FRIENDS AND FAMILY, I PIECES OF MY FAITH...
thing by acknowledging there are questions, and that they change over time.
“My father is so graceful in accepting physical and emotional pain and I asked him how he does that. He told me, ‘There’s an art to pain’. It gives me hope, that just by asking the questions there is always something to learn.
“I know people my age who say they are getting old. I don’t understand it like I don’t understand calculus.
“It’s not that I want to be young, I just don’t feel old. I love life and to laugh. When I feel that sense of giddiness, it’s not jaded at all by time. It still feels like I’m 19.”
Some of the more joyous tracks on the album, like Old Time Religion and Because He Lives, sound like we’re parading through the streets of New Orleans with a jazz band and gospel choir. Has Harry been sneaking musicians into his house during lockdown?
“I had to do it via underground tunnels and passageways,” he smiles, “but we got it done!” The truth is even more remarkable.
The 53-year-old plays every instrument on the album, from the piano to the organ, drums, trumpet, tuba, and more. Those massed voices? That’s all him too – sometimes layering 25 backing vocals on a track.
“You just start with the piano or bass drum, then build instrument by instrument,” he says. “It’s fun and spontaneous. It’s fulfilling. It’s like live jazz, you feel whatever comes.”
He did, however, have some help filming the video for his new version of Amazing Grace, enlisting photographer and film-maker daughter Georgia to direct it at a derelict old opera house in Connecticut.
And did it offer a new perspective on their relationship? “All of the dynamics between a father and daughter are built-in, but no child wants to be treated as a child by their parent forever,” Harry says.
“She was hired as a director and she has paid her dues and is ready to carve out her own space. If your intention is to raise a child who will become this incredible, thoughtprovoking
‘Whatever is meant to happen will happen’
courageous human being, then you must expect it to happen.”
Family and faith are the cornerstones of Harry’s life and, after the interview, he was heading to the airport for a long-awaited family reunion in New Orleans to celebrate Harry Connick Sr’s 95th birthday.
“This is the first time we are taking a trip together,” he says. “We are so excited. Everyone down there is vaccinated and everyone here has started their vaccinations.”
As the world slowly starts to reawaken, what is next for Harry?
“There’s a ton of stuff in the pipeline in terms of Broadway and TV,” he says.
“I feel patient and positive but I get so consumed by all those men and women who are out there dealing with all this for us.
“I think about people cleaning the hospitals or the restaurant and theatre owners and all the people who work there. I’m not worried about me. I have been so fortunate. Whatever is meant to happen for me will happen.”