Previous Section
Tickets for Phil Vassar go on sale Feb. 23Print OptionsMore InformationRelated Information |
Tickets for Phil Vassar go on sale Feb. 23
Johnson County Community College
|
|
|
|
Tickets for Phil Vassar go on sale Feb. 23
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The Cohen Community Series presents An Evening with Phil Vassar at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 24, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center, Johnson County Community College. The American country music star is the second presenter in the Cohen Community Series, inaugurated last year in honor of the late Barton P. Cohen, president of Metcalf Bancshares, vice chairman and general counsel of Metcalf Bank and an attorney with Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin LLP.
Tickets for Phil Vassar are $40 and $55, available by calling the Carlsen Center box office, 913-469-4445. A limited number of $150 VIP tickets will include the concert and a reception with Vassar, available by contacting Christy McWard, 913-469-8500, ext. 4684.
Vassar has produced 16 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including two No. 1s – Just Another Day in Paradise (2000) and In a Real Love (2004). With charisma and GQ-good looks (really, his photo was in the magazine), the baritone, pianist and songwriter will be performing his well-known hits including those from his newest album, Prayer of a Common Man.
Born in Lynchburg, Va., Vassar won a track scholarship to James Madison University, where he first began to take music seriously.
Hard work paid off for Vassar, scoring hits for artists Tim McGraw (For a Little While, My Next Thirty Years), Jo Dee Messina (Bye, Bye, I'm Alright), Collin Raye (Little Red Rodeo), and Alan Jackson (Right on the Money). In 1999, he was first named by ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) as Country Songwriter of the Year.
His self-titled album debuted in 2000, and the hits continued: Carlene, Rose Bouquet, That’s When I Love You, In a Real Love and more. Since then he has been named ASCAP’s songwriter or writer/artist multiple years.
His early success as a writer led to one of the most unique compilation of hit songs to come out of Nashville in recent years. With only three studio albums under his belt, Vassar offered up Greatest Hits Vol. 1, which was divided between hits he has performed as an artist, as well as new recordings of the smash singles he’s written for others.
Prayer of a Common Man, his fourth studio album and first for Universal Records, adds several more layers to his deepening repertoire. Vassar’s contemplative side is apparent in the lead single Love Is a Beautiful Thing, as well as Crazy Life and Let Me Love You Tonight. While these display a more serious side, the songwriter hasn’t forgotten how to have fun as heard in My Chevrolet, Why Don’t Ya? and Baby Rocks or how to make us fall in love as heard in Around Here Somewhere and It’s Only Love.
The Cohen Community Series is the result of a $1.3 million gift from Jon Stewart, college alumnus, trustee and former president of Metcalf Bank. Stewart designated the gift to initiate the speaker series in honor of Cohen.
Cohen was a strong supporter of JCCC. He and his wife, Mary Davidson Cohen, served on the Foundation’s board of directors, and a gallery in the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art has been named for them. Cohen helped form the Johnson County Mental Health Association and Johnson County Human Relations Council. He was first on the Fellows list of the Johnson County Bar Foundation, helped establish the University of Missouri Law Foundation, and has been a member of the Kansas Bar Association since 1955.
Cohen served two terms on the Prairie Village City Council and one term as president of the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce. He served either as a member or board member of the Johnson County Heritage Trust Grant Review Board, State Historical Society, Bleeding Kansas Historical Site Committee and Wyandotte County Historical Society and Museum.
