Let's Stay Together

Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" is a masterclass in the slow-burning soul ballad, and on March 21, 2026, at Jaeb Theater of Straz Center in Tampa, Florida, soloist Joshua Smith honored that tradition with a quietly confident performance during the Gay Men's Chorus of Tampa Bay's Out On the Dance Floor, supported by backup vocalists Kevin Beckett and Vic Omila.

Smith approached the song with the right combination of restraint and warmth. He opened with a smooth, easy lead that immediately settled the room, his phrasing relaxed and rhythmically aware. As the song unfolded, Beckett and Omila entered behind him with backup vocals that framed the lead without crowding it — Omila's baritone color adding harmonic depth underneath, Beckett rounding out the texture with a third voice that completed the song's signature soul-trio feel. Their blend was tight and unforced, the backups giving Smith the kind of cushion that lets a lead singer breathe.

With the chorus sitting this number out, the arrangement leaned entirely on Smith and his two backup vocalists, and the spareness suited the material. Pozenatto's piano work captured the song's signature Memphis-soul groove, leaning on the gospel-tinged voicings that give the original its emotional architecture, while Bodo's drumming locked into the song's slightly behind-the-beat feel. The absence of the full chorus left more room for the rhythm section to breathe, and the result felt closer to a small-combo soul recording than a choral arrangement.

The Jaeb Theater's intimate acoustics were perfectly suited to this kind of close, conversational soul singing. The room held still during the most exposed moments and rocked gently through the refrains, the audience clearly settling into the song's groove.

Within Out On the Dance Floor, "Let's Stay Together" provided one of the program's most adult, grown-folks moments — a love song about commitment, performed with the maturity the lyric deserves. Smith's lead, lifted by Beckett and Omila's backups, honored the song's lineage while making it their own.