LA-Story.com

Musician and actor Harry Connick, Jr. will appear tonight on PBS' "Tavis Smiley" to talk about his new album, "Your Songs" and his charity work in New Orleans.

During the interview, Connick talks about preserving the music in New Orleans:

"I think it boils down to having places to play....It's very much passed on orally, it's passed on by sitting and playing, and yeah you can pass it on. But you - we - have a responsibility now to do something. When I was growing up, you just assumed that all those clubs, we didn't assume the levies were going to break. I lived two blocks from one of the levies that broke and we used to play on that levy, you know? We never thought that it was actually going to get blown apart. And now we need, just like we have a responsibility to rebuild that, we have a responsibility to rebuild the tradition. And I think it can be done. "

Video snippet of Harry Connick Jr with Tavis Smiley on PBS

Harry Connick, Jr., is a musician, actor and philanthropist. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide, won three Grammy Awards and one Emmy Award. Connick, originally from New Orleans, has made his mark on the city through the founding of a Musician's Village--a development created in partnership with Habitat for Humanity that aims to revive New Orleans' local music scene in the post-Katrina era.

Connick's newest album, "Your Songs," a collection of classic American songs, was released in late September 2009.

About TAVIS SMILEY on PBS
TAVIS SMILEY is a unique hybrid of news, issues and entertainment, featuring interviews with politicians, entertainers, athletes, authors and other newsmakers. Tavis Smiley was recently named to TIME's list of 100 "Most Influential People in the World."

TAVIS SMILEY is produced by The Smiley Group, Inc./TS Media, Inc. in association with KCET/Los Angeles. Major funding is provided by Wal-Mart and Nationwide Insurance. Additional support comes from PBS.

The 30-minute program airs weeknights on PBS. To get local listings and to watch past episodes, please visit: www.pbs.org/tavis

Stevie Wilson

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