Often referred to as a vast wasteland of throwaway pop , excessive prog rock and bland soft rock, 1970's radio boasted a few bright spots throughout the decade. The true beauty of the airwaves in that maligned time period was how blurred the lines that separated the genres were. It wasn't uncommon to turn on the radio and hear many different styles and sounds blaring from the same radio program. Whereas walls have been firmly built around radio formats and genres nowadays, thirty years ago the separation wasn't as rigid. And miraculously, a select handful of artists that emerged from that era were able to straddle the lines between styles effortlessly and no one seemed to mind. The obvious artist that comes to mind when recalling that type of versatility is most definitely Boz Scaggs. Scaggs, a white crooner who vocally could easily pass as an accomplished soul singer, was all over the charts in the 70's. He was a difficult artist to pigeonhole as he scored hits that fit into many different types of playlists. Boz seemed as at home belting out a funky R&B number as he did a slinky smooth jazz piece. And as his fans were delighted to see and hear last week at Ruth Eckerd Hall, his versatility and mastering of so many different genres hasn't waned.
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2011.