He’s a songwriter, humanitarian, legendary musician and recently scored a big Broadway hit.

Travelgirl: I’m so happy to be with you and to get to know you. Everyone knows Huey Lewis the musician. You are also a humanitarian and very philanthropic. You have been quite involved with San Rafael’s Lifehouse, whose mission is to improve the lives of those living with disabilities and help them live independent lives. You’ve been an honorary chair and emcee for their fundraisers. Please let us know how you became involved in this most worthwhile endeavor.

Huey Lewis: I sang an anthem for a Special Olympics about 45 years ago and I was so touched by the group. It was such a nice thing, and my neighbor was also involved. The association was formerly called the Marin Association of Retarded Citizens. It is now called Lifehouse and its purpose is to help disabled folks live independent lives.

I’ve been chairman of the association’s big fundraiser for 35 years now and it really is a wonderfully gratifying thing. If you are a developmentally disabled person in Marin or Sonoma counties in California, you are a lot better off than almost any other place in the world. We have independent living situations. I’ve gotten to know some of the clients well over the years and it’s just a fun thing. It’s not a lot of heavy lifting.

We have a wonderful chef’s banquet called The Great Chefs & Wineries where we invite all the great restaurants and all the great wineries in Marin and Sonoma counties to come and make a one dish, one wine table. It’s a black-tie event featuring an enormous, incredible buffet. We raise tons of money, and it all goes to a great cause. I am chairman so I say a few words; it’s very gratifying. There’s a lot to be learned from these very special people. They joyfully notice the little things that we don’t pay any attention to, and they radiate happiness. It’s a wonderful, important cause.

TG: Let’s start with your hearing loss. In 1987 you suddenly lost hearing in one of your ears. How did you cope and how difficult was it to keep performing?

HL: Let’s go with that; how exciting. Hit me with the hits — hearing loss; let’s do it. I exist on these hearing aids, which Bluetooth connects to my phone and my television. I am really very, very deaf and it’s probably getting worse. I’m possibly headed for a cochlear implant, which is not a fun thing. But if you really can’t hear, it becomes a fun, necessary thing.

TG: You were able to overcome losing the hearing in your right ear but you were still able to perform and hear with just one ear.

HL: I was diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease 35 years ago. At first, I had a bout of intense vertigo; it was so bad they had to take me to the hospital but no one could figure out what it was. The doctors gave me some medicine of some sort and three hours later I was fine. About 30 years ago I lost the hearing in my right ear. I was able to exist on one ear for a long time. Then six years ago my left ear went and now I can’t hear music at all and I can’t perform. I can’t hear pitch. With the aid of hearing aids I can hear you and I can hear a conversation with three or four people at a time, maybe, if I am in a quiet room. In a noisy room I can only hear one person and I need to be looking at that person to understand the conversation.

TG: If music is playing, you can’t hear it? Is that correct?

HL: Zero. I cannot hear music. You can play one of my songs and I can’t identify the song; that’s how bad I am. Speech exists in a much narrower frequency than music. Music, even one note, occurs in all frequencies with harmonics and overtones and undertones. Just listening to you is a struggle for me; it’s changed me. My show on Broadway, The Heart of Rock and Roll, has been my salvation in a lot of ways. It’s given me a creative outlet and kept me busy.

Zen Buddhists say you need three things in life: something to love, something to hope for and something to do. The something to hope for and the something to do are my show on Broadway. I have other things going on as well. I’m lucky; I remind myself that plenty of people are way worse off than I am. I’m not dead; I’m just deaf. I’m actually a glass half full kind of guy. I’m a major key, not a minor key guy.

TG: I can’t wait to see your musical, The Heart of Rock and Roll. Everyone I know is excited about it. What’s the genesis of the show? I know our Travelgirl readers will want to head to New York to see it. I absolutely love Broadway and I’m thrilled you are bringing your music to the Great White Way!

HL: I love Broadway too. It’s the most challenging and therefore the most rewarding of artistic expression. It’s totally collaborative and it’s complicated. [We made a documentary about our song We Are the World (in 1985, 46 legendary musicians came together for one night to raise money for African aid)]. The iconic Quincy Jones, who co-produced the song, addressed us before we performed the background vocals. This isn’t in the documentary, but Quincy said, “Look people, here’s what we are doing, we are building a house. We are going to start with the foundation, order the tracks, put in the walls, the studs and put a roof on it. That’s what we are doing now, putting up studs and we will finish the work later on.” His description was really clever. The metaphor for making a record is building a house. Well, if that’s true, then putting on a Broadway show is building a city with parks and pathways and all kinds of paraphernalia. I love it and it’s been a really fun trip.

TG: Does your hearing loss make creating a Broadway musical more difficult?

HL: It makes it impossible to hear the music, but I lost hearing in my left ear six years ago on January 17. Before that I could hear music. As it so happens, you only need one ear to hear. When I lost hearing in my first ear, I went to my EENT doctor. My father was a doctor and he sent me to the best EENT doctor in all of Northern California. I went to see this specialist and he told me to adapt to the hearing loss. I reiterated to him that I was a musician and a singer. The doctor told me I only needed one ear to hear. He told me Brian Wilson [The Beach Boys] only had hearing in one ear and Jimi Hendrix only had hearing in one ear.

The doctor also told me that he only had hearing in one ear and that he performed in a barbershop quartet. I existed on one ear for a long time, and I had that ear and hearing seven years ago when we imagined this show. I had reimagined most of the songs by that time. Our musical director, Brian Usifer, is brilliant. He has done his homework so thoroughly. He knows our music so well that he has reimagined the songs and given them their own setting. There is very little to quibble with, even when I could hear. As a footnote, they had to make me a producer because of the songs and now they have to listen to everything I have to say.

TG: It’s your music they are performing.

HL: It’s my music and my show now!

TG: You were born in New York City but grew up in California. Did you have an interest in music when you were young? Your father was a doctor but he was also a musician; I believe he played the drums. Did he encourage your interest in music?

HL: My old man absolutely had an influence on me. There was a set of drums in my living room my whole life. Since my early years, I spent my life surrounded by musical equipment. My father didn’t like singers; he liked big band jazz. He would play these big band jazz records, instrumental stuff and every once and a while there would be a singer. Naturally I wanted to rebel a little bit so I kind of dug the singers. My first influences were Mr. Five by Five, Count Basie and all the old blues singers and musicians.

TG: You have two plays featuring your music on Broadway. Your own, The Heart of Rock and Roll, and Back to the Future. It’s astounding; two plays running concurrently.

HL: It’s amazing and I’m not sure it’s ever happened before. I don’t know if it’s true or not. Someone told me that but even if it is true, it doesn’t mean that I’m Richard Rodgers.

TG: Let’s talk about the genesis of Back to the Future. It’s a beloved film and your name is synonymous with that movie. You contributed to the soundtrack and had a small role in the movie. Please talk about your experiences with that film and your iconic songs that are central to the show. Did you have any idea it would become a landmark film?

HL: I had no idea it would be such a paramount hit. I was asked to take a meeting with [Steven] Spielberg, who was the executive producer, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, whose story it is. Neil Canton was also a writer on the show. The meeting was organized through Amblin Entertainment, which had just started. We sat there and Zemeckis told me they had written this movie about a kid named Marty McFly, and his favorite band would be Huey Lewis and the News. So, they asked me to write some songs. I was flattered. I told Zemeckis I didn’t necessarily know how to write for film and honestly I didn’t fancy writing a song called Back to the Future

Zemeckis said, “Oh, no, no, no, we don’t care what the song is called. We just want one of your songs in the film.” He told me that whatever I decided, that’s the one it will be. Well, I thought the next thing we do is write and we wrote The Power of Love. It’s a little more complicated than that. I didn’t think it was going to work because Power of Love is a love song, right? There is no love object in the film. But they used it wonderfully and it was a great lesson.

We’ve tried to employ the same thing in our Broadway show, which is the idea that songs help a musical or a show when they are tangentially tied to the project; not when the songs are a literal translation of what’s going on. If the song was just called Back to the Future, it wouldn’t have been so universal, if you will. I tried to do that with The Heart of Rock and Roll. It’s important that the songs move the story forward. The songs in my show are laid out beautifully by Tyler Mitchell and Jonathan A. Abrams. Their initial layout is brilliant because they know the music so well. I didn’t initially realize how well the songs fit the story. But they do and it’s pretty cool.

TG: I saw Back to the Future on Broadway. When they sing The Power of Love everyone goes crazy and they are referencing you.

HL: First of all, Uncle Huey is a character in the show. That’s their little nod to my cameo in the film. When they play Power of Love it has nothing to do with the story at all. It’ s Marty McFly and the Pinheads and it’s my logo. It’s the triangle with Huey Lewis and the News. It’s exactly my nine-piece band with the three-piece horn section. When I first saw it in London, I was sitting next to Bob Gale. I looked at Bob and told him I thought they owed me a set design credit. He told me they only pinch from the best.

TG: Your song, The Power of Love, is synonymous with the movie, Back to the Future.

HL: Thank goodness. The film just keeps growing. We did a 35-year reunion and every five years we go on television and reassemble the cast. Huey Lewis and the News was on top of the world back then and our song, The Power of Love, was huge. It was the perfect time for us. We had just toured with our Sports album and now we had to come up with another album. You wanted to keep the momentum in those days. The Power of Love was the perfect way to continue the momentum. We recorded it and we gave it to the movie and it went straight to number one.

The Power of Love went to number one in nine weeks, which is remarkably fast. From the close of principal photography for Back to the Future to the release of the movie, it was the fastest ever completed in Hollywood history. The producers knew the song was on its way to number one and they wanted to get the movie out to gain the momentum from the song. The day the movie was released, our song, The Power of Love, was the number one song in the country.

Interestingly, we weren’t allowed to put that song on one of our albums because MCA had purchased it and owned the rights. They wouldn’t let us put it on one of our albums in America but they did in the rest of the world. Not in America but in the rest of the world we added The Power of Love to our album Fore. In the rest of the world our album Fore is way bigger than our album, Sports.

It’s interesting. In America we have numerous big hits, This is It, Heart and Soul, I Want a New Drug, Heart of Rock and Roll, Bad is Bad. In Europe they hardly know any of these songs. They know Jacob’s Ladder, Stuck With You, Power of Love, Doing It All For My Baby because those were on the other record. It’s amazing. A lot of this is business, right? One of the reasons Power of Love is such a wonderful, amazing song is because it’s in the movie and the movie was the biggest movie of all time. We have a lot of great songs, but this one was in the movie.

TG: All of these incredible songs are yours; they are part of your history. Is there one song among all these memorable hits that is your favorite?

HL: No, I can’t name a favorite. I honestly think these songs on our latest record, Her Love is Killing Me and While We’re Young, and Remind Me Why I Love You Again, are three of the best things we’ve ever done. In my opinion, I think our last record is really our best work.

TG: Please talk about making the album Weather.

