Joyful Noise Tour 2005 Media & Set List

[Pamela]

Clay Aiken Embarks on 'JOYFUL NOISE 2005 Tour'; Second Annual Holiday Show Features New Songs
             
   LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Clay Aiken might sing "I'll Be Home
for Christmas," but he won't be, as he embarks on his "JOYFUL NOISE 2005"
tour, his second consecutive holiday tour. The RCA Records artist will perform
40 shows in 36 cities, starting Nov. 2 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The tour then crosses into the United States, and concludes with two shows on
Dec. 29-30 at the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida.

    "JOYFUL NOISE 2005" tour is the sequel to Aiken's first holiday tour,
which was a huge success, playing to sold-out theaters at every stop. The 2005
tour will feature songs from Aiken's platinum-selling "Merry Christmas with
Love," the best-selling new holiday album of 2004. The song list will differ
from the 2004 tour, and will include a number of songs Clay recorded for the
album that didn't appear on the CD, as well as new arrangements for some
traditional favorites.

    "JOYFUL NOISE 2005" tour will feature a new element - a series of
vignettes with a running storyline, written by Aiken. The vignettes will
feature two main characters and supporting roles will be cast in each city
with local actors.

    "I've always loved Christmas music and holiday songs," says Aiken. "And
even though there's no place like home for the holidays, I'm looking forward
to touring the country with the second installment of the 'Joyful Noise'
tour."

    This is the sixth tour of Clay's career, and it caps a busy year with a
schedule filled with everything from fulfilling his role as UNICEF Ambassador
to being a reporter for the TV series "The Insider." Aiken has also been in
the studio recording his next album, and will continue to work on that project
during the closing months of 2005.

    As part of his UNICEF duties, Aiken is the spokesperson for their annual
trick-or-treat fundraising campaign. While the money raised from this effort
is usually earmarked exclusively for other countries, this year, for the first
time, half of the money raised will be donated to victims of Hurricane Katrina
in the United States.

PR Newswire

 

[Princess Dorkling]

 

*goes to salt lake*

*auditions to be cast in JNT II*

aw dangit! They probably cast awhile ago!
Vignettes by Clay? I hope he studied AP English! I had to write a few of them!

I"M EXCIIIIIIITED!

[Pamela]

JNT05 Set List

Act I
 
Christmastime (Michael  W. Smith song)
Merry Christmas With Love
vignette
Sleigh Ride
Jingle Bells
vignette
Season of Romance (Lee Ann Womack song)
vignette
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
vignette
Christmas Waltz
The Christmas Waltz
vignette
Silver Bells (duet w/Alison Lawrence)
vignette
The Christmas Song
vignette
I Miss You Most at Christmas Time (Angela Fisher - Mariah Carey song)
Celebrate me Home (Kenny Loggins song)

Act II
 
Oh Holy Night
Child reading from The Christmas Story
The First Noel
Child reading from The Christmas Story
Hark the Herald Angels Sing/O Come All Ye-Faithful
Child Reading from The Christmas Story
O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Jacob Luttrell)
Mary Did You Know
Child reading from The Christmas Story
My Grown Up Christmas List (Quiana Parler - Amy Grant song)
Clay speaks about Christmas (recording)
band intros
Don’t Save it all for Christmas Day

Encore
Good News (Avalon)

[clayistheway]

Who is Alison Lawrence, who Clay has a duet with (of Silver Bells)?

Have there been any media reviews of Clay's concerts yet?  If so, are they positive?

[clayMaine-iac]

Deck the halls: Clay's on his way
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
ED CONDRAN

Clay Aiken had so much fun on last year's tour for his holiday album, "Merry Christmas With Love," that "American Idol's" most famous loser is on another Christmas jaunt, which jingle-jangles its way to the Rose Garden Theater of the Clouds on Thursday.

Why another Christmas tour?

Because I love it. Last year was my favorite tour ever. I decided to do a Christmas tour to support the disc, and the tour did very well. I loved that it was in auditoriums. It's a lot more intimate of an environment than the amphitheaters I did when I went out with Kelly (Clarkson).


How will it be different?

Last year I performed with local orchestras. This year I'm working with local actors. There is a dramatic story line which runs throughout the show. The music and my performance is a soundtrack to that story line.

Have you almost completed your next album?

Not quite. We're in an interesting quandary. A number of songs have been recorded. It's a matter of what we should keep. There are a couple of different ways we can go. I've recorded some traditional Top 40, minus the hip-hop, some adult contemporary and some covers. If it's going to be a theme, do I want it to be favorite love songs? The good thing is that the songs are recorded. The only way I'll record more is if our theme is Mongolian polka. Then I'll have to record some new songs.

"A.I." arbiter of taste Simon Cowell recently noted that 2005 "American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood had the most commercial potential of any "A.I." alum.

I think you should go back and listen to that again. Simon's remark was that she had the most commercial potential of any "American Idol" winner. I'm fine with that, since I didn't win (laughs). I think Carrie is very talented. She's great. I picked her from the beginning of last year's "American Idol." I'm not threatened by her. She's obviously in a different area as far as music goes.

Will your name always be associated with "American Idol"?

When the show is over, probably not. The show has a potential to last a while, so I expect to be tied to it for the time being.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that you berated a New Jersey high school choir you hired for a show. The story also claimed that you didn't give the kids meal breaks or pay them. True or false?

I don't comment on that story often since I don't like to give credence to anybody's made-up stories. . . . For the record, what was in that article was fabricated to the extent that we laughed very loudly when we read it. We were very surprised. You can't get mad about something that's not true. There's no reason for me to fight and bring it up. We didn't try to defend ourselves against anything so preposterous. I spent a number of years as a teacher. I have a feeling they wouldn't let me teach if I was the kind of person who would do such things to children.

Speaking of teaching, you've said in past interviews that you wish that you were molding young minds. Any chance you'll take a hiatus from singing for teaching?

I do hear about friends' classrooms, and I get sentimental about teaching. But I'm combining the best of both worlds for this tour. On this tour we have an actor, a young boy. The child has to be tutored. We opted to hire out of North Carolina, since I can tutor him. I'm still a teacher in North Carolina. I'm able to teach on the road. So I'm up teaching every morning at 8:30 a.m. I'm fixing up lesson plans. I couldn't be happier.

OREGONLIVE

[clayMaine-iac]

Clay bells ring for his holiday tour
Aiken launches Christmas shows in Vancouver
Tom Harrison
The Province
Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Clay Aiken loves Christmas.

"It's a Christmas show!" he exclaims of the Joyful Noise Tour, which is 40 shows long, starting tonight in Vancouver.

