I pity the fool who missed Bobby "Blue" Bland

Bobby "Blue" Bland's still got it. Even at age 78, hobbling gingerly up the steps to the stage and remaining seated throughout his performance, the soul-blues giant radiated charisma and riveted the attention of an adoring audience Saturday night at City Limits in Delray.

Accompanied by his veteran, three-piece horn section and a phenomenal band, Bland dug into the classics that have made him such a revered icon: "Farther Up the Road," "I Pity the Fool," "That's the Way Love Is/There Ain't Nothin' You Can Do," "Goin' Down Slow" and "Driftin' Blues," among them. "If you're gonna walk on my heart," he crooned throughout, almost as punctuation and clearly enjoying the humor and crowd reaction, "please take off your shoes." As is his practice, Bland also singled out a woman from the audience for vocal seduction, singing a sexy line and then asking her, "Can you handle it?" She obviously could, as she remained plastered to the front of the stage for the duration.

Bland's voice has held up quite well over the decades, perhaps not as powerful an instrument as it once was, and yet still full of that beautiful honeyed tone that makes him a master of the tear-stained ballad and slow-blues burner. One of the great moments for me was when Bland launched into "Stormy Monday Blues," his reading all-but definitive of this T-Bone Walker classic. And while I was delighted to hear "Members Only," a late career hit from the mid-'80s that takes me back to my college years (if you heard it playing on the jukebox at the Rathskellar at Washington University, you knew I was in the house), Bland kind of beat it to death by dragging out a battle-of-the-sexes sing-along contest that grew tiresome after a dozen choruses or so. ("OK, let me hear the men again," etc. etc.)

No question, Bland is a master entertainer, and it was cheering to see a packed house to honor the man, even on a night when the rain was slanting sideways and the highways were particularly treacherous. It was also great to see a more-integrated than usual audience, as often black audiences stay away from blues shows, especially if they're in venues that are deemed "white." However, that seems to be more a statement about Bland and the great esteem in which he's held than about how black audiences are flocking to blues shows.