The songs and story of Harry Nilsson

Celebrate Nilsson is an intimate concert portrait of Harry Nilsson — his songs, that voice, the strange and funny stories, and the music he never took on the road — presented and performed by Ernie Savage, who was friends with Harry in their shared hometown of Nyack, New York. One performer, piano, guitar and voice. It plays listening rooms, theaters and private evenings anywhere, and it is the only Harry Nilsson tribute show built on firsthand accounts.

Harry Nilsson was one of the most gifted and misunderstood songwriters of the 20th century — celebrated, then overlooked; public, then deeply private. The wild one with the golden voice, and behind the chaos, songs that were fragile, tender, and full of sweetness.

Ernie Savage met Harry Nilsson at nineteen, through his uncle’s restaurant in Nyack, New York, where Harry had become a regular. Harry would drive around with Ernie, listening to demo tapes of Ernie’s songs. One afternoon over a lunch involving a pitcher of martinis, Harry declared, “You have a voice not unlike my own in my younger days...” The show is built on firsthand accounts like that one — encounters, stories, and Harry as Ernie knew him.

The headlines faded; the magic didn’t. This is the heart of Harry, live.