"That's what we love to do. We're trying to start it early. Even though we are starting early, we try to get people in the spirit."

Shouldn't be hard. If everybody survived Halloween, the shift into Christmas already has begun. The ornaments are out, the sales campaigns are prepared.

At The Province, we've seen the catalogues of Christmas music and have started to receive Christmas CDs.

And why not? Aiken's Christmas CD, Merry Christmas With Love, was the biggest-selling Christmas album of 2004.

He knows people need some uplifting news. What with tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes, Christmas can't come too soon.

"Our tour went so well last year, we decided to do it again," Aiken says.

"Christmas is my favourite holiday. I would do this show all year."

There are differences. It's actually the singer's sixth tour since becoming the most-famous runner-up on the TV series American Idol in 2003. He's made a few records, notably the single "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," but a Christmas album so soon bespeaks his confidence, as does performing on previous tours with symphony orchestras.

You might conclude that he is very ambitious -- why else would he enter American Idol unless he had vision? -- but Aiken's vision isn't ours.

"It's an opportunity to do what I've always wanted to do," says the 25- year-old Raleigh, N.C., singer. "I don't ever want to get to the point where I think, 'Oh man, I wish I'd done this, or had done that.'"

Those differences. As Vancouver didn't see last year's show, Aiken's effort to keep the show as "fresh as possible," won't mean much, but he has programmed his concert with actors and dancers who will tell a story of Christmas written by Aiken himself. As well, he has shaken up the set list and will do some songs that aren't on his album.

The Christmas theme, then, might be a surprise, as it's usually a domain inhabited by singers with longer careers, but maybe it's Aiken's way of establishing his name.

"Some people think we're not performers and we can't alienate people," he says. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that show. At the same time, you want to be recognized as an individual, not the guy who was a runner-up on American Idol."

CANADA.COM

[clayMaine-iac]

Clay Aiken Spreads Joy
Crooner launches holiday tour, readies next record

Halloween has only just ended, but Clay Aiken will kick off his second annual holiday tour in support of last year's Merry Christmas With Love tonight in Vancouver. The 2005 edition of the Joyful Noise Tour will bring the 2003 American Idol runner-up to thirty-six cities, closing with a pair of dates in Clearwater, Florida, on December 29th and 30th.
"You'd think I'd be Christmased-out," says Aiken, "but being on the road for two months is really a great buildup for the holidays."

Not content to merely relive his Christmas past, the pop crooner has made some big changes to the festive show, scrapping the thirty-piece orchestra in favor of a musical-theater presentation. "It's an original story, in that I sat in my pajamas one day and wrote it," he says, laughing. "But it follows the same type of story arc that you might expect at Christmas: One character is not too thrilled with the holiday, and another character helps bring the Christmas spirit to that person."

Joining Aiken onstage will be his former high-school choir teacher in one of the lead roles, as well as an eleven-year-old boy who auditioned in Aiken's native North Carolina. According to the singer, community theater groups in each city will round out the cast "to give it a local flavor."

Speaking of, there will also be city-specific Clay Aiken Christmas tree ornaments available at each show. "It's feasible that someone could decorate their entire Christmas tree this year with forty different ones," says Aiken. And will he? "I don't know if I'm that narcissistic."

When the tour concludes, Aiken will get back to work on his new studio album, the proper follow-up to his post-Idol rush job, 2003's Measure of a Man, which went multiplatinum. For the past five months, he's been working in Los Angeles with Jaymes Foster-Levy, sister of acclaimed producer David Foster (Celine Dion, Whitney Houston), taking his time sifting through song submissions with hopes of releasing the collection during the first half of next year.

"I'm not much of a writer," he admits. "I can pull off a few lines in a song -- and I know there are a lot of people out there nowadays who say they've written a song and that means they've written a line or so. I may go in and change a line or two myself, but I don't think it's fair to take credit. But, this time, I do want to make sure that what I sing represents something that I know something about, and something I feel."
<snip tour date listing>

ROLLINGSTONE

[clayMaine-iac]

Local Claymates throw bash to celebrate hero 
Stuart Derdeyn
The Province 
He may be satirized as the uber-geek on Mad TV but, to his devoted followers, Clay Aiken is the the man all others are measured by.

To celebrate the Vancouver debut of American Idol's No. 1 loser, local fans -- Claymates -- are throwing a bash with dinner, videos and prizes to celebrate Aiken's Joyful Noise tour.

Event committee member Kelly Bond is hosting Clay-boys and girls from across North America attending the local date opening a 36-city tour, the sixth cross-country slog by the multi-platinum artist since 2003.

"I only watched American Idol's second season because I'd broken my ankle," says Bond. "About halfway through his appearance on the show, I became a fan."

It's been about 18 months since Aiken last played this region, appearing in Seattle with Kelly Clarkson.

"Northwestern Claymates are thrilled to be part of this tour which was highly successful last year. That time, he had orchestras and choirs."

"This year, he has dropped the choirs but made the show more theatrical with some vignettes."

Among the actors on the road with Aiken is a young boy who the singer, a licensed teacher in his home state of North Carolina, is tutoring. These kinds of acts, his campaigning for the Bubel-Aiken Foundation for children with developmental challenges and his professed Christianity connect with Claymates as much as his music.

"He's got a charisma, for sure, and a uniqueness that he brings to every performance that connects with the audience. He's got that geeky little boy in all of us that rose above it all."

sderdeyn@png.canwest.com

FEATS OF CLAY

Name: Clayton Holmes Grissom

Born: Nov. 30, 1978

Hometown: Raleigh, N.C.

Education: B.Ed Special Education

Albums: Measure of a Man (Oct. '03) -- fastest-selling solo debut in a decade at time of release; Merry Christmas With Love (Nov. '04) -- fastest-selling holiday album since '91, tied with Celine Dion for highest chart debut (No. 4) by a holiday-themed album.

Books: Learning To Sing: Hearing the Music In Your Life (Random House, co-authored with Allison Glock). Paperback version due out in November

TV: Host of Saturday Night Live (Feb. '04); A Clay Aiken Christmas (Dec. '04); Kenny on Scrubs (Feb. '05)

Tours: Independent Tour (with Kelly Clarkson, Feb.-April '04); Not-A-Tour (Summer '04); The Joyful Noise Tour (Nov. '04); Jukebox Tour (Summer '05); Joyful Noise 2 (Nov. '05)

CANADA.COM

[clayMaine-iac]

Aiken Celebrates Holidays, Preps New Album
November 03, 2005, 11:15 AM ET
John Benson, Cleveland

Not that he became bored on last year's Joyful Noise Tour, but Clay Aiken made a discovery during his 2004 holiday outing that he hopes has improved this year's seasonal run, which visits Portland, Ore., tonight (Nov. 3).

