CHARLOTTE OBSERVER He'll bring familiar songs and familiar crooner sound to his Charlotte show. By Michael J. Solender Jun. 11, 2010 Harry Connick Jr. and his orchestra will perform at Charlotte's Belk Theater at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 15th. Twenty-plus albums after the "When Harry Met Sally" soundtrack, Harry Connick Jr. is an internationally recognized crossover star with multiple film, television, and Broadway theater performances to his credit. All this success is built upon the crooner foundation he has been honing since he first appeared on a New Orleans stage at age 6. Connick and his 16-piece orchestra will perform at Belk Theater on Wednesday, part of a tour that took Connick and his band from Paris to Abu Dhabi, Istanbul and Morocco. Connick is definitely an old-school crooner. Crooning is a uniquely American verb with lineage that extends to the 1500s and Italian operas heavy with the gentle "bel canto" or "beautiful singing" style. The technique spawned a generation of mostly American crooners beginning in the 1930s with Bing Crosby and extending to the 1960s with Perry Como. In between, teenage girls and their mothers dreamt about the honeyed voices and good looks of Paul Anka, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, and the king of the crooners (though he reportedly hated the term), Frank Sinatra. Balladeers typically fronted a big band with string sections, plenty of brass, and backbeat percussion. Concertgoers in Charlotte are likely to see and hear a Connick performance that is true to the classic Great American Songbook approach and somewhat of a return to center for Connick, whose singing career has seen him explore funk, gospel, instrumental and hard-charging jazz. His tour comes on the heels of the "Your Song" CD release this past fall. The tour's playlist will lean heavily on the CD, which covers 14 classics likely to be familiar to even the most casual of fans. Covering American tunes made hits by the likes of Nat King Cole ("Mona Lisa"), Billy Joel ("Just The Way You Are"), Elton John ("Your Song"), Elvis ("Can't Help Falling in Love With You") and Sinatra ("All the Way") is not so much an act of hubris as it is Connick playing tribute to the greats. It also showcases his unique style and love affair with the ballad. This is a fan's tour, for fans not only of Connick, but the style and feel that conjures up the likes of Nelson Riddle when he was arranging for Sinatra back in the day. Connick's orchestra includes six strings and plenty of throaty sax, brass and beat to frame the singer's work on a platform that is best suited to lift and magnify his talents. Instead of overwhelming his audience, his warm and embracing style is more likely to cascade over them and then settle in like an old friend.