The G.R.P.

The Arts Council’s Smithgall Arts Center, 331 Spring St. SW, Gainesville

From the Arts Council:
John McAndrew is a singer, a piano player and a storyteller…the songs he writes tell stories taken from his travels and observations of life.  To McAndrew lyrics are power.  Without taking lesson John taught himself to play the piano, sax, flute, guitar and harmonica and along the way fell in love with lyrics…the words that breathe live onto a song.  McAndrew describes himself as a ‘pops/blues’ artist who when at home listens to a lot of jazz.  Some of the selections that John will perform at Evenings of Intimate Jazz are from his cd “I’ll Play All Night Long.”

From the Gainesville Times:
Some storytellers use a medium of ink and paper to craft their stories. John McAndrew envelops his stories with piano notes and his voice, bringing them to life in movies, on nearly a dozen of his albums and even an upcoming Broadway show.

McAndrew calls himself a songwriter first, but he also plays the piano and sings in a deep, bluesy voice that instantly puts the listener at ease. And it’s this connection, McAndrew said, that’s why he was always drawn to music as a way to tell his stories.

“Music is powerful because it connects the head and the heart, and sometimes we need to touch the heart before people can think about things,” he said in a phone interview with The Times. “Music’s a powerful way to talk about anything, so almost all the songs I write are true stories or things that happen.”

McAndrew brings these life stories to The Arts Council’s Smithgall Arts Center at 8 p.m. Saturday as part of the Evenings of Intimate Jazz series. (continue reading…)