review of Nashville NYC konsiyerto 

Nashville in New York City: Reality Even Better than Fiction

Nashville on ABC-TV is a little worn, but the music\'s still fresh and fabulous, even though you can\'t get enough in what seem like shorter and shorter clips.  The perfect remedy is a live concert at the Theater at Madison Square Garden - always the Felt Forum in my 1960s mind -  with some of the best voices and performers on the show, off the screen and on the stage.

There\'s some kind of magical chemistry when you see in person a performer you\'ve come to know as a character in a television series.  This became clear when the Monkees first began touring, or when "Bomb" from Smash had a one-night stand on Broadway last year.

When The Triple Xs from Nashville brought down the house with a stellar rendition of "Borrow My Heart" last night, you not only had a great song (written by Lia and Phillip LaRue) and bright ringing harmonies from Sam Palladio, Clare Bowen, and Jonathan Jackson (left to right), but the intertwining back stories of Gunnar, Scarlet, and Avery, as they sing and Sam and Jonathan strum and smile at Clare as she spins around like an enchanting dervish on stage.

The repartee did a fine job of deliberately weaving the live performance into what we\'ve been seeing on the screen.  Jonathan introduced The Triple Xs with an apology for the poor treatment Avery gave Scarlet in the first season.  Charles Esten quipped that he "scraped together" enough money to get out of jail, which is where he landed (ugh!) in the episode of Nashville just this past Wednesday night.   Chris Carmack opened the concert with a spirited performance of Will Lexington\'s only "hit record".

The talent of these people is multi-faceted.  Esten was reminiscent of Elvis in some of his moves.   Jonathan sounded a little like Dylan at times, and did a tour-de-force performance of "Love Rescue Me" (written by Dylan and Bono) which ended with Jonathan singing like Johnnie Rae (look it up).   Carmack not only sings and plays guitar, but picked up a saxophone, and is a hard blues man to boot. Esten brought out his daughter Taylor to sing "A Life That\'s Good" with him - a real daughter in place of his Nashville daughter Maddie - and the result was wonderful.

Viewers of Nashville know there\'s extraordinary songwriting talent on the show.   At the concert, we were treated to some of the songs written by the stars.  My favorites were by Chris Carmack and Sam Palladio, but all were excellent.

In effect, the two hours on stage were an uncorking of what we\'ve seen just hints and samples of in the television seres.   This suggests that whatever happens to the series, we\'ll be hearing and watching these five for years to come - but ABC, you\'d be crazy not to renew Nashville, and the uniquely appealing merging of fiction and reality it now has become.

an earlier performance, but much like last night

Labels: Bob Dylan, Bono, Charles Esten, Chris Carmack, Clare Bowen, Jonathan Jackson, Nashville, Sam Palladio, Smash, Taylor Esten, The Monkees

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Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.  His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003),  Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).  His short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.  Paul Levinson appears on "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"  “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),  “Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

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Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren\'s fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom

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