By Paul T. Mueller –
Songwriters, even great ones, aren’t always the best performers of their own songs. But when a songwriter of Jimmy Webb’s stature hits the road, it seems worth the ticket price to hear the author’s own take on some of his best-known work. A few hundred people at Dosey Doe Big Barn in The Woodlands, Texas, a little north of Houston, took that opportunity on Dec. 1, 2024.
Webb looks the part of an elder statesman of the music business. Dressed in a suit (but no tie), he sat down at a grand piano and launched into “Highwayman,” probably best known from renditions by Glen Campbell and by the country supergroup The Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings), which borrowed its name from the song. Webb followed with “Galveston,” also famously covered by Campbell; Webb noted that he wrote the song, ostensibly narrated by a soldier during the Civil War, during the Vietnam War, as a subtle antiwar statement. More hits ensued, including “Up, Up and Away,” which won Webb a Grammy for Song of the Year after it was covered by The 5th Dimension; “Do What You Gotta Do” (Nina Simone), “Worst That Could Happen” (The Brooklyn Bridge), and “All I Know” (Art Garfunkel).
Webb spent a lot of time between songs telling stories about his career, the many artists he wrote for and worked with, and the music business in general. His love for that business, at least in pre-streaming days, came across clearly, as did some lasting resentment at what he saw as a lack of acceptance by the singer-songwriter community that developed in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. There were also some touching anecdotes about his long relationship, both personal and professional, with Campbell.
After only seven songs solo, Webb brought his opener, singer-songwriter Pete Mancini, onstage to accompany him on guitar for the three songs Webb and Campbell are probably best known for – “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman” and “MacArthur Park” (no, he didn’t explain what the latter is about). He left to a loud standing ovation and returned a few minutes later, telling stories about working with Frank Sinatra and closing with a cover of “Maybe This Time” by John Kander and Fred Ebb, a song he said Sinatra loved.