HL: We released Weather. It only has seven songs because of the loss of my hearing. It’s a record that we did piece by piece. It’s what we do; we write songs and we record them. So what we were doing over the course of almost 15 years was to play shows everywhere. We would write a song and record it in our home studio. We had a very nice studio; we used to have a complex with a recording studio, offices, etc. We would record the song and learn to love it. We would take it on the road and work on it and then bring it back, record it and put it in the can. We would play it for months, then cut it and we kept doing it until we had about seven songs. It’s hard to be prolific when you’ve written over 80 songs. Because we wrote for such a long time, these are our best works, the most realized.

“I fell in love with Broadway because of all the people — all the talent. Not only are the Broadway actors talented; they are smart, funny and self-effacing.”

TG: Now I have a question from my daughter’s son, Harry. He wants to know why you changed your name from Huey Lewis and the American Express to Huey Lewis and the News?

HL: That’s a great question! The record label made us change our name. Tell Harry that’s a super good question! The reason we were Huey Lewis and the American Express, which I think is a great name, is because it’s what I thought we sounded like. I thought it was the best name ever. No one had ever done a corporate tie in, zero; it had never been done. The first person to do it was Michael Jackson with Pepsi. Prior to that, it was the kiss of death; it just wasn’t done. They were afraid that American Express would sue us. They only figured that out 24 hours before the cover had to be finished so we really only had 24 hours to come up with a name.

TG: Where did the News come from?

HL: It was me. I just thought of it. There were a bunch of other contenders, but we went with Huey Lewis and the News.

TG: You have so many top hits that are so memorable. Your songs include I Want a New Drug and Hip to be Square. How did you go from a song about drugs to one about being square?

HL: Hip to be Square was supposed to be funny. It may be my only regret writing wise. I originally wrote in the third person. In the lyrics, he used to be a renegade; he used to fool around. It was meant to define a phenomenon that David Brooks articulates in his book Bobos in Paradise on how people were dropping in after being too far out; how they were cutting their hair. It was almost like a fashion thing. I thought it was kind of funny; it’s hip to be square. I thought it would be funnier if I told it on myself but not everyone got the joke. Some might think it was an anthem for square people but it wasn’t meant to be. I think I’ve lived it down by now.

TG: Please talk about your career in acting.

HL: Lovely. I worked with Bob Altman, which was amazing. We went on location and he invited me to ride with him. The location was three hours away and I got a three-hour tutorial on film acting from him that was fascinating. Robert Altman was a great experience. I did a bunch of Just Shoot Me’s with Wendie Malick, Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli and Jane Leeves. The shows were written by Fraser writers and it was fantastic. I performed in one episode a year. For two weeks I shared a dressing room with Bob Newhart, who is fantastic and a TV legend. I have no desire to be more famous nor to appear as myself. If there’s not some acting required, I’m not interested.

TG: You played Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago on Broadway.

HL: I love the Broadway community and I loved doing Billy Flynn. What a great play, great musical and great character. I did 222 performances and I learned something every single day. The material is that rich and dense; it was just fabulous. I fell in love with Broadway because of all the people — all the talent. Not only are the Broadway actors talented; they are smart, funny and self-effacing. They are just fun. It’s great work. It’s the most demanding and therefore the most rewarding of artistic expression.

TG: Talk about the early days.

HL: Back in 1980, in the early days we had to have a hit record. There was no internet, no jam band, the only avenue to success was a hit record in a format called CHR, Contemporary Hit Radio. Top 40 started with the advent of push button radio. In the 50’s when they had push button radio, when the programmers opined it, as long as you didn’t hear something you didn’t like, you would just stick right there. So, narrow your play list and just play the top hits over and over again. That was top 40!

By late 70’s, early 80’s we had AM format, mono Top 40. FM Radio comes along with stereo but it’s still not broadcasting with a lot of watts. But it is stereo and it’s a free format.

Radio was the only format we all competed on. So if you had a hit there it was a big, big hit. It was unique for its time and we had to have a hit record. We insisted on producing the records ourselves because I knew we were going to have to make commercial decisions that I was going to have to live with. We aimed every song right at radio. Sports sounds like a record of its time; it’s a collection of singles and different styles.

“I’m not dead; I’m just deaf. I’m actually a glass half full kind of guy. I’m a major key, not a minor key guy.”

Conventional wisdom says you can’t do that, you have to stick with one genre, but we were all over the map. Bad is Bad is like a little bluesy thing. Honky Tonk Blues is a country song. Thin Line is a big hard rocker and One New Drug is kind of a dance tune. We consciously aimed each one of these songs as a single at radio. I knew we needed a hit and I didn’t know which one was going to hit. Our records hit so hard we were touring coliseums and achieving our dreams and doing really well financially. After that happened, I made a decision with myself and the rest of the band that this was the last thing I would ever do for commerciality. If it didn’t make artistic sense, we were not going to do it. I’ve done exactly that ever since.

TG: You are pretty amazing with a harmonica.

HL: My mom was a hippy. When she divorced my dad she moved to another house and rented out a room to a boarder. The boarder was a folk singer named Billy Roberts; he wrote Hey Joe. He had lots of harmonicas and when they would go out of tune, he would give them to me. I was in high school so I started playing harmonica. I graduated high school a year early at 16 years old; my dad told me there was one thing I had to do. He told me to take a year off and bum around Europe. I told him I had been accepted to Cornell and he said no, take a year off and head to Europe. He actually made me do that. I took the harmonica with me; it fit the image.

My mother told me that was the first good decision my old man had ever made. She gave me a Bob Dylan record and told me the poets love this guy and told me to check it out. I listened to the Dylan record, brought my harmonica and in my mind, I was a wandering minstrel throughout the world. I hitchhiked Europe, hitch-hiked North Africa; I went to Marrakech for a day and stayed three months.

TG: Travelgirl wants to know, do you have a favorite travel destination?

HL: I have several places I want to visit. I’m a fanatic flyfisherman and I want to go the Seychelles and fish. That’s a bucket list thing.

TG: Huey, you’ve paved quite a path. Do you have any sage advice for those young hopefuls who aspire to one day follow in your legendary footsteps?

HL: I’ve always told people that unless a career in music is the only thing — the only thing — you want to do, I suggest you go back to school and study. If it is the only thing you want to do, then listen to everyone and pick and choose the advice that you want to take. Think through it all, keep dancing and in the final analysis, trust your instincts. Just keep at it; keep trying and working.

The post TG Coverguy: Huey Lewis appeared first on Travelgirl.

From small-town Tennessee to Las Vegas and Netflix, Leanne Morgan talks about her life and gets 50 million YouTube views

Travelgirl: It’s a pleasure to welcome you to Travelgirl Magazine. I was recently in Las Vegas and saw the large billboard outside the Wynn announcing your show. How did a girl from Tennessee make her way to the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas? First, please tell me about growing up in Tennessee.

Leanne Morgan: I was raised in a town of 500 people, a farming community in middle Tennessee on the Kentucky- Tennessee border called Adams, TN. My people are farmers on both sides, going generations back. I was raised there until I went to college at the University of Tennessee. I always wanted to be in show business from the time I was a little girl. I didn’t know how or when, but I ended up being in standup.

TG: You graduated with a degree from the University of Tennessee and married your sweetheart Chuck. You two moved to Bean Station, Tennessee and started your family. Will you elaborate on these years?

LM: Chuck and I met at the University of Tennessee and he bought a refurbishing manufactured housing business in his 20s, and moved us to Bean Station, TN, and I got pregnant with our first baby Charlie. I worked for Chuck for a little while. I’m country and rural, but this was a different kind of rural. I got my degree in Child and Family Studies Crisis Intervention Counseling. I thought I would be a therapist if I wasn’t going to make it in Hollywood. I mostly wanted to be a momma more than anything.

TG: You seem to be quite the entrepreneur. You started selling jewelry at home parties. I read you were hilarious at these parties. Please talk about this.

LM: I didn’t want to go to work full time and leave Charlie, but I wanted a side hustle to make a little money in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains–you know to get my hair done and buy Charlie outfits. My friend was selling jewelry and asked me if I wanted to sell jewelry too. I would go into women’s houses and put jewelry on kitchen tables and eat dip and brownies. I developed an act and women thought I was funny. These women actually even started booking me about a year in advance.

TG: You said you had a moment, when you were selling jewelry, that you realized you could make it in comedy. It’s funny. Can you elaborate?

LM: I was at somebody’s house. There was a woman sitting on the couch, her name was Carmen, and she got so tickled about something that I said that she pee-peed on the couch. That was a God moment for me. I knew I was funny. I wanted to do standup, but I didn’t know how it would be possible when I was in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. When she laughed, I knew I could do it. I could make it in comedy. I am still good friends with Carmen after all these years. I tell her all the time that she was part of that decision that I made. I knew I could go for it. The jewelry company noticed that I was booking so far in advance, that they asked me to speak at their large events.

TG: Were there any early mentors in your life who encouraged you to pursue your dream of becoming a stand-up comedian?

LM: There was a man named Dennis Swanberg who was a Christian comedian performing at one of those large jewelry events that I spoke at and he told me off stage that I could do it. That was pivotal. It meant a lot to me and I thought ‘Okay, I can do this.’ Also Brian Dorfman. He let me open at Zanies Comedy Club 20-some years ago, and after my set he said “I think you’ve got something, but it’s going to be hard to do this with three babies, traveling and leaving them. But I think you got it. You’re just going to have to find another way.” I knew I had to figure it out and take a different path.

TG: You were becoming successful and raising a family. How did you balance both your rising career and your family? You’ve been successful at both.

LM: I had to just take what I could, being a momma, I would do a lot of private and local corporate events. Chuck would travel during the week. I would go on the weekends, and just work around his schedule and the kids’ schedules. I came third but that was okay. I never felt that I didn’t get to do my own thing because I always wanted my family to be my first priority. I would do comedy clubs every once in a while, but I had to do what I could to accommodate my family. I always wanted to put them first.

TG: Talk about a girl who lived in Bean Station, Tennessee making it to the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. Were you intimidated or does that Leanne moxie get you out there?

LM: It is intimidating because I did not come up in the New York or LA comedy scene. I always felt like an outsider. When I did get invited to something like that, I was intimidated. But now I feel pretty good about it. I’m 58 years old and now after all these tours and doing a movie, I finally feel like I have a place there.

TG: You are not only a stand-up success, but you have also over three million followers across social media and your online special, So-Yummy, has reached over 50 million views on YouTube. Please talk about So-Yummy.

LM: Honest to goodness nothing else was going on in my career and I was thinking about quitting. Then out of the blue, Dry Bar Comedy asked me to do a special. I honestly thought nobody would see it. I did a bunch of old material.

TG: I watched your Netflix special Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman. So many moments in that show are relatable to all of us. I laughed and laughed. Please talk about writing and performing the show.

