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Steve Miller/George Thorogood

The Post-Gazette Pavilion crowd anticipated each word of the tale George Thorogood was spinning Saturday night. Performing his trademark rendition of John Lee Hooker's "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer," Thorogood would break for a dramatic pause and fans would shout the next lyric.

"I take it some of you have heard this story before," smiled the singer/guitarist. "Well, you're gonna hear it again and again and again."

Thorogood and Steve Miller's concert stuck winningly with that ethos throughout. Every song played was a classic-rock radio staple or a tune steeped in the conventions of traditional American rock, country or R&B.

Thorogood opened with a 70-minute show he dubbed the "Saturday Night Jamboree and Hootenanny." He rocked up classics like Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" and Hank Williams' "Move It on Over" with delightfully raunchy guitar work and demonstrated how he mines similar veins as a writer with "I Drink Alone" and "Bad to the Bone."

Steve Miller played 20 songs in a single two-hour set that included a six-song workout on some deep blues cuts. Thorogood joined Miller onstage for the mini-set, and they traded solos during numbers by Slim Harpo, Freddie King, Otis Rush and even Ray Charles. The highlight proved to be "Stranger Blues," as Miller and Thorogood took turns playing slide guitar solos, Miller's precision and melodicism offering a fine contrast to Thorogood's unrestrained, propulsive flat picking.

The rest of Miller's set delivered the "family jewels" -- as he somewhat awkwardly described his hits. The likes of "Swingtown" and "Abracadabra" appeared early, but Miller created quite the climax by concluding with the best of his best. "Wild Mountain Honey," "Fly Like an Eagle," "Take the Money and Run," "Jungle Love," "Jet Airliner" and "The Joker" closed the show. The encore of "Living in the U.S.A" and "Serenade" actually felt anticlimactic after the run of so many greater hits.

Fans may have heard it all before, but the crowd of 11,709 obviously reveled in hearing it all again.

-- Review by John Young
for the Post-Gazette

Solomon Burke

In the midst of a stunning late-career revival based not on Santana-esque marketing gimmicks but actual quality music, Solomon Burke, the once and future King of Rock 'n' Soul, was in amazing voice at Hartwood Acres Sunday.

Seated for much of the concert on a giant throne, he led 11 musicians and singers through a sometimes tortured but more often smile-inducing set of classic soul. He made his regal entrance in a cape but quickly lost it to reveal a sequined suit.

A heartfelt soul survivor, Burke paid tribute to a number of his fallen comrades, from Ray Charles ("Georgia on My Mind") to Sam Cooke (Burke's own hit tribute from the '60s, "Got to Get You off My Mind") and Otis Redding (a spirited "Dock of the Bay" and a snippet of "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa").

He also covered "Only You (And You Alone)" and, in the concert's only questionable moment, handed off the microphone to members of the crowd after inviting them on stage to dance on an epic performance of CCR's "Proud Mary," a song with which he scored a minor R&B hit in the post-Atlantic '60s.

But the most inspired moments of the show were pulled from two distinct sources -- Burke's Atlantic singles from the early-to-mid '60s ("Cry to Me," "Down in the Valley," "If You Need Me," a joyous "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love") and his comeback records, 2002's "Don't Give up on Me" and this year's even better follow-up, "Make Do With What You Got."

As brilliant as those albums are, he somehow found a way to take the music up a notch in concert, from the spiritual euphoria he brought to "Diamond in Your Mind" to the extra soul he packed into "Soul Searchin'," the raw emotion of "Don't Give up on Me" and "At the Crossroads" to the stomping post-Stones rock 'n' soul of "I Need Your Love in My Life."

Between his heartfelt vocals and his frequently outrageous showmanship, the focus rarely shifted from the King. But when it did, it went directly to the Hammond B-3 organ helmed by Rudy Copeland, easily the MVP of an awe-inspiring band that also featured two of Burke's 21 children and one granddaughter.

-- Review by Ed Masley,
Post-Gazette pop music critic