By Cameron Lee
October 18, 2024
One of the most decorated recording artists and musicians of our lifetimes, Stevie Wonder, has a unique relationship with North Carolina. On August 6, 1973, just three days after his album Innervisions was released, Wonder and his cousin John were in a near-fatal car accident just outside of Salisbury heading to Durham, leaving him in a coma for several days with a brain contusion. The late Dr. Courtland Davis, a surgeon from Winston-Salem, performed a life-saving operation, as Wonder recalled during his opening remarks Thursday night at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro.
Wonder wrote “Higher Ground” (from Innervisions) prior to the accident– one of his many chart-topping hits throughout his career– which explored thoughts of reincarnation. Interestingly, his son, Kwame, was born on the same day of the accident 14 years later. A month after the crash, Wonder would perform at a fundraiser for Shaw University in Raleigh, recruiting The Chambers Brothers and Labelle (Patti Labelle’s early soul/funk group) despite strict orders from his doctors to take a break from performing. They ended up raising over $10,000 for the school’s scholarship fund. Wonder’s career and pure existence seems mythical, but his musical genius and life story are very real.
Accompanied by his son Kailand, a young fashion designer, and his daughter Aisha, a talented singer in her own right, he strolled onto the stage arm-and-arm with his children. Telling the story of the accident, he also gave his blessings to those in western North Carolina devastated by Helene and took a few subtle shots at a certain presidential candidate.
Starting the evening with the song that inspired his 10-city tour in a call for “joy over anger, kindness over recrimination, peace over war,” Wonder sat front and center surrounded by a grand piano and a multitude of synthesizers for “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart.” He welcomed his talented musical ensemble for the second song of the evening, “As If You Read My Mind.” The group featured a 12-piece string section, a brass quintet, three drummers, three guitarists, five backup singers, and pianist Cory Henry of Snarky Puppy fame. With an average age around 50, the capacity crowd was mostly seated until the reggae jam, “Master Blaster (Jammin’),” got the audience grooving to the Caribbean rhythms of the 1980 hit from Hotter Than July.
Throughout the evening, Wonder engaged the crowd to sing, sort of his way of surveying the energy of the audience. There was a sense of awe in witnessing the 25-time Grammy Award winner performing his classic songs with such musical depth. Horns blared for “Higher Ground,” as the audience sang the call-back lyrics to the song, while Wonder played one of his many synthesizers. He urged everyone to sing and clap to the old-time standard “You Are My Sunshine” before transitioning into the majestic, “You Are The Sunshine of My Life,” from his 1972 album, Talking Book. With his celestial backup singers, who were dressed and synchronized like the soul groups on Motown in the ‘60s, Wonder conducted his symphony with simply his voice and aura, breaking out his harmonica for signature parts of songs like in “For Once In My Life.”
An extended version of “Sign, Sealed, and Delivered (I’m Yours)” was the highlight of the evening’s first of two sets. Wonder’s voice sounded impeccable, complemented by the exceptional backup vocalists led by his daughter, Aisha. Again striking a sing-along chant towards the end of the song, he followed up with a jovial cover of The Temptations “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” before stepping off the stage for a musical intermission.
While many took the time to hit the bathrooms and concessions, those who stayed were treated to a short medley of instrumental songs including “Contusion” from Songs In the Key of Life, and a tribute to Frankie Beverly with “Before I Let Go” and Marvin Gaye (“What’s Going On”) led by the talented Cory Henry.
One of the more heartfelt moments of the show was Wonder’s song, “Village Ghetto Land,” which was accompanied by his 12-piece strings section, playing a sentimental arrangement for the song addressing world hunger and poverty. It’s hard to believe Wonder wrote the original strings with a Yamaha GX-1 synthesizer. But more importantly, the song is a testament to Wonder’s commitment to using his music for the greater good. He famously wrote the song “Happy Birthday” to advocate for Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday becoming a national holiday, and co-produced the songs “We are the World” to raise funds for humanitarian aid in Africa and “That’s What Friends Are For” for world AIDS charities.
Many artists have dabbled in multiple genres throughout their careers, but few have had the immense musical dexterity to put out chart-topping songs in various musical categories, let alone on one album. Songs in the Key of Life is widely considered to be Wonder’s magnum opus. From the somber ballad “Village Ghetto Land” and the funky “I Wish,” to the New Orleans big band feel of “Sir Duke” and the soulful “Isn’t She Lovely,” he celebrated the album in the second half of the show. For the latter, Aisha, his first-born child and the subject of the song, swayed along a few feet behind him creating another heartfelt moment in an evening full of musical enchantment.
The final stretch of songs featured his most commercially successful, with another grand sing-along for “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” followed by the groovy “Superstition,” which got the crowd collectively out of their seats and moving again. He finished the evening with the love song “As” from Songs in the Key of Life, after giving the audience the choice for the closing number.
“We need to make America love again,” he exclaimed, encouraging those in attendance again to vote, as he acknowledged every single member of his orchestra before taking final bows on each side of the stage hand-in-hand with his backup singers.
View this post on Instagram
It was a mystical night of music in the state where Stevland Hardaway Morris, a child prodigy turned wonder, was given a second chance at life after a horrific accident in 1973. On this night though, he helped reinject a little bit of love into our hearts and minds, as he has done for many generations of music lovers.
Setlist:
“Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart”
“As If You Read My Mind”
“Master Blaster (Jammin’)”
“Higher Ground”
“You Are My Sunshine”
“You Are the Sunshine of My Life”
“For Once in My Life”
“I Was Made to Love Her”
“Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”
“The Way You Do the Things You Do”
“I Can’t Help It”
“Ribbon in the Sky”
“Overjoyed”
Musical Intermission:
“Contusion”
“Before I Let Go”
“What’s Going On” (Cory Henry piano instrumental)
“Don’t Forget”
Set Two:
“Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing”
“Love’s in Need of Love Today”
“Village Ghetto Land”
“Living for the City”
“Sir Duke”
“I Wish”
“Isn’t She Lovely”
“I Just Called to Say I Love You”
“Superstition”
“As”
Read next:
