After about a week, my friend Lydia has FINALLY stopped thanking me for helping her start her freelance career by helping her see Stevie Wonder in concert.  🙂

Here’s her review.

Witnessing The Wonder of a Legend

By Lydia Nylander

An endless assortment of lawn chairs, the lilting sound of steel bands and anxious anticipation seemed a fitting prelude to the long-awaited performance of musical icon Stevie Wonder. An all-capacity crowd braved the chill of a late-summer Sunday night Sept. 16 at Baltimore’s Pier Six Pavilion for a glimpse of the peoples’ music master. The 5,000 strong crowd—a cornucopia of families, couples and friends spanning the generations—was unable to contain their excitement as a near minute-long standing ovation ushered Wonder’s arrival to the small, intimate stage.

Resplendent in a baby-blue suit and trademark hair adornments, and his breathtaking daughter and background vocalist Aisha Morris at his side, Wonder explained why he is touring for the first time in more than a decade. His mother died last year, and he shared his longing for her peach cobbler. It was her voice, he said, that aroused the 57-year-old from his self-appointed exile, her voice that made him want to share his own with the world again.

So he did, with typically spectacular results. Opening with the apt “Love’s In Need Of Love Today,” Wonder commanded a two-and-a-half-hour show with the poise and panache of the seasoned music veteran he is. The lack of pyrotechnics or trap-door antics left a rare chance to experience the unadulterated bliss of feel-good music delivered with a passion and tenacity rarely seen among contemporary performers. With a nod to his early body of work, the consummate showman teased the electric crowd with his signature harmonica solo during “Too High” and—with a nod to the now-infamous Amy Winehouse “Rehab” hit—used the politically conscious “Visions” as a timely anti-war rallying cry. An extended version of the 1980s classic “Ribbon In The Sky” was made all the richer with some lighthearted sexually nuanced crowd participation. A flawless acappella of “If It’s Magic” simply was just that, making time and space yield. Then a Country-Western call and response during a remix of “Signed, Sealed and Delivered,” left the crowd in disbelief that they were in this moment, singing with Mr. Wonder.

His unequalled ability to connect with his audience was on full display. He blended emotive ballad duets with Aisha (“Isn’t She Lovely” and “How Will I Know?”) with a Go-Go-like percussion battle executed by his flawless live band for crowd favorite “Superstition.” A six-song medley crammed many of the classics of Wonder’s prolific body of musical magic. Ever the dynamic showman, Wonder mounted his piano, assisted by his vocalists, during a thrilling rendition of the 1980s classic “Do I Do” before closing with “As.”

Wonder’s performance—the nakedness of his feelings, both spoken and sung, about life, love, respect and harmony—reflected his expert power to entrance, leaving those present spellbound and thankful that his voice had returned to the Universe without needing his myth to strengthen it. The crowd were glad that their—and his—wait had ended, a sought-after musical and spiritual nourishment reaching all.