Still On The Line

Most people know Glen Campbell from his late '60s and '70s heyday, when songs like "Gentle on My Mind," "Galveston" and "Wichita Lineman" dominated the airwaves. Campbell attempted a comeback just last year with the covers collection Meet Glen Campbell, which obviously aims for Johnny Cash/Rick Rubin territory but misses the mark considerably, largely because of the questionable song selection. Offerings by Tom Petty ("Walls" and "Angel Dream"), Paul Westerberg ("Sadly, Beautiful") and Jackson Browne ("These Days") are fine, but seriously, who thought it was a good idea for Glen Campbell to cover Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"? We even tuned in to see him play on Jimmy Kimmel Live last year, only to see a man that played on Pet Sounds reduced to performing Travis' "Sing" sans guitar while a band of hired guns (none of whom played on Pet Sounds) modeled their expensive haircuts in the background. And of course they trotted out the legend again to play "Rhinestone Cowboy" over the credits, at which point we put Galveston on the stereo, curled up in a ball in the corner and cried ourselves to sleep. Hopefully when Glen plays the Nokia Theatre at 8 p.m. Friday, he'll at least throw us a bone with a Jimmy Webb tune or two. Or maybe he'll just play Foo Fighters covers all night. You'll have to pay $49.50 to $69.50 to find out. Visit ticketmaster.com.
Fri., Jan. 16, 2009