Gladys Knight Gets Down to The Nitty Gritty at Wolf Trap

You heard her before you saw her, “Memories…light the corner of my mind…”. The moment Gladys Knight stepped out on stage Sunday night at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center in Vienna, Virginia she had the audience in the palm of her hand.

In a glittering black and tan outfit, Knight was ready to get down and have a good time as she performed Michael Jackson’s “Shake Your Body” mixed in with her hit with the Pips, “The Nitty Gritty”. She continued to keep the show moving in high gear with “Love Overboard”.

Knight took a break to welcome the adoring audience which consisted of fans young and old. She said she has been performing for many years and that some of the audience members probably weren’t even born when the songs came out. At 65 years young, Knight has been performing for 57 years. It’s no wonder she knew how to work the crowd into a frenzy. She said she wanted to take the audience through a musical journey and that’s what she did starting with “If I Were Your Woman”, a Top Ten hit for her and the her group The Pips in 1970. She admitted she didn’t care for the song when she was given it, but grew to understand it better as she matured as a woman.

The audience kept singing along and cheering as Knight performed the Curtis Mayfield penned “On & On” from the movie “Claudine” and “You’re The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me”, a song whose lyrics inspired the title to her autobiography “Between Each Line of Pain & Glory”. Before performing her favorite song, Hank Locklin's “Please Help Me I’m Falling (In Love With You)”, she shared with the audience that she loved Country music and that many of her hits were Country-inspired. She covered Locklin's tune on her Grammy winning album, "At Last".

In 2006, Knight released “Before Me”, a collection of songs inspired by the women in music that came before her, all of whom she had the honor of meeting with the exception of Billie Holiday who passed before her time. She reminisced with the crowd about growing up and how she thought one day Prince Charming would ride up on his white horse, or even in “ a truck or a taxi, just as long as he got there”, and sweep her off her feet. With that introduction, she performed another favorite of hers, Ella Fitzgerald’s “The Man I Love”.

Throughout the evening, Knight talked about her days at Motown and honing her craft. She talked of watching rock concerts and how she wanted to be a rock star, having everyone going crazy and really getting into the songs. With that she performed a high energy version of her 1967 hit with the Pips, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, complete with audience participation at the end of the song. At the end of the number she talked about how the song became a huge hit and about a year later their friend and label mate, Marvin Gaye, would have an even bigger success with the song.

“I’ve Got to Use My Imagination”, one of the big hits off the group’s Buddah Label debut kept the crowd going as did another big record, 1972’s “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be The First To Say Goodbye)”. It got one of the biggest crowd reactions of the night. The song won Gladys Knight & The Pips a Grammy Award in 1973. “The End of The Road Medley”, included on Knight’s “Just for You” album got the audience singing along to Teddy Pendergrass’ “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”, The Spinner’s “Love Don’t Love Nobody” and BoyzIIMen’s “End of the Road”. Knight’s emotion filled performance earned her a standing ovation from the enthusiastic crowd.

Bubba Knight, a member of The Pips, made a special appearance at his little sister’s show. He entertained the crowd with his on stage banter with Ms. Knight before launching into an energetic rendition of Al Green’s “Love & Happiness” with a bit of James Brown leg work. At 66, the man didn’t slow down and showed he could easily keep up with the Usher’s & Justin Timberlake’s of today.

To close out the memorable evening, Knight performed her 1973 Number One hit, “Midnight Train To Georgia”. For a little over an hour and a half Gladys Knight weaved stories, songs and jokes together keeping the audience mesmerized with her down home, down to earth charm making everyone feel as if they had just visited with a close friend for the evening.