All twelve shows were scheduled in relatively small venues like the two I was able to visit last week. My first was in Dallas at the Verizon Theater and the second was in Pomona, California at the beautifully renovated art deco Fox Theater.

Basically the same show as the Irdium concert, Beck was more a band member then band leader as he and the Imelda May Band took the audience on a 50’s musical way back ride.

The show opened up with a killer version of Arthur Gunter’s 1954 hit ‘Baby Let’s Play House’ featuring U.K. rocker Darrel Higham on vocals followed up by a couple of Gene Vincent numbers, ‘Double Talkin Baby’ and ‘Crusing’. The 1951 Tiny Bradshaw penned ‘Train Kept a Rollin’ made famous by Beck’s band the Yardbirds, featured Beck playing some low down guitar riffs along with Higham again on vocals.

Just about the time that everyone had a slight sweat worked up Imelda May walked on stage in her fitted oriental red and gold dress sporting her trade mark blond hurricane spit curl.

May jacked the crowd up with her twanging growl of a voice during her first two numbers ‘Poor Boy’ and ‘My Baby Left Me/That’s Alright Mama’. Just as she shot the audience up she landed us all down gently with the Julie London song ‘Cry Me a River’, a slow and smoky sounding cocktail number that was featured in the 1956 movie ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’.

Imelda May and Jeff Beck performed seven Les Paul and Mary Ford hits back to back during the next set and the results gave me the chills. May had recorded her voice multiple times, just as Mary Ford did, and then accompanied herself live as the duo employed Paul’s original music changing multi-tracking technique to each number the same as Paul and Ford had done so many years earlier.

Starting off with Paul’s classic ‘How High the Moon’, it was evident that Beck and May had it down to a tee. May’s pre-recorded voice along with her live performance was stunning. ‘Sitting on Top of the World’, ‘Bye Bye Blues’, ‘The World is Waiting for the Sunrise’, ‘Vaya Con Dios’, ‘Mockingbird Hill’, and my favorite, ‘Tiger Rag’ were all performed impeccably and brought back memories of long ago. After the Les Paul set Imelda May exited the stage for a short time.

The next part of the show featured a horn section that was all business. The first number featuring the brass section was the theme from ‘Peter Gunn’. Two saxes and a trumpet led the song in an adventurous direction as each horn player took the spot light with some incredible solo work. Beck also excelled on this number with not only carrying the iconic guitar parts but also injecting his own interpretations of how this song should have been played originally.

The band was obviously affected by the movie ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’ as they featured another song from the movie by The Treniers called ‘Rockin is Our Business’. Jeff Beck stood out on the next number, a surf guitar sounding instrumental number call ‘Apache’ followed up by the Santos and Johnny classic, ‘Sleepwalk’.

The return of Imelda May found her slinking across the stage in a shape enhancing tiger striped gown as the horn section was playing heavy and low, seemingly coxing her back to the microphone.

May re-established her presence on stage with a sultry bump and grind version of ‘Please Mr. Jailer’. The James Brown standard,’ If You Quit Me’ was equally nailed by May as well as the Johnny Otis classic rock shuffle ‘Casting my Spell on You’.

The last two songs before the encores were the ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’ featuring Jeff Beck on back up vocals, and Bill Haley’s, ‘Rock Around the Clock’. By now the crowd was on their feet and dancing in the isles and in front of the stage ready for the show to go on.

The first encore featured three songs. Most notable was an unbelievable version of the Shangri-La’s ‘Remember, Walking in the Sand’. ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Up Above my Head’ rounded off the first encore set.

Called back for a second time, Beck and May once again pushed musical boundaries with a version of the Irish standard ‘Danny Boy’. Beck’s slow and precise playing on this number was numbing and Imelda May’s vocals were soaring as she gave the song an almost spiritual treatment.

With their retro look and feel, The Imelda May Band was the perfect fit for this type of tribute. Imelda May’s kitten with a whip persona and vivacious vocals really spiced things up when these hipper than hip cats performed.

And who wouldn’t want Jeff Beck in their band.