LM: Well, I was doing this material before COVID, and then COVID stopped everything, and there was a lot of time off. There were a lot of things I probably lost and couldn’t remember, so I started building it back up and performing again after COVID. Every time I do any new hour, I’m always weaving in my family, and it takes me a while to get it, but it’s always something to do with what’s happening in my life. I’ve got grandbabies; I’ve gone through menopause. Throughout my 20 years of comedy, there is always something going on in my real life. The Netflix special was what was going on in my life at that time. And I am a storyteller, so I’m long winded. It is not small bits. It is always long stories of my life and my family.

TG: You are living proof that through hard work you can attain your dreams. Do you have any sage advice for those young hopefuls out there who hope to be the next Leanne Morgan?

LM: If this is something you know in your heart that you need to be doing, then keep going. Listen to your gut. If this is something you’re meant to be doing, then follow what you’re passionate about. Hard work pays off; it’s not a short-term thing. Keep going, keep working, keep doing what you love and never give up.

TG: You travel constantly. Do you have one special item you never leave home without?

LM: My iPad!!! I love my iPad so that I can watch my shows and look at pictures of my grandbabies.

TG: Travelgirl readers will want to know, do you have a special place you love to travel to and what’s on Leanne’s travel bucket list?

LM: I really enjoy everywhere, but I love going to the Carolina and Georgia coasts, like Charleston and Savannah. All around there has been a favorite. I would really like to go over to the UK, and do a tour in the UK.

TG: Talk about what’s next on your busy career. This summer you have a tour called Just Getting Started and you will be seen on the screen in the Amazon Prime feature, You’re Cordially Invited, starring alongside Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon.

LM: I’m hoping to do television, more touring, and more movies! I also have a book coming out in September 2024 called What in the World?.

TG: What’s the one most important thing you want Travelgirl readers to know about Leanne Morgan?

LM: I want them to know that I feel this is more than comedy. Since this has happened to me, my fans have been more like friends and a community, and they have lifted me up and want to see me win. It is bigger than comedy and more special and sweeter than anything I could have ever imagined. I want people to know how much I appreciate my career and the love my fans give me.

TG: Is there one charity you want to mention, so you could help

LM: My family is incredibly involved with East Tennessee Children’s Hospital and childhood illnesses. My husband is a volunteer and a baby cuddler. My daughter Maggie works in development and raises money for the hospital, and my grandson was in the NICU and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital took wonderful care of him.

TG: I have truly loved researching and reading about you. You are an absolute treasure and I am more than delighted to get to know you and to welcome you to Travelgirl Magazine.

The post TG Covergirl: Leanne Morgan appeared first on Travelgirl.

Iconic country singer is a sensation on the music charts, on television and in Las Vegas.

It’s a great honor to welcome back country music superstar Luke Bryan to Travelgirl. This legendary giant of country music graced our cover a few years back. We are honored to tell more of his motivational and inspirational story. The uber talented Luke Bryan has garnered more than 22 billion worldwide streams and has released more than 30 number one hits. This ambassador of good will and singer/songwriter superstar amassed 56 total weeks at number one in his career. He was recently presented with the SoundExchange Hall of Fame Award in recognition of his standing as one of the most streamed artists in SoundExchange’s 20-year history.

The five-time Entertainer of the Year has played for more than 14 million fans. His headline concert tours have played sold-out performances for millions of fans in more than 40 stadium concerts, Farm Tours, Spring Break shows, and sold-out ‘Crash My Playa’ destination concert events.

He was born in Leesburg, Georgia, on July 17, 1976, and his keen interest in music began when he was young, listening to his parents’ records, which included music from country stars Merle Haggard and George Strait. When Luke turned 14, his parents purchased a guitar for him and Luke began singing with local bands. He honed his craft in high school, performing in musicals and writing his own songs. He was on his way to stardom.

Travelgirl: You were born in Leesburg, Georgia, and your dad was a farmer. What was it like growing up with your family in Georgia?

Luke Bryan: Growing up in Georgia, my dad was a farmer and we worked in agriculture, so we were always looking up at the sky, checking if rain was in the forecast. That always set the tone for the mood in my household, whether we had rain coming in or not — we knew the crops would be good and it was going to be a good week around the Bryan household.

At age 19, Luke was heading to Nashville when tragedy struck and his beloved older brother Chris was killed in an automobile crash. Luke stayed home, attended Georgia Southern University, and worked on his dad’s peanut farm — all the while playing music at night. In 2001, with his family’s insistence, Luke relocated to Nashville and landed a songwriting contract. He wrote for several renowned artists including Travis Tritt and performed his music at night. Capitol Records caught his show and signed him and, the rest, shall we say, is history.

The accolades poured in, and Luke Bryan’s career took off. He wrote a wealth of number one hits including Rain is a Good Thing, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Fast, Crash My Party, That’s My Kind of Night, and numerous others. As his career skyrocketed so did the awards. Country Aircheck named Bryan the Most Heard Artist of the Last Decade. He’s won almost 50 major music awards and has amassed close to 30 number one hits. The awards continued. Luke Bryan became the first recipient of the ACM Album of the Decade for his Crash My Party Album of 2013. He’s been a CMT Artist of the Year six times and has sold over 12 million albums.

His latest sensational hit, But I Got A Beer In My Hand, which was written by Chase McGill, Matt Dragstrem, and Geoff Warburton, was produced by Jeff Stevens and co-produced by Jody Stevens, is in the Top Ten. This song comes on the heels of Luke’s 30th #1 single Country On, which ended the 2022 charts as the final #1 of the year. The release of Country On continues Luke’s record of 29 career #1 singles and 17.2 billion worldwide streams on country radio.

TG: Your song Country On is so uplifting.

LB: I love that the song uplifts the hardworking American people out there, and it brings a lot of unity. It just has feel-good vibes all the way around it and anytime you can reference country music fans in a song, and you can really make it feel natural, it’s great. And this song does just that.

Luke Bryan is a humanitarian in every sense of the word. He’s humble, gracious and incredibly charitable. He was honored as the 2021 Artist Humanitarian Award recipient for his numerous philanthropic undertakings. Luke’s Farm Tours are motivating. He began these tours in 2009 and thus far Luke Bryan has granted 83 college scholarships to students from farming families attending the local college or university near the places the tour performs.

He works tirelessly for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Nashville where all children are treated for free, regardless of their circumstances. His support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation is inspirational. He lost his devoted sister Kelly in 2007 and her husband in 2014 after which Luke and his beloved wife Caroline became guardians for their nieces and nephew. Luke and Caroline are incredibly proud of their own two sons, Thomas “Bo” and Tatum “Tate” Bryan.

Bryan told the stories of his many successes and heartbreaks in November 2017 when he gave us a look at his life in Living Every Day: Luke Bryan. It’s a triumph told in the first person.

Luke will play his final dates of his record-breaking headline engagement at Resorts World Las Vegas, “Luke Bryan: VEGAS,” with six remaining shows — including New Year’s Eve!! — on December 29, 30 & 31, 2023 and January 3, 5 & 6, 2024. Tickets available at axs.com/lukeinvegas.

TG: Your tenure at Resorts World Las Vegas has been a huge success. Fans can still garner a seat; you have performances scheduled for late December and early January. It’s really a phenomenal and quite extraordinary show.

LB: We’ve worked long and hard to put together an incredible, high-energy show for the fans. I am so proud of how it turned out and I hope everyone who comes leaves there having as much fun as me.

My favorite place to be is on stage performing for country music fans. So thankful every night when I walk out on that stage and know you are there to have a blast along beside me. It never gets old.

Luke and NFL legend Peyton Manning recently hosted “The 57th Annual CMA Awards”; it’s a return engagement for these two talents and the show was a huge success. Next year Luke Bryan will return for a seventh season with Katy Perry and Lionel Richie as celebrity judges on ABC’s American Idol. January 17-20 Luke will headline two “Crash My Playa” concerts with special guest appearances by Dierks Bentley and Eddie Montgomery. Tickets are on sale now and there will be a host of additional performers. Log onto CrashMyPlaya.com to purchase packages and garner more information.

The post TG Coverguy: Luke Bryan appeared first on Travelgirl.

Carrie Underwood has won more than 100 awards including eight Grammys, 16 ACM Awards and was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry when she was a mere 26 years old. She is the most awarded female country artist for singles in RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America®) history. She has recorded 28 number one singles, sold more than 85 million records and has the honor of being the most awarded female country singer.

In 2013 Underwood performed Sunday Night Football’s theme song, “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night,” which became a huge fan favorite. She’s starred in the NBC televised production of The Sound of Music playing the lead role of Maria.

This legendary luminary is also an entrepreneur and author. In 2014 Underwood launched CALIA, a line of fitness apparel, and in 2020 she penned released the self-help fitness and lifestyle book Find Your Path: Honor Your Body, Fuel Your Soul, and Get Strong with the Fit52 Life, a New York Times best seller.

Travelgirl: We are honored to have you aboard Travelgirl Magazine. You were born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, raised on a farm and loved growing up there. Oklahoma’s so proud of their hometown girl! I was at the Oklahoma Centennial when you brought down the house!!! In 2017, you were inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Would you please talk about growing up in Oklahoma?

Carrie Underwood: Being raised in Checotah and in Oklahoma definitely shaped the person I am today. My parents taught me the importance of working hard and to always be grateful for what you have. I loved growing up on a farm as it taught me to appreciate the land, which probably helped plant the seeds for my love of land and gardening. Even now, when I visit my family in Oklahoma, I feel such a sense of peace. I can really just relax there.

TG: 2004 was a banner year for you. You were majoring in journalism and decided to try out for American Idol, which you won. You were on your way to stardom and you managed to return to school at Northeastern State University where you graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in mass communications. How did you manage stardom so early and what prompted you to go back and finish college? Would you please share a few memories from that time in your life?

CU: The decision to audition for American Idol changed the entire trajectory of my life. I loved music and performing, but at that point I was planning to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. The idea that everything that came after that was more than I could have even dreamed for, let alone think it could actually happen. It was all such a whirlwind, in the best possible way.

TG: You’ve sold over 85 million records worldwide. You’ve won a wealth of awards including eight GRAMMY Awards, 16 ACM Awards including winning Entertainer of the Year three times. You ended 2022 as Billboard’s top Country female. You are a New York Times bestselling author and successful entrepreneur. Seven of your albums are certified multi-platinum or platinum by the RIAA. You were inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008 and were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018. How have you kept so grounded all these years? You are humble, gracious and give lots of time to worthwhile causes.

CU: Again, I credit my family with always teaching me to be grateful for the gifts God gives us and the blessings we enjoy every day. I’m very proud of what I’ve been able to achieve in my career but, more importantly, always remember the things that matter the most — faith, family, and gratitude.

TG: Please talk about your fitness app fit52, which you launched in 2020. Every Travelgirl will want to participate and get fit.

