This tour was an interesting one. The concept was for Greg Lake to share the songs and stories that really shaped his life. He wanted to do all of that in an intimate setting. What we have here, then is the recorded evidence of that tour. It would have been great to see the show as it’s a real winner. I’d have to say that it be my imagination, but Lake’s voice sounds a little lower than it used to be. It’s every bit as powerful, though.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2013  Volume 3 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Lake opens with a short, hard rocking take on the King Crimson classic. 

Here is a spoken explanation of the concept of the tour.

Here we get Lake’s take on this ELP classic. It’s always been one of my favorite ELP tunes and I like this version a lot.

Before presenting his musical tribute to Elvis Presley, Greg Lake lays it all down in spoken words.

Lake calls this the “greatest rock and roll song ever written.” While I wouldn’t agree with that assessment, he puts in a cool version of the tune.

This is a cool story about the beginnings of King Crimson and the album cover.

This balladic King Crimson tune is great. It feels a little slower, but it’s a good rendition of an awesome tune.

Here we get a cool Ringo Starr story.

I like this rendition of the Beatles classic. It’s got lots of audience singalong, at the request of Mr. Lake.

Although a lot of people have had some disparaging remarks about this era of ELP, I like this tune. This is a killer rendition.

This one doesn’t do that much for me. It’s OK, but just not all that special to my ears.

Now, this is more like it. This has always been one of my favorite ELP tunes and this version has all the emotion that it should. That’s the real key to this tune, the emotion, and it’s packed in nicely here.

This is a story about Lake living in Paris and how it led him to write “C’est La Vie.”

I’ve always loved this emotional and beautiful song. This rendition is quite powerful.

Here is a story about Greg Lake’s first guitar and writing the song “Lucky Man” when he was a kid.

Here’s another solid rendition of an ELP classic. I like this one a lot, too.

This old chestnut gets a great live telling here.

The closer from the set is this classic ELP rocker. It’s smoking hot. The closing is bombastic and very cool.