Harry Connick Jr. explores his faith in lockdown
Classic hymns pair with original songs on his latest release
Harry Connick Jr. has accomplished so much during his lengthy career, from winning multiple Grammy and Emmy awards to selling more than 25 million albums and starring in such Hollywood hit films as “Independence Day” and “Hope Floats.”
On a purely musical note, he has recorded both instrumental and vocal efforts, delivered Christmas albums as well as a Tony-nominated original Broadway score, and he has focused his talents on everything from Dixieland to funk to standards.
Oh, and he also found time to be a judge on the TV series “American Idol.”
Yet going into 2020, the one thing that Connick had never managed to do was record a faith-based music album.
And now he can check that one off his list as well.
The multitalented star spent part of his time during the COVID-19 lockdown in his home studio, recording such classic hymns as “Amazing Grace,” “The Old Rugged Cross” and “How Great Thou
Art,” as well as other faithoriented material.
The result is the recently released “Alone With My Faith,” which is Connick’s first studio offering since 2019’s “True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter.”
This interview with Connick has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: There’s a pandemic brewing, your tour is being canceled, and half of America decides to cuddle up on the couch and watch Netflix. Instead of joining us on the couch, why’d you decide the time was right
to record an album?
A: Well, full disclosure — I watched as much Netflix as anybody else.
Q: But at some point you presumably turned off Netflix — at least long enough to make an album.
A: I wanted to make some music. I was one of the lucky ones that was able to quarantine and kind of stay at home. One of the ideas that had been floating around in my head for a while was a gospel album. I started thinking about some tunes. There was no recording engineer, no musicians, so I went into my home studio and started recording everything myself.
As I did a couple of those tunes, I’m having some feelings, kind of all over the map, about faith and spirituality, just based on what
was going on in our world. So, I wrote some tunes, and I incorporated those with the traditional songs. And it sort of turned into more of a faith album than a gospel album. I don’t know if I would have recorded this exact set of songs had this pandemic not happened. So, I feel grateful for that chance.
Q: Playing all the instruments, singing all the parts, arranging all the music — basically everything on it is you?
A: Literally everything. Yes.
Q: Even the horns? Backing vocals? That kind of everything?
A: Absolutely every note you hear.
Q: At least you didn’t try and direct the album’s first video — for
“Amazing Grace” — or take the album cover photos yourself. You left those for your daughter Georgia. It seems that talent runs in the family.
A: Yeah, I am really proud of our kids. (Actor/ model Jill Goodacre and I) have three daughters. Georgia is the oldest — she’s 24 — and she’s always been interested in film and editing and all that. She went to NYU film school for a while and got different certifications for the things she needed.
It came time to shoot the album cover, and I said, “Well, we are home. We can’t really be around anybody. Do you want to take the picture?” So, we went up to the woods and shot the picture.
Then it came time to do the video — same kind of thing. It was just me, Georgia, hair/makeup people
and our second daughter Kate, who was holding the reflectors and stuff.
Q: Did you know what kind of album you wanted to record right from the start?
A: I knew at some point I wanted to make a gospel album. But had the pandemic not happened, I probably would’ve just, at some point, picked 12 of my favorite spiritual tunes and recorded them with a band — like I would normally do.
But because this happened, I really had a chance to pick some tunes that I wanted to sing but also wrote some new songs.
So, I really didn’t know where it was going. It was just a matter of writing things in real time and thinking about our shared experience and all the pros and cons of going through this kind of thing.
Q: Howdid you prep for recording these tunes related to your faith?
A: I don’t really think about things too much before I go into the studio, unless it’s a big orchestral record where I have to write all the charts out.
In terms of the performances — no matter what I am feeling, if I am having a good day or a bad day, if I sing “The Old Rugged Cross,” I will immediately get into whatever headspace I need to be in for that.
But the other songs came as a result of — sometimes I woke up, and I doubted my faith. I didn’t doubt the existence of God. But I doubted the strength of my faith. And I wrote about it. Other days, I felt on top of the world, and I wrote about that too. And everything in between.
But there was no sort of preparation that I did other than being 53 and living my life and being at this point.
Q: There are so many great gospel numbers and faith-based tunes. How did you decide on the ones you wanted to sing?
A: To be honest with you, I picked the first ones that popped in my mind. But some of them didn’t pop in my mind. Like “Because He Lives” was one I knew — but I had never really performed it and didn’t think about it. But a friend of mine by the name of J. Harrison Ghee, who is this Broadway performer/ drag queen/just all-around brilliant entertainer, he does this thing where he does these Instagram posts where he just sits and talks while he does his makeup. He was singing it one day, and I was like, “Oh, man, I’ve got to do that one.”
Other ones like “Old Rugged Cross” and “How Great Thou Art” — those have personal meaning to me, because I have done them onstage, and I just love those songs.