Turn on your heartlight for concert of Neil Diamond music
Ogden native Jack Wright performs "The Heartlight Show" - a showcase of Neil Diamond music - Sept. 25 at Peery's Egyptian Theater in Ogden.
Ogden native Jack Wright performs "The Heartlight Show" - a showcase of Neil Diamond music - Sept. 25 at Peery's Egyptian Theater in Ogden.
OGDEN — He may be singing different songs nowadays, but Jack Wright’s return to an Ogden stage is one of those full-circle experiences.
As a small child, Wright recalls his singing of “I Had a Little Dog and His Name Was Spot” with his sister in an LDS Church road show as a defining moment. He was scared at first, hiding in the wings as his sister went on stage and launched into their number.
But then he stepped out to join her and says, “I still remember when the spotlight hit me … OK, magic moment!”
Wright is now solo in the spotlight today, Sept. 25, at Peery’s Egyptian Theater in his new ”Heartlight Show,” showcasing the varied music of Neil Diamond.
For this former Clearfield High and then Weber State College student, the chance to do a hometown show is a kind of a “do-over,” or “giant rebirth.”
“What an amazing place to launch … to go back and start where I started,” Wright says in a phone interview from Rio Vista, California.
As for channeling Neil Diamond, Wright says his show is not a tribute band show. This isn’t at all about, “Hey look at me, I’m Neil Diamond in 1972,” he explains.
Instead, the show features an array of Diamond’s most popular songs paired with Wright’s comments on the singer-songwriter’s life and his motivation for writing his music.
“I break that fourth wall,” the guitarist and piano player explains, giving folks a deeper understanding of Diamond’s familiar tunes.
Huge Neil fans
At the same time, Wright says he knows very well who is the star of his show.
“They’re not coming to see Jack Wright. They’re coming because they love Neil Diamond music,” says the former lounge singer, advertising executive and producer of video documentaries.
Just how much fans love Neil Diamond is something Wright’s known for years. Decades ago, when he used to perform at a Scottsdale, Arizona, resort and had just four Diamond songs on his band’s set list, Wright realized those four songs were the reason people kept lining up for his show.
Diamond’s music simply resonates, Wright says, explaining, “He writes about life; he writes about stuff that happens to all of us at some point in our lives.”
Folks have often told Wright he reminds them of Neil Diamond, even before he came up with the idea of “The Heartlight Show.”
Yet it was never intentional on his part, Wright says. “I never tried to sound like him. I don’t mimic him, I don’t copy him.” His goal is to capture “the sense of the songs and the emotion,” he says.
Jill Peterson
Ogden native Jack Wright performs “The Heartlight Show” – a showcase of Neil Diamond music – Sept. 25 at Peery’s Egyptian Theater in Ogden.
How hard is it to perform the works of a still-living singer who’s still performing himself?
“(Diamond) is 74; he’s on a world tour again,” Wright says. “I saw him in San Jose in May.”
But the Ogden native says he feels like “a little helper” in the world of Diamond’s music, bringing it to those who could never afford a concert ticket or who will never have the chance to see Neil in person.
And Wright says he can only hope that Neil Diamond keeps taking his show on the road.
“The longer he plays, the longer I can play because his audience will still be there,” he says.
Utah-born career
“The Heartlight Show” includes such Diamond hits as “Sweet Caroline,” “Holly Holy,” “I Am, I Said,” “Solitary Man” and “Song Sung Blue.”
The famous singer-songwriter’s works are eclectic, Wright says, ranging from ballads to rock ‘n’ roll to show tunes. During the two-hour Ogden program, “You will not find a song that will sound like another song,” he says.
To keep the show as authentic as possible, Wright says he also created custom music tracks based on Diamond’s live-show orchestral arrangements.
The roots of the “Heartlight Show” really go back to Wright’s own roots in the musically rich environment of his home state. He says he grew up in Ogden and Clearfield learning to play various instruments, write and arrange music, sing and more, with plenty of people around him to encourage him and set high expectations.
“It’s hard for me to see that happening in the world now,” says Wright, who starred as Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha” when he was a student at Weber State College.
“The Heartlight Show” started as a performance at a charity event, Wright says, when he volunteered to do just a couple of Neil Diamond songs.
“I did it, I was rusty and everybody loved it,” he says. From there, interest in the show has skyrocketed.
Although he isn’t sure exactly why this new venture is so popular, Wright says if you were to ask him or his wife, Julie, about it in a private moment, they would say, “God is going before us, because there’s no way this could happen with the speed it is happening and all the support.”
For now, he says, “Boy, I’m going to enjoy this ride.”
Contact reporter Becky Cairns at 801-625-4276 or bcairns@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @bccairns or like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SEbeckycairns.
PREVIEW
WHAT: “The Heartlight Show”
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 25
WHERE: Peery’s Egyptian Theater, 2415 Washington Blvd, Ogden
TICKETS: $15-$25. Smith’s Tix
