>but both are fairly underwhelming after the dust settles.
>
>And a tour for a legacy/catalog artist after a long layoff
>doesn't really have much to do with their current album.



Loyal fanbases have nothing to do with a song being nominated for a Grammy-Song of the Year, though ...U go beyond your fanbase when that happens...That's not just some, "Oh, we glad u r back" acknowledgment...That's a real impact...

I'm talking about the critical reaction to "Pretty Wings"....And even when we go into the "sales" part of it all, u discover that the song ranks amongst his highest charting "pop" singles...And u discover that those over 316,000 fans that picked up Blacksummer's Night that first week represents his best numbers of his career....U have to look at Maxwell's history when judging his success...Before "Pretty Wings" dude had only two other gold singles....He's never been a huge player on the pop charts; he's done all his damage on the R&B charts...But he made a song that got play everywhere...

So for Maxwell to come out with his first song in years and cross over in such a way, when u and I know that the downloading and buying public, beyond his hardcore fans, were not even thinking about dude like that, to me says what a success that project was...

Hell, I've always been more of of D'Angelo/Badu guy than Maxwell...But u really can't judge that entire Blacksummer's Night project without hearing the next installments and seeing how the public will react to them...

And legacy artist? I would hardly call someone who has 4 albums in his catalogue a legacy artist....