Melissa Manchester comes to Park City to perform Friday through Sunday. Melissa Allison has more:
Native New Yorker Melissa Manchester released her first album in 1973 and in the following 44 years released 20 more with such hits as Midnight Blue, Through the Eyes of Love and Lovers After All.
She’s coming to Park City to perform all of the favorites from her career along with songs from “The Fellas” which was released last year.
“The Fellas is my tribute to several of the great male singers that I grew up with, listening to and loving - Sinatra and Nat Cole and Tony Bennett and Johnny Mathis," Manchester said. "And I did it with a student orchestra at the Citrus College here in Glendora, CA where I’m an artist in residence and they’re just unbelievable, they’re trained magnificently.”
Manchester’s 1989 album entitled “Tribute” was an homage to female singers who had influenced her. She said she would have done “The Fellas” sooner if not for the nature of the music industry.
"I couldn’t find a record company that would be interested in supporting me in my competition of the idea," Manchester said. "And now that recording artists are in the golden age of independent artists, as I am now, it’s really thrilling to do crowd funding to create these projects because people take a sort of sweet interest in helping you to achieve your goal.”
Though the album was recorded with an orchestra, Manchester will have just two musicians on stage to accompany her.
“I’ll be bringing a keyboard player, John Prouix and my tour manager, Susan Holbert actually is a superb musician," Manchester said. "She’s on stage with me as well.”
Manchester is performing at the Egyptian Theatre Friday through Sunday and she hopes the audience will feel like they’re in her living room.
“The show work is very textured, there’s lots of videos to watch while I’m singing so you really get a chance to see what was happening in the studio," Manchester said. "And after the concert, I come out into the lobby and shake hands and sign CD’s and all of that stuff – so it’s really sweet.”
The performances start at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday with a 6 o’clock performance on Sunday.
For ticket information you can visit egyptiantheatrecompany.org or call (435) 649-9371
I’m Melissa Allison, KPCW News.