CU: fit52 is my app where I can share all the things I’ve learned about fitness and nutrition. My trainer, Eve Overland, and I have such a great time creating new content for the app and I love that we have created a community of people who want to share their journeys, whether they are just starting out on that path or are looking for new and different ways to approach working in working out into their lives.

TG: In December, 2021, you became the first artist to perform at the new Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas; you actually opened this marvelous venue. Your show, REFLECTION: The Las Vegas Residency, garners rave reviews and you constantly perform to sold-out crowds. You will be on stage at Resorts World in September, November 30 and December. Please talk about your sensational show and performing in this marvelous arena. You dazzle the audience each evening.

CU: I love having our ongoing residency, REFLECTION. As much fun as it is to be on the road, which we were earlier this year with The Denim & Rhinestones Tour, it’s great to be able to be in one place and to put on a show that we could never move from city to city on a concert tour. We have some incredible set pieces and effects. When we were creating REFLECTION, we knew we really needed to put on a show worthy of the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas and the fun and energy of Nashville, and we’ve really accomplished that. I will always love being on the road and coming to the fans where they are, but it’s also really cool that we can be in Las Vegas for periods of time and perform a show we love for audiences who come from all over the world to see us.

TG: Do you have a favorite song and if so, what does it mean to you?

CU: Well, it’s not fair to choose one favorite… but of course Jesus, Take the Wheel will always have a special place in my heart. Not only was it the first single from my first album and the first hit, it just meant the world to be able to wear my faith on my sleeve and lay the groundwork for a career that melds who I am as a person and as an artist.

TG: Will you please talk about the C.A.T.S. Foundation and let our Travelgirl readers know how they can help.

CU: I wanted to create an organization that gave back to where I’m from, and helping to improve my hometown of Checotah, Oklahoma is extremely important to me. The C.A.T.S. Foundation (Checotah Animal, Town, and School Foundation) is all about giving back to the community I grew up in. We’ve helped out in all kinds of ways, from supporting the animal shelter, to the police and fire departments, to the schools (donating musical instruments and computer labs), and have been blessed enough to meet the needs of many different parts of the town. You can learn more about The C.A.T.S. Foundation on our website.

TG: Travelgirl readers will want to know if you have a favorite destination and what travel destinations are on Carrie Underwood’s bucket list.

CU: I’ve been so lucky to visit so many places here in the U.S. and around the world, I’m not sure I could pick just one. Anytime I’m able to squeeze in a little time for myself, I do love being near the water, whether it’s a pool, lake or the ocean. And visiting any vineyard anywhere always makes me a very happy girl.

TG: Do you have any sage advice for those young hopefuls out there who hope to one day walk in Carrie Underwood’s famous footsteps?

CU: Work hard and treat people the way you want to be treated. Always show up prepared and ready to do your job and never take a good opportunity for granted. Remember to have gratitude and humility.

TG: This month you are releasing Denim & Rhinestones (Deluxe Edition). What can we expect from that?

CU: I loved recording Denim & Rhinestones, which we released last year and we just couldn’t include everything we wanted to on the album. I knew I just had to extend the Denim & Rhinestones era so we are releasing the Deluxe Edition with six new tracks, on September 22.

TG: Tell us about your year-round channel, CARRIE’S COUNTRY, on SiriusXM.

CU: We launched CARRIE’S COUNTRY in June and it’s been so much fun getting to welcome listeners into my personal musical universe. I get to share my favorite music across all of the genres I love, from classic rock to the latest in country and a lot of special features highlighting everything from fitness to gardening, behind the scenes and more. fit52.com; thecatsfoundation.com

TG: Thank you for brightening all our lives.

The post Carrie Underwood: From American Idol to Superstar and Entrepreneur appeared first on Travelgirl.

The illustrious and uber-talented Michael Feinstein is a dynamic force in the world of music. He is a five Grammy Award nominee and has numerous Emmy nominations for his awe-inspiring PBS television specials. His work as an archivist has made him one of the most preeminent forces in music today. He is a distinguished and renowned performer, a composer and an arranger of his own original music.

Feinstein began his prolific career in his 20’s working alongside the legendary Ira Gershwin. Gershwin’s influence, along with Feinstein’s enormous talent, led the way to a remarkable career. He holds three honorary doctorates and is the noted author of The Gershwins & Me. Michael founded the Great American Songbook Foundation in 2007, which celebrates and preserves its music through educational programs, Master Classes, and the annual High School Songbook Academy. Michael devotes his time, his energy and his talent to numerous worthwhile causes and he serves on the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board.

Travelgirl: It’s a pleasure to see you again. As you know, I’m a huge fan. You were enchanting in Atlanta. What a performance and your storytelling about former Jewish performers was enlightening and entertaining. We were all mesmerized. The crowd stayed through several standing ovations.
Michael Feinstein: I appreciate that; I really do. Anytime I can perform the music I love is wonderful. Being Jewish is a part of who I am and life is about building bridges. We all have certain backgrounds and if one looks beneath the surface we find the common bond of humanity that is necessary for happiness and survival. I’m deeply affected by Judaism. It is a religion that at its core teaches about helping others. If one is given the gift of health and any kind of prosperity, it is incumbent for that person to give back in whatever way they can. I am mindful of that. Giving back is a pleasure and a natural thing for me.

When I left my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, at the age of 20, my grandmother had just gone into assisted living at the Heritage House, a Jewish residence for older folks in Columbus. When I moved to California, I started playing at the Jewish home for the aged twice a week. I did that just because I hoped someone would come and play for my grandmother in Ohio. I developed a great bond with the residents and I met amazing people. There was a man in there named Walter Schnell, who was a Holocaust survivor, and to hear his story was something. He was in an internment camp and was sent to a Jewish community in China, and he spent most of his years there. Walter’s stories of survival were so life-changing; how could anyone ever be the same after experiences like that!

My experience at the Jewish home was so powerful. My mother, who is 95, was just accepted as a resident in the Jewish home
and one of the reasons I was able to get her residency there was due to something I had done 40 years ago, without any thought of
reward for it. Life takes unexpected, beautiful turns.

TG: I understand you starting playing the piano by ear as a five-year-old. Your mother Florence was an amateur tap dancer and your father Edward was an amateur singer.
MF: My parents bought a new house and had saved $500 to buy furniture for the living room. My father impulsively said let’s get a piano because my parents loved music. There was so much music around our house. My mother had been a professional tap dancer until she married. I must have soaked up all of that music. When they bought this upright piano, and started playing the piano with both hands, right off the bat. My father was not home but my mother came into the room and asked me who had taught me to play and I told her no one had taught me. My mother didn’t believe me; she didn’t think it was possible for me to play the piano without some sort of instruction and I was sent to my room for lying.

TG: Whoa, seriously?
MF: Yes, seriously. I stayed in my room until my father came home later that night and realized I was playing the piano by ear. The ability to play like that is something that has always been with me, and it’s always been natural. I believe in reincarnation so I think I must have come in with some past memory that stuck.

TG: Who encouraged you and did you have a mentor in your early years in Columbus?
MF: No one really encouraged me. I’ve always been interested in spirituality. I believe that all beliefs fundamentally come back to a single truth. I’ve never been particularly religious but the more esoteric and spiritual aspects of Judaism I find quite attractive. It’s a feeling of being in direct contact with a divine presence.

TG: You moved to Los Angeles when you were 20. How did you meet the widow of Oscar Levant? I understand she introduced you to Ira Gershwin in July 1977 and you became his assistant. You’ve kept Gershwin and their music alive and prominent all these years. Would you talk about those years with Ira and the influences he had on you?
MF: Absolutely. Indeed I was introduced to Leonore Gershwin by Julie Levant with whom I had become friends by a series of amazing coincidences, even though now I don’t believe in coincidences. The moment I met Ira it felt just as if we were long lost cousins. There was an immediate connection regardless of the fact that he was 80 and I was 20. I began cataloging his phonograph records, which I thought would take a couple of weeks, but I ended up there for six months working just on that project. I would see Ira every day and he became fascinated by this 20-year old kid who knew so much about his work. He was at a point in his life where he thought the world had passed him by. Here was this young man who knew so much about his work, he almost found it freaky in the sense that I knew facts about his life that he didn’t know.

One day we had a gentle argument about what date something had happened. Ira said it was 1930 because this and this had happened, and I told him actually it was 1931 and I found a reference book to show him what the chronology was. Ira said okay, you are right, but you have an advantage over me and I asked what he meant. He told me he had only lived his life, but that I had totally researched it.

We had a very close and loving relationship because Ira had no children. He would have been a wonderful father but his wife didn’t want kids. So I became the surrogate son or grandson that he never had. It was life changing for me because I had moved to Los Angeles less a year earlier playing in piano bars trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life and suddenly things crystallized. I felt I had a greater purpose. I still played in piano bars, which was my main income until I was hired on a full time basis by Ira, and that lasted six years. That period, ages 20 to 26, is very impactful and important in anyone’s life. Those years helped to crystallize a lot of things in my world personally, spiritually and professionally.

TG: You are an incredibly talented performer, a composer, an arranger, a musical director and an author. You’ve received three honorary doctorates, and your book The Gershwins & Me is a best-seller published by Simon & Schuster. Which of one of your numerous talents most defines you? If I asked you what you are, what would you say?
MF: I would say LUCKY! I’ve been very lucky. I’m a singer, an interpreter of American popular song and a conservator of it. I’ve amassed this huge collection of music and artifacts relating to this music just to save and preserve it. I’m lucky that I can perform the music that I love because the world and the audiences are changing. I was in my late 20’s when my career began to garner national attention and yet I discovered music finds new fans. It doesn’t diminish in power.

TG: Please talk about your latest album, Gershwin Country.
MF: That was one of my most fulfilling projects in that it was unlike any other recording I’ve even done. Most of the other recordings I have created were completed rather quickly because most are taped live and are comparatively easy to create. Most pop records are built through production. This Gershwin album was certainly a departure for me in many ways. One, I had never done anything related to country music, and two, it was an album of duets. I had never wanted to record an album of duets because I usually found they were created for cynical reasons, for reasons of commerce.

This album was one I put together because I felt that Gershwin’s music was a certain kind of Americana as is country western, country as we call it now. It seemed like the album could be a bridge in combining two styles of music and genres that I thought could be complementary. Many of these songs were written for the stage and were created as duets. That seemed to be another element that would make organic sense. The hardest part of putting together a duet recording between a man and a woman was finding complementary keys. Usually a woman’s keys are four or five steps away from a man’s. These duets were very carefully created with vocal lines and harmonies so it’s a true collaboration. It had a real purpose of combining the emotion of two different hearts and souls to tell the story.

TG: You’ve joined forces with Jean-Yves Thibaudet presenting Two Pianos: Who Could Ask for Anything More. Please talk about the collaboration and what sparked this amazing collaboration?
MF: Johnny Thibaudet is one of the greatest living concert pianists. He truly is a global sensation in that he plays concerts in every corner of the world. He plays a varied repertoire. In other words, many concert pianists will do a tour where they play the same repertoire with an orchestra in recitals in different cities; it’s one program. He plays multiple programs with great depth and interpretive brilliance and his musical palette is very, very broad.

