Park City Performing Arts Foundation Presents - SMOKEY ROBINSON
Motown royalty, William “Smokey” Robinson will croon and rock away the evening at Deer Valley Resort on Thursday, August 16. America’s “greatest living poet,” according to Bob Dylan, the legendary Robinson brings his velvety tenor and Grammy-winning sound to Park City for one night only. Concert starts at 7 p.m.
Founder of the 1960s chart-topping band, The Miracles (formerly the Matadors when Robinson and his fellow musicians were in high school), the prolific singer-songwriter is perhaps best known for Miracles hits like “The Tracks of My Tears,” “I Second That Emotion” and solo tunes such as “Cruisin’.” Robinson served as talent, producer, talent scout and eventually, vice president of Motown records, until the sale of the company in 1988. He’s enjoyed countless awards, from induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. With more than two dozen R&B and pop hits, the Casanova of soul – now 67 – continues to bring down the house at live concerts around the globe.
“[Robinson’s] voice shows astonishingly few signs of wear and tear: he is still God’s gospel choirboy on Earth,” writes The Times (London) of the singer’s Royal Albert Hall appearance earlier this month, “…the evening turned into a triumphant mixture of classics and newer material, all held together by Robinson’s impassioned vocals.”
It is not merely the fact that he possesses what The New York Times describes as “one of the sweetest, most soulful voices in the American musical canon” that makes Robinson a remarkable musician and performer. He is a true showman and an artist who is able to draw from a seemingly endless pool of creativity.
“As a writer of love songs, Smokey Robinson is peerless: From the straightforward, timeless “My Girl” to the elaborately constructed, metaphor-driven “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game,” “Let Me Be the Time (on the Clock of Your Heart),” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” he explored every aspect of romantic love,” according to The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll.
According to PCPAF executive director, Teri Orr, Robinson’s show “is bound to be a spectacular concert,” she says, “And don’t be surprised if Mr. Robinson complements his outstanding band with a dancer or two.”
