P.A.’s piano man is returning to the Rawlinson Friday evening with the classic sounds of the music of Billy Joel.

For just the second time, Mike Langlois will be stepping out of the background to headline a show at the Rawlinson.

“We did a show last year that was all Jim Croce and James Taylor. That was kind of the first show I did that was myself,” Langlois said.

“Usually I’m in the backup band. That was the first time I stepped out into the spotlight and it was quite well-received.”

According to Langlois, about 300 people attended that concert last year.

“We decided I would do something that was more in my wheelhouse, because the Jim Croce and James Taylor show was mostly acoustic guitar-driven. (With Billy Joel) I can sit at the piano and do my thing.”

While it’s only Langlois second big show as the headlining act, he has extensive experience performing in the Prince Albert area.

Langlois, a local piano and guitar teacher, has been the musical director and pianist/conductor for eight Broadway North musical productions. He is a frequent performer and bandleader at E.A. Rawlinson Centre events. He plays and sings in the rock bands Goodfelas and Rewind, and leads a jazz quartet, The Jazz Guise, as pianist and singer.

Langlois, as a pianist, is asked to play Piano Man “all the time,” he said.

“That one I’ve been playing for 20 years but most of the rest of the show I’d never performed (but) I’ve been listening to it for the last 20 years.”

Tickets are available at the Rawlinson Centre. For more on this story, please see the March 1 edition of the Daily Herald.