Dueling Pianos for Waves with Mike Reid and Phil Vassar
Award-winning singers and songwriters Mike Reid and Phil Vassar are set to perform at the 2nd Annual Franklin Synergy Bank Dueling Pianos For Waves supported by Cigna event on Thursday, September 8, 2016 at BA Properties in Franklin, TN. Patrons will have the opportunity to browse an incredible car collection, enjoy delicious food and drink and tip Mike and Phil to play their favorite songs. All proceeds benefit Waves, Inc.
Doors will open at 6:00pm, and patrons will spend the first part of the evening viewing the collection of foreign and domestic cars and enjoying delicious food from Blue Diamond Catering. Wine, beer from Ajax Turner and specialty drinks from Grandaddy Mimm’s Authentic Moonshine will also be available.
Sensational live and silent auctions will offer autographed guitars, hotel stays at The Inn at Fontanel, Marriott and Embassy Suites, a bottle of Arrington Vineyards wine autographed by Kix Brooks, photography sitting from Kevin Wimpy Photography, and much more.
At 7:30pm, Mike Reid and Phil Vassar will take their seats at pianos facing each other, and revelers will tip to have these accomplished artists sing their own and other piano-centric songs. Singing along is highly encouraged.
Tickets for the exciting event are $100.00 in advance or $125.00 at the door and can be purchased at www.wavesinc.com. Admission includes valet parking, a self-guided tour of the car collection, food, two drink tickets and music, music, music! For questions, contact Emily Layton at elayton@wavesinc.com.
About Phil Vassar: With countless hits as a country singer and songwriter and a mantle full of awards, this Billboard Country Songwriter of the Year has hit the Top 5 seven times with songs including Carlene, Last Day of My Life and American Child and number one hits In A Real Love and the perennial favorite Just Another Day in Paradise. American Soul, his first album since 2009, hits stores September 30, 2016.
Vassar continues to churn out incisive, soulful lyrics and infectious melodies that capture the heart and soul in the unique and special way that only he can. Known as one of Nashville’s top tunesmiths, he has written #1 hits for Jo Dee Messina (Bye Bye, I’m Alright) and Alan Jackson (Right on the Money). Other chart-topping singles include Tim McGraw (For A Little While, My Next Thirty Years) Collin Raye (Little Red Rodeo), Blackhawk (Postmarked Birmingham) and David Nail (The Sound of a Million Dreams), which Billboard named the #1 song in their Top 10 Country Songs of 2012.
He converted a storm shelter in his home into a wine cellar and created “Songs from the Cellar,” a tv show where he invites celebrity wine connoisseurs to enjoy wine, tell stories and play music. Guests have included Styx guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw, hit songwriter and guitarist Steve Cropper and Big & Rich frontman John Rich. www.PhilVassar.com.
About Mike Reid: A former Defensive Rookie of the Year and two-time NFL All-Pro for the Cincinnati Bengals, Mike Reid walked away from football and moved to Nashville to pursue songwriting in 1980. He scored his first number one country hit with “Inside” by Ronnie Milsap in 1983, and a year later his “Stranger In My House” composition won a Grammy for “Best Country Song.” He has written more than 30 top ten country and pop hits. Twenty-one of those records have reached number one on the charts. He charted seven of his own singles as an artist on Columbia Records, including the number one hit “Walk on Faith.” Bonnie Raitt recorded his song “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” which was later covered by George Michael, Prince, Adele, Katy Perry and others.
In 1992, Reid received The Governor’s Award for the Arts in Tennessee for his work on the modern dance piece “Quilts.” He was commissioned by the Kandinsky Trio of Roanoke, Virginia to write “The Cantankerous Blacksmith,” and it continues to be part of the Kandinsky’s touring repertoire. He collaborated with librettist Sarah Schlesinger on a one-act opera commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and Opera Memphis that explores the myth of celebrity in contemporary American sports. Reid and Schlesinger’s musical entitled “The Ballad of Little Jo” received a 1998 Richard Rodgers Foundation Award and its first production in September 2000 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater and won the Joseph Jefferson award for Best New Musical. It has also been produced at the Bridewell Theater in London.
His composition “Eye of The Blackbird,” a setting for piano trio and soprano of Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” was given its world premiere by the Kandinsky Trio and soprano Elizabeth Weigle. Shortly thereafter, the group performed the piece at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. www.Mike-Reid.com
About Waves:
Over forty years ago, a group of citizens in Fairview decided to “make waves” for people with disabilities. Waves has provided a broad range of services for adults and children with developmental disabilities in Williamson County including home and community based early intervention services, day programs, residential programs, job training, and office recycling.
