Review: Glen Campbell at Irvine Auditorium

In June, Glen Campbell announced that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and that his new album, Ghost on the Canvas, would be his last.

Thanks in part to songs written for the 75 year old legendary session man - who played on 1960s recordings with Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, and Elvis Presley before going on to a hit-heavy solo career  – by younger artists like Paul Westerberg and Jakob Dylan, Ghost on the Canvas conveys a facing-down-mortality gravitas that might surprise anyone familiar with the singer and guitarist principally from "Rhinestone Cowboy" or his old network TV show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.

On Thursday, Campbell came to the Irvine Auditorium on the University of Pennsylvania campus on one of the first dates of what is being billed as his final Goodbye Tour. Backed by a family band that included his daughter Ashley on banjo and keyboards, and sons Nicklaus on drums and Shannon on guitar,  Campbell played a good-natured 75 minute set that included all the AM radio hits, from Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights" to Chris Gantry's "Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife" to Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman."

The mood on Ghost is a sober and serious-minded one, similar in tone to the series of final American Recordings album that Rick Rubin produced for Johnny Cash in the decade before his death in 2003. But Campbell was in an entirely different, more happy-go-lucky frame of mind at the 1200 capacity recently refurbished hall, where he played to a less than sold out but enthusiastic crowd of his chronological contemporaries.

"I'm not Minnie Pearl, but I'm just proud to be here," he said on taking the stage to John Hartford's "Gentle On My Mind," on which he immediately displayed the undiminished guitar picking skills which made the Delight, Arkansas native a standout member of the 1960s group of Los Angeles studio players known as The Wrecking Crew.

Campbell, who stands 6 feet tall but cut a larger than life figure as he moved about the stage in black shirt and jeans and blue blazer, had other schticky stage patter at the ready, too. "I'm happy to be here," he said, before singing a satisfying hooky version of Tom Petty's "Walls," a song he covered on 2008's Meet Glen Campbell. "But at this age in life, you're happy to be anywhere." That carefree quip was coupled with an uncomfortable chill, however, when he then turned to his longtime sideman T.J. Kuenster and asked: "How old am I?"

With Campbell's condition came an element of risk. With the aid of a teleprompter at the foot of the stage, he still occasionally lost his place, and frequently seemed in danger of rambling aimlessly between songs until the band kicked in and kept the show moving. Campbell has been plagued by short-term memory loss and described as "absent minded" in interviews in the years before his diagnosis, and when he repeatedly told the crowd at Irvine how happy he was to be there, you sometimes couldn't help but wonder if he knew where he was.

What he certainly does still know, however, is how to play guitar - which he did with great dexterity all night long, even showing off by holding his instrument behind his head during a  kind-of corny take on "Dueling Banjos," in which he squared off against his daughter. Vocally, Campbell's set was less consistent, though how much of that was due to the poor sound mix in the high-ceilinged room and the singer's cavalier way of holding the mic as he roamed the stage like a cock of the walk.

The other thing that could not be clearer is how much Campbell still enjoys doing what he does. Physically, he's seems robust, and showed himself capable of both hitting the high notes on Webb's "Where's The Playground, Susie' and "Moon Is Harsh Mistress" as well as going low on Roy Orbison's "Sweet Dream Baby."

Maintaining the focus to deliver the emotional intensity of the Ghost on the Canvas tunes was often too much for him, though. He did pull it, off, however, on "A Better Place," the Ghost cut he co-wrote with producer Julian Raymond, which he performed as an encore accompanied by only acoustic guitar.  In a clear, strong voice, he confronted his affliction head on: "Some days I'm so confused, Lord  / My past gets in my way / I need the ones I love, Lord / More and more each day."

That's a universal predicament if there ever was one,  made all the more poignant by Campbell's clear need of the assistance of the ones he loves, and the ones who love him. It's a potentially lurid, exploitative situation for Campbell as curiosity seekers gawk at the afflicted performer to see if he'll live up to to his previous high standards on a long concert tour.

But to anyone who posits that Campbell would be better not putting his failing memory and somewhat baffled demeanor on display for paying customers, there's also a counter-argument: Why shouldn't he keep doing the thing he loves, and long as he still can?

Previously: Glen Campbell at Irvine Auditorium   Follow In the Mix on Twitter here