His fingers do the talking

Jim Brickman is like nobody else in American pop music today: a man who has forged a Billboard-chart-topping career almost entirely without using his voice.

Brickman is a piano man and composer who creates lush, romantic melodies that either have no lyrics or have lyrics sung by series of guest vocalists. You might think of him as George Winston crossed with one of his heroes, Burt Bacharach.

He won’t alter that formula significantly for his smashingly popular Homecoming Holiday Tour, which comes to the Fox on Monday.

Yes, the show will have a Christmas theme, which isn’t much of a stretch for an artist who has had three Christmas albums in the Billboard Top 100. But he’ll also give his legions of fans a rundown of his many other hits.

And how many hits have there been? A total of 23 on the Adult Contemporary charts, which is more than either Elton John or Rod Stewart.

“I always do a blend,” said Brickman, by phone from the road. “I’ll do my own compositions, both vocal and instrumental, some Christmas songs and some hits – but not all Christmas and all covers, by any means.

“For me, to do just music that other people wrote would be …”

Well, it would be just like everybody else’s holiday show. Brickman takes pride in the fact that about half of the songs on his Christmas albums are original compositions.

Brickman has done his Homecoming Holiday Tour for 13 straight years and he has no intention of slowing down.

This year, he has booked 29 concerts between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, beginning in California and ending in Delaware (the Spokane show is the third).

He’s bringing in two guest artists who have been staples of past Brickman shows.

Vocalist Anne Cochran goes way back with Brickman; they went to high school together in Cleveland and she has been touring with him for about 10 years.

“She’s a real fan favorite because of our chemistry and our relationship,” said Brickman. “It’s like being married. I probably see her more than her husband (does), that’s for sure.”

Electric violinist Tracy Silverman is another frequent Brickman collaborator. Silverman, who made his name as a member of the great Turtle Island Quartet, regularly wows Brickman’s audiences with his incendiary electric violin solos.

“He can play anything from Jimi Hendrix to Beethoven,” said Brickman.

“He’s a huge fan favorite, especially to the guys, because I think the men come to the show thinking, ‘Oh, it’s a nice family show.’ And then he does this Led Zeppelin tribute, and I think they realize there’s great variety in the show.”

Still, the overall mood, as in most of Brickman’s music, is one of peace, calm and “a hopeful, more poetic kind of environment.”

Cochran handles most of the vocals, and Silverman does some singing as well. And in what may come as a surprise to casual fans, Brickman himself will sing a couple of leads.

“I’m not known as a vocalist on the albums, but I sing a lot more in concert than I ever used to,” he said. “I keep it to songs that I’ve written. I’m not doing cover songs or soaring ballads or anything.”

Brickman still thinks of himself, primarily, as the guy who sits at the keyboard of his Yamaha C7 concert grand.

“I never wanted to be mistaken for a singer who plays the piano,” he said. “I’m really a pianist who sings a little bit.”