"As you begin to do 20 or 30 shows, they start to become rote in a way and you're able to step out of your body sometimes and take a look," Aiken tells Billboard.com. "And I thought, 'This is beautiful but it's Christmas music. What are we going to do with Christmas music that is original?' So [then] I thought, 'What if we can figure out a way to make all of these songs mean something?'"

Aiken's show remains the same as last year's run in support of the RCA album "Merry Christmas with Love," in the sense it is divided between secular material in the first half and religious songs in the second. But this year, the 2003 "American Idol" runner-up decided to replace the full orchestra with actors and dancers performing a holiday narrative during the first portion. He even hired his former high school choir teacher, Alison Lawrence, to play the lead role.

Once the holiday tour wraps up, the 26-year-old artist will finish up recording the follow-up to his multi-platinum 2003 debut disc, "Measure of a Man." With some songs already recorded, "Just You" and "Back for More" were previewed by Aiken during his summer tour. He says the new album should be out in the first half of 2006.

"The first album was really rushed," he says. "[That was] not really anybody's fault, but it was kind of intended to be because of the nature of what it was. And this time, we've had extra time to try to make sure we find the right songs. We're in position now where we have a lot of good stuff and we're going to get a chance to pick the best of the best."

 
Aiken admits that while he's been encouraged to do a little songwriting on his own, he's conflicted with the entire process.

"I feel differently about it than I think most people do," Aiken says. "Honestly, a lot of artists that you see -- I'm going to get people mad at me but I've been doing that a lot lately so I might as well keep on -- who have written songs on their album, the truth is they probably just went in changed a word here or there. And if they are big enough artists, they get credit for writing the song. I'm not going to do that. If you see my name on it, I've had at least some type of real role in writing it."

He adds, "And that said, I'm not as good at writing songs as Alicia Keys or those people who are just really great at doing that. So, why not take advantage of what they do and really just get really great songs from people who can write for me?"
 

BILLBOARD

[clayMaine-iac]

10 minutes on the phone with Clay Aiken

By Leslie Katz, STAFF WRITER
www.insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_3182532


POP SINGER Clay Aiken brings his second "Joyful Noise" tour to Oakland's Paramount Theatre next week. Rehearsing last month in Southern California, the busy Aiken took a 10-minute break for a phone interview.
Q. We hear your new holiday show has theatrical vignettes. Tell us about them.

A. Last year's holiday show was my favorite of the year, and I was thinking, "What else could I do?" In my pajamas, sitting at my computer one day, I had this fancy idea to add theatrical elements to the show. My old high school chorus teacher plays a role. But the teacher from my senior year isn't in the show. (He got cut from chorus senior year.)

Editor's note: Each show on Aiken's tour features local thespians. He'll be joined in Oakland by performers — many from the Tri-Valley area — who appear with the Pleasanton Playhouse.

Q. Where's home? We hear you might be leaving Hollywood.

A. Home's on the bus. I'll be moving back to Raleigh, N.C., to re-establish myself. I sold where I was living in L.A.

Q. Are you working on any new material?

A. We've been working on quite a bit, slipping in what we can slip in (with the busy tour schedule). There was so little time to do the last CD. I've been able to collect a lot of stuff, and now we're looking at the problem of what kind of new album to put out — it could be Mexican folk songs.

Q. Last year around this time, you had a Top Ten recording, book and concert tour. Was that the first time that happened for any artist?

A. Um, sure. The book was therapeutic, an opportunity for me to reflect, sit down and slow down after such a full year.

Q. Who does your clothes?

A. Who "does" my clothes? I have people who help. I never knew anything about clothes in Raleigh. I went to Structure and I bought myself an outfit I thought was nice — that was the "before" picture. (The "American Idol" runner-up does say he likes designer Paul Smith and thanks us for complimenting him on the remarkable half-jacket/half T-shirt he wore when he performed in concert with Kelly Clarkson in San Jose.) I'm not known for my fashion sense.

Q. Do you have a dog?

A. Yes, she's a border terrier (named Raleigh) who travels with me on tour.

Q. What are you looking forward to?

A. I know I sound like I'm just trying to publicize my Christmas tour, but it really is an amazing way to culminate the year for me. (Christmas is) a month and half away and I'm already in the mood.

Q. Do you have free time? What do you do?

A. I don't have any free time.

IDEALIDOL

[clayMaine-iac]

Aiken gets an early start in spreading holiday spirit
By Carolyn Lamberson
The Register-Guard
Published: Friday, November 4, 2005

It's November. Barely.

Where's your Christmas spirit?

If Clay Aiken has his way, Eugene will capture the holiday magic on Saturday, when his Joyful Noise 2005 holiday tour stops at the Hult Center for a night of Christmas music.

"So what I'm hoping is to do something really amazing and get people in the Christmas spirit by Nov. 5," Aiken said recently by phone from Los Angeles. "It is early, but that's the goal.

"If the show's anything like I expect it to be, hopefully people will leave in quite the holiday mood."

Last fall, Aiken released his first holiday album, "Merry Christmas With Love." Fans apparently did love it; it posted the biggest first-week sales of any Christmas album in Soundscan history, according to the All Music Guide Web site.

advertisement  "Merry Christmas With Love" ultimately went platinum. It was 2004's best-selling holiday CD.

In support of the CD, Aiken launched his first holiday tour. He had such a good time last year, he decided to do it again.

"As the last tour continued to progress," he said, "I kept thinking, `Oh man, I wish we had done this, or, `l'd love to add this.' By the time we'd finished the tour, I had a new show all planned out in my head.

"We were successful enough last year that we said, `Well OK then, let's do it again.' "

Aiken knows of success. The 25-year-old Raleigh, N.C., native won a lot of fans with his cheery demeanor and sweet voice as a contestant on the second edition of Fox TV's "American Idol."

He took second place in 2003, but that didn't stop his career from taking off.

His first single, "This Is the Night," sold 392,000 copies off the bat, smashing the record for fastest-selling single held by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997." His debut album, 2003's "The Measure of a Man," went to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.

In between touring, Aiken has been working on his next album. Or, rather, he's been working on several of them.

"If I was being completely honest, I would say that more time has been spent on touring, but we are working on the album and we do want to have it out next year," he said. "We've conceptualized and recorded songs that would fit on four different albums.

"We have so much material now, which is great because last time I did an album we had such a short amount of time, it was like I sang these songs and that's what I did and when I was done we put out an album. And now we have four and five albums worth of material.

