Grown Folks Music. If you know you know. We grew up with it without realizing it or really paying a lot of attention to it. It was just all the jams that our parents and grandparents had on whenever the music was on. Without realizing it, we also transition into listening to the very same grown folks music that we grew up listening to.
Few artists radiate grown folks music like Ledisi. I've been a fan of hers since before I knew the proper pronunciation of her name. I'm not gonna lie, I had a Zhane' moment the first time I heard In The Morning and asked my wife if she had heard of her. I knew that I definitely wanted to see her in concert at some point but for one reason or another that box hadn't been able to be checked yet. We went and saw Leela James and Anthony Hamilton in Louisville at the Louisville Palace a few years ago. While we there they announced that Ledisi would be coming a few weeks later. We had hoped to see her then but it didn't work out.
So when she announced that the #soul2soultour (Ledisi, Kem and Musiq Soulchild) was taking place with stops in several cities that were a fairly quick drive from me, I knew that I wanted to get to one of those shows this time around.
I cut it a little close as they were down to the last seven shows on the tour but we caught the Charlotte show at Bojangles Coliseum. Of course, it was better than advertised, as good as I knew it was going to be and then some. First let me backtrack just a tad. Full disclosure, we were a little bit late. We missed Musiq Soulchild's performance because we were at dinner. Truth be told, we didn't allow quite enough time between dinner and then getting to the venue. And that dinner was good too, shout out to Leah and Louise. That's another article in itself. You definitely want to swing by there if you're in Charlotte. And for the record, we had seen Musiq when he came to Knoxville. Hate we missed him this time, definitely will catch him again sometime.
But back to the show. MC Lightfoot was finishing up his comedy portion between artists and introducing Ledisi as we found our seats. Yep, you already know, Ledisi showed up and showed out just like you knew she would. She sang all the hits from her collection that we know and love: Bravo, Add To Me, Alright, Stay Together, Pieces Of Me, In The Morning and more.
All that range, all that grit, all that deep down inside of you soul, all that N'awlins and on top of all that she's classically trained too! She effortlessly balanced, harnessed and exuded it all however she saw fit. It was unbelievable!
A couple of times during her set Ledisi mentioned that the legend Stephanie Mills was in the building and showed her love. As you would expect, that generated a buzz in the crowd. I briefly let my mind drift to the thought of her maybe coming out on stage for a minute. I quickly dismissed it though and told myself that she was just probably here as a fan and wasn't trying to do that.
My, and probably everyone else's, thought became a reality when Kem came out to close out the show. He put on a great show too. The man is just consistent and solid and sounds just as good live as he does on all his records. He gave love to Stephanie Mills as well and then asked her to come on up on stage for a little bit.
So yes, Musiq Soulchild, Ledisi, Kem and a couple minutes of the legendary Stephanie Mills! The #soul2soultour did its thang. Grown Folks Music at its finest!