{"id":1118763,"date":"2017-12-20T14:39:18","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T19:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/?p=1118763"},"modified":"2017-12-20T14:41:15","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T19:41:15","slug":"phil-vassar-kellie-pickler-to-bring-holiday-cheer-to-the-weiinberg-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/2017\/12\/20\/phil-vassar-kellie-pickler-to-bring-holiday-cheer-to-the-weiinberg-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Vassar, Kellie Pickler to bring holiday cheer to the Weinberg stage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P7YDxieqj0U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Phil Vassar and Kellie Pickler are on \u201cThe Naughty List\u201d this holiday season. And they want music fans to join them.<\/p>\n<p>Singer-songwriter Vassar and country recording artist Pickler are on the road with \u201cA Christmas Tour,\u201d which stops in Frederick at the Weinberg Center for the Arts on Friday. Show time is 7 p.m. and tickets are $45, $50 and $70, and they are available at the Weinberg box office.<\/p>\n<p>Vassar has recorded (and co-written) top hits, including \u201cJust Another Day in Paradise,\u201d \u201cAmerican Child,\u201d \u201cIn A Real Love,\u201d \u201cCarlene,\u201d \u201cSix-Pack Summer\u201d and \u201cPrayer of a Common Man.\u201d And he has a slew of songs that were hits recorded by other artists, including Alan Jackson\u2019s \u201cRight on the Money,\u201d Tim McGraw\u2019s \u201cFor a Little While,\u201d Diamond Rio\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Already Gone,\u201d Collin Raye\u2019s \u201cLittle Red Rodeo,\u201d and \u201cOnce in a While,\u201d which was recorded by Engelbert Humperdinck and was the song that kicked off his songwriting career.<\/p>\n<p>Pickler won fans over as a contestant on \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d and found more fans with her hit songs \u201cRed High Heels,\u201d \u201cBest Days of Your Life,\u201d \u201cDidn\u2019t You Know How Much I Loved You,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t You Know You\u2019re Beautiful\u201d and the ultra-personal \u201cI Wonder,\u201d a song she co-wrote about her childhood and the missed moments with her mother who was absent from her life.<\/p>\n<p>The show will feature many of the artists\u2019 hit songs and the new duet recorded by Vassar and Pickler, which is aptly titled \u201cThe Naughty List.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKellie and I decided this past summer to do the tour and I thought it would be cool to do it with a girl so we could do some of the classic holiday duets,\u201d Vassar said in a phone interview from his tour bus on the way to a show in snowy Canton, Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought we should write and cut a song for [the tour]. So, in the middle of summer, when it was 100 degrees outside, I went into my piano room\u201d and wrote \u201cThe Naughty List,\u201d which has a big band sound and a video with Vassar and Pickler singing the flirty love song on stage in a vintage, smoky club setting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did write it with Kellie in mind,\u201d he said, referring to the lyrics which talk about her \u201cred high heels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like old-style Christmas songs,\u201d Vassar said. \u201cKind of jazzy, big-band sound stuff. I love [\u2018The Naughty List\u2019] and how it came out in the video.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Music wins<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Lynchburg, Virginia, native attended James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, on a track scholarship. \u201cI was a decathlete,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>But his passion for music was stronger than his passion for athletics, and he headed to Nashville.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew what I was going to do my whole life,\u201d Vassar explained. \u201cI knew music was what I was going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His father, Phil Vassar Sr., was a professional singer and the home was always filled with music.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have two sisters \u2014 one loved country and one was a big rock \u2018n\u2019 roll head,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was soul music; my parents loved everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The music gene continues with his oldest daughter, Haley, 19, who is at college in New York City, and is pursuing a pop music career. His other daughter, Presley, is 14.<\/p>\n<p>As a youngster, Vassar first played drums, then guitar. It was Lionel Richie and The Commodores\u2019 \u201cEasy Like Sunday Morning\u201d that drove him to the piano.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought, \u2018I have to learn to play the piano\u2019 because of that song,\u2019\u201d he explained. \u201cEver since then, that\u2019s been it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he said his heroes were Billy Joel and Elton John, the first concert he ever attended featured another hero, Merle Haggard.<\/p>\n<p>Vassar\u2019s latest album, \u201cAmerican Soul,\u201d was released in December 2016. It was his first album in six years after taking an extended break to raise his daughters. During that time, he continued to do some touring, including in Europe and Australia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can tour so much, you kind of find yourself gone all the time,\u201d Vassar said. \u201cI am a parent all of the time, no matter what I do. I love taking my kids to school, taking them to dance class or cheerleading practice, the kind of things you can only do when you are off the road.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love my job, I love playing my music,\u201d and added, noting how he loves where he is in his career \u2014 without the pressure of having to produce new music on a record label\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n<p>After the \u201cChristmas Tour\u201d stop in Frederick, the jaunt wraps up in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he says his mother, sister and other family members will be in the audience. He\u2019ll take a break in January and start touring again in 2018 on Valentine\u2019s Day weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve already booked shows for 2018, the summer and even next Christmas,\u201d Vassar said, with new music to come along throughout the year. The number of country music fans in Europe continues to grow, he said, so he will perform there in April and October and he hopes to do a couple of USO shows. Earlier in December, he performed at the USO Ball in New York City.<\/p>\n<p>Vassar said the \u201cChristmas Tour\u201d set list varies from show to show but, usually, he and Pickler take the stage together to open the show and sing a few holiday songs, including Pickler\u2019s \u201cSanta Baby.\u201d Then each takes the stage as a solo artist to sing more holiday favorites and some of their own hit songs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe show goes by so fast! It\u2019s the fastest hour and a half,\u201d Vassar said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phil Vassar and Kellie Pickler are on \u201cThe Naughty List\u201d this holiday season. And they want music fans to join them. Singer-songwriter Vassar and country recording artist Pickler are on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":1118764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-1118763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-concerts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1118764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}