Webb remarks: “‘If These Walls Could Speak’ started out to be a song about an old house - actually a mid-1860s house that I owned and where I lived with my wife and our children. Sample lyric: “If these walls could speak / they would tell you that I owe you / more than I could ever pay.” Of the five songs, Webb remarked, “Those come off of my short list of best songs I’ve ever written.” On the phone last week from his home in snow-packed New York, Webb discussed the history behind tune and what it evokes for him now:įamous renditions by: Glen Campbell, Amy Grant Patty Turrell, the center’s event coordinator, worked with Webb’s manager to match songs to performers. “It’s where I grew up, really.”īefore Webb’s set concludes the show, five members of the community - Harold Payne, Kelly Fitzgerald, Lacey Wood Heston, Melissa Lewis and Mark Wood - will each sing one Webb composition. “My father was a Baptist minister, so I’m very comfortable playing in sanctuaries,” Webb said. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the after-school program Childs-pace and the nonprofit Women’s Journey Foundation, which works to improve the self-image of girls. Williams, who serves as president of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, invited Webb, a vice chairman of the society’s board, to lead a charity show at the synagogue. It was a Newport-Mesa connection that brought venerable tunesmith Webb to town. Last March, Paul Williams, a member of the congregation, put on a show with friends and fellow worshippers, and this weekend, the center - which holds its services and concerts at University Synagogue in Irvine - will welcome a contemporary of Williams whose hits have similarly dominated the radio.Ī partial roll call: “MacArthur Park,” “Worst That Could Happen,” “Up, Up and Away,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress,” “All I Know.” Not every listener could identify the thread that runs through all those classics, but if you guessed “Jimmy Webb,” you got it. The Costa Mesa-based faith center has been the spot recently to rub elbows with world-renowned songwriters. In New York, there’s the Brill Building, and in Orange County, apparently, there’s the Center for Spiritual Living Newport-Mesa.
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