Ray Davies [ tickets ] introduced himself to the crowd at the Mountain Winery by playing the song "I'm Not Like Everybody Else." That's a point he really doesn't need to underscore.

Most frontmen for world-famous acts don't wait decades to put out their first real solo album. And, if they did, it's doubtful that the album would be any good. Yet, there was Davies on Wednesday night (7/12) at a lovely hilltop venue in Saratoga, CA, pumping this year's "Other People's Lives" and making many of the new tunes sound just as vital as nearly anything in his legendary Kinks songbook.

At this point, for clarity, an explanation is needed. The reader is right if he or she is saying that "Other People's Lives" is not the first record credited to Davies as a solo artist. He's had two others: 1985's "Return to Waterloo" and 1998's "The Storyteller"--neither of which, arguably, count, given that "Waterloo" featured other Kinks members and "Storyteller" was comprised of Kinks songs.

Davies knows that he's taken a very unusual route to an official solo career.

"I've just done my first-ever solo album release," the 62-year-old Londoner joked with fans at the Mountain Winery. "It took awhile, but here I am!"

Backed by a sharp four-piece band, Davies started the show in the past and then moved forward. That turned out to be a good strategy. The opening double-shot of Kinks' classics--"I'm Not Like Everybody Else" and, especially, "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?"--really helped draw the fans into the concert.

The vocalist/guitarist then hit the crowd with five straight tunes from the new album: "After the Fall," "Next Door Neighbour," "Creatures of Little Faith," "Over My Head" and "Run Away From Time."

Most of those songs showcased the same kind of touch and feel that bubbled forth from much of later-era Kinks records. They were all numbers that blurred the line between happiness and sorrow, residing in a place where tragedy and triumph are everyday occurrences and, unless you peer very closely, you might not be able to tell the difference between the two. That was especially true of "Next Door Neighbour," a song that is made up of touching, often dryly humorous, vignettes about people who, indeed, could be living on your very block.

He then gave the crowd a dose of Kinks with a peppy version of "Sunny Afternoon," which had everybody in attendance singing along, and an equally bright run through "Dead End Street," notable for Davies' Louis Armstrong-style scat at its conclusion. The singer followed with a touching rendition of "Celluloid Heroes," which remains one of rock music's most poignant pleas for immortality.

Davies then switched to rocker mode for the raucous "Things are Gonna Change (The Morning After)," which is the lead track from "Other People's Lives," and soon closed the main set with the timeless garage-rock anthem "All Day and All of the Night."

It was a fitting way to close the main set. Davies was so good in Saratoga that the fans could have indeed listened to him for 24 hours straight.