Soka Performing Arts Center Presents Legendary Songwriter Jimmy Webb

(Aliso Viejo, CA, August 28, 2019) –Songwriter Jimmy Webb has had chart-topping hits in a unique range of genres, from country to pop to disco, with songs including “Worst That Could Happen,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Up, Up and Away” and “MacArthur Park.”   But perhaps the most enduring partnership out of all those memorable songs is his musical brotherhood with Glen Campbell.  

Now in his touring multi-media show Jimmy Webb: The Glen Campbell Years (Saturday, October 5, 2019 at 8PM) Webb brings fans of his music a unique connection to their favorite songs, revealing the stories behind the legacy he created with his friend Glen Campbell.  Webb also shares his stories in his recent literary memoir The Cake and the Rain (St. Martin’s Press) now available in paperback and audiobook read by Webb himself.   

In Webb’s very personal concert, he pays homage to his friend and collaborator, with performances including virtual duets, new music videos, and stories of how these iconic songs came to be.  A gifted composer whose complicated chords and song structures could not be performed by just anybody and a natural-born musician with an almost unnatural vocal range and musical abilities — theirs was a fated partnership that began before they even met. Webb’s moving and often humorous account through performance and anecdotes — punctuated with photos, video and audio clips — offers a rare window into the process by which songs become radio hits.  

In concert and in the memoir, Webb shares the genesis of the duo’s Grammy-winning collaborations, much of which happened before they even met.   Performing some of the treasure trove of gems he wrote for Campbell, Webb pulls the audience in with various accounts each night of the personal side of generational touchstones like “Honey Come Back.” 

A centerpiece of the concert is when Webb trades verses with recordings of Campbell and adds insights to “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman” and more from various recent performances by the duo. Personal video and photos from Webb’s private collection and from other friends, mostly never-before-seen, bring back decades of shared musical memories.  In addition, Webb peppers the evening with many surprises that demonstrate the singular talents of these two pop icons and the indelible mark their symbiotic craftsmanship made on American music, and all over the world. Jimmy Webb: The Glen Campbell Years follows the trajectory of these men’s careers as they relate to each other but also encompasses the emotions and experiences that the songs they produced together mean to their fans. 

When his songwriting style is expanded in the longer format of a memoir, Webb gives the reader a new kind of access to pivotal moments like their first meeting, which under any circumstances other than the particular atmosphere of the 1960s should not have spawned a decades-long friendship. The Cake and the Rain is a surprising and unusual book. Webb’s talent as a writer and storyteller is on every page, rich with a sense of time and place. Readers share his experiences as he moves from simple and sere Oklahoma to fast and fantastical Los Angeles.

About Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb’s numerous accolades include the prestigious Ivor Novella International Award (2012) and the Academy of Country Music’s Poet Award (2016).  Webb was named in the top 50 of Rolling Stone’s 2015 “Greatest Songwriters of All Time.”  He received his first gold record at the age of 18, and was the youngest inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (which he later chaired).  He is the only artist to ever receive Grammy Awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration. Webb’s first book, Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting, is considered a “bible” among professional musicians. He has time and again paved the way for songwriters in the ever-changing media landscape, pioneering commercial use of pop songs (“Up, Up and Away” as the centerpiece of the 1970 Trans World Airlines campaign) and spearheading the ongoing effort to preserve the rights of songwriters and their intellectual property rights on the board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).  

Webb has released a dozen solo albums since the 1970s, while continuing to write for other artists.  His CDs Just Across the River (2010) and Still Within the Sound of My Voice (2013) feature duets on some of his biggest songs with friends Billy Joel, Vince Gill, Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Lucinda Williams, Mark Knopfler, Brian Wilson, Art Garfunkel, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Lyle Lovett, Keith Urban, and more.    

In 2016, Webb premiered his first classical piece, “Nocturne for Piano and Orchestra (Nocturne for “Lefty”)” with Orchestra Kentucky.  His brilliantly written memoir, The Cake and the Rain (St. Martin’s Press) brings Webb’s unique career into focus, written with the same sense of poetry and story as his many hits. 

In Webb’s latest release, a CD titled SlipCover (April, 2019), he shares his piano arrangements of what he considers the finest compositions of his generation.  Featured are songs written by The Rolling Stones, Randy Newman, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney. 

For more, visit www.jimmywebb.com. 

About Soka Performing Arts Center
Now is in its ninth season of presenting the best of live performances on its extraordinary stage, Soka Performing Arts Center, located on the campus of Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo, California, is under the new leadership of General Manager Renee Bodie. The 1,000-seat concert hall features world-class acoustics designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, acoustic designer of noted performance venues like Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

Designed to truly reflect the university’s commitment to sustainability, the concert hall and adjacent Maathai Hall (featuring a black box theatre and dance studio) have been built to Gold LEED standards and feature vegetated green roofs. Photo voltaic cells on the Soka Performing Arts Center roof generate approximately 15% of the facility’s electrical needs.   

Soka University of America is a private, non-profit, four-year liberal arts college and graduate program. The university is open to top students of all nationalities and beliefs and was founded upon the Buddhist principles of peace, human rights, and the sanctity of life. For more information, please visit soka.edu.

Jimmy Webb: The Glen Campbell Years
Saturday, October 5, 2019 at 8PM

Event URL:                          http://bit.ly/2XETnc8  

Regular Tickets:                $35/$45/$55/$65
Discount Tickets: *Senior, Student and Active Military: $31.50/$40.50/$49.50/$58.50
*Must select the Will Call option when purchasing discount tickets. A valid ID is required to be presented at the Box Office to receive discount tickets. 

In Person:            Soka Performing Arts Center Box Office, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
Online:                 performingarts.soka.edu
Phone:                 949.480.4ART (4278)

All information is accurate at the time of printing but is subject to change.

###