Tevin Campbell Comes Back To The World

In 2013 Tevin Campbell made the rounds getting back on stage for packed clubs with die-hard fans singing along to every one of his classics. After years of being away from the public Tevin treated his fans to an evening of the songs that made them love him originally. Fast forward to 2014, and he’s back on the stage hitting the same venues around the country, but this time he has a new band, new material, and overall new energy.

The show starts with two songs from his debut album, the remake of Strawberry Letter 23 and the Babyface produced Perfect World. The overall feeling is at a pretty calm level at this point and you can feel the audience waiting for Tevin to to take it to the next level. Back to the world helps to get the vibe higher, but it’s when he does Always In My Heart that we hear the amazing voice we all fell in love with back in the early 90s.

Before Tevin performs Dandelion from his last studio album, he tells a story of the song being created with Aaliyah and their plans to do the video together. Unfortunately she passed before their plans could come to fruition. For the classic Tell Me What You Want Me To Do he choose a stripped down almost acoustic take which suits both the song and his voice well.

Tevin also did a numbner of new songs including one very good record produced by Rahsaan Patterson. Brown Eyed Girl allows us to see Tevin showing off his skills on the keys before he closed the show with his all time classic Can We Talk. 21 years after it’s release and the vocals sound just a smooth as they did back in the days. After a short call back to the stage from his fans, Tevin treated these die-hards to two Prince produced records Round and Round (in the same key from when he was a kid) and Shhhh. Overall another great show under the belt for the veteran with promising new material on deck. A new album should be on the horizon for a possible release this year. It’s safe to say that Tevin Campbell is back.

PHOTO / STORY: Dashaun Simmons @13Rose