Jimmy Webb and Friends, Hamer Hall, 9th August 2018

The multiple Grammy-winning songwriter has topped the charts: from pop to country to disco numerous times with interpretations by some of the industry’s greatest. He’s worked with Glen Campbell, Art Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt, and too many others to name. Jimmy’s been covered by everyone from Guns n’ Roses to Josh Groban to Little Big Town. Since Webb’s Grammy sweep in 1968 when his own “Up, Up and Away” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” vied for Song of the Year (and “Up” won), to the use of his “Do What You Gotta Do” in Kanye West’s “Famous,” the man often praised as “America’s Songwriter” remains an icon in popular music – and continues to challenge his artistic boundaries with projects like a classical nocturne. His most famous songs are touchstones for a generation yet remain timeless – “MacArthur Park,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Worst That Could Happen,” and “Galveston.” His memoir, The Cake and the Rain, The Wall Street Journal (USA) described as “quite possibly the best pop-star autobiography yet written.”