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Harry Connick Jr. talks American Girl song collaboration with daughter ...

Harry Connick Jr.’s name is pretty much synonymous with his hometown New Orleans, which is why American Girl , the popular doll and book series now celebrating its 25th anniversary, reached out to him to pen the first original tune associated with the brand. “A Lot Like Me” is inspired by American Girl’s two new colorblind characters from 1850s New Orleans, Cécile and Marie-Grace. Even better, Connick’s 13-year-old daughter Kate sings the song, which is available exclusively on iTunes , and all proceeds from downloads go to benefit the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, which opens Aug. 25 in the New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village , the community conceived by Connick and Branford Marsalis post-Katrina to house the artists who have defined the city’s culture and pass along its musical heritage to the next generation.

Kate had recorded “Winter Wonderland” with her father for his 2008 Christmas album, but this is her first solo effort. “She’s a very, very hard worker. She don’t screw around, and I’m pretty tough on her,” Connick says about hitting the studio with his daughter. “It sounds romantic, the concept of being in a recording studio and singing your heart out, but when it really gets down to it, you have to be ready to do the work. I was raised in the environment where it really wasn’t about sittin’ around dreaming all the time, it was about practicing and workin’ really hard and if a dream ever came to you, you’d be prepared for that opportunity. I have to make a decision as a dad — how hard am I gonna push? And then I think back to Ellis Marsalis, and how he was with his sons, and how he was with me, and I’m easy on you compared to that,” he laughs to Kate. “Ellis was extremely

Kate isn’t impulsive — something she definitely gets from her mother, Jill Goodacre, Connick notes — and she’s turned down opportunities in the past that haven’t felt as organic as the American Girl collaboration, which, like the new Cécile and Marie-Grace dolls and stories, celebrates New Orleans’ diversity and friendship. “It’s 2011, and this is an important story because we would like to get to a point in our society where people really are colorblind and this message would not have to be told anymore,” Connick says. “Unfortunately, we’re not there yet. But when you read these stories, you realize that we really have come a long, long way, and what a cool way to get the message across without preaching about it.