Singer, songwriter, actor, and reality TV star Harry Connick Jr. highlights four acts coming to Salina announced by the Stiefel Theatre Monday.
Harry Connick Jr. was first best known as a talented singer-songwriter. He has sold over 28 million albums worldwide. He is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States, with 16 million in certified sales. He has had seven top 20 US albums, and ten number-one US jazz albums, earning more number-one albums than any other artist in US jazz chart history.
Connick’s best-selling album in the United States is his 1993 Christmas album When My Heart Finds Christmas, which is also one of the best selling Christmas albums in the United States. His highest-charting album is his 2004 release Only You, which reached No. 5 in the U.S. and No. 6 in Britain. He has won three Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards. He played Grace’s husband, Dr. Leo Markus, on the TV sitcom Will & Grace from 2002 to 2006.
Connick began his acting career as a tail gunner in the World War II film Memphis Belle in 1990. He played a serial killer in Copycat in 1995, before being cast as jet fighter pilot in the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day. Connick’s first role as a leading man was in 1998’s Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock. His first thriller film since Copycat came in 2003 in the film Basic with John Travolta. Additionally, he played the violent ex-husband in Bug, before two romantic comedies, 2007’s P.S. I Love You, and the leading man in New in Town with Renée Zellweger in 2009. In 2011, he appeared in the family film Dolphin Tale as Dr. Clay Haskett and in the 2014 sequel, Dolphin Tale 2.
Connick appeared on the May 4, 2010 episode of American Idol season 9, where he acted as a mentor for the top 5 finalists. He appeared again the next night on May 5 to perform “And I Love Her”. Connick returned to American Idol to mentor the top four of season 12. He performed “Every Man Should Know” on the results show the following night. Connick has been a judge on American Idol since 2013, joined by Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban.
Connick will perform in Salina in Friday, July 24th. Tickets start at $89, and go on sale this Friday.
Other new shows include:
STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES
Thursday, May 7 @ 8PM (on-sale 4-10 @ 9AM)
A protégé of legendary songwriters Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, Earle quickly became a master storyteller in his own right, with his songs being recorded by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt, The Pretenders, Joan Baez and countless others. 1986 saw the release of his debut record, Guitar Town, which shot to number one on the country charts and immediately established the term “New Country.” What followed was an extremely exciting and varied array of releases including the biting hard rock of Copperhead Road (1988), the minimalist beauty of Train A Comin’ (1995), the politically charged masterpiece, Jerusalem (2002) and the Grammy Award Winning albums The Revolution Starts Now (2004), Washington Square Serenade (2007) and Townes (2009). I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive (2011) is Steve Earle’s 14th Studio Album and shares the same name with his 2011 debut novel. Of the novel, Patti Smith stated, “Steve Earle brings to his prose the same authenticity, poetic spirit and cinematic energy he projects in his music. I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive is like a dream you can’t shake, offering beauty and remorse, redemption in spades.”
Tickets starting at $29
LUCINDA WILLIAMS
Sunday, June 7 @ 7:30PM (on-sale 4-10 @ 9AM)
Lucinda Williams has been maneuvering down a path all her own for more than three decades now, emerging from Lake Charles, Louisiana (a town with a rich tradition in all of America’s indigenous music, from country to the blues) having been imbued with a “culturally rich, economically poor” worldview. Several years of playing the hardscrabble clubs of her adopted state of Texas gave her a solid enough footing to record a self-titled album that would become a touchstone for the embryonic Americana movement helping launch a thousand musical ships along the way.
As a rule, you can divide music into three categories — the kind that aims for the head, the kind that aims for the heart and the kind that aims for the hips. Forging two of those connections at once is pretty impressive, but connecting on all three? That’s a rare accomplishment indeed, one that Lucinda Williams manages on her 11th studio album, Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone.
Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone, the first release on Lucinda Williams’ own Highway 20 Records label, is easily the most ambitious creation in a body of work that’s long on ambition. Over the course of two discs, Williams leaves no emotional crevice left unexplored, drinking deeply from a well of inspiration that culminates with an offering that overflows with delta-infused country soul.
Tickets start at $35
CHRISTINA PERRI & COLBIE CAILLAT
“THE GIRLS NIGHT OUT, BOYS CAN COME TOO TOUR”
Tuesday, July 21 @ 7:30PM (on-sale 4-17 @ 9AM)
In what is sure to be one of the most talked about tours of the summer, Christina Perri and Colbie Caillat have announced plans for a North American co-headline tour. Christina Perri has spent much of the past year on the road celebrating the release of her acclaimed second album “HEAD OR HEART.” In addition to high profile TV appearances, festival performances, and treks with OneRepublic and Demi Lovato, Perri recently returned from her biggest worldwide headline tour to date, with sold out shows in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Named iTunes’ “Breakthrough Pop Artist of 2011,” Perri earned critical applause and an increasingly fervent fan following with her extraordinary debut, “lovestrong.” Highlighted by the 4x-platinum certified smash, “Jar of Hearts,” the album entered the SoundScan/ Billboard 200 among the top 5 upon its initial 2011 release. Perri followed “lovestrong” with the RIAA 4x-platinum certified hit single, “A Thousand Years,” exclusively featured on “THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN: PART 1 & 2” ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACKS.
Two-time Grammy Award-winning artist Colbie Caillat released her fourth full-length album, “GYPSY HEART, in September of 2014. The album immediately landed in the Top 20 of Billboard’s Top 200 Chart fueled by the strength of her gold-selling single “Try”. Co-written by legendary producer and singer-songwriter, Babyface, “Try” became one of the biggest performing songs featured as iTunes “Single Of The Week.” Quickly amassing nearly 40 million YouTube/VEVO views, the single’s inspirational companion video became a global viral sensation and reached the #1 spot on the iTunes Video Chart. At radio, that success continued as the song went Top 10 at Hot AC. To date, Caillat has sold over six million albums and ten million singles worldwide. Her breakthrough hit “Bubbly” remains “one of the best-selling digital tracks in history” and her multi-platinum debut COCO hit #5 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, while her gold-selling sophomore set Breakthrough landed at #1. An international live draw, Caillat has played sold out venues everywhere alongside artists from John Mayer to Sheryl Crow.
Tickets starting at $57
