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Photos by Debra L. Rothenberg

There aren’t many performers who can go over a decade without releasing a solo album and not lose their fan base. At Tuesday’s show at the Loft at City Winery, there was not an empty seat in the venue, specially telling considering that the venue just opened. Located a few doors down from City Winery and on the 2nd floor, The Loft was the perfect intimate setting for Willis to showcase her strong vocals and to warm the audience with her cute smile. It was hard to tell who was having more fun—Willis or the audience.

Opening up with the title track to her latest CD, Back Being Blue, WIllis sang of infidelity and the heartbreak it causes her. “Heart Doesn’t Know” had the audience listening so intently that you could hear a feather drop.  Almost everyone who has ever been in love with someone who didn’t love them back can relate to the lyric “My heart doesn’t know that he’s not mine.” She sings of love and broken hearts with a smile on her face—if the songs are autobiographical, she is over any pain. When she sangs “Modern World,” it’s impossible not to tap your feet along with her.

A great musician can write a song anytime, anywhere and Willis wrote “Freewheeling” in her car; she said she knew she was on to something when her daughter started singing it along while driving her to school. A great musician also leaves their audience wanting more, and even after the encores, long after she left the stage, her audience was on their feet clapping and screaming…wanting more.

—Debra L. Rothenberg