Stephen Kellogg and Javier Colon Old Saybrook, CT
Katie 
Sunday night Stephen Kellogg brought his To You, Old Friend tour to The Kate in Old Saybrook, CT with special guest Javier Colon. The two came out and shared a mic for “On the Road Again” and then Stephen explained that the two of them would be on stage sharing songs and stories and that the show was a middle-aged dream – starts at 7, no opener, and we have seats. Javier Colon joked he’d be home in bed by 9:30 – and I was home in bed by 10. I can’t complain! There was a jar on the stage that held different prompts for songs they could sing so that the show would never be the same twice.
The first choice was “Sing a Longs” with Javier teaching us a part to “Raise Your Hand” that didn’t work out the last time he tried it – and Stephen told him it was probably because he was singing it too high and made him do a lower register as well. Stephen told a story about why he wrote the song “Harbor” and that was his sing-a-long.
The next topic was “Family Songs”, Stephen debated which song he was going to do and ended up doing a medley of Four Kids and his songs for each of his daughters (who were all in attendance) Sweet Sophia, Oh Adeline, Noelle, Noelle and Greta Girl. Javier hit back with Come Through For You which was written for his wife and daughters (but did mention he now also has a 12 year old son).
“Love Songs” lent us “Echo” from Javier and “It Goes Fast” from SK. When SK finished, both of them were crying and Javier said that he needed to give him a heads up if he was going to sing songs that were going to rip him apart. Stephen had mentioned he’d be bringing his daughter to college tomorrow and Javier would be in 6 days.
“Tell a story” had Stephen only telling a story about how someone bought a shirt from his merch store and he asked someone on the tour to bring it to the post office and instead he realized the house was closer than the post office so he delivered it to the house and the whole thing took about 23 minutes. Javier opted to tell his story through song, Giant, which was about someone that he trusted that he shouldn’t have and they took a lot of money from him that he didn’t get back and had to write it off as a learning experience.
“Songs that made you realize you were a song writer” – Javier did “Ok Here’s the Truth” which was a song I was hoping wouldn’t make the set – but if you know the song you can see why it would fit into this category perfectly. He had also said a country singer wanted the song and he told him no and he shouldn’t have. Stephen had them turn all the lights off in the theater and sang “Almost Woke You Up” in the dark.
The final category ended up being “Travel songs”. Javier did “Walkin'” which he said was about how he and his wife made a pact to never go to bed angry but that sometimes you just need to take a walk and cool down and figure out things later. Stephen did “Kiss the Ring” which is on his album featuring Javier and it’s about a narcissist and Stephen got really into it, stomping along (Javier joked that there was now a hole in the floor) and at one point adlibbed in “TRUMP IS NOT A KING AND I WON’T KISS THE RING” which got the crowd going wild.
The two left the stage to a standing ovation and came back out to share the mic once again with “Take Me Home Country Roads” and “See You Later, See You Soon” which Stephen turned into a sing a long and told us that in the 3 more times we sing the chorus, if we put our all into it, maybe it will change the world. It was only 8:40 and the show was over – but I appreciated the early night on a Sunday!
Thursday night, my 50th and last show for the year was Stephen Kellogg’s hometown show at the Fairfield Theater. When the show started, Danny Black came out on stage by himself to play guitar and Stephen ended up walking around the crowd giving hugs and high fives to audience members while singing High Highs, Low Lows. After his second song he said that he had an easel on stage and that each of the songs would fit under one of those topics and the topics would all be drawn out of a hat so we had no idea what show we would end up getting. He also had to let Danny know what they would be playing and said that he might not even know all the songs so we’ll get what we get. The first two songs were “Work” so he crossed that off and then the rest of the set was Parents, Legacy, Kids, Friends, Marriage, Sense of Humor, Health, Time, Heroes, Forgiveness and Integrity. He did two songs for the encore after that, the second one being See You Later, See You Soon with the Kellogg Sisters. (Sophia had also come out to play piano on Sweet Sophia)
Friday night Stephen Kellogg and his band returned to the Wolf’s Den at Mohegan Sun to kick off the Keep It Up Kid tour. The Wolf Den is a first come, first served general admission venue in the middle of the casino. You are allowed to line up starting 3 hours before the show – so for an 8pm start, 5pm. I ended up getting there just a little after 5 and no one was in line at all. Stephen was doing soundcheck, so I sat at a nearby slot machine and watched soundcheck for about an hour. After a couple others started the line, I hopped in and we were let in shortly after. Initially there was only about 10 people inside, but slowly the crowd grew. The floor was all open for dancing and once the show started some people made their way down there but no one was right up against the stage until Stephen said for the encore they should make it feel like a concert and move up.
Last night, Stephen Kellogg brought his Sad Songs, Funny Stories tour to Stage One in Fairfield. For this show, all attendees were required to either be vaccinated or have a negative covid test to attend. I had on my N99 and another disposable mask over top, so I am hoping that was my best line of defense. (Guess we’ll fine out when I have to test negative to get to Jamaica in 10 days. eek.)