"We just have to figure out exactly what to do with it."

Show will tell classic tale

Before he finalizes those plans, there's this Christmas tour. The show this year will feature something different.

Yes, Aiken will sing a host of favorite holiday tunes.

But interspersed through the festivities will be a dramatic element, a storyline. The songs he sings will serve as the soundtrack to this holiday tale, he said.

He's keeping the details quiet. But "it's very classic Christmas type of tale," he said, "where one character may or may not be thrilled with the season and another character may or may not help them get in the spirit of the season."

Helping him tell his tale are actors from community theater troupes in the cities he's visiting. The Eugene show will feature actors from the Very Little Theatre and Rose Children's Theatre.

advertisement The local cast includes Karen Scheeland, Don Kelley, Suzanne Shapiro, Twilo Scofield, Earl Ruttencutter, Wayne Wagner, Wyatt Newel, Chance Yager, Anna Haugen, Hannah Schimmer and Michele Schimmer.

Also in the cast is an old friend of Aiken's.

"One of the people playing a role is my old ninth-grade choir teacher," he said. "I've asked her to come out and be a part of it. Which is extremely great.

"She's wonderful at what she does, but it's kinda weird to have my teacher there."

Now that "Joyful Noise 2005" is under way, Aiken said he's already thinking ahead to "Joyful Noise 2006."

"Honestly, this Christmas tour every year is the thing that I look forward to and we work hard to make his happen," he said. "We put so much effort into this show.

"I try to make it a personal goal to make sure everything we do each time we do it is bigger and better than the last time."

REGISTERGUARD

[clayMaine-iac]

Aiken jolly about Christmas tour, not this interview
A Q&A with "American Idol" star went from so-so to worse, then to nothing.
By Corey Levitan

I'm not a fan of Clay Aiken's music. But that's OK. As a 40-year-old male, I'm not exactly his target demographic. I accepted his publicist's offer of an interview because millions of people do like him. A lot.

Besides, judging from the interviews I've read, the 26-year-old "American Idol" runner-up seemed like someone with a healthy sense of himself. So I figured a playful interview would work for both of us.
 
Things began on a bad foot, however, when his manager got on the line and indicated that Aiken would only be available for 10 minutes. A good Q&A requires at least 15, I explained.

Things got much worse when Aiken hung up two-thirds into this interview, because he didn't feel playful.

I was wrong, it turns out. A good Q&A requires only eight minutes.

Q: Hi, Clay. Where are you right now?

A: I'm in L.A., at rehearsals.

Q: This is your second Christmas tour. Tell me some of what's different about it.

A: It's got a little more theatrical element to it this year. We did an orchestra tour last year. This year we opted to forgo the onstage orchestra and instead use actors and dancers and give it more of a Christmas-y feel, with a story line and a little more activity on stage.

Q: What's the story line?

A: It's got a very typical, traditional Christmas feel to it. I can't tell you too much without giving too much away. It's not "A Christmas Carol" in any way, but there's this character who's not necessarily in the Christmas spirit, and another character helps bring that Christmas spirit back to her.

Q: Is this going to be a regular thing, the Christmas tour?

A: We'd like to continue doing it every year. It's always been my favorite [tour] to do.

Q: Do you want to be the new Burl Ives or something?

A: I don't know. He became a household name and made his mark on American society, so I wouldn't have a problem with that.

Q: Like Burl, you seem to be more popular as a seasonal artist than as a nonseasonal one. I noticed that "Measure of a Man" (Aiken's 2003 CD) is selling used for 75 cents on Amazon.com, while "Merry Christmas With Love" (his 2004 CD) is selling for a full $6.29.

A: Um, well, I think, it's newer. And as we get close to the holiday season, we sell more. But when we put another album out next year, I'm sure it'll change just a little bit.

Q: Ever consider a Hanukkah album? You can call it "Made It Out of Clay."

A: I kind of doubt that'll happen. (laughs)

Q: So why do the chicks dig you so much?

A: I have absolutely no idea. They didn't dig me back when I was in North Carolina. Nowadays when they scream my name because they want to see me or talk to me, I'm kind of surprised. I don't understand it completely.

Q: Does it bother you when people say you didn't work for your fame?

A: No, it doesn't bother me at all because, without a doubt, I've probably worked harder than a lot of people do who've done this, because 'Idol' is not a walk in the park at all. And then trying to get rid of the stigma and trying to maintain any type of momentum off of that show is probably just as hard, if not harder, than someone who comes up a different way.

Q: What would you be doing if not for "American Idol" right now?

A: Teaching, probably. I spent two or three years teaching in an elementary school, so I'm sure I'd continue to do that and maybe one day try to aspire to do something more -- maybe be a principal or something like that.

Q: Do the ex-Idols have a clique -- like a Brat Pack that hangs out?

A: I stay in touch with Ruben (Studdard) and Kimberly Locke from my season, and I'm friends with Kelly (Clarkson) because we toured together. But for the most part, we've all kind of gone our separate ways.

Q: What do you make of that Corey guy and Paula Abdul?

A: Um, I'm not talking about that. You know something? I think that's kind of immature. I'm not gonna get into that whole scandal. There's no reason to discuss that.

Q: Do you think anyone would fool around with Simon Cowell, even to win?

A: You know what? I think we're finished. (click)

DAILYBREEZE

[clayMaine-iac]

Clay Maniacs Await Clay Aiken's Return to Phoenix Nov 13.
Venue: Dodge Theater • Address: 400 W. Jefferson Street • Show Starts: 8:00pm

Where: Phoenix, AZ -- Clay Aiken, native boy from Raleigh, NC, might sing "I'll Be Home for Christmas," but he won't be, as he makes a stop in Phoenix on his "JOYFUL NOISE 2005" tour at the Dodge Theatre Sunday November 13, 2005. "JOYFUL NOISE 2005" tour is the sequel to Aiken's first holiday tour in 2004. The 2005 tour will feature songs from Aiken's platinum-selling "Merry Christmas with Love,"

"JOYFUL NOISE 2005" tour is the sequel to Aiken's first holiday tour, which was a huge success, playing to sold-out theaters at every stop. The 2005 tour will feature songs from Aiken's platinum-selling "Merry Christmas with Love," the best-selling new holiday album of 2004. The song list will differ from the 2004 tour, and will include a number of songs Clay recorded for the album that didn't appear on the CD, as well as new arrangements for some traditional favorites.

"JOYFUL NOISE 2005" tour will feature a new element - a series of vignettes with a running storyline, written by Aiken. The vignettes will feature two main characters and supporting roles will be cast in each city with local actors.

