Lyle Lovett surprises Phoenix legend Francine Reed with birthday message: 'We love you'
Francine Reed is a national treasure, a beloved entertainer with a vocal style as rich in personality as it is deeply soulful and expressive, who just happens to call Phoenix home.
Reed turned 77 — “double sevens, baby,” as she put it — on Thursday, July 11, and celebrated in style with a sold-out performance at MIM Music Theater, a state-of-the-art concert venue in the Musical Instrument Museum.
She assembled a stellar assortment of backing musicians whose talents were on full display throughout — Nicole Pesce on keys and piano, Suzanne Lansford on violin, Grammy-winning bassist Mel Brown, celebrated drummer Dowell Davis and Jerry Donato on saxophone.
Lyle Lovett sent his regards in a video message to Francine Reed
Lyle Lovett couldn’t make it, but he did send his regards in a video message surrounded by the members of His Large Band, of which Reed was a prominent, crowd-pleasing member from 1985 through 2021, when she decided it was time to come in off the road.
“Francine, it’s your friend Lyle and the Large Band,” Lovett said with a friendly wave.
“We got to spend so many wonderful birthdays with you out here on the road. We love you and we miss you and we hope you have a great day with all your loved ones and friends.”
Then the other members of the Large Band joined their leader in a hearty “Happy birthday, Francine.”
Reed was clearly deeply moved by Lovett’s greeting, joking “I gotta go to the bathroom" after the video ended.
Francine Reed shared how she came to join Lyle Lovett's band
The time she spent with Lovett and His Large Band was a huge part of her musical career, as illustrated in the video preceding Reed’s appearance on the stage, filled with TV appearances, from Lovett and Reed on “The Tonight Show” to her singing “Milk Cow Blues” with Willie Nelson on “A&E Live.”
She even told the story of how she came to work with the Texas-based Lovett in the first place after telling the crowd “He’s in Idaho tonight. Otherwise, he’d be here.”
Lovett was in Scottsdale, recording the demos that became his debut album at Chaton Recordings with the Mr. Lucky’s house band, J. David Sloan and the Rogues, when he asked them if they knew of any female singers.
“They brought him to Tempe to Chuy’s,” Reed recalled.
“Where he said — and he still says to this day — ‘My life changed when I saw her and heard her sing 'Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues.'”
When the applause died down, which took a while, Reed coyly said, “I love that story.”
She also shared her first impression of hearing Lovett’s vocals in her headphones in the studio.
“I looked at the glass across from where I was singing and there was this tall figure with a lot of hair,” she said.
“I put my headphones on, his voice came in my ears. I said, ‘He can’t be singing this. This cat here?! He can sing this, what I’m hearing?! Fat chance.’”
It was the perfect setup for a Lovett song, and drummer Dowell Davis gamely rose to the occasion, taking on the perilously idiosyncratic “Here I Am,” which features a number of quirky spoken monologues that require just the right delivery.
He really nailed the bit about the cheeseburger.
Ray Herndon also sent a video — from Coronado Island in California, where he and his band performed a festive birthday song for Reed.
Guests included Michael Reed, J. David Sloan and Jennifer Couldry
J. David Sloan was in the house, taking the stage to lead the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to the guest of honor.
Francine’s brother, Michael Reed, brought his distinctive vocal stylings to a song made popular by Louis Armstrong, which he sent out to his sister because, as he told us, it’s one of her favorites, “What a Wonderful World.”
Then he welcomed his daughter, Tabitha Reed, to the stage for a rollicking version of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “I Feel Lucky” (with dad on backup vocals and Coasters-worthy ad-libs) and Koko Taylor’s “Voodoo Woman.”
Suzanne Lansford turned in a lovely rendition of Edith Piaf’s signature song, “La Vie en Rose” by special request.
“So we asked Francine, ‘What do you want for your birthday?’” Nicole Pesce said.
“And of course, she said, ‘World peace.’ We said, ‘OK. We’ll work on that. But what would you like for your birthday show?’ And she had special requests.”
One of those requests was for Lansford to sing “La Vie en Rose.”
We also got a taste of opera from Jennifer Couldry, singing “Vissi d’arte” by Tosca.
MIM's artistic director honored Margo Reed while covering Sinatra
And the MIM’s artistic director Andrew Walesch took the stage to serenade the guest of honor with the Frank Sinatra classic "Nancy (with the Laughing Face)" (written by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Phil Silvers), changing the lyrics, for obvious reasons, to “Francine (with the Laughing Face).”
It was perfect, especially when Walesch changed the line “Sorry for you, she has no sister” to “And smiling up there tonight is Margo, her sister,” drawing loud applause.
It was Margo Reed’s move to Phoenix that brought the family west in the mid-'70s.
Francine had grown up singing in the church in Pembroke Township, Illinois. By 5, she was the youngest member of the family gospel group, joining her mother and six siblings on a Chicago church radio broadcast.
It didn’t take long for the Reeds to establish themselves as major talents in the local jazz and blues communities.
Francine Reed left Phoenix in the early '90s for Atlanta. But she’s been back for several years and definitely made it feel like home at Tuesday's concert, from the time she strolled on stage to greet the crowd after a set of instrumentals by her backing band and a really nice version of Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend,” dedicated to Reed by Renee Patrick.
Francine Reed was a joy to witness, especially 'Wild Women Don't Get the Blues'
“I am so grateful and so blessed to be in the MIM, singing on this stage with all my very best friends that you’ve heard here this evening,” she said.
“And so many of my best friends out there. You know who you are. I can’t see you but I can smell you.”
She’s funny that way.
Then, she told us she'd picked out a few songs she wanted to do.
“The number of songs I know are just too numerous,” she said. “And we don’t have all night long, unless you brought bedrolls.”
Then, with perfect comedic timing, she added, “Air conditioning’s free in the theater.”
She opened her part of the concert with the George and Ira Gershwin classic “Love Is Here to Stay,” snapping her fingers to the beat in a brilliantly phrased performance, Donato answering her lines on sax.
After welcoming family members who flew in for the concert, she dusted off another standard, a soulful “Georgia on My Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael, taking everyone to church.
Then she revisited her vocal part on Lovett’s “Here I Am” before ceding the spotlight to her guests.
The concert ended as it had to, with the song that changed Lyle Lovett’s life, a show-stopping version of “Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues.”
It’s her signature song for a reason and she's still got the spark it takes to make a 1920s standard everyone from Bessie Smith to Cyndi Lauper has recorded feel like it was written just so Francine Reed could one day have her way with it.
It was everything you could've hoped for, from her playful phrasing of the verses to the fiery, full-throated growl of the chorus, sounding like she hadn’t aged a minute since that night at Chuy’s.
Reed’s latest album, “The Incomparable Francine Reed,” is her second release on Fervor Records, an independent label out of Phoenix that’s gotten her music placed in several television shows.
She didn’t pick that title. But she truly is incomparable.
That much was clear Thursday night at the MIM Music Theater, where the intimate surroundings of a room that only holds 300 people and acoustics so impressive you could hear the woman snap her fingers to the beat off-mic while a full band was playing behind her made the whole experience more special.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Lyle Lovett surprises Francine Reed at Phoenix birthday concert
