The Music of Elton John: A Concert Benefiting Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum

Folio: The Seattle Atheneaum invites you to an evening of musical nostaligia. Pike Place Market's own Pianist Bob Goldstick and singer David Walthew will be performing the incredible music of Elton John. The performance in the intimate setting of our beloved library promises to get you as close as as possible to actually seeing the man himself perform!

The duo will be performing the catalog of music starting with the early hits of the seventies like Your Song, Take Me to The Pilot, Border Song, Tiny Dancer and so on through the years of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters in to the hits of the 80’s like Little Jeannie, Empty Garden, Philadelphia Freedom and I’m Still Standing.

The range of piano skills necessary to perform Elton John’s music is wide and Bob Goldstick covers it with style. You not only get great versions of the piano parts to his songs, but you also get some piano improvisations and interpretations that take it to a new level. The combination of a pianist in Bob Goldstick and singer in David Walthew will send you traveling back in time! Whatever your age or life experience, you have probably been touched by the music of Elton John and this evening will bring it all back to you.

About this project

I’ve had a great time doing these songs with a full band, Electric Boots”, but this is different. I get a chance to really present the song with little nuances of rhythm and melody that make the experience new every time for both me and the listener.” - David Walthew

“We are always trying to tell a story with our music. Every song has many stories. The one that inspired the writer, the memory of hearing it sung or of singing it, what were you doing, with whom,were you “dancing in the sand” or strolling New York City with the lawyers and bankers or taking a spaceship to Venus to see Jesus”. - Bob Goldstick

David Walthew has been singing rock ‘n roll for most of his life performing with Rain City Time Machine for the past 15 years in many major venues in the Seattle area as well as his new projects of Le' Canadian Tuxedos, a band dedicated to performing music from Canadian artists as well as Electric Boots, an Elton John Tribute Band.

Bob Goldstick has been playing piano for 70 of his 77 years and has loved every minute of it. He's played everywhere from elementary school shows to Hollywood musicals; piano bars in New York City, Paris, and San Francisco; blues, jazz, and rock-n-roll bands around the country.  From 1988 to 2001, he played at Clint Eastwood's Mission Ranch in Carmel, California, where he perfected the piano bar experience. But the "work" he enjoys the most is the work he does when given the opportunity to entertain our elders in convalescent hospitals/retirement homes.  He has performed about 30 shows a month at these facilities since 1993, doing over 1500 shows at more than 200 facilities. Bob lives in Seattle and plays in Pike Place Markert and some seattle nursing homes.