No nonsense

Iconic Tulsa rocker Leon Russell, wearing his trademark shades, seated himself onstage behind his bank of keyboards, his long mane of snow-white hair and full white beard looking regal beneath his turquoise-studded white cowboy hat.

Russell and his able band—the sassy Jaime Babbitt on backup vocals; Jackie Wessel on bass and backup vocals; “Curly” Speegle on guitar and backup vocals; and Cody Chesterfield on drums—proceeded to bust out one great song after another in what amounted to a very satisfying retrospective of Russell’s long, colorful career so far.

Russell wasted no time between songs, going almost seamlessly from one to the next. “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” came off as way more rockin’ than the straight-up country version Russell did as his alter-ego persona Hank Wilson on 1973’s Hank Wilson’s Back. The audience ate up his “Stranger in a Strange Land,” from 1971’s Leon Russell and the Shelter People, with its screaming guitar solo (one of many) from Speegle. At one point, Russell graciously left Speegle alone on an empty stage to tear it up on swampy slide guitar and vocals on Robert Johnson’s “Come on in My Kitchen,” which Russell did with Delaney & Bonnie on their excellent 1971 album Motel Shot.

Nods to Ray Charles were sprinkled in throughout the night: “The Night Time (Is the Right Time),” “Georgia on My Mind,” “That Lucky Old Sun.” Same for Bob Dylan, with “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” and “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall.” Russell did a great soulful version of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” making it sound every inch a Leon song: “I watched you suffaaah a dull, aching pain ….”

Russell removed his sunglasses to sing, seemingly to the audience, a poignant version of “A Song for You.” He then went into a supremely rocking encore of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire.”

And before his encore, Russell didn’t even go backstage, exclaiming: “I’m much too old for that nonsense!”