From the Knoxville Times:
Performing for a sellout crowd of 1,631 at the Tennessee Theatre, Hicks was like a bluesy gyro, constantly in motion as he belted out most of the tracks from his major-label debut, “Taylor Hicks,” along with a few novel mash-ups. His fans, ranging from 6 to well into the 60s, stayed on their feet along with him…Hicks, backed by a tight six-piece band and one singer, used his years of stage experience and the polish he got from “Idol” to craft a nearly flawless show…While “Taylor Hicks” boasts an uneven selection of songs that often fall short of the singer’s abilities, onstage Hicks elevated even the most inane of them and turned the better cuts into fantastic showpieces…Hicks has a gift of being able to crawl inside a lyric and deconstruct it while making it grander, and he really showed off on this ["Just to Feel That Way"].
The author, Betsey Pickle, also wrote about Taylor in her blog:
In a nutshell, Taylor was terrific. I actually expected that, based on his “Idol” performances. The only thing that had me worried was that he was going to be doing songs from his new album, and I don’t think it’s an amazing collection of songs. But Taylor came through. He worked his tail off, and his voice was in good form. And if I liked the show even with reservations about the CD, imagine how much the fans who love the album enjoyed the concert!…He got out his harmonica and revved up the crowd. Taylor gave “Wherever I Lay My Hat” a groovy vibe that became even cooler when he quieted the crowd and went into a falsetto, which he then used on a few lines of “Rocky Top” before melting into the Commodores’ “Nightshift” and then back into “Hat.” I won’t say it was genius, but it was pretty dang close.
It’s amazing — Taylor has yet to net a negative concert review. Oh, sure, it’s early in the season, and some newspaper is inevitably going to send the resident staff crone who couldn’t stand the guy to suffer through one of his shows, all the while yearning for a pretty singer with a pretty smile. But we’re all beginning to see what’s going on here, aren’t we? There’s something special about seeing Taylor, something you can’t get off that damn CD. You’ve got to see him, you’ve got to feel the electricity that he creates when he performs. In my view, the next time he records, he’d do well enough to not even try to bottle that energy, and to stick with bluesier, acoustic numbers that he can later jazz up and intersperse with peppier stuff at a concert. Let the voice speak for itself on the record; let the energy explode at the concerts.
