Valentine's Day feat. Smokey Robinson, Nashville Symphony: at Schermerhorn Symphony Center (Nashville, TN) Thu. February 14, 2013

Valentine's Day feat. Smokey Robinson, Nashville Symphony

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

Even though bouncy love songs like “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and “My Girl” and ballads like “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” and “I Second That Emotion” are pitch-perfect date-night staples, the thought of seeing Smokey Robinson on Valentine’s Day is a little ironic. “Tears of a Clown,” “Tracks of My Tears,” “I Gotta Dance to Keep From Crying” — heartbreak and loneliness are definitive themes in the R&B icon’s canon. To call Robinson an innovator is an understatement: A Swiss Army knife of R&B awesomeness, Robinson was Motown Records’ first flagship hit maker; as an in-house producer, he was instrumental in crafting one of pop music’s most winning formulas, and was second only to Holland-Dozier-Holland as the label’s top-shelf songwriter. At 72, Smokey still croons his pop staples, ballads and rave-ups with a silky-smooth tenor that hasn’t aged a day since he first auditioned for Berry Gordy. The miraculous Nashville Symphony backs Robinson for this two-night stand in Music City.

—Adam Gold