Most pop singers from the ’60s and ’70s who are fortunate enough to still be touring resort to what I call vocal cheats. That’s when they get to a point in an old hit that has a particularly high note they can’t hit — a note that especially resonates with the baby-boomer audience — so they either drop it an octave or turn it over to the background singers.

There’s nothing really shameful about these vocal cheats — it would be worse, for instance, if Daryl Hall tried to hit that big release note in “She’s Gone” and failed miserably. Or if Roger Daltrey attempted to render the big scream in “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and sounded like a frog.

I tell you all this because I saw Boz Scaggs last night at Ruth Eckerd Hall and he didn’t resort to any vocal cheats. He’s 65 years old. Very impressive. When, on “Lido Shuffle,” it came time for the “Lido, whoa, whoa” part, he was right on it — with the backup singers helping, yes, but not drowning him out and thus protecting him. Scaggs came up a little short or a little thin on some of the high notes, but he went for them all.

It wasn’t just the lack of vocal cheats that made Scaggs’ 75-minute set in front of a near-sold-out crowd a success. His voice still has that full, creamy texture of the old days, and his delivery and phrasing brimmed with nuance. (more photos below; all are by Tracy May)

Scaggs’ most recent albums have been made up of standards from the Great American Songbook. He set that material aside at REH, opting instead for a compendium of hits from the latter half of the 1970s and early ’80s (”Jojo,” “Lowdown,” “Georgia,” “Look What You’ve Done to Me” and others) as well as blues and R&B tunes from his early, early career. His encore was an extended version of the slow blues “Loan me a Dime” from his 1969 self-titled album.

Scaggs, who played guitar as well, was backed by five instrumentalists and a dynamic background singer who, I think, went by Miss Monet. She was as torrid as Scaggs was ultra-cool, and provided the ideal vocal foil. Miss Monet took center stage for a roof-raising version of the Aretha Franklin vehicle “Until You Come Back To Me.” Her performance drew a big smile from the perpetually laid-back Scaggs.

The band’s dynamics were impeccable, dialed back at times in order to make room for Scaggs’ supple pipes to take the spotlight, allowing him to contour the lyrics in fresh ways.

Besides the fact that he omitted “Breakdown Dead Ahead” and declined to sing any standards, I was thoroughly pleased with Scaggs’ set. A longtime fan, it was my first occasion to see him in concert.

Just for the record, Michael McDonald played the second set of the double bill. I’m not a fan, so only caught a few tunes and left. As a result, I’ll pass on offering commentary here — except to say that he sat facing the crowd behind an electronic keyboard as his feet pumped on pedals … and he was wearing flip-flops. Yeesh.

Here’s a photo, however.

Boz Scaggs performs at Ruth Eckerd Hall Thurs., July 2

To casual music fans, Boz Scaggs is that smooth dude from the ’70s with those disco-ey hits “Lowdown” and “Lido Shuffle.” They might even know about his 1976 smash album Silk Degrees, which included those tunes as well as “Georgia,” “What Can I Say” and “Harbor Lights.”

Although Scaggs’ days as a major hitmaker ended in the early 1980s — in large part because he took a self-imposed hiatus for most of the decade — he has made estimable music in the 1990s and, especially, this decade. And he’s done so by turning to a familiar riff for recovering rock stars: singing old standards.

That news might cause eyes to roll — especially if you think Rod Stewart — but it would absolutely not apply in the case of Boz Scaggs. His But Beautiful (2003) and last year’s Speak Low are among the best examples of a veteran pop star delving into such old chestnuts as “What’s New?” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Easy Living,” “I’ll Remember April” and “Speak Low.”

He sings the material in a supple, torchy style, burrowing into the lyrics, caressing phrases with his round, throaty tenor. Scaggs has a natural knack for seducing you into these literate, urbane numbers culled from the legendary writers of the American Songbook. But Beautiful debuted at No. 1 on the jazz charts, but Scaggs, 65, does not consider himself a jazz singer. You won’t hear any scatting or bold deconstructions from him. Instead, he hews to the gorgeous melodies, adding slight curves and punctuations.

The singer did not enter into the world of standards lightly. He started toying with the tunes about 10 years ago, after making friends with a cluster of jazz musicians in his adopted hometown of San Francisco. The vocalist quickly discovered that the material “is much harder than more modern pop songs,” he said in a phone interview.

“I had to study. There were a few songs that fell a little more naturally into my style of singing, the ones in a bluesier vein. The rest of it, I had to work hard, study a lot, do a lot of practicing, searching, finding my own way with the songs. I’ve learned a lot, and it’s served me in other [musical] forms.”

That’s important. Scaggs hasn’t forgotten his past associations with pop/R&B, blues and rock. In fact, one of the most overlooked albums of the decade has been Dig, a program of sensual blue-eyed soul that could be regarded as “Silk Degrees II.” Big problem: Dig was released on Sept. 11, 2001. Into the tank it went.

These days, Scaggs’ concerts run the gamut of his wide-ranging musical palette, incorporating the Gershwin/Ellington/Weill milieu with originals from his own book. It’s significant to note that Scaggs does not try to standard-ize everything. Many of his hits retain the spunk and bounce of their original versions. “Some things have to stay within a certain arrangement — they don’t work out of context,” he explains. “‘Breakdown Dead Ahead’ doesn’t work without that tempo and aggressive guitar style. ‘Low Down,’ on the other hand, I’ve done in a number of different ways. It’s pretty malleable.”

Malleable is a good adjective for Scaggs’ career. He grew up near Dallas and started out as a preteen singing in his friend Steve Miller’s blues band, then scuffled around the London blues scene before settling in the hub of hippiedom, San Francisco, during the Summer of Love, 1967.

