He does this with six nylon strings and a voice. But as the fans at WAMC's Linda Norris Auditorium knew going in, this is no ordinary voice. It's a high tenor, a rich baritone, a muted trumpet, a glass of wine, a lost love. We've been listening to it for nearly four decades, so there's no escaping the power: Rankin's on the soundtrack of our lives.

Beginning at the beginning, Rankin reached into his first album (1968) to open with a dreamy version of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," then sailed into Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight." Soon, we were goners, seduced by that signature phrasing and sparkling intonation. Every now and then, Rankin moved from guitar to the piano to play originals like "I'm Just Your Dad," written to his young daughter after a family tiff, and "Friends," about the wistful, yet grateful place to which old lovers can go after the bitterness.

"When Sunny Gets Blue" was offered up as a tribute to composer Jack Segal, who died in February. A woman in the audience shouted, "Thank you," in the stillness after the applause. Thank you, indeed.

Rankin played two tunes from his 1974 "Silver Morning" LP, one of the best albums of that decade. "In the Name of Love" and "Haven't We Met" had the forward movement of a freight train and garnered the largest applause of the night.

Among Rankin's prodigious gifts is his ability to cut straight to a song's emotional heart. So when he gets to songs about life's pain, fasten your seat belt because he'll take you down a hard road, ready or not. Alan and Marilyn Bergman's and Johnny Mandel's "Where Do We Start?" the definitive breakup song, was a pallet of colors for Rankin. He got us all thinking about our ex-loves, but made it hurt so good.

Rankin graciously thanked WAMC for the night, noting that his support of public broadcasting has quite a history. In 1972, he and then-wife Yvonne were asked to work with Jim Henson (of Muppet fame) to write and perform something that became his well-known "Peaceful."

Although WAMC's converted bank is the perfect venue for Rankin's subtle vocalizing, the hosts could have helped with a better chair arrangement. The rectangular concert hall was set in school-auditorium style, giving the folks in the back a distant view of the stage. Still, at "the Linda," there's no such thing as a bad seat. Michael Rivest is a freelance writer from Averill Park and a frequent contributor to the Times Union.

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