CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Clay Center has seen some good shows come through: Gladys Knight, James Taylor and at least a half-dozen Mountain Stage performances, just to name a few. Wednesday night, John Legend set the bar a little higher for what might be considered a "great" show at the Clay Center.

Expectations, of course, would be very high. Legend has a couple of multi-platinum albums, a formidable collection of hits and six Grammy awards, among others, to his credit. Legend's guest for the show, India.Arie, has 18 nominations and two wins. The opener was Vaughn Anthony, Legend's younger brother and hand-picked protégé.

The caliber of the performers was very high indeed.

Anthony was the newcomer and is the relative unknown. His set was short but fun. He played up his sex appeal, but didn't let himself be taken too seriously.

India.Arie might have seemed like the odd addition to the show. The singer/songwriter's music is often deeply spiritual, feminist and political: serious and not the kind of thing that would seem to match up well with songs about aching relationships.

This perception wouldn't have escaped Arie, but she asked those unfamiliar with her to give her a listen. The songs she played still had serious messages, but they made their points in playful ways. She was charming and by the end of her set, when she said she'd be out in the lobby signing T-shirts, she half-emptied the hall.

Everybody came back for Legend.  

The soul singer began among the audience, moving up from the rear of the theater, singing Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." This slow, thoughtful tune about liberation and freedom helped bridge the gap between India.Arie's political and spiritually driven folk-pop and Legend's R&B. Marley's music was political. Marley's music was celebration. The two could exist in the same place.

Legend was enchanting. The music was exciting, sexy, sensual and just straight-up fun. There were bright lights, movement and the kind of audience participation usually reserved for large-scale arenas, but Legend easily moved the crowd from raucous to rapture with his seemingly endless supply of soulful ballads.

He kept the audience as close as possible, drew the crowd into the chorus of the songs everybody knew, and invited people to go ahead and dance. For one song, he brought a girl in a green dress on stage with him. He sang to her, danced with her and sent her beaming back to her seat.

At the end, through the roaring applause and the expected and deserved standing ovation, he told the theater, "We got to come back to Charleston real soon."

He'd be welcome pretty much any night of the week.

Reach Bill Lynch at ly...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5195.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Clay Center has seen some good shows come through: Gladys Knight, James Taylor and at least a half-dozen Mountain Stage performances, just to name a few. Wednesday night, John Legend set the bar a little higher for what might be considered a "great" show at the Clay Center.

Expectations, of course, would be very high. Legend has a couple of multi-platinum albums, a formidable collection of hits and six Grammy awards, among others, to his credit. Legend's guest for the show, India.Arie, has 18 nominations and two wins. The opener was Vaughn Anthony, Legend's younger brother and hand-picked protégé.

The caliber of the performers was very high indeed.

Anthony was the newcomer and is the relative unknown. His set was short but fun. He played up his sex appeal, but didn't let himself be taken too seriously.

India.Arie might have seemed like the odd addition to the show. The singer/songwriter's music is often deeply spiritual, feminist and political: serious and not the kind of thing that would seem to match up well with songs about aching relationships.

This perception wouldn't have escaped Arie, but she asked those unfamiliar with her to give her a listen. The songs she played still had serious messages, but they made their points in playful ways. She was charming and by the end of her set, when she said she'd be out in the lobby signing T-shirts, she half-emptied the hall.

Everybody came back for Legend.  

The soul singer began among the audience, moving up from the rear of the theater, singing Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." This slow, thoughtful tune about liberation and freedom helped bridge the gap between India.Arie's political and spiritually driven folk-pop and Legend's R&B. Marley's music was political. Marley's music was celebration. The two could exist in the same place.

Legend was enchanting. The music was exciting, sexy, sensual and just straight-up fun. There were bright lights, movement and the kind of audience participation usually reserved for large-scale arenas, but Legend easily moved the crowd from raucous to rapture with his seemingly endless supply of soulful ballads.

He kept the audience as close as possible, drew the crowd into the chorus of the songs everybody knew, and invited people to go ahead and dance. For one song, he brought a girl in a green dress on stage with him. He sang to her, danced with her and sent her beaming back to her seat.

At the end, through the roaring applause and the expected and deserved standing ovation, he told the theater, "We got to come back to Charleston real soon."

He'd be welcome pretty much any night of the week.

Reach Bill Lynch at ly...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5195.