We’ve been friends for 30 years. We became closer through the years and talked about collaborating but couldn’t figure out what it would be because our worlds are so different. Our approach to music is different. I play mainly extemporaneously, and he doesn’t.

He plays mainly what’s on the page better than anybody. We realized that the bridge of Gershwin was a common bond. When he was 13 growing up in France he discovered the world of Gershwin and it changed his life. I had the same experience.

It was that shared love for something that transcends culture and time and space that brought us together. We put together a program that is primarily American popular song although it does include Rhapsody in Blue, and we present the music largely played on two pianos. Gershwin loved two pianos and often wrote for two pianos and then I sing, of course.

The Gershwin songs, along with the music of Richard Rogers and other composers of the era, are presented in a style that is in some ways more authentic to the composers original intention but also has more of a contemporary sensibility to it. The programs have been received rapturously. We just did two nights with the Boston Pops, which was our first incarnation of this program with a symphony orchestra and there was pandemonium in the audience. The reaction was so fervent and touching and we are definitely on to something, and we are thrilled. It brings together two different audiences that seem to be very complementary.

TG: I spent a day interviewing your dear friend Liza Minnelli. Please talk about Liza and your upcoming touring show, Get Happy, a tribute to Judy Garland.
MF: I’m very proud of this program that pays tribute to Judy Garland. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to assemble. The enormity of her talent and legend is such that I didn’t know that I had the wherewithal to properly convey her greatness. It truly is because of Liza that I continued to pursue the project because I was ready to give it up at any point if I couldn’t give it justice. I didn’t want to do anything that was half baked. As I continued to assemble the program, as I figured out what it should be and shouldn’t be, I enlisted the aid of several wonderful people including John Fricke, who has an archive of thousands of photographs of Garland and Judy Garland’s family. That stockpile of material along with things that Liza and her family made available to me helped me to assemble a program that is very historical and very entertaining with anecdotes. It celebrates the incredible art that she, as a performing artist, displayed even from her earliest years. I realized that I had the opportunity to tell her story focusing on the talent, her singing and her legacy as opposed to the tabloid stuff.

It celebrates Judy Garland; it doesn’t whitewash anything, but it focuses on the enduring part of her legacy. The response of people in the audience has been quite extraordinary. There is something about her energy that is very personal to people and very powerful. There are numerous visuals in the show, several film clips and there’s audio including a lost recording of hers that I found and in which I accompany her. The cumulative effect is extraordinary. Part of the time people are looking at the visuals while I am singing and I don’t mind that at all because the show is about her and I am the tour guide, if you will.

TG: Your bio is so prolific it’s hard to put it all into an interview. Your Emmy Award-nominated TV special, Michael Feinstein – The Sinatra Legacy, which was taped live in 2011 was a huge success. You were the Principal Pops Conductor for the Pasadena POPS and you serve as Artistic Director of the Palladium Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana Indiana. Your performance schedule is extraordinary. Where does this incredible energy and passion come from?
MK: Well, thank you. As far as energy goes I believe the universe provides infinite energy and one of the feelings of contemporary society is the lack of and recognition of the understanding that there is a source of infinite energy that is available to us. I focus on that spiritual energy. Having the great gift of being able to do something I love isn’t something I do not take for granted.

TG: I’m a huge fan of the Great American Songbook. Please talk about your passion for preserving the music and songs of the Great American Songbook and created The Great American Songbook Foundation, which you founded in 2007.
MF: The Great American Songbook Foundation is something I created a number of years ago for the purpose of preserving the American popular music that is so important to me. I felt it was in danger of disappearing in that someone needed to bring attention to the music for younger generations. I created it to not only preserve the amazing artifacts that I’ve accrued through the years but also to educate and introduce young people to the songbook.

I find that when young people hear these songs they like them; they respond to them. They have meaning and resonance and this music takes its place next to whatever pop music they listen to. I felt it was created just to preserve something that mattered to me where I felt there was a need for an organization to focus on that.

The foundation has grown by leaps and bounds. We are building a museum. We are proud to be a Grammy Foundation affiliate and only a few other museums can claim that honor.

In addition we created a summer academy, The Great American Songbook Academy. Forty young people from all over the United States come and participate for one week. It is songbook intensive and they learn about American popular music and thus they can add this music to their lives. Through music you can create healing; you can teach anything and music has the potential to offer tremendous transformation and that is certainly a mission for me.

TG: Please tell us how to contribute to this noble cause.
MF: At its core music is one of the most important forces in the world, in the universe. In its most simplistic terms think of soldiers going off to battle bolstered by the music that is being played as they march. The music transforms, heals, inspires, raises consciousness, and offers hope. All of that is encoded into any given piece of music. To bring awareness of this, especially to young people, is a holy pursuit.

Like all nonprofit arts organizations we are always happy for like-minded souls to contribute in any way they see fit. People tend to devalue the arts. People don’t think that contributing to an arts organization is as important as contributing to a cancer or similar organization but they both offer healing in different ways. To me they are equally important.The arts unites people from different backgrounds and helps them find common ground. It transforms and heals. I’ve seen it time and time again, starting with those days when I started playing in convalescent and retirement homes. I saw many whose quality of life improved through music. There is research that shows that people who have music played during their last days on earth need 40 percent less medications. There are scientific proven effects of music played for people who are ill and going through transition. It is all quite extraordinary. The experience of being involved in music is the greatest blessing of my life.

TG: Your travel schedule keeps you constantly on the road. Is there one item one of the most legendary performers never leaves home without?
MF: I am vegan and I never leave home without protein powder. I also have a deck of oracle cards that I travel with called The Cosmic Deck of Initiation because it moves me to my heart. I also always have that, and a little book called The Quiet Mind.

TG: Your music has made a difference in the lives of so many people. Your preservation of the Great America Songbook will last the test of time, and we’re very grateful. Thank you.

The post THE MARVELOUS MICHAEL FEINSTEIN appeared first on Travelgirl.

The marvelous Marsha Mason has been enormously triumphant in several wildly varied careers. She was nominated four times for an Oscar for her performances in Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two and Only When I Laugh. She’s also had an extensive Broadway and London stage career, wowing audiences when she starred in Cinderella Liberty, Cactus Flower, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and Steel Magnolias. Her work with her then-husband, Neil Simon, is legendary and he based some of his plays on their relationship, most notably Chapter Two. She’s also appeared in several films including Blume in Love, The Cheap Detective, Frasier (receiving an Emmy nomination) and most recently appearing as Arlene in the Netflix series, Grace and Frankie. She’s been an organic farmer, a successful race car driver, an actress and a director. Travelgirl’s Renee Werbin recently caught up with the exuberant and talented Marsha Mason who resides in Connecticut.

Travelgirl: I’m so happy to see you again. You have had so many different careers. You were an organic farmer, a race car driver, an award-winning actress and director.
Marsha Mason: I’ve had a very full life.

TG: Which career was the most fun and which defines you the most?
MM: Acting and directing are the most fun but they are hard work. Your stamina has to be in order; you have to be in good shape to do eight performances a week. Recently I directed and starred in Lost in Yonkers for the stage, and we had a big, huge success with that. The acting, in terms of my career, was the most defining.

I had such enormous success with Cinderella Liberty and I wasn’t really ready for the success that happened so quickly; it scared me. I didn’t know how to handle it. I was naïve and I needed to grow up, which I was able to do that on the farm.

My then husband, Neil Simon, was a great protector. When I look back now, I think one of the reasons we worked so well together was because I felt so protected by him; ultimately a little too protected because Neil was so controlling. It was a wonderful relationship and I don’t regret any of it. I gained two beautiful daughters, Ellen and Nancy, whom Neil was raising alone after the death of his wife. The girls are still close to me today and now we have grandchildren and a great-grandchild. The girls and I love each other and that’s really cool. I gained so much experience in those years.

TG: You were marvelous in the role of Arlene on Grace and Frankie. It must have been enchanting working on the set with those two great actresses. I interviewed Jane Fonda for a Travelgirl cover years and years ago and she was an absolute treasure.
MM: Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are the cutest, totally charming, most down-to-earth fabulous women. I am in awe of both of them, especially because of their energy and their commitment, which is so strong. I think it’s phenomenal to me at their age what they have accomplished and what they are still accomplishing. They are wonderful to work with. Both are gracious, kind and considerate and I enjoyed every moment of working with them.

TG: You built a very successful business and a beautiful home during your time in Santa Fe.
MM: I did. I loved my time there. I built an Argentinean estancia and I started growing medicinal, organic herbs and became a biodynamic farmer. I began growing the business by selling fresh herbs to a man named Daniel Gagnon. I developed my product line with Mitch Coven of Vitality Works. He was making individual products for private label companies and I sold my products to him for a couple of years. The products were marvelous.

I remember when I was heading to London with Richard Dreyfuss to perform in Prisoner of Second Avenue. I thought since I’m going to be in a 400-year-old theatre – the RoyalHay Market – I knew I was going to need something for my immune system and my voice. So we, with my team in Santa Fe, created a salve for our hands. I was ahead of the curve with my medicinal products. I started out locally and then we started giving lectures for the Vitality Works people. We even created a skin and body care line using fair trade shea butter as the base and adding my herbs.

TG: Your organic farm became wildly successful, didn’t it?
MM: It did and in the process, I fell in love with and found my signature herb. It is called Spilanties and it is native to South America. It is called the toothache herb because it is anti-viral and anti-bacterial. The tribes in South America would put the flour from this herb on their teeth if they had any kind of infection. We obtained some seeds from a European company and started growing Spilanties and it became our signature herb in everything that we made.

TG: Do you still own the company?
MM: No. I sold the farm in 2014 and then I sold off the products. I still have all the recipes. What was really extraordinary, in those 20 some-odd years, was that the farm matured me as an individual. I learned to be an entrepreneur, a businesswoman, and I gained a great deal of patience. I learned to have patience. I feel the experience on the farm turned me into a better actor and a better director.

The business changed in the late 80’s and 90’s and I was missing both the theatre and New York. I started thinking about selling the farm. It took quite a while for me to make the move because I had built a big operation. I found a wonderful person who bought it and she and her husband have kept it as a farm, which is what I had hoped would happen. The land out there became desirable and people started buying it up to build houses and I didn’t want the farm to disappear. Fortunately, it’s still there and it looks beautiful. The couple who bought it has done phenomenal things; they still grow medicinal herbs. They grow organic alfalfa, because we did. They’ve practically put the whole farm on solar power.

TG: How did you get into race car driving? I know Paul Newman was the impetus and you were good friends.
MM: I was on a plane with Paul going from New York to Los Angeles. Paul was going out to Riverside in California because they were closing a racetrack and he invited me out to watch him race.

