Oh, my nola---Jackie didn't go-la (but Shea and I had a great time!)

Jackie---you probably don't want to read this post. It's a made up pack of lies anyway. The concert wasn't that good. Harry was dull and the band out of tune. You didn't miss much. Love You!

Tuesday March 12 goes down on my list of great days. Shea and I went to TPAC’s Andrew Jackson Theater to see the one and only Harry Connick Jr.

As you all know I am a HUGE fan of Harry. HUGE. Have been ever since I saw him playing piano and crooning on a VH1 special back in what I think was around 1987. I think this because Harry was performing numbers from his album 20, which he named for his age at the time and since Harry and I are the same age, I’m guessing I first saw that HCJ special in ’87. Mark and I were living in our tiny one bed room apartment  and Mark was working at McDonald’s. We didn’t have money to do anything so on weekend afternoons I’d watch VH1 while Mark was at work. (Mark is not much of a music fan---I don’t know what went wrong with him, but he just doesn’t enjoy music the way I do). Anyhow, that was when VH1 still played music and current music was still worth listening to (for the most part). I think I must have went out and bought the cassette tape the next week and have been a fan ever since.

Back to the concert…this is the Oh My Nola tour, named for his recent album and the show was spectacular! HCJ’s talent is a gift from God...and it is so obvious when you see the man perform live. Maybe it’s just me but when I watch him play piano, I can almost see the music coming up from his feet and firing through his fingers—he plays from his soul, if that makes any sense at all. It is truly a joy to watch and listen to.

And he’s funny…we were cracking up more than once. He told a goofy story & cracked some jokes. You could tell he was enjoying himself as much as we were. At one point in the show he invited the folks in the balcony seats to come up and sit in some unfilled seats in the front of the theater. I wanted to run up there at full speed, but I didn’t figure Shea would join in (which he confirmed later that he would not) so I stayed put and enjoyed the show every bit as much from our seats!

The big band was cooking and my favorite band member, Lucien Barbarin played some solo trombone and sang a little Basin Street Blues. Many, if not all of the songs at the performance were New Orleans related in some way or another. It was a good mix of up-tempo and slower songs w/just the right amount of instrumentals. Don’t get me wrong, HCJ kills when he performs the big band & crooner numbers(When Harry Met Sally comes to mind), but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the jazzy/blues thing he does on Oh My Nola and it was awesome live!

My favorite song of the night was probably Let Them Talk, a slower bluesy number. Harry played the organ instead of the piano on this one and it was crazy-good. He opened with Come by Me, another favorite tune of mine. I loved Workin’ in the Coal Mine and Jambalaya was a fun number as was the Zulu King song that he has performed at every concert I’ve been to as the closing/pre-encore song. Heck, I can’t think of a moment that was not fantastic!!