Chris Mann Comes to Columbus in April

Chris Mann's debut full-length album, Roads, shot straight to No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart and Top 5 on Billboard's Classical Chart. Upon its release, Mann gave numerous high-profile television performances, including playing for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as part of TNT's "Christmas In Washington" special, "The Today Show," the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and NBC's "Christmas in Rockefeller Center Special."

CAPA presents Chris Mann at the Lincoln Theatre (769 E. Long St.) on Sunday, April 28, at 8pm. Tickets are $29.50 and $39.50 at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000. Young people aged 13-25 may purchase $5 PNC Arts Alive All Access tickets while available. For more information, visit www.GoFor5.com.

Mann kicked off 2013 with a performance on "Conan" and his very own PBS Special helmed by award-winning producer Ken Ehrlich. Titled "A Mann for All Seasons," the show features special guest appearances by multi-platinum artist Martina McBride and Mindi Abair ,and is a re-creation of the Elvis Presley '69 Comeback Special with Mann performing in a boxing ring on a Sony soundstage.

The aptly-titled Roads represents the culmination of a long and challenging journey for this gifted and dedicated young artist, pushing forward against what had appeared to be overwhelming odds. After studying opera at Vanderbilt in Nashville, the Wichita, Kansas, native had spent years singing in clubs and auditioning for record labels without a nibble, until three years ago, when one classical label took a chance on him. Mann was working on what would have been his debut album when he was abruptly dropped, the victim of a wholesale regime change at the company. Devastated, he started working behind the scenes as a session singer on "Glee," and occasionally getting on camera as a member of the fictional vocal group the Warblers.

When he strode onto a soundstage at Sony Studios to perform Andrea Bocelli's "Because We Believe" for his "Voice" audition, Mann was more nervous than he'd ever been. "It was a combination of knowing that this was bigger than anything I had ever done before and realizing that it could change my life," he says.

Mann's intuition was right. He was selected to be on Christina Aguilera's team. "As the first serious classical singer on one of these shows, I couldn't believe it when I kept getting voted through, week after week. These people who kept voting for me were my fans-they gave me back my confidence and helped me find my true voice."

Roads boasts a wildly eclectic assortment of songs, ranging from Willie Nelson's "Always on My Mind" and Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" to "Ave Maria" and Damien Rice's "The Blowers' Daughter" featuring a special guest appearance from Aguilera.

While Mann chose most of the material himself, the album's centerpiece is Paul Anka's "My Way" specially reworked by Anka for Mann. Anka tweaked the lyrics so that instead of being about a guy looking back, it's from the point of view of a young man looking hopefully ahead-a notion central to the theme of Roads.

www.ChrisMannMusic.com

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