Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens at the Chicago Theater December 9, 2014

Aware that the crowd had come to see Cat Stevens and to sing along with his defiant, mordant, blissful, wishful, and playful songs of love and loss, conflict and peace, ardor and hope, Yusuf Islam delivered just what the congregation came to hear. His voice is stronger than ever — though he has trouble reaching some of the higher notes—and in many ways last night’s show demonstrated that it’s like he never left the music scene as Cat Stevens all those years ago. Moving between guitar and piano, laughing and speaking sometimes almost too softly to hear between songs, Islam turned the Chicago Theater into an ocean of voices riding the waves of nostalgia. The crowd knew the words to all of the older songs, but they greeted the six songs from his new album — with the exception of his version of the old Jimmie Davis chestnut, “You Are My Sunshine” — with little enthusiasm. It was a night—as it so often if for these musicians — of allowing fans to climb once again past musical peaks.

For over two hours, Islam pulled gems out of his Cat Stevens bag, opening the show with the somber “The Wind,” from 1971’s Teaser and the Firecat. Almost immediately, he plunged into two songs that others made more famous — “Here Comes My Baby” and “The First Cut is the Deepest” — reminding us all, in case we’d forgotten, that he started his career penning catchy pop tunes with hooks capturing the poignant desire of love and loss.  During his first set, he rambled through the halls of an idealized childhood in “Where Do the Children Play?” and “(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard.” The most affecting moment in the first set came when Islam poured out a cascading version of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready”; he made it clear in his introduction to the song that this train has already left the station; he closed the first set with a raucous sing-along of the little chestnut from Harold and Maude, “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out”; he didn’t have the audience twice to sing their hearts out with him.

Guitarist Matt Sweeney joined Islam and kicked out the jams to open the second set with a can’t-sit-still version of Jimmy Reed’s “Big Boss Man,” off his new album Tell ‘Em I’m Gone; Sweeney’s scorching lead guitar drove the muscular song, and Islam reminded us all that while he could strum a mean acoustic guitar in his Cat Stevens’ days, his real home is in the blues. He punctuated the second set with more songs from the new album, including his funky version of the old Procol Harum song, “The Devil Came from Kansas,” on which Bonnie Prince Billy (Will Oldham) joined the group, entertaining the gathered with his devilish mugging and spastic clogging. Oldham stayed around for the Islam’s gritty version of Leadbelly’s “Take This Hammer,” on which Islam pulled out his 12-string. After a rousing tribute to his old days—his version of Sam Cooke’s “Another Saturday Night”—Islam ushered the audience on board with the anthemic “Peace Train,” which he sang so forcefully that he was breathless by the song’s end. “Father and Son,” that little nugget of defiance and search for some kind of common ground, closed the second set, with Alun Davies’ sparkling lead.

Islam retuned to the stage for a four-song encore, beginning with the autobiographical “Editing Floor Blues,” from his new album and traveling through “Miles from Nowhere,” the old hymn “Morning Has Broken,” and “All the Roses.”

Through the entire night, Islam’s voice was drowned out in a muddy mix, and there were times when Sweeney’s powerful guitar solos were lost because the sounds crew hadn’t tuned his sound up. Concertgoers continue to be rude to the artist, with folks talking loudly during the acoustic songs.

In spite of such shortcomings, Islam preached to the gathered congregation his message of longing, love, hope, peace, defiance, and spirituality, and the crowd left with Islam’s moon shadow following them all the way home.

Set 1:
1. The Wind
2. Here Comes My Baby
3. The First Cut Is the Deepest
4. Thinking ‘Bout You
5. Sitting
6. Maybe You’re Right
7. Where Do the Children Play?
8. I Love My Dog
9. I Was Raised in Babylon
10. (Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard
11. People Get Ready (Impressions cover)
12. If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out

Set 2:
13. Big Boss Man (Jimmy Reed cover)
14. Trouble
15. Oh Very Young
16. Dying to Live (Edgar Winter cover)
17. Moonshadow
18. You Are My Sunshine (Jimmie Davis cover)
19. Foreigner Suite excerpt
20. Wild World
21. The Devil Came From Kansas (Procol Harum cover)
22. Take This Hammer (Leadbelly cover)
23. Another Saturday Night (Sam Cooke cover)
24. Peace Train
25. Father and Son

Encore
26. Editing Floor Blues
27. Miles From Nowhere
28. Morning Has Broken
29. All Kinds of Roses