Josh, You Raise Me UP!

Last night was an AMAZING night of Looking UP! I had the AWESOME opportunity to see Josh Groban in concert at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio. Josh Groban is magical! I can't quite put into words how his voice makes me feel. He has such a natural and genuine presence about him. The minute he comes out on stage you feel like he is singing JUST to you! That's how I felt the whole time! Like he was singing just to me. His voice sweeps over you like a warm breeze. It fills the deepest parts of your being with warmth and feeling...o.kay, that borders on being WAY too cheesy and gushy, but what can I say??? (I have to admit having a slight, school-girl crush on Mr. Josh Groban - just so you know. I could go on and on, it wouldn't be difficult, that's for sure.) 

But seriously, listening to Josh sing is really magical. And I have to say, he sounds exactly like he does on his CD's! Hearing him LIVE was all the more sweet because you hear him and see him sing. He is amazing! He has such a boyish charm about him, too. You just want to "take him home to mom," as the saying goes. You never know if an artist will sound the same live, as they do on a recording, but Josh's talent is transcendent. His band plays acoustically, and are phenomenal, too. A couple them have been with him since the beginning of his career, which started for him at age 17. He is only a young, 30 now!

He is such a down-to-earth performer, too - like "the boy-next-door," you just feel an instant connection to him. Here is this MEGA, MEGA superstar, multi-million or billion dollar man wearing simple black, skinny jeans, a white tee with a jacket and white sneakers, promising the audience that he will "try to sing his ass off" for us, as he said, we had "spent like a gazillion dollars to see him..." Too funny.. 

The first thing he did was welcome the Columbus audience, sharing with us that his dad grew up in Columbus so he felt very strong ties to Columbus. He told of going to his Great-Aunt Sis' for a visit earlier in the day, bringing her flowers and catching up. Then he and the band played some softball and hung out. He told us how a fan had given him a Buckeye bracelet and that he was so surprised, never having seen a buckeye nut before. He laughed easily as he said the fan compassionately told him "not to eat them, that buckeyes were poisonous," laughing all the while as he pretended to "give the bracelet back." He's so endearing. 

Something else that was so cute was that Josh went out into the audience numerous times throughout the evening. He was not afraid to be close to his fans and seemed very comfortable - totally like he wanted to be there. He stopped to talk to a little 7 year old girl asking if she was having fun. He said, "I have like 16 or 17 more numbers to do, so I hope you'll like them," something along those lines. He later invited this little girl up on stage, along with a couple from the audience who were celebrating their 37th anniversary and a young, pretty single woman. He brought out blow-up couches, a little table and offered and poured them wine and a big glass of milk for the little girl. He was so cute, as he said to the little girl, "you just keep drinking that milk, I never woke up naked on the floor from milk, you just drink your milk!" Such a great sense of humor! But can you imagine? That little girl will always cherish the memory of meeting Josh Groban for the rest of her life! What a special night! I hope her parents had their cameras rolling!  (Lots of great scrapping, there!!!!)

I love percussion, and Josh did this fabulous number where he joined his band with his own set of drums. He jammed on the drums! It was incredible! He is such a gifted and unbelievable musician. He sings, not only in English, but Spanish, Portuguese, French, Latin, "gibberish," as he says, AND plays the piano, and drums! I am in awe of that kind of talent - God Given, at that, because that is not something you can learn...I could practice til the cows come home, and I couldn't do what he does so naturally and with such beauty.

There was a Q&A session in which Josh answered questions from the audience. One of the questions was, "Have you ever sung with a female tenor?" Josh asked for the woman to come up to the stage with him, excitedly saying that he had never sung with a female tenor before. They sang Awake together. He invited her to sit right down next to him on the piano bench. (sigh...ahhh!) Another audience member asked Josh if he could ad-lib a verse for her using her name. He sat down at the piano and sang a little tune all about "Kathleen." Talk about cute. He also did some improv impressions that were adorable! He's quite the comedian.

Josh has a Foundation that he is very proud to promote. It is called Find Your Light. Here is a link to read about it. http://www.artsusa.org/news/press/2011/2011_07_06.asp

Continuing his show of support for the arts and education, Josh brought up an audience member, John Jacobsen to join him on stage. You may recognize his name as John Jacobsen had been on the show, America's Got Talent, introducing America to his Double Dream Hands dance.  His popularity has soared on YouTube and John has been invited to such shows as The Ellen Degeneres Show, among others. He, too, is a huge advocate for supporting arts and music in education. Josh was so excited to introduce him, sharing with us that he had had the opportunity to meet him and that he [Josh] was a big fan of John's and admitted to being a great fan of all things Viral!  Josh and John did the Double Dream Hands dance together. It was so cute and just a ton of fun. (I wanted to share the video of them for you, but for whatever reason, I had trouble getting it to show up on my post. I'll try to fix that later...) Josh thanked him and said "he's a teacher, I love him!" Again, soooo endearing!

After thanking the audience and going off stage, Josh returned for his encore and sang the incredibly beautiful, You Raise Me Up. The concert just wouldn't have been complete without hearing that song. The audience was invited to sing along with him on the choruses. Oh, his voice just sends goose bumps up and down. His voice touches you as the listener. It does something for your heart - it's soothes, calms, and envelopes you in its magic. It is the perfect way to "Look Up" and feel refreshed and rejuvenated. I will definitely be playing a lot of Josh Groban on my ipod in the coming days. A big thanks goes out to Josh Groban for an exceptional night of Looking Up!