By Karen Wolitzer
"This one has everything from solo piano to worship songs.
It Wouldn't Be Christmas Without You is my favorite," says Tesh with a smile. "It's a ballad sung to my wife (beautiful actress Connie Sellecca.)Drawing from his own boyhood favorites like
Joy to the World and
I'll Be Home for Christmas, John breathes new life into the familiar. Worship songs include
God of Wonders, Awesome God and
Breathe. "I really want
Christmas Worship to be an album of pure encouragement," says Tesh. "It addresses the current need we all have to reconnect with our families and to accept the gift we awake to every morning...the gift of a brand new day."John's been enjoying his days and the freedom of his life, since leaving
Entertainment Tonight in 1996. Most recently he's been busy with the
John Tesh Radio Show." We do it once a week," he explains. "It's music and intelligence for your life. We supply news and information that you can use to live your life a whole lot better or just to impress your friends at the water cooler," he says with a laugh. "We offer our listeners random, useful information that comes from places like Prevention Magazine and Internet help sites: relationship information, exercise advice...all that stuff. It gets a huge response because people are looking for that edge. We may interview Dan Rather one week and Sting the next week. We're doing the radio show that I want to listen to," he explains.When he's not talking on the radio, he leads the band in his church. So, performing Christian music comes naturally to him. As a matter of fact, his last couple of records have been comprised of just that, which is very different from the instrumental contemporary jazz albums for which he had previously been known. Earlier this year he released an album called
A Deeper Faith, which received an overwhelming response from both mainstream and Christian arenas. "I think that now, more than ever, people are hungry for the kind of encouragement that worship music can bring," says John. "And I think that's why
A Deeper Faith has done so well. Worship music has always played an integral part of my growth as a Christian, but," he adds, "it's not the only music I write and produce. I do find it to be really good encouraging music. I'm not a preacher. I don't grab people and say 'You must believe in Christ!' but I think when somebody hears a really great song, especially at Christmas time, it makes them feel more positive."Although he's deeply spiritual, John also acknowledges that he's a knucklebrain. (His word.) Not only that, he's a knucklebrain who grew up right here on Long Island, in Garden City and attended Garden City High School. So, he enjoys coming home and performing at Westbury Music Fair. "It's one of my favorite places to perform," he says with a smile. "I used to go to Westbury Methodist Church," he adds. It's going to be a great show. "I'll be singing a lot of different stuff...from the older television specials to the new Christmas album. But it won't be two hours of Christmas music. I'll be telling stories about growing up on Long Island. My fans know that my life is an open book. And I love my fans...they're great."
John Tesh
Westbury Music Fair
960 Brush Hollow Rd.
Westbury
November 27 at 8 p.m.
Tickets: $35
