Plus support: Jessie Reid.

Multiple Grammy-winning, cross-genre songwriter Jimmy Webb’s most popular songs are touchstones for a generation yet remain timeless: ‘MacArthur Park’, ‘Wichita Lineman’, ‘Didn’t We’, ‘Galveston’, ‘Worst That Could Happen’, and ‘The Highwayman’.

During his live shows – which are different every night because of his incredible improvisational piano playing and wealth of stories – Webb creates a unique connection to the audience. Night after night he regales his fans with the stories behind his hits; starting with his first songwriting job at Motown, he brings his audience through a career trajectory that took a teenage preacher’s son from a farm town in Oklahoma to the zenith of his longed-for profession in only a few short years.

Webb has topped the charts over and over, from pop to country, blues, jazz, disco to even rap and EDM with interpretations by some of the industry’s greatest including Art Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Sinatra, Donna Summer, Josh Groban, Glen Campbell, The Highwaymen, Barbra Streisand, The Fifth Dimension, Guns ‘n’ Roses, and James Taylor.

Since Webb’s Grammy sweep in 1968 when his own ‘Up, Up and Away’ and ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix’ both vied for Song of the Year ( ‘Up’ won) to the use of his ‘Do What You Gotta Do’ in Kanye West’s ‘Famous’, the man often praised as “America’s Songwriter” remains a respected icon in popular music – and continues to challenge his artistic boundaries with projects like a classical nocturne. He is always included in the lists of the greatest songwriters. His books, Tunesmith: The Art of Songwriting and memoir The Cake and the Rain, demonstrate his incredible talent with words and music.

Jimmy lives on the North Shore of Long Island, New York with his wife, a PBS television host and producer, Laura Savini. He has five sons and a daughter and six spectacular grandchildren.

In brief: legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb’s hits read like a who’s who of music giants – Glen Campbell, Linda Ronstadt, Richard Harris, Donna Summer and more icons have topped the charts with songs like ‘Wichita Lineman’, ‘Didn’t We’, and ‘MacArthur Park’. In concert and in his memoir, Webb reveals riveting stories of how these songs came to be and his adventures at the centre of the 1960s and ’70s music scene.

Stage times:
7.30pm–8pm Jessie Reid
8.20pm–10pm Jimmy Webb