"I've always loved Christmas music and holiday songs," says Aiken. "And even though there's no place like home for the holidays, I'm looking forward to touring the country with the second installment of the 'Joyful Noise' tour."

This is the sixth tour of Clay's career, and it caps a busy year with a schedule filled with everything from fulfilling his role as UNICEF Ambassador to being a reporter for the TV series "The Insider." Aiken has also been in the studio recording his next album, and will continue to work on that project during the closing months of 2005.

As part of his UNICEF duties, Aiken is the spokesperson for their annual trick-or-treat fundraising campaign. While the money raised from this effort is usually earmarked exclusively for other countries, this year, for the first time, half of the money raised will be donated to victims of Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

Clay's RCA/19 Entertainment debut "Measure Of A Man," spurred on by the success of 2003's biggest selling single "This Is The Night," achieved the same milestone by entering the Billboard Top 200 album chart at number 1 upon it's release in late October.

Raleigh, NC native Aiken, who won the Fan Choice Award at American Music Awards and a Billboard Music Award for Best Selling Single of 2003, was named one of People Magazine's "Sexiest Men" and "Top Entertainers Of The Year." He has earned cover stories in Rolling Stone (who named him one of the magazine's People Of The Year), Entertainment Weekly (who picked Clay as one of the twenty-five "Entertainers Of The Year") and TV Guide (whose readers voted him Favorite Reality Star of 2003). Clay has also been featured in Time Magazine, Elle Magazine, Teen People, and Newsweek.

AZREPORTER

[clayMaine-iac]

Pop nerd Clay Aiken brings 'Joyful Noise' to San Diego
By: PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer

Since the heady days of "American Idol" superstardom, geeky pop idol Clay Aiken may have faded somewhat from public view, but he has hardly disappeared.

The 26-year-old Raleigh, N.C., native spent more than 30 weeks on the road this year (part of it a summer concert tour, the rest as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in Indonesia and Uganda), he put out a holiday DVD, promoted his bestselling autobiography, raised money for his Bubel/Aiken Foundation (benefiting children with disabilities), made numerous TV appearances on everything from "Oprah" to "Scrubs," began recording his next CD, and conceived the "Joyful Noise" concert tour, which arrives Friday in San Diego.

Speaking by telephone from a hotel room in Los Angeles, the former special-ed teacher is the same, well-mannered, down-to-earth Mama's boy who won millions of hearts in 2003 on the Fox reality series "American Idol." In between stifled yawns, for which he apologized profusely (blaming an all-night "Joyful Noise" rehearsal the evening before), Aiken talked about the tour, his personal life, his exuberant fans (known as "Claymates") and what's coming up in 2006.

Q: "Joyful Noise" is more than a concert of Christmas music. Is it true you've hired actors and written scripted lines for them to speak between your songs?

A: That's right. I sat down in my pajamas one day and decided to write some scripted dialogue that links these songs together to keep me from looking like a fool up there on stage. It's sort of like a pageant. There's no deep character development, but it tells a traditional Christmas story. One person isn't in the holiday spirit and the others try to get him in the spirit. The music is a soundtrack for the story and I observe things and sometimes help things along.

Q: So you're like a Christmas angel in the show?

A: I'd like to keep some mystery about what I do, but that's a somewhat fair description.

Q: What music will you perform?

A: It's a mix of music from last year's CD ("Merry Christmas with Love") and some other original holiday music I found this year.

Q: I've heard you're auctioning off front row seats to each concert, with the proceeds benefiting the Bubel/Aiken Foundation. How much have you raised?

A: Um, I'm not sure how much at this point, but the foundation has raised more than a million dollars. They do a great job.

Q: Who is your audience at the "Joyful Noise" concerts? Is it the same "American Idol" fan base who have turned out for your other concert tours?

A: It's mostly the same audience, though I think it's a little older for the Christmas shows. It's a neat crowd. People get all dressed up in their Sunday best and make a big night out of it.

Q: Now that the white-hot spotlight of "American Idol" has turned elsewhere, are you still getting mobbed by screaming Claymates everywhere you go?

A: It's a little easier than it used to be, but only a little. I went to an interview at (L.A. television station) KTLA this morning and the security guard at the gate was ... um ... very enthusiastic. It's still sometimes hard to walk down the street in some places, but I can walk around L.A. or New York and nobody pays any attention. I think what's changed the most is not the fans, but my mental ability to accept it. I'm more comfortable with it now.

Q: So, who are the Claymates and why do they act the way they do?

A: I think there are only about 5,000 Claymates out there, and they come to every show. So it may seem like there are lots of them out there, but they're just very faithful fans. They are girls and women who want to take care of me and they like me for who I am.

Q: Where is home for you?

A: I'm homeless right now. I sold my home in L.A. and I'm building a house in Raleigh. Once this tour ends, I'm going to move back home. I'm really excited about that.

Q: Are you working on a new album?

A: Yes, every chance I've had this year, I've tried to get into the studio. We're looking at getting an album out next year. With my first album (the multiplatinum-selling "Measure of a Man"), I had no time to put it together and just rushed it out. But I've been enjoying taking my time with this one. We've found a lot of different stuff and the big quandary now is what type of album it will be. I'm not sure if it'll be pop, traditional or if it will have a theme. But I think it'll be along the same lines musically as "Measure of a Man."

Q: Are you still in touch with your old friends from "American Idol"?

A: I try to talk to Kelly (Clarkson) as often as I can. We're real close since we toured together last year, and I'm still in touch with Ruben (Studdard) and Kim Locke, but we're all so busy, so it's hard to stay in touch.

Q: Have you read any good books lately?

A: You know, I've got a funny story about this. One of the actors on this tour is an 11-year-old boy and the law requires that he have a tutor with him on the road. Now I'm cheaper than most folks out there and I figured, 'Hey, I've got a teaching credential, so why don't I tutor him?' So that's what we're doing. After we finish rehearsals, I tutor him for three hours a day. We just finished working on the book 'The Giver,' so I guess, to answer your question, that is the last good book I read."

NCTIMES

[clayMaine-iac]

These "Idol" hands are happily busy
By Ricardo Baca
Denver Post Pop Music Critic 
11/11/05

Say what you want about Clay Aiken - and there is so much to say - but it's impossible to question his incorruptibility. (Or at least the appearance of said virtue.)

The "American Idol" runner-up who turns 27 this month still loves Christmas songs, invited his high school music teacher on his current tour, and still can't imagine people talking about him when he's not there, let alone halfway around the globe.

He's a UNICEF ambassador tripping to Indonesia and Uganda, he wrote a series of vignettes for his Joyful Noise 2005 tour stopping Denver on Wednesday, and he cast young Gregory Ellis from Raleigh, N.C., in the skits and is tutoring him on the road.