Reuniting with Miller, he appeared on the Steve Miller Band’s first two albums, then scored a solo deal on Atlantic. His self-titled debut, a gritty blues-rock effort recorded at Muscle Shoals and featuring lead guitar by Duane Allman, garnered only a lukewarm commercial reception.

Scaggs switched to Columbia and by 1974’s Slow Dancer had moved in a slicker pop-soul direction. He then joined forces with a cadre of studio musicians who would later form the band Toto and concocted Silk Degrees. Songs from the LP dominated the airwaves and also found their way into the clubs.

Although not categorically a disco record, it rode the wave that washed over American pop culture. Scaggs gently rejects the notion that Silk Degrees is among the best disco albums ever. “I never related what I did to the trendy scenes around me,” he says. “The style was more derived from people like the Isley Brothers, a lot of songs that came out of Philly and other urban R&B. The only things with contemporary dance beats were ‘What Can I Say,’ ‘Low Down’ and ‘It’s Over.’”

1977

Videos from that era capture Scaggs dressed in suits and big-collar shirts, tentatively dancing in front of large ensembles. They show a recalcitrant performer, a reluctant superstar. After 1980’s Top 10 Middle Man spawned the hits “JoJo” and “Breakdown Dead Ahead,” Scaggs simply left the biz.

He owned and operated the San Francisco nightclub Slim’s and performed there on rare occasions. “I just took off,” he explains, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “I had family matters to attend to, two young children to raise. I just didn’t have any music in me at the time. Because I’d had a great deal of success, I was able to step away from it. Retire, if you like.”

He returned to the shelves with 1988’s Other Roads, which peaked at No. 47 on the Billboard 200 and yielded the middling Adult Contemporary hit “Heart of Mine.” It was his last taste of chart success.

Although it’s improbable that Scaggs will remotely approach his former commercial perch, he sounds perfectly sanguine about walking away while his career was in high gear. “I needed those years to let the music come back into me,” he says. “I don’t think I would be as interested or involved in it as I am today if I wasn’t able to take that time off.”

Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald
Thurs., July 2, 7:30 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall. $103, $72.50, $62.50. rutheckerdhall.com.

“Breakdown Dead Ahead” from the 2000s

“Lowdown” from 1976 in Japan

“Never Let Me Go,” with still photos, but a good example of Boz singing a standard.

Some recent additions to our Upcoming Events concert calendar; for the comprehensive list, click here.

Saturday, May 23 Lush Progress Video Release Party w/Butch Ryan Band/Glasgow (New World Brewery, Ybor City)

Tuesday, May 26 The Juan Maclean (pictured) / The Field (Crowbar, Ybor City)

Saturday, May 30 Joecephus & The George Jonestown Massacre (The Garage, St. Petersburg)

Tuesday, June 09 New York Dolls (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Wednesday, June 10 Mishka w/Zaki Ibrahim (Orpheum, Ybor City)

Thursday, June 11 Mewithoutyou w/The Dear Hunter (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Friday, June 12 Steely Dan Rent Party ‘09 Tour (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)

Saturday, June 13 Crossbreed (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Thursday, June 25 Joey Cape (of Lagwagon), Jon Snodgrass and Cory Branan (of Drag the River) (New World Brewery, Ybor City)

Thursday, June 25 Peter Murphy (pictured) (Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg)

Friday, June 26 Van*Gloria (New World Brewery, Ybor City)

Friday, June 26 Yellowman (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Saturday, June 27 Drop Dead, Gorgeous (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Monday, June 29 Jenny Lewis w/Heartless Bastards (The Plaza Theatre, Orlando)

Thursday, July 2 Michael McDonald + Boz Scaggs (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)

Tuesday, July 7 Jason Ricci & New Blood (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)

Saturday, July 11 Aerosmith (pictured) w/ZZ Top (Ford Amphitheater, Tampa)

Saturday, July 18 Hey Monday w/This Providence/The Friday Night Boys/Stereo Skyline/The Bigger Lights (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Saturday, July 18 Ace Enders & A Million Different People w/Person L (Orpheum, Ybor City)

Sunday, July 26 Vans Warped Tour 2009 feat. Anti-Flag/Bad Religion/Black Tide/Bouncing Souls/Breathe Carolina/Chiodos/Dance Gavin Dance/Dear and the Headlights/Flogging Molly/Less Than Jake/Meg & Dia/NOFX/Senses Fail/Streetlight Manifesto/The A.K.A.s/The Ataris/The Devil Wears Prada/The White Tie Affair/many others (Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg)

Monday, July 27 Gogol Bordello (Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg)

Tuesday, July 28 American Idols Live Tour 2009 (St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa)

Thursday, July 30 Jeffree Starr (pictured) (Orpheum, Ybor City)

Friday, July 31 Blazed and Confused Tour feat. Snoop Dogg/Slightly Stoopid w/Stephen Marley (Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg)

Friday, July 31 REH on the Road: Flo Rida (Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg)

Saturday, Aug. 01 Cracker (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)

Sunday, Aug. 02 The Cab w/The Secret Handshake/Rocket to the Moon (Orpheum, Ybor City)

Sunday, Aug. 02 Torche w/House of Lightning/Averkiou (Czar, Ybor City)

Monday, Aug. 03 Green Day (St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa)

Saturday, Aug. 15 Incubus (Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa)

Friday, Sept. 25 Sugarland w/Jake Owen/Matt Nathanson (St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa)

Friday, Oct. 10 U2 (Raymond James Stadium, Tampa)