Sometimes you remember an artist for their breakthrough singles or albums and how those songs take you back to a time and place. Sometimes you also forget how good an artist is until you are reminded. Tonight that just happened with David Gray as he performed in front of a packed Ed Sullivan Theater for a private concert for the Live on Letterman web series. Gray, who has been in town to support his tenth album, Mutineers, taped his Late Show performance before doing his Live on Letterman gig. Gray, who broke through in the late 90's thanks to his classic album, White Ladder and then sustained his celebrity with A New Day at Midnight, managed to constantly make solid songs and in doing so, gained a massive fanbase over the years. Now, in a special Live on Letterman performance, those fans were taken down memory lane.
As the clock stuck 9 p.m., Gray walked down the aisle of the famous theater that has hosted so many icons and walked to his piano, surrounded by his band mates and went into the Mutineers single, "Birds of the High Arctic." He then joked at the end of the song, "This is about David Letterman and how cold he keeps his theater." As he focused on new songs like "Last Summer," and "Mutineers," he also threw in classic songs for his fans like "The One I Love," "Sail Away," and a surprising remix of his massive hit, "Babylon." It was eight songs crammed within an hour that saw Gray shift from piano to guitar to ukelele but also saw him shift from musician to front man. After doing this for the 20 years he has been, he knows how to work a room and knows how to get everyone on their feet. It is in those moments where you remember how damn good of a performer, musician, and songwriter he is.