Perhaps what wraps up Aiken's appeal - and his modest reaction to all the attention of the past three years - is the news that came in August from a TV Guide/Bravo poll declaring him the most-loved reality TV star of all time.

"Reality TV hasn't been around all that long," he said earlier this week by telephone before a show in Oakland, Calif. "I don't know. I really don't know, to be honest with you. It's very nice."

He's quiet for a second.

"To some extent, it sets up a false expectation for anything we do in the future," he said. "When you see anything like that, you expect beaucoup success all the time. But if the next album comes out and sells any less than 600,000 in it's first week, is it gonna be a failure because it didn't do as well as the first one? If next year they do the same survey and I don't even show up on it ... I don't know. I haven't figured this industry out quite yet."

Aiken has more figured out than his coached Southern charm is letting on. Check his website, clayaiken.com, and watch the Flash banner ad that pushes his many projects, from "Measure of a Man," his debut CD, to his book "Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life."

"It's all still, to some extent, a little more surreal than it should be after 2 ½ years," he said. "To think that people talk about me when I'm not around, that people are sitting around the dinner table talking about me, that's strange. It's something I didn't expect in my life. And now there's a cash card with my face on it, and it's interesting. I can't say anything bad about it, because it's amazingly flattering."

Is it flattering? Or is it creepy? It's a debit card. And it's not that he can't say anything bad about these fans who want his likeness on their plastic. It's more like he shouldn't. It's merchandising. And why would he risk that corporate relationship - and that intimate link with the fans?
Aiken and his team were smart in their approach to his early career - perhaps more on top of things than any other "Idol" projectile. Immediately following the show came the singles: "Bridge Over Troubled Water"/"This Is the Night," followed by his debut full-length album "Measure of a Man," constant touring, then "Merry Christmas With Love," the holiday album that solidified his place with preteens and homemakers already intoxicated by him.

"Joy to the World" indeed.

But it's not all about the money for Aiken. Ask him about the music and his life and he talks excitedly and assuredly. But ask him about his involvement with UNICEF - an organization he was mostly unfamiliar with until they approached him to be an educational ambassador - and his tone grows urgent.
"I don't know my world enough, I learned that, and I wanna know more about it," Aiken said of his trips to Indonesia and Uganda. "The people I'm surrounded by don't know their world enough. I'm not saying the problems (over there) outweigh the problems in the U.S., but people don't even know what's going on in their own country.

"In this position that I'm in now, I'm finding myself more willing to say something about it than being the passive and non-vocal person I had to be on that show. ... I'm not as worried about ruffling the feathers as I used to be."

This is Aiken's second holiday tour. The two months and 36 cities are an impressive show of his fan appeal - and for his supposed love for the music. The vignettes he wrote link the songs like a musical revue, although Aiken is the first to admit it's not the most original holiday story line.

"The story talks about a character who has lost the Christmas spirit - it's a typical story arc - and it takes a child to help her remember what the meaning of Christmas really is," he said.

"This is our favorite tour. Christmas music to me is easy to get passionate about. There's no other time in the year that is so connected with emotion than the holidays, and these songs are so emotional. And that's what music should be about." 

 
©Denver Post

[clayMaine-iac]

Aiken creates yule production
By Scott Iwasaki
Deseret Morning News

For his second holiday-music tour, American Idol finalist Clay Aiken wanted to do something different.
Clay Aiken      "I didn't want to do the same thing this year with singing Christmas songs," Aiken said by phone from Oakland, Calif. "I mean, when people have a Christmas concert they will sing 'O, Holy Night' or 'Jingle Bells.' I wanted to do something that could be played every year without getting old."
      So, Aiken started thinking. He formed a story, and then he started writing ideas and an outline. "I almost want to say this whole thing came about by accident, but it really didn't. I just had some ideas pop into my mind and then I wrote them down."
      The singer got the idea of recruiting his Raleigh, N.C., high school choir director, Alison Lawrence, to take on one of the lead roles. "I've also got an 11-year-old boy by the name of Gregory Ellis, who is also from Raleigh, to do one of the other lead roles. There is a continuous storyline about the season, and I think it's turning out fine."
      Getting Lawrence to be a part of the production was easy for Aiken. "She was very supportive of me from the beginning. She used to boss me around. Now, it's fun for me because I get to boss her around."
      And getting things together for the production was also easy, said Aiken. "The musicians worked with me last year on my last holiday tour. They knew the songs, because they were taken from my Christmas album (2004's "Merry Christmas with Love"). I added some songs that weren't on the album and did a story with scenes."
      The hardest part of the production was technical. "The rehearsals were a headache. Getting spoken lines and songs together was harder than I thought. It wasn't like last year's tour when we'd have a bit of narration and then the music. This year's was more difficult, with timing and memorizing lines and stories."
      Still, said Aiken, he is happy with how things have turned out. "Christmas is that time of year when, at least in the United States, the country shuts down and reflects upon the past year. There's a reason why Christmas comes at the end of the year. But it's also a time for us to get together with those we haven't seen in awhile."
      Aiken said his family didn't really have special Christmas traditions outside of the mainstream. "But we enjoyed it all the same. This show is, hopefully, going to be a new tradition to some.
      "I put it together with my fans in mind. It's my way of giving something back. They have been so good to me over the years. They have supported me and I wanted them to know that the support was never overlooked."

DESERETNEWS

[clayMaine-iac]

Aiken’s Joyful Noise—A New Tradition in Entertainment Unfolds
By Dianne Austin
Photography by CCAPhoto

Ask anyone to make a list of Christmas traditions and they will probably go on and on, ad infinitum. From hanging the mistletoe to baking special holiday cookies and cakes, traditions are countless at Christmas time.

But suggest that they tell you what entertainment is sought for the season, and they’ll name the same five shows time and time again.  For my family, it happens to be watching The Nutcracker ballet on any given local stage in our community.  And although I like to think I’m a bit of an aficionado, I must admit that right about now, I’m feeling like I’ve seen one too many choreographed renditions of “Waltz of the Flowers.”

There was a time when you didn’t have to get up off of your comfy living room couch during the holidays. When I was growing up, we had hour after hour of TV music specials for a few weeks out of the year entertaining and delighting us.  All of the popular performers would have their turn at it and they were all good.  Stars like Perry Como, Andy Williams, Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra;  all had weekly or special seasonal shows that uplifted us at holiday time, and we relied on them to do it.  Later, we were offered other talented people such as Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow, Carol Burnett, Tom Jones, and Julie Andrews to deliver our yuletide inspiration.

