As I was driving to work yesterday listening to the Gayle King Show (BF of Oprah for those of you who might not know her), the last interview of her show was with Harry Connick, Jr.  By the time the interview kicked off, I had arrived at work and had parked.  I ended up sitting in the car for another 15 minutes to listen to the interview.

Given that we have had a few run ins with Mr. Connick over the years, I was interested to hear what he was all about.   He used to belong to our pool club – where we occasionally ran into him; I once played in a round robin tennis tournament with his wife Jill Goodacre (former Victoria Secret model).  I have sat next to him at the town’s July 4 fireworks display, I have sat behind him at restaurants on more than one occasion and our most recent clash with fame is that his daughter plays on the same lacrosse team that my daughter plays on, and that my husband coaches. Last year when team try-outs were being conducted, Jill called my husband on more than one occasion to discuss some of her concerns about her daughter’s team placement.  You can only imagine the commotion that occurs when your phone rings and the caller ID says “Harry Connick Jr.”  My kids immediately took pictures of the phone before they answered it.

The funniest story involves a conversation between my daughter, Eliza, and Harry’s daughter, Georgia, who was very envious of the fact that my daughter had double pierced ears.  Georgia remarked to Eliza:  ”you have two holes?!”  in a much exasperated and incredulous tone.  To which Eliza nodded the affirmative.  Georgia’s response was:  ”My daddy won’t let me do that.  He thinks it looks slutty!”

We saw Harry and family last weekend on the field – this time Eliza was playing against Georgia in Field Hockey.  I can only imagine what Harry was thinking about my daughter.

He is now out and about promoting his new album Your Songs – a compilation of classic songs (Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Beatles, Carpenters….) reminiscent of his When Harry met Sally soundtrack.  He certainly has a silky smooth singing voice – very soothing and relaxing, and a great background for cocktail parties.  As I was listening to the interview, I was thinking to myself that his singing voice is quite different from his speaking voice.  I was even thinking, that if I didn’t know who he was, I would think he was black.  Well all of a sudden I hear Gayle King saying:  ”You know, Harry, your singing voice and your speaking voice don’t sound anything alike.  When you speak, you sound like a black man.”  Well she said it first, I didn’t – and I can only write this since she articulated these same words publicly.  He attributed  the sound of his voice to growing up in New Orleans, and all of his heros – the great black New Orleans jazz musicians.

One thing for sure, he certainly sounds like a nice down to earth man.  And I think the sheer number of encounters I’ve had with him attest to the fact that he is trying to live as normal a life as possible with his family – and there’s a lot to be said for that.  So since he’s hired me as his local publicist, his new album Your Songs (click here for a preview), may just be worth checking out.

Have a great weekend!