JOHN BERRY
It’s been 15 years since country crooner John Berry hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart with “Your Love Amazes Me,” the one and only chart-topper of his long career.
But “Your Love Amazes Me” – a big, soaring ballad about the heart-pounding power of the Real Deal – is one of those country music perennials. It’s a song with legs, and when Berry performs it Thursday at Grayson Stadium, it’s very likely that every person in the place will be singing along with each and every optimistic word.
Thursday’s show, with opening act Branan Logan, is a benefit for the Georgia chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, Coastal Georgia Region (a South Carolina native, Berry grew up in the Atlanta area). The Grammy-nominated vocalist has always performed for charities – he’s worked on national campaigns for adult literacy, and for the fight against cystic fibrosis.
Berry, who has recorded four Christmas albums, also hit the Top Ten with the singles “What’s in It For Me,” “You and Only You,” “Standing on the Edge of Goodbye,” “I Think About it All the Time” and “She’s Taken a Shine.”
Listen & Learn: www.johnberry.com. At 7 p.m. Thursday, May 28 at Grayson Stadium (Victory Drive and Bee Road). Tickets are $25 general admission, $30 reserved, at the stadium box office or by calling (912) 351-9150. See www.alz.org/georgia.
MARTIN SCHNEIDER/AQUARIUMS
Nashville singer/songwriter Schneider, whose moody, melacholy and oftentimes morose songs are something of an acquired taste, brings his acoustic guitar to the Sentient Bean for a solo show (he records under the nom de studio Aquariums). The first Schneider/Aquariums album, “Conceptual Realizations,” is an acoustic ambient success, when taken on its own minimalist terms. “If the music currently out there satisfied all my interests and emotions, then there would be no need for me to create,” Schneider says, “for I would be content with what is offered and my perception of music would be complete.” Savannah’s Aux Arc and the Floorboards open. Listen & Learn: www.myspace.com/aquariumsmusic. At 8 p.m. Friday, May 29 at the Sentient Bean, 13 E. Park Ave. Free.
JACOB FRIEDMAN
Savannah’s newest classical piano whiz kid is really and truly a kid – Master Friedman, age 10, is a 5th-grader who’s been caressing the ivories (with dexterity beyond his years) since he could sit himself up on the bench. How good is Jacob? Well, he was one of only five finalists in the 2008 Hilton Head Youth Orchestra Competition (when he was 9!) Sunday’s recital, a benefit for Savannah Friends of Music’s program to support music education in Chatham County schools, will feature Jacob with a string trio and a second keyboard instrument. The program will include concertos by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and others. At 4 p.m. Sunday, May 31 at Temple Mickve Israel, 20 E. Gordon St. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students at (912) 598-8112.
CELTIC WOMAN
In the wake of “Riverdance,” dozens of touring shows have capitalized on the American fascination with all things Irish (chasin’ the green, as it were). Celtic Woman, a quintet of comely, raven-haired lasses (four singers with “angelic” voices and an award-winning Celtic violinist) performs traditional and contemporary tunes from the Emerald Isle, backed by a 15-piece band and a stirring light show. According to PBS viewers, they’re magically delicious – the three Celtic Woman TV specials have aired (repeatedly) on 685 stations across the country. And the group has spent a total of 90 weeks on top of Billboard’s World music chart. Listen & Learn: www.celticwoman.com. At 7:30 p.m. Monday, June1, Savannah Civic Center (in the Johnny Mercer Theatre). Tickets are $60 and $40 at Etix.com.