But today’s TV scheduling does not offer much in the way of holiday fare, unless you want to watch an old version of A Christmas Carol late one night, or spend an early evening with a cup of hot chocolate watching A Charlie Brown Christmas.

What to do? Well, you’ll have to get off that sofa and out of the house, but it’ll be worth it.  Check out the schedule at the end of this review for your closest local venue, put on some festive finery, and then go see Clay Aiken’s Joyful Noise 2 Christmas show.

Aiken began Joyful Noise last year with a more conventional concert format, presenting the music he had just recorded on his Merry Christmas With Love album for everyone’s listening (and his “Claymates’” viewing) pleasure.  I attended in 2004 and found myself affected and consumed with the spirit of the season.

Clay decided to do something different the second time around.  This year, he penned a play with scripted vignettes which are paired with the music of Christmas.  It’s a simple story of a precocious little boy and an elderly neighbor who has lost her Christmas spirit due to the circumstances of her life.  Trust Clay Aiken to be able to take such a premise and fashion it into an entertaining and engaging holiday production. 

It is Aiken’s first attempt at donning a playwright’s hat, and it’s a successful one at that.  He was able to accomplish his goal because he followed the first rule of thumb that governs any genre of literary pursuit—write from what you know. As he did with his book Learning to Sing, Clay grabbed the gold ring this time too with a holiday script. By using all of his “Opie from Mayberry” (aka “Clayton from Raleigh, North Carolina”) attitudes, emotions and sensibilities, he produced something for the big stage with the flavor and charm of an every-town, USA Christmas play usually written for a smaller local venue. 

Because, it seems to be what many of us are looking for at this time of year—a reminiscence of watching the proverbial annual play at church or local community theater to receive and be inspired by a simple message of love and goodwill; the essence of the yuletide spirit.  Clay clinches it with this JN2 presentation.

The other element that makes the show soar is the voice. With Aiken, it will always be the voice.  As Clay himself has often said, Christmas holds the music he loves the most, and in this show, it is evident. 

With the carols, it’s the joy; with the hymns, it’s what comes from strong faith and unfaltering devotion.  As he moves through his play dressed in white, orchestrating and guiding as the lead angel, he is completely believable in his role. It is not only because of his look and demeanor, but because of the heavenly sounds that come from his throat. 

Whether you’ve never seen him perform live, or seen him onstage a hundred times, you should not miss him this time singing these songs.

“Mary Did You know,” “Oh Holy Night,” “Don’t Save it All For Christmas Day,” “Sleigh Bells,” and “Good News” are favorites reprised from last year.  The standout for new original music this time around was “Celebrate Me Home” by Kenny Loggins.  Clay makes it his own.

Aside from the talent that is offered up by the featured star artist, other  highlights exist for the show.

Noteworthy components come in the form of the dancing and choreography (dancers Adam and Patricia Kent and John Dahlstrom are particularly alluring) and the acting talent evident in the young male lead, Gregory Ellis (Tommy.)  Allison Lawrence (Beverly) is believable as the aging neighbor Tommy bothers and befriends.  The fact that Lawrence is Aiken’s former teacher and Ellis is a Raleigh, NC resident add to the down home flavor of the play I mentioned earlier.

Always present and ever remarkable are Aiken’s three backup vocalists (who are rarely “in the back” these days), Jacob Luttrell, Quiana Parler and Angela Fisher.  Quiana’s rendition of “Grown Up Christmas List” is a standout.

Andy Abad (Musical Director/Lead Guitar) and William Joseph (Featured Opener/Piano) add their extreme talent to the success of the show.

Criticisms are few.  The direction was good, although the actual staging could be improved upon with a few changes in set placement.  All of the songs for the second act are necessary, appropriate and uplifting.  Song selection for the start of the “play”, in my opinion, could have utilized a few more dynamic and interesting Christmas tunes than those that were chosen.

Since this was almost like a show within a show (Aiken comes out to talk to us after the “play” ends and then sings two more times), I am left with a question:  Clay, what is the name of your Christmas Play?  The play within the show should have been named.

But the ultimate questions that ensue upon leaving the theater after experiencing Joyful Noise 2 is will Aiken continue this wonderful new tradition of Christmas entertainment year after year, and what gift will the angel give us next year to illuminate the stage? 

Whatever it is, let’s just hope it continues so that we can add some choices to our sole prospect of staying at home to watch yet another screening of Miracle on 34th Street or It’s a Wonderful Life.  I’ll grant you, old Christmas traditions never die, but sometimes, we can see a beautiful new one unfold right before our eyes!

And yes Virginia, there is a Clay Aiken.

ENTERTAINMENT WORLD

[clayMaine-iac]

With Christmas show, Aiken seizes the season
Singer making most of time in spotlight
Ric Francis © AP

Clay Aiken figured he could do one of two things. He could do the usual Christmas show - sing the same old songs - or he could turn it into something spectacular.
And even though the American Idol runner-up has come off two huge successes - his debut album, Measure of a Man, and last year's Merry Christmas With Love - he figured it might be now or never.

"I may not be doing this for the rest of my life," the singer says from a tour stop in Oakland. "This industry is very fickle. I make people mad when I say that. It's not that I don't have confidence in myself. I don't have confidence in the industry. I just wanna make sure I've done the things I've wanted to do that I enjoy doing."

So rather than string together a bunch of Christmas tunes, Aiken sat down and wrote a script and vignettes to tie all the songs together. He'd dabbled in that last time around, but the entire show he brings to the Convention Center Lecture Hall on Wednesday is tied together with a thematic thread.

"I wanted to make it different from other Christmas shows. People go on the road at Christmastime and do the same songs. They're probably doing Sleigh Ride, Winter Wonderland, Jingle Bells and whatnot themselves," he says. His production is "not a concert necessarily that people are used to," he says. "I don't do much talking. I wouldn't say it's a play, but it's a program. The music comes every 25 or 30 seconds, but it definitely has a story line."

Like on previous tours, Aiken is trying to give fans value for their money.

"It's important to me to try to make sure things are family events as much as possible," Aiken says. "I'd like to think families could come together and enjoy this stuff together. There are people out there nowadays whose music caters to a younger set, and their tickets are $300 apiece. Exactly what 14-year-old girl can afford a $300 ticket?

"We didn't need fireworks and strobe lights and waterworks and whatnot to put on a show. Hopefully, we'd get by making a good show by singing and doing what we do well."

Aiken is at an interesting point in his career, with just one solo album and one holiday album under his belt. Both were big successes, which means he has nowhere to go but down - eventually.

