AL ANCAR: The New Orleans Crooner By Marchelle Lewis With a smooth vocal style reminiscent of the now-legendary singers from Motown’s golden age, New Orleans native Al Ancar sings with heartfelt passion, enveloping listeners in musical stories about love and life. Whether he is singing a cover version of a standard or one of his own original songs, Ancar pours every ounce of effort into the work he loves so much. He is a self-confessed “romantic at heart,” preferring to write love songs that are a lot like the ones he grew up on, he explained during our interview. In fact he is such a “hopeless romantic,” that’s what he titled his first album in 2008. Hopeless Romantic, and his second album, Let It Flo (2015), are filled with emotional love songs. Hopeless Romantic includes his original composition, “High School Sweetheart,” which just happened to reunite him with his high school love. “I want people to get a warm feeling,” Ancar said about audiences responding to his music. “Something they can relate to. That’s my accomplishment, for people to say ‘I love that song because the lyrics relate to something I went through.’ It’s about writing about life.” Ancar attended high school at St. Augustine and completed two and a half years at the University of New Orleans. Instead of continuing at UNO, though, he became a certified electrician with IBEW Local 130 in 1983. However, his passion was for singing. “My father was instrumental in that,” Ancar said. “I didn’t want to go to school for a trade. I wanted to do music. I wanted to sing, but now I’m grateful because I was able to provide a living for myself and my family.” Even though his dream was always to be a musician, the education he received from IBEW helped him along the way. Because of his steady income he was able to pursue his passion without fear. “My first paycheck was in ’79, so that’s what I consider when I got started,” Ancar said. He spent many years in different vocal groups including The Mystics, The Quarter Notes, Savey, Style, Al Ancar and Pizazz, and Al Ancar and Aja. He spent the most time with Premiere. The Premiere band gave him a multitude of opportunities, including opening for Maze featuring Frankie Beverly in a sold-out show at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in 1995. “That was the first time I was on a big, big stage like that,” Ancar said of the performance. “All I could see was ten rows in front of me. Everything else was darkness.” After years of traveling and performing in singing groups, Ancar went solo. This self-described “crooner” enjoys giving intimate performances to fans. Being connected to the audience is one of the many joys he gets out of his job. “I like entertaining people and seeing the smiles on their faces,” Ancar said. “I want them to be right there when I’m singing to them.” Ancar headlined his own show at Bally’s Casino in July 2005. 20 | BREAKTHRU MEDIA | breakthrumediamagazine.com S E P T E M B E R / O C TOB E R 2 0 1 6
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