans who did fill up the bottom section of the theatre were surely Anthony Hamilton fans. And he DID NOT disappoint them.
Hamilton, small in stature, makes up for that with an energetic stage presence, a uniquely smooth voice, and very soulful music. He hit on all cylinders last night, from opening with his hit “I’m Cool” to closing with one of his favorites “Charlene”. Anthony’s band was fabulous, featuring three male background vocalists who were equally as entertaining.
R & B singer Calvin Richardson showed off his crooning skills in opening for Hamilton, proving that a young artist can have an old soul. Richardson belted out old skool favorites by Bobby Womack, hyped the audience by doing the smash hit “There Goes My Baby”, which he wrote for Charlie Wilson, and was voted ASCAP’s writer of the year following that success in 2009. He was also nominated for three Grammy Awards as well.
In fact, I ran into a brother during the intermission who told me he was stationed in Iraq, wandered into the PX one day and saw a CD by Calvin Richardson, whom he had never heard of, but he bought it, and loved it. Now home from the war, it was that CD which led him to the Landmark last night. Now THAT is the power of music. Wow.
As host of the show, it was a pleasure to finally experience Anthony Hamilton live in concert, and like the true music lovers who showed up at the Landmark last night, I came away an even bigger fan. Whatever the circumstances were that kept you away from this show was unfortunate because you truly missed one of the best perfromances in Richmond in a while. Thanks Anthony! Now, ” Back 2 Love “…….