I was interested and that interest was sparked when I was in high school. My best friend’s father had a track outside of St. Louis. We spent our Sundays handing out Pit Passes to the guys who raced. There was just something out there in that environment that intrigued me. I remember looking at the way the men would wrap individual pieces of their engine in oil cloth; they took really good care of their cars. I vividly remember their intense concentration. The smell, the speed, the whole thing captured my imagination.

I had totally forgotten about those days. Whenever I could, I would fly out to wherever Paul was racing. I bought a Mazda RX3, met LA lawyer Marc Staenberg and he suggested we team up. Together we created a mom and pop operation. I enrolled in a driving school, which I didn’t even know existed. I took a course at the Bob Bondurant School, then went to Skip Barber Racing School.

I then met Mike Lewis, an SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) champion. Mike built me my own Mazda GT3 car and I drove his old championship car for a couple of seasons. I had gotten into car racing in a serious way. We had three cars, a truck and a crew and for a long time I was a race car driver!

TG: Would you get into a race car today?
MM: I actually signed up for a race in May. I’m going to try and see what happens. I could never race competitively again because I think our reflexes are slower as we age but I want to see if everything I learned about driving is still at my fingertips.

TG: You should have been on every magazine cover in the world when you were racing. Not that many women get in race cars even today and in those days, you were the girl!!!
MM: I have a vivid memory of being in Monterey and the men around me at the track weren’t quite sure what to make of me. I stayed out of their way and I learned. Eventually Mike Lewis and the crew encouraged me to become competitive and I started to pass these guys. On the track I had a couple of accidents that were not my fault, but I was very calm and collected and handled it all very well.

TG: How did you meet Neil Simon?
MM: I met Neil the first day of rehearsal on The Good Doctor. I auditioned for him. My agent had encouraged me to audition for a Broadway show. I auditioned and read the governess part and had to read it cold because I hadn’t prepared it. I read and went back to my agent’s office and thought I would receive a call back and my agent laughed; she told me they had already hired me. I made it on Broadway on my first try. I packed up everything I owned and moved back to New York. I went into rehearsals on October 3 and Neil and I were married on October 27 — two weeks later — and we lasted 10 years. We raised the girls and did wonderful work together and had immense respect for each other.

TG: Tell me about The Goodbye Girl.
MM: That was a wonderful experience. The original script was called Bogart Slept Here, which was a loose adaptation of Midnight Cowboy. It was based on the idea of a young actor with a family getting a chance to do a big movie and becoming an overnight success.

Neil rewrote the story and it became a whole new movie. I auditioned with Richard Dreyfuss and we had this immediate chemistry. We didn’t know each other but the chemistry was there. It took us all —Richard, me and Ray Stark (the producer) and Neil — by surprise. Ray hired Herb Ross to direct and he quickly hired Quinn Cummings to play the little girl and in those days you could rehearse. We were on the set rehearsing before we started the picture. We went to New York to do the exteriors and went back to LA to finish up. We had no idea if the film would be successful but fortunately the universe was with us. All the cards seemed to indicate that people were happy to have a movie they could take their kids to. All the single mothers totally related to my character’s, Paula’s, problems. The success of The Goodbye Girl wasn’t something we had anticipated.

TG: What’s next for the illustrious Marsha Mason?
MM: I’m in talks with the Hartford Stage Company to do a play there for the 24-25 season. I am very busy working on a project with a workshop about two young boys in Australia in the 1950’s who competed for the Olympics. One of the boys ended up choosing to attend Harvard instead of being in the Olympics. It’s sort of a biographical story of a boy and his journey.

It was originally a film and one of the producers suggested making it into a play and the playwright, who coincidentally also wrote Drop Dead Fred, called me. We started working on the script together and found we had a very good creative partnership.

I went to Montreal and worked with a wonderful circus group, who through their actions on stage, I realized I could handle both the physicality and the emotionality of the play. My next step is to do a integrate both in a workshop. The Alley Theatre in Houston is intrigued and excited about the possibilities of this play and is willing to give us a workshop. I just need to raise more money to pay the acrobats. As you know, nonprofits are having a bit of a hard time now.

We are also working to see if we can turn Drop Dead Fred into a musical. We will see what happens. Meanwhile, I’m reading plays and I’m still auditioning and probably will go out to LA for pilot season. We will see.

TG: You can be sure Travelgirl will be watching!!!

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Disney Meetings and Events Team Brings its Special Magic to Every Event

Disney’s charm, charisma and expertise shine in theme parks, cruise ships and weddings. It’s a fact; Disney is known as the happiest place on earth. Enterprises throughout the world including Fortune 500 companies, foundations, corporations, family groups and businesses engage Disney to handle their private functions and these events are something to behold.

With the Disney Meetings and Events team, the client is the star. The magic is instantaneous and begins the moment you start planning your experience. The Disney Meetings and Events team plans it all. From invitations, costumes, staging to themes, each occasion is styled with panache. Invitations are unique and mesmerizing and prepared with magical care. An invite can be constructed of high-gloss paper shaped like a CD. When you open the envelope, the disc plays a song announcing the event! An invitation can showcase a new car about to be placed in production; anything you can imagine can be created by the talented Disney production team. The invitation is just the beginning; these events boggle the mind.

The Disney Meetings and Events team can plan a week-long, weekend, or single event. Anything you can dream can be orchestrated and everything is fashioned to the highest expectations. Your event team produces “Couture by Disney” where the uppermost standards are applied by an immensely imaginative team. Costuming is an art and, if you wish to enrich your function utilizing inventive apparel, the Disney Meetings and Events team will design glorious costumes to match your theme. Want to be Alice Through The Looking Glass, Anna or Elsa from Frozen, or perhaps a Marvel character? The Disney Meetings and Events team can make you believe you are Captain America or turn you into Wonder Woman. Perhaps you wish to recreate a scene from an episode of Saturday Night Live. Capable Disney experts can bring that chapter to life. Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother can and will arrive and make all your dreams come true!

Walt Disney World, located in Orlando, Florida, was the destination of choice for my family reunion event. This amazing amalgamation of parks was enjoying a milestone anniversary and celebrations were in gear. Welcoming children and adults of all ages, the atmosphere throughout was gloriously contagious and this was the perfect place to host my family. Bringing joy, smiles and laughter to a multitude of guests, my group was enchanted from the moment we arrived at the Riviera Resort and checked into our extraordinary rooms. The Riviera offers tower studio rooms and fabulous deluxe one-, two- or three-bedroom villas. This is the perfect resort for families. The tower studios include a microwave, small refrigerator and a uniquely hidden pull-down queen sofa bed. The villas are incredible, replete with kitchens, stainless steel appliances, washer and dryer, and a bubble-jet bathtub. The crème de la crème is the three-bedroom Grand Villa, which sleeps up to 12.

My family reunion was eventful, magical and almost beyond belief. The crème de la crème highlight was our last night’s celebration. It was an evening to remember with a soiree fit for a king and queen. After a charming and blissful day in the park, my group was escorted into a private group facility where a gifted staff eagerly welcomed and ushered us in. My group was comprised of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, children and grandchildren, and an infant who had just turned one. Our evening kicked off with a pianist who greeted us with an array of well-known and delightful Disney tunes. I’ve never seen my grandchildren’s eyes opened so wide! A fully stocked bar delighted the adults who ordered a drink, relaxed, enjoyed sensational appetizers while they watched the young ones dance. A grandiose four-course dinner was chosen in advance and served on fine china with silver table service and accompanied by an array of superb wines. The accommodating staff and magical atmosphere made this an evening to remember.

We finished dining and enjoyed several delightful Disney desserts while the children filled their pockets and their bellies with a cornucopia of candy but the best was yet to come. We walked down another hall to private room and a knock on the door was all it took. The children ran into the arms of the one and only Mickey Mouse. Disney had a photographer on hand to record the magic and turn them into memories we will always cherish. We spent 20 minutes taking photos with Mickey and then were escorted to sublime seats near the water to watch the nighttime pyrotechnical extravaganza. The laser and light show was filled with a medley of classic Disney music and an innovative combination of floating giant screens, choreographed moving fountains, lights and lasers. The scenes were inspired by your favorite Disney movies. What a magical way to complete a marvelous Disney day.

When planning your visit, Travelgirl recommends you divide your time between the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, Star War’s Rise of the Resistance (located in Hollywood Studios), and Animal Kingdom Park, which is also home to Pandora – The World of Avatar. You must make time to enjoy Disney’s newest ride, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which is located in EPCOT. This reverse-launch roller coaster projects you into the movie of the same name. You will rock to the music and roll along while experiencing an intergalactic chase through space and time. Travelgirl recommends you schedule a minimum of four days, more if possible, to fully enjoy the enriching activities and inspirational rides each park has to offer. Each day promises to be quite spectacular. Travelgirl Tip: Use the Park Hopper option to purchase tickets; a multi-day ticket is economical and flexible allowing the ticket holder to visit several parks on the same day.

The atmosphere at Disney is divine. If you love to travel and are dreaming of Paris, London, Morocco and Rome but can’t swing it right now, you should head to EPCOT’s World Showcase — no luggage, Euro or passport required. Transport yourself into 11 different countries all in one day. You will find a wealth of authentic items, attractions and restaurants that represent each country’s culture and cuisine. Travelgirl Tip: The Givenchy Shop inside Paris is a must-see, offering the complete collection of coveted Givenchy fragrances and cosmetics. Walk in a tourist and walk out a princess under the careful tutelage of Givenchy cosmeticians. The luxurious products are oh la la!!!

Disney’s cuisine offers a kaleidoscope of imaginative and scrumptious eateries. You can fast food it with hot dogs, burgers, popcorn, candy and ice cream at various stands throughout the parks or dine in style in an array of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious restaurants. You can choose from indigenous cuisine throughout EPCOT or make a reservation for a coveted table at Space 220, the first of its kind eatery. This concept restaurant blasts the diner 220 miles into the atmosphere via a space elevator. Diners arrive at the Centauri Space Station where you enjoy a delectable lunch or dinner Disney style.

You will also love Disney’s California Grille located on the 15th floor of the Contemporary Resort and the Steakhouse 71 located on the first floor. Cinderella’s Royal Table, Cítricos and Topolino’s Terrace headline a host of divine places to dine. Travelgirl tip: Reservations are a must and are available months and months ahead of your visit.

The uber-talented Disney Meetings and Events team did a truly magnificent job. Everything I had envisioned surpassed expectations. Disney created the event of a lifetime, one my family will never forget. Take note: Disney can do this for you, for your businesses, your families and for meetings and incentives. Event enchantment can turn every travelgirl into a fairytale princess. With the wave of their magical hands, the impossible becomes possible and you realize, with sometimes dreams really do come true. For more 411 and to plan your special week or weekend, Contact Disney Events at 321-939-7129 or visit https://www.disneymeetingsandevents.com/social-events/

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David Foster was a child prodigy who grew up to become a renowned composer, arranger, producer, performer, musician, and philanthropist. He is one of the world’s most productive, illustrious, and successful musicians and he has garnered rock star status around the world.

