CMT Blog: Archive

The things Phil Vassar does with his grand piano are not the things you learn in lessons as a kid. I doubt piano teachers are encouraging kids to stand up while playing, to play their own harmonicas for accompaniment, or to jump up on top of the piano at the end of a song. Somehow, though, those are exactly the kinds of things that make a Vassar concert so damn cool.

And maybe because he didn’t learn to play with traditional after-school lessons, he taught himself a hipper way of playing. (He taught himself how to play The Commodores‘ “Easy” when he found his aunt’s old piano being stored in his basement during high school.) What results is a live show like the one I saw this weekend — packed with elbow-to-elbow fans, crowded with uptempo hits, and full of enough stage antics to keep everyone engaged. He mixed in tunes he’s made famous for others, like “I’m Alright” (Jo Dee Messina) , “Little Red Rodeo” (Collin Raye) and “My Next Thirty Years” (Tim McGraw) with songs that he’s pushed up the charts on his own, like “Carlene,” “Six Pack Summer” and his soon-to-be-released “I Would.”

Being a piano player in a sea of guitar-slinging frontmen is enough to make Vassar an anomaly. But he’s not just a novelty for novelty’s sake. His songwriting and musical talents run deep. And his ability to make anything have a country vibe — like Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” — gives him an edge over same old, same old country artists. So if there is ever a Phil Vassar School of Piano, that’s the one I’ll sign my kids up for.