After completing a national tour with the American Idol cavalcade, Taylor Hicks is now touring on his own, and last Thursday he played a sold-out show at Tampa Theatre. Beneath those intricate arches, he was sandwiched between his eight band members, sporting a black velvet blazer and jeans. His name was emblazoned in white lights against a red curtain.
Hicks' salt-and-pepper hair belies his 30 years and has helped win him an ardent following of female admirers, most of whom are considerably older than him. Husband and boyfriend tag-alongs ("drag-alongs," as one male member of the audience deemed it) made up much of the rest of the crowd.
Everything about Hicks' workmanlike approach is thoroughly derivative — he stakes no claim to originality, and seems to be fine with it. He paid tribute to legends Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson, Van Morrison and others, and even closed the show with "Takin' it to the Streets," a '70s Doobie Brothers tune sung by the man to whom he is most often compared, Michael McDonald.
Hicks writhed to the beat, crinkling his nose during high notes, and spun wildly around in a circle, making the best possible use of the small space allowed him. With every finger snap and dorky dance move, he won the crowd over, pausing for a few short thank-you speeches that revealed a humility usually absent during those first 15 minutes of fame.
Hicks, as expected, performed several covers — well enough that even Simon Cowell might've approved. Otherwise, he stuck pretty close to the perky blue-eyed soul he is known for (although at one point, I was pleasantly surprised to detect a calypso beat).
As the set ended, a disheveled-looking Hicks walked off stage waving goodbye with a tambourine, as his band wrapped up the set — kind of like the end of a Muppet variety show.
Due to editorial error, a previous version of this story stated that Taylor Hicks had opted for a solo tour over the American Idol tour. As the corrected paragraph notes above, he had completed the Idol tour before heading out on his own.
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2007.