Foster has boosted the careers of a wealth of celebrities including Céline Dion, the band Chicago, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Natalie Cole, Michael Bublé, and Josh Groban. He’s the gold standard, a musician’s musician and he’s heading to Broadway with his musical Betty Boop. He constantly shares his time with a wealth of charities and he’s literally saved the lives of those in need of organ transplants through the David Foster Foundation. He’s incredibly gifted and he’s been a gift to so many in need.

His beautiful bride, Katharine McPhee, is endowed with a voice the angels have blessed. She is currently launching her line of jewelry. Actress, singer, wife, mother, and designer, she’s incredibly gracious and talented. A philanthropist as well, Katharine has built schools in Africa, which she continues to fund.

Travelgirl: May I start with David? You were born in Victoria, British Columbia, and began piano lessons at five. I read when you were five years old, your mother was dusting the piano, she hit a key and you immediately said it was an E. That’s quite amazing.

David Foster: At this point it could be family folklore. I can’t imagine that I knew it was an E, but my father was an amateur pianist and was very patient with me. At an early age he taught me some things and certainly by age five I was playing the piano and taking classical lessons. I don’t know if I really knew it was an E, but that’s the story and we are sticking to it!

TG: Did you have any idea at a young age that music would shape your future?

DF: I’m much like most people who find their place in the world and their success, and I’m sure Kat feels the same way. I didn’t know I would end up doing what I do now. I knew I would do music. I didn’t know it would take me to these places and to these heights and get me in all these corners I never thought I would be in. You keep moving the goal posts and that’s what happens.

TG: Where did you get your inspiration from when you were young? You were the only son in a family of five girls. They must have absolutely adored and pampered you. Listening to you now, it must have been your father who inspired you.

DF: It was definitely my father; he was so patient with me. He played barroom-style, honky-tonk piano and he taught me how to do that. God knows how he found the time, but he did and I’m eternally grateful to him for that. I also have to credit my mother for encouraging me to take piano lessons. Somehow my parents found a way to pay 50 cents per lesson. I don’t know how they did it; we didn’t have any money, but they did.

TG: Let’s take a minute to mention your formative years and your activities. You founded the band Airplay with Jay Graydon and worked with George Harrison, Guthrie Thomas, and Ringo Starr. You arranged and co-wrote with Earth, Wind & Fire, and were awarded a Grammy — the first of 16 to come. Your career included working with Boz Scaggs and you were a major contributor to and helped forge the success of the band Chicago. You worked with Kenny Loggins and I could go on and on. In your early years, you became so accomplished; how did you manage this feat? You must have an amazing amount of endless energy and I am sure you worked tirelessly, without sleep.

DF: Certainly, endless energy; when you are young, you are more fearless. I loved Earth, Wind & Fire and I loved the band Chicago. I was a fan of both before I knew them. You just go in fearlessly with confidence and I’ve always had confidence. By nature, most artists are insecure, including me at times. But that insecurity looks and hopes for direction and that’s what a good producer can do. I think I’ve learned to be a good producer.

TG: Let’s fast forward. You are one of the world’s most celebrated and accomplished composers. You are a mega star, recognized and revered all over the world. You have an enormous following in Asia where you have attained rock star status.

DF: Asia is an interesting place because they read the back of album covers, back when there were album covers. They love and respect the people who make the music just as much as they do the people who sing the music, which has given me a great career there. When I perform my music in Asia, as long as I have a great singer like Kat with me, they don’t care that it’s not Celine or Whitney. They just want to hear the songs that I’ve written and produced. They are very appreciative — a little more in-depth than other audiences elsewhere in the world.

TG: You’ve influenced and written award-winning gold and platinum albums for many illustrious stars including Barbra Streisand and Rod Stewart. Your work propelled and defined the careers of singers Michael Bublé and Josh Groban. You’ve said you spent 35 years in a room with no windows, churning out music. You write, you perform, you create, and you build careers. I am sure all aspects of the music industry are under your incredible wings, but which most defines you?

DF: When I go to the doctor’s office and the form says occupation, to this day, I write musician. I think of myself as a piano player first. All the rest, the arranging, the writing, the producing, and the performing, they came later in my life. I’m a musician. I’m a piano player and that’s always the way I’ll see me.

TG: Your children adore you; you find time to take care of everyone. I admire your philanthropy, which you’ve said is your life’s other priority. Please talk about The David Foster Foundation and tell us how our readers can donate. (Its mission is to provide financial support to Canadian families with children in need of live-saving organ transplants, along with a new focus on organ donor awareness.) You are never too busy for a worthwhile cause, volunteering your time and energy to over 400 charities.

DF: I love that question. Thanks for asking it. The David Foster Foundation is a passion of mine. Many celebrities put their names on good causes; that’s fair enough and that really helps. When you get into the trenches; it’s really hard work. It’s also incredibly fulfilling and rewarding. I began this over 30 years ago. We help the families of children who need organ transplants. It’s been so rewarding and we are a family. We have stayed in touch with a lot of the families we helped. Our donors are amazing. The last fundraiser was in Toronto about six months ago and we raised $12.4 million. That is an unheard of number in Canada. We are such a family. Our donors come to our events and I speak to our donors often. We are hundreds and thousands strong. We raise a ton of money and we do an enormous amount of good work. Thanks again for asking.

TG: You’ve worked tirelessly for so many meaningful causes.

DF: I wasn’t a performer, as you said, I was in the studio for many years just making music. These charity gigs were a way for me to help and also a way for me to hone my craft. I think it maybe started with an Andre Agassi event in Vegas where he just said he wanted me to host his event. These events were mega events with every star you can imagine from Streisand to Santana. I hosted these events and I got to hone my skills as a musical host. I enjoyed helping; I gave my time and it was a responsibility I was happy to take on. If you can help, you need to!

TG: You’ve won 16 Grammys, including three for Producer of the Year, an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe, the Canadian Walk of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in the U.S. You received your star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Would you please give those young hopefuls who aspire to one day follow in your famous footsteps some sage advice?

DF: For sure. It’s always good to get advice, but young people expect someone is going to come along and take them under their wings. It does occasionally happen but you have to do the hard work. One of the sayings that has followed me all my life, the one I love the most is — good is the enemy of great. If you want to be good, go ahead and be good. If you want to be great, that takes real, real work. It’s hard to do. You can’t do it every day, but you should try to do great work every day and that’s my advice.

TG: David, can you give us some insight into the Broadway musical you are writing?

DF: Broadway is a moving target. I am not used to being part of a team. Making records is not really a democracy, but certainly being on Broadway is. There are a lot of people in charge; it’s been a happy struggle and we are close. Supposedly, we will be in Chicago next year with Betty Boop and I am working on another musical as well. You just never know. I think I am in a place where I belong and I think I can do well there.

TG: Now to your beautiful and uber talented bride – Katharine McPhee. You are the daughter of a singer and a vocal coach, Peisha Arten, and Daniel McPhee. Please talk about your formative years and the support and inspiration you received from your parents.

Katharine McPhee Foster: I had tons of support. My parents were busy with their own lives, but they really believed in encouraging me to do whatever it was that I loved. Singing was something I was naturally good at. My mom enrolled us in dance classes, both me and my sister. My mother thought it was an important element to be well-rounded. She was giving voice lessons all day long and she still is to this day. She is one of the hardest working people I know. She’s always in a lesson and she’s always happy and upbeat. People love taking lessons with her. For me, singing was always part of my environment. I had my mom behind me and it was really great. When I had auditions in high school for the spring musical and even when I was in middle school, my mom was the best person to have in your back door. Literally, my mom would help me get the whole thing situated. She would help me have my audition ready, the song ready — even, how many bars I should sing. I was always the most prepared and the most professional because I lived with a professional.

TG: You began your career as an actress. In May 2006 you made a huge impression on the judges at American Idol and was the runner-up on the fifth season. In 2007 you released your self-titled album, which debuted at number two on Billboard 200. Your second album, Unbroken, was also a huge success. As an actress you co-starred on The House Bunny and you played the role of Karen Cartwright, one of the leads, on Smash. From 2014 to 2018, you starred in CBS’s Scorpion as Paige Dineen. Recently you starred on both the Broadway and West End productions in Waitress. Which genre most defines you most — actress or singer?

KMF: I think people identify me as a singer before an actress, that’s how I was initially introduced. I really see myself as a well-rounded performer. I enjoy acting more; there’s something about hiding behind someone else’s words — becoming another character. As a singer I love live performing. I’m not as motivated to be a recording artist as I was when I was younger. I’m excited about the Christmas album I just did with David because we got to do it together. He said earlier in the interview, he is that person that comes in and directs you and tells you what to do. No matter the issue you are having at the moment, David always knows exactly what to do. That was such a refreshing experience for me. It was similar to what you do as an actor; you have a director, writers, and it’s a collaborative effort. I think I see myself more as an actor.

TG: You are also a philanthropist. You set-up the McPhee Outreach to finance a school in Africa in 2010.

KMF: Yes, it was very philanthropic and I appreciate your bringing this up. It was actually something I started with my ex-husband. It was something we were able to accomplish during that time together and I’m very proud of it. We were able to build schools through that program and I still fund the schools. I’m glad, through my contributions, that I’m still able to keep the lights on at this school and keep it operating. I’ve also done a lot of work and built some schools and done some work with an organization called Build On. I’ve really been fond of their work and of the things that they do. I am very quiet about that type of work, but probably as I get older I’ll be more vocal about the philanthropic aspects of my life.

TG: Before I ask about your new album I want to discuss the jewelry line, KMF Jewelry, you recently launched. I’m thrilled about this. Every woman loves jewelry. What inspired you to develop a line of jewelry?

KMF: I am really excited about it. It’s one of those passions that I’ve had for a really long time, but initially I kept it in my head. I didn’t talk to anyone else about how much I would love to have a jewelry line. Not in my personality or even in my wildest dreams did I think I would consider picking up the phone and starting a jewelry line. I never even mentioned it to David.

DF: I would say this, when we were first together, five years ago, I noticed she would be playing with her jewelry for an hour straight. As she will tell you, when she was a kid, she loved jewelry. Both Kat and her mom used to watch QVC and the Home Shopping Network. They would ogle over this jewelry. They both had a passion for it. I believe this jewelry line will work because it’s personal and she has such a great love and passion for it. The honesty and the trust will come through. She truly loves what she sells and that will translate to the folks who are watching and wanting to purchase a piece.

KMF: It wasn’t something I vocalized. One day, just a few months after our son was born, I received an email from a really close friend of ours connecting me to someone I hadn’t met who wanted to start a jewelry line with me. I’ve spent the last year-and-a- half going back and forth planning and working. This is just a really nice partnership and that’s how it started. I really believe in manifesting and writing down goals I want to achieve.

