Essence's Last Night

Guest Blogger: Michael Patrick Welch

Why even go to Essence Fest if you’re going to miss the reunion of En Vogue? As I did.

Well, there is Al Green… I entered the Dome’s big main room just as original funkstress Teena Marie began her most notable (to youngsters under 40) hit, Lover Girl. Teena did not sound as sassy as when the song was recorded. Her huskier voice plus her hair cut and color, her small dark sunglasses, and the Paisley Telecaster she strummed, made her look and sound a lot more like Melissa Etheridge. However, her new songs—from her upcoming New Orleans-themed album Congo Square—bent toward her voice’s new deeper tone, and in the end sounded stronger and more vibrant than her many hits. On the Congo Square duet, Can’t Last A Day, Marie’s daughter Rose LaBeau came out and filled in singing for Faith Evans.

In the McDonalds Superlounge the Rebirth Brass band (with what seemed like a dozen or more members) gave hundreds of tourists what they can’t get anywhere else: not just searing brass and funky jumbled marching drums, but sentences such as, “Y’all feelin all right tonight y’all!?!”

Nowhere else.

Next door in the other Superlounge, rock and soul artist Dan Dyer held the attention of a small crowd that nonetheless doubled by the end of his Jeff Buckley-esque set on guitar and warm electric piano.

Back on the main stage, Al Green was as cool as ever, master of his domain, ending songs with that otherworldly high note and lyrics about God that never sound preachy, despite that Green’s a certified Reverend. Love And Happiness, Can’t Get Next To You. Let’s Get Married made, even me, a cynical new-millennium dude, see why someone might wanna get married—just as Green laid into, Lay It Down.