SOCK IT TO ME! MOTOWN GOLD SOLID, AS RUDY AND THE ANGELS ‘GOT IT ON’ WITH PULSATING ‘SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED’ PARTY PERFORMANCE

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com REVIEW

GRAVENHURST — It wasn’t “Just My Imagination.”

Last night’s Motown Gold tribute to the famed Detroit music label by Rudy and the Angels really brought it home to me with a smokin’ great show.

It was a Supreme(s) concert “Signed Sealed and Delivered.” Yours to enjoy!

Gavin Williamson were the heart and soul of Motown Gold’s pulsating trubute to the ‘Hitsville U.S.A.’ record label that hit all the high notes of the amazing sound machine. PHOTOS Mark Clairmont MuskokaTODAY.com

To Gavin Williamson and Malia Love (“It Takes Two”) — the heart and soul of the show — “You Really Got a Hold on Me” with everyone “Dancin’ in the Streets.”

Love’s scintillating “Heat Wave” and her positively bitchin’ voice proved — even without air conditioning on at the Gravenhurst Opera House — she had all the love and “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” of the nearly 300 lovers of Berry Gordy’s original sound machine.

Love shook her engaging booty making us “Stop In the Name of Love.”

The pulsing 250-minute show had a bit of each era from the ’50s to the ‘70s.

The band and singers didn’t mail it in, not once, even through the “Postman.”

From their lush opening number, “My Girl” — a Temptations medley by Williamson featuring “Get Ready, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg and The Way You Do the Things You Do.”

Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, Lionel Ritchie, Diane Ross, Aretha Franklin, Barret Strong, Sam Cooke, the Four Tops, the Supremes, the Funk Brothers (Hitsville U.S.A.’s house band)  — and even a “Crazy” tender surprise for special fan Williamson beautifully sang.

They covered them all lovingly and authentically well.

Sock it to me! Malia Love was scintilating in sight, sound and song, opening the second set here with the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin’s “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”

Woven through the early ’60s musical magic was a narrative that informed and inspired.

Overall entertaining, with hit after hit, soaring sax solos and blistering guitar riffs they showed and played the “Money.”

It was pure “Endless Love,” “The Greatest Love of All,” because “Baby Love,” “You Can’t Hurry Love.”

All I can say is “For Once in My Life” that “I Can’t Help Myself” and “I Want You Back.”

When Rudy and the Angels “Bring it on Home to Me” again Sept. 12 at the Algonquin Theatre in Huntsville “I’ll Be On That Midnight (Northlander) Train to Georgia.”

“I’ll Be There.”

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” to stop me.

Gavin Williamson, Rudy Salerno, Malia Love and her neice who made a cameo appearance on stage for a song, greeted fans as they left the Opera House after last night’s smokin’ rhythm and blues soul concert.

MOTOWN GOLD GRAVENHURST  

SET ONE: 

  1. MY GIRL: A TEMPTATIONS MEDLEY: GET READY. AIN’T TOO PROUD TO BEG; THE WAY YOU DO THE THINGS YOU DO

Gavin set:

  1. JUST MY IMAGINATION
  2. TRACKS OF MY TEARS
  3. BRING IT HOME TO ME (SAM COOKE)
  4. YOU’VE REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME
  5. MONEY

Malia Love set:

  1. POST MAN
  2. DANCING IN THE STREET
  3. HEAT WAVE
  4. BEN
  5. RUDY AND THE ANGELS PERFORMS (DO YOU LOVE ME?)

GAVIN & MALIA STARTS THE DUETS

  1. IT TAKES TWO (BY MARVIN GAYE AND TAMMY TERRELL)

13 ENDLESS LOVE (BY LIONEL RICHIE AND DIANA ROSS)

  1. YOU CAN’T HURRY LOVE (THE SUPREMES)

SET TWO

  1. RESPECT
  2. I WANT YOU BACK/ABC
  3. BABY LOVE
  4. STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE
  5. THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL
  6. MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA
  7. I CAN’T HELP MYSELF / IT’S THE SAME OLD SONG

(THE FOUR TOPS MEDLEY)

  1. LETS GET IT ON (Marvin Gaye)
  2. FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE
  3. SUPERSTITION
  4. SIGN SEALED DELIVER
  5. AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN
  6. I’LL BE THERE

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