TG: Please talk about some of the pieces you are designing and tell us where we can purchase some of your treasures.

KMF: Right now we are selling direct to consumer on our kmfjewelry.com website. I love so many of the pieces. One of my favorites is from a unique line of imperial rope chain necklaces that have very interesting eternity clasps. I get a lot of compliments on these. They are unlike any other chain out there. The chain is handmade and it sparkles in a really beautiful way. It’s really cool.

TG: We are entering into one of the best times of the year, the holidays. I’m excited about your upcoming album Christmas Songs and your single Jingle Bell Rock. Please talk about your collaboration. David is the king of Christmas records. Katharine, is Christmas your favorite holiday?

KMF: I love Christmas even more than David loves making Christmas albums. I have to give my mom credit for my having a love for all types of seasons. My mom would get us excited for Valentine’s Day. We had so many traditions. The day after Thanksgiving we would put Christmas music on and decorate the entire house. We’ve sort of stuck to our traditions. When we moved in together, I decked out the entire condo. I love to decorate and I love to listen to Christmas music. It’s even more fun now with our son.

DF: We had a great time making this record. It started by me sitting at the piano and saying, “Hey, what do you think of this Christmas song?” Then I thought, well, let’s put it on Instagram. Pretty soon, me being me, the eternal producer, I said okay, well let’s make a record and let’s go get a record deal and here we are on Vista Records, Concord and Universal. We have a fabulous album. We had a great photo shoot and we have a single, Jingle Bell Rock. We are going to do all the TV shows, and we are doing the Disney Parade in Orlando. We will do all the morning shows no doubt. We don’t have any great expectations but as you said, my track record with Christmas albums is pretty good and Kat is an incredible singer. We had fun.

TG: Can you give us a glimpse into working with David? Please tell us something we don’t know.

DF: Kat has one advantage that no other singer has. She just has to roll out of the bedroom and come into the studio. No other singer that I work with can do that!

KMF: I can think of one thing you might not know. David really isn’t that adventurous. David is a guy who knows what he knows and wants to stick with what he knows.

TG: What’s on your travel bucket list? Do you have a favorite travel destination?

DF: We do, we do, we do. Capri. We just love it there. We are creatures of habit and keep going back to places we love. We also love going to British Columbia, which as you said earlier, is where I’m from. We love going boating and fishing. Kat’s family is from the Pacific Northwest and we love that area too. I think maybe my favorite city is Paris.

The two will be dazzling audiences Dec. 16-17 at the Encore Theater at the Wynn Las Vegas. Please visit www.davidfoster.com for a list of upcoming performances throughout 2023. You can also learn more about his life, his hits, his awards, and his foundation.

One of the sayings that has followed me all my life, the one I love the most is — Good is the enemy of great. If you want to be good, go ahead and be good. If you want to be great, that takes real, real work.

When I go to the doctor’s office and the form says occupation, to this day, I write musician. I think of myself as a piano player first. All the rest, the arranging, the writing, the producing, and the performing, they came later in my life.

The post The Incredible DAVID FOSTER and the talented KATHARINE MCPHEE appeared first on Travelgirl.

The mega-talented and iconic Brad Paisley was born on Oct. 28, 1972 in Glen Dale, West Virginia to loving and adoring parents. He had a wonderful childhood and at a mere eight years old, his grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who was a huge influence in his life, bought him a Danelectro Silvertone guitar from the Sears catalog and taught him how to play. He also introduced Brad to country music and soon, while still in elementary school, Brad was singing in church and at gigs around town.

   The youngster showed great talent, and at age 12 Brad’s principal arranged for him to perform at a Rotary Club meeting. The performance caught the ear of Tom Miller who worked at a radio station in Wheeling, West Virginia, and arranged for Brad to appear on Jamboree USA. Brad sang a Christmas song he wrote, Born on Christmas Day and, as they say, “a star was born”. Paisley’s performance was incredibly well-received and he became a regular on the show, opening for a number of renowned country singers. He was the youngest person ever to be inducted into the Jamboree USA Hall of Fame.

   Paisley attended college and in 1995 graduated from Belmont University in Nashville. In 1999 he released his debut record, Who Needs Pictures, which sold over a million copies. His musical acumen, charm, love of country music, along with his proficiency with a guitar, made him a sought-after performer. He made dozens of appearances at country music’s famed Grand Ole Opry. and in 2001, his dream came true when he became a member of the Opry.

  He’s a distinguished singer and songwriter but he’s also known for his wit; his hit single I’m Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin’ Song) is a testament to Paisley’s reputation as a clever and ingenious lyricist. Not only is the song a humorous take on a girlfriend’s ultimatum, saying “it’s either fishing or me,” but it’s also where he met his wife, the actress Kimberly Williams. Numerous songs throughout his career further enhanced his status in this genre, including Celebrity, Ticks and Alcohol. 

   He’s one of country music’s most prolific songwriters and performers. A fan favorite, he is often on tour, not just in this country but throughout the world. In his 2022 tour, he has thrilled thousands of fans throughout Europe and embarked on his first tour of Australia. 

   He returns to the Encore Theater at the Wynn Las Vegas in November. Earlier this year he helped Wynn re-open the 1,200-seat theater after COVID, and did two acoustic performances — just him and his guitar. Both Paisley and his audience loved it, including the woman who was returning to her seat with a snack and drink. According to People Magazine, he stopped the show, asked her what she had and if she was going back for more food. She said yes and then he requested a beer, which her husband brought up to the stage. It’s that genuine connection with fans that makes him special.

   The accomplished and vastly talented Brad Paisley has written most of his own hits, including 21 of his 24 Number 1 hits. In 2008 he had 10 consecutive Billboard Country Airplay number one singles. Always the consummate showman, Paisley has won three GRAMMYs, two American Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards, 15 Academy of Country Music Awards and a host of other honors, including in 2010 being named CMT’s Entertainer of the Year. 

   His on-air collaboration with NFL superstar Peyton Manning in Nationwide ad campaigns has further endeared him to throngs of fans. This dynamic duo posted a duet video with Paisley on the guitar and Manning on the xylophone. Watch for more collaborative efforts and more enchanting ads on television and online from these two superstars. 

   In 2015, the global superstar partnered with Boot Barn® to develop Moonshine Spirit by Brad Paisley, a line of jeans, hats, T-shirts, jewelry, belts and woven shirts. Paisley and his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, have two sons. Partnering with Belmont University, the couple co-founded The Store, a free-referral based nonprofit grocery store, which aims to empower low-income individuals and families in the Nashville area. For more information, visit www.thestore.org.

   Brad Paisley is a distinguished actor, singer, songwriter and a philanthropist. He will be performing at the Encore Theatre at Wynn Las Vegas for two nights, Nov. 4 and 5. The concert will be filled with his hits including Waitin’ on a Woman, Then, Whiskey Lullaby, Then, Online, She’s Everything and more. Rush to purchase tickets; Paisley concerts always sellout. For more information on Encore Theater and to purchase tickets to these two performances, visit www.wynnlasvegas.com

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Country music superstar Luke Bryan was born in Leesburg, Ga. on July 17, 1976. His keen interest in music began when he was young, listening to his parents’ records. His folks enjoyed country music including favorites such as the legendary singers Merle Haggard and George Strait. At the age of 14, his parents gifted him with a guitar. Luke was overjoyed and it wasn’t long before he began singing with local bands. He honed his craft in high school, performing in musicals and writing songs. Little did he know it at the time, but he was on the path to becoming a country music superstar.

Travelgirl:  You were born in Leesburg and your dad was a farmer. What was it like growing up with your family in Georgia?

Luke Bryan: Growing up in Georgia, my dad was a farmer and we worked in agriculture, so we were always looking up at the sky, checking if rain was in the forecast. That always set the tone for the mood in my household, whether we had rain coming in or not — we knew the crops would be good and it was going to be a good week around the Bryan household.

At age 19 Luke was heading to Nashville when tragedy struck and his beloved older brother, Chris, was killed in an automobile crash. Luke stayed home, attended Georgia Southern University and worked on his dad’s peanut farm — all the while playing music at night. In 2001, with his family’s insistence, Luke relocated to Nashville and landed a songwriting contract. He wrote for several renowned artists including Travis Tritt and performed his music at night. Capitol Records caught his show and signed him and, the rest, shall we say, is history. 

The accolades poured in and Luke Bryan’s career took off. He wrote a wealth of number one hits including Rain is a Good Thing, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Fast, Crash My Party, That’s My Kind of Night, and numerous others. As his career rose so did the awards. Country Aircheck named Bryan the Most Heard Artist of the Last Decade. He’s won almost 50 major music awards and has amassed close to 30 number one hits. The awards continued. He became the first recipient of the ACM Album of the Decade for his Crash My Party album. He  was a CMT Artist of the Year six times and has sold over 12 million albums. 

Another special award was bestowed upon Luke by the Country Radio Broadcasters; he was honored the 2021 Artist Humanitarian Award recipient for his numerous philanthropic undertakings. Luke Bryan is a humanitarian in every sense of the word. He works tirelessly for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Nashville where all children are treated for free, regardless of their circumstances. His support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation is inspirational. He lost his devoted sister Kelly in 2007 and her husband in 2014 after which Luke and his beloved wife Caroline became guardians for their nieces and nephew. Luke and Caroline are incredibly proud of their own two sons, Thomas “Bo” and Tatum “Tate” Bryan. 

Bryan told the stories of his many successes and heartbreaks in November, 2017 when he gave us a look at his life in an ABC special presentation with Robin Roberts entitled Living Every Day: Luke Bryan. It’s a triumph told in the first person. 

The illustrious Luke Bryan, five-time Entertainer of the Year, has a new single at country radio today entitled Country On. The song, written by Mark Nesler, David Frasier, Mitch Oglesby, and Styles Haury, produced by Jeff Stevens and co-produced by Jody Stevens, featuring Sarah Buxton on background vocals, debuted on July 4. The release of Country On continues Luke’s record of 29 career #1 singles and 17.2 billion worldwide streams on country radio. 

LB: “I love that the song uplifts the hardworking American people out there, and it brings a lot of unity. It just has feel-good vibes all the way around it. Anytime you can reference country music fans in a song, and you can really make it feel natural, it’s great. And this song does just that.” 

   Luke continues his headlining with a residency at the new Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas.  Secure tickets now to see this grand superstar in person Aug. 31, Sept. 3, 4, Nov. 30 and Dec. 2, 3, 7, 9, 10.

Travelgirl:  We are looking forward to seeing you in Las Vegas. Please give us some insight into the show.
LB: We’ve worked long and hard to put together an incredible, high-energy show for the fans. I am so proud of how it turned out and I hope everyone who comes leaves there having as much fun as me. My favorite place to be is on stage performing to country music fans. So thankful every night when I walk out on that stage and know you are there to have a blast along beside me. It never gets old.”  

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