The Music of Elton and Billy planned at the Franco Center

Joe Boucher, pianist and vocalist for Piano Men: The Music of Elton and Billy, will be performing at the Franco Center with the tribute band at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26. Submitted photo

Piano Men: The Music of Elton and Billy tribute band will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26, at the Franco Center, 46 Cedar St. in Lewiston. The concert is a tribute to the amazing songs of Billy Joel and Elton John.

Members of the band include Joe Boucher (piano, lead vocals), Christopher Eastburn (bass guitar, vocals), Gary Backstrom (guitar, vocals), Steve Hodgkin (drums), Matt Kennedy (saxophone), and Nick Pires (audio engineer). At times the band is joined by musicians playing violins, viola, and cello; and a female vocalist.

Boucher grew up in Biddeford. He is a singer and songwriter who has fronted the power pop band Frotus Caper. They recorded and released four critically acclaimed albums. He has worked as a studio session musician, playing piano and arranging pop, rock and folk songs for many artists.

Boucher is an on-air host and producer at Maine Public Classical Radio. For 16 seasons he was the concert manager for The Portland Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, he spent seven years touring internationally as stage manager.

Eastburn is an arranger, orchestrator and award-winning composer. His music has been performed to acclaim from New York’s Carnegie Hall to the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Commissions include a ballet score for Island Moving Co. called “Newport Stories,” a string orchestra and chorus score for the theatre production “Moses Brown and the Voyage of the Slave Ship Sally” and a score for Caitlin Corbett Dance Co. called “Tom’s Wealth.”

Backstrom has been playing for the last 20 years touring the country with his award-winning jam band Jiggle the Handle and as the Gary Backstrom Band. He has opened for such acts as Little Feat, Spin Doctors, Rat Dog, The Samples, South Side Johnny, The Allman Brothers, Warren Haynes, and Blues Traveler. He has shared the stage with Dereck Trucks, AOD, and members of Todd Rundgren’s Band.

Hodgkin had an active schedule as a working drummer in a variety of rock bands before making a switch to singer/songwriter in 2000 when he fronted Portland-based original rock band The Reedlings. Hodgkin returned to the drums in 2004 to perform and record with Joe Boucher in Frotus Caper and has been working with Boucher ever since.

Pires was an active member of both the jazz and concert bands in high school while also gigging frequently in the local music scene. After graduating, Pires put his musical aspirations aside to attend Full Sail University in pursuit of a career as a live sound engineer. Despite not playing for several years, he continued to maintain an interest in music and networking with musicians through his work in concert production and eventually found his way back to the drums.

Kennedy spent the last 30-plus years as a professional saxophonist starting in his hometown of Denver, Colorado and later as a fixture in the blues and roots scenes of Portland, Oregon, Vermont, New Hampshire, Baltimore, MD, and Washington DC before settling in Portland, Maine. Over the years, he has backed a wide range of artists, including Terry Adams (NRBQ), Daniel Johnston, John Popper (Blues Traveler), Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, and Peter Tork (The Monkees). He is currently an active freelance saxophonist in Portland and is a member of the soul/funk band Mamas Boomshack.

Tickets cost $30 in advance or $35 at the door.

For tickets, visit francocenter.org or call 207-689-2000. Tickets also can be purchased in person at the box office between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.