"I don't know if I see myself at a crossroads creatively. Who knows if I'll ever be accepted in the mainstream? I just wanna do things that I wanna do," he says.

"With the first album coming out as it did and then the Christmas album, I'm not gonna lie - I'm nervous. We have a good group of people in position to make (the next album) good. We're working on it now. But that's a lot to live up to. The first album did far better than I thought it would, and the Christmas one did far better than I thought it would, too. If this next album comes out and sells 300,000 in its first week, is that a failure? It's pretty good, but it's only half of what the first one did."

So the answer is to try to trust his instincts.

"I don't know that I'm ever gonna be cool. I'm not necessarily trying to be. I'm trying to be me," he says.

And he appreciates what he's learning. A criticism of American Idol is that it promotes singers over musicians, producers, songwriters, etc. Aiken has renewed respect for those people.

"I have nothing but respect for producers. I could never do what producers do. And, Lord, I wish I could play an instrument besides the spoons. I can't even play a tambourine," he says.

"I'm gonna get in so much trouble here, but I'm gonna say what I think. I don't know that the majority of America buys the producer. My very uneducated self didn't buy the producer. I have a lot more respect for what producers do now, now that I listen to music in a different way."

ROCKYMOUNTAINNEWS

[clayMaine-iac]

Touched by an Angel at Clay Aiken's Joyful Noise '05 Concert
by Judy Simpson (2005/11/17)

I recently had the pleasure of attending Clay Aiken's second annual Joyful Noise Christmas tour concert. To be fair I should confess that I'm a big fan. Yes, I've always loved the sights, sounds, and smells of Christmas. Oh, and I'm a big fan of Clay Aiken, too. Clay and Christmas…a match made in heaven. And a combination that's bound to result in a joyful noise. Some may think that Clay has his priorities wrong; that he should be more concerned with finishing the CD on which he has been working for several months and then with planning a tour to promote its sale. After all, he already postponed its release date to travel halfway around the world as a UNICEF ambassador and then to spend a couple of months touring with his Jukebox Concert, which only previewed a couple of the songs planned for this CD. Clay already has a hit Christmas album that broke sales records last year, so why go back on the road to reprise it? Perhaps because he does, in fact, have his priorities in order.
Clay promised his fans another Christmas tour this year. He could have played it safe and used last year's format wherein he offered spirited and spiritual performances with a voice that lends itself perfectly to this genre; and people would have returned again and again to experience the joy of hearing him sing live. Throw in a few jokes and witty anecdotes, and the show would be assured success. However, Clay wanted to give his fans more this year, something bigger and better, and so he gave more of himself and came up with something that is obviously a labor of love. It surely involved a lot more time and work, not to mention expense than last year's. In addition to bringing back his talented musicians and backup singers, it required hiring actors and dancers, designing and building detailed stage sets, and bringing along the extra hands required to manage all this, not to mention a snow machine for special effect. Of course he did cut a couple of corners by writing the vignettes himself, using local community theater actors as extras, and taking on the job of tutoring the youngest cast member himself. Yet none of this appears to have distracted Clay from giving a stellar vocal performance of every song, and he has included all his fans' old favorites and even a few new favorites.

Even if Clay had not disclosed that he has written the script for the show, and even if people directly involved in this project had not confirmed that this was Clay's vision from start to finish, it would be apparent because Clay's fingerprints are all over it. He took a real risk with this and he knew it. There was never a doubt he could provide his audience an entertaining and moving evening of song, but the audience would also be hearing the dialogue he had written, and it remained to be seen whether they would be as moved and entertained by that. If the dialogue didn't sound natural, wasn't poignant yet clever, didn't draw the audience into the story and hopefully touch them, they might become impatient or uncomfortable having to endure such interludes between songs. Still, Clay placed himself in a most vulnerable position by being on stage while these scenes played out. He would know instantly how it was being received by the audience. Likewise, his reactions to watching his creation unfold would be apparent to everyone watching him. There would be no shield between Clay and his fans. Fortunately, the dialogue is a reflection of Clay, who has proven himself a capable storyteller. The story idea may seem a familiar one, but Clay has given the dialogue his own folksy, charming, clever, sometimes snarky, (and do I dare say "angelic?") touch.

Clay, for his part, gently guides the unsuspecting characters toward the spirit of Christmas by showing them what they need to see and reminding them what they know but have forgotten. In the process, Clay might also be gently guiding his audience, showing them what they need to see and reminding them what they know but may have forgotten. No, I'm not trying to put a halo on Clay; but I do think there might be a lesson to be learned here from a very popular teacher. The key point of the story is that a family is not just comprised of blood relatives, that there are all kinds of families; and Clay makes everyone in the audience feel like they are a part of his family. It is obvious that this show was written, cast, staged and performed with love. So, Clay's words ring true when he tells the audience this gift is intended not only to praise the Lord but to thank his fans for being there for him, for coming back again and again, for providing him the opportunity to do what he loves, and for being not just fans but friends and family. Like the show, his message comes straight from his heart.

I am reminded of a review of Clay's first solo tour last year written by a New England critic who obviously wasn't happy about attending the concert of someone who had lost a singing competition on a reality TV show. He must have been taken aback by the big turnout and the enthusiasm of the crowd, but he found a clever way to turn even that into an insult (or so he thought) when he remarked, regarding the audience's positive response, "Who knew Clay had such a large extended family?" The irony is that he didn't recognize the compliment in that observation. The truth is, Clay does have an impressive and ever-growing extended family of fans, and they are coming together eagerly once more this holiday season to hear their family's pride and joy, Clay Aiken, make a joyful noise just for them

BEAVERSONIDOL

[clayMaine-iac]

Well, bless his little aiken, breakin' heart, plus club notes
BY ROSS RAIHALA
Pioneer Press music critic

Beyond a summer tour and his round of holiday gigs — he plays Northrop Auditorium on Monday — Clay Aiken has largely stayed out of the public eye this year.

But don't think people have forgotten him.

"I was in Vancouver, Canada, and I went out with some friends to this community Halloween bonfire thing on a beach," said the "American Idol" star during a recent phone interview. "And lo and behold, 15 minutes after I get there, I had children coming up and taking my picture. It was very strange and kind of surreal. I mean, it was pitch black — and I was in Canada.

"I expected it to happen after 'Idol,' and we all got very used to it. I thought the attention would (slow down), but it's fine it hasn't. I'm glad people are still interested in me."

Aiken was supposed to have a new studio disc out this year. What happened?

"We spent so little time recording the first album," Aiken said. "The song 'Invisible' actually got recorded in Minneapolis — we kind of had to find time where we could to make the record. It was good, but it was rushed.

"So I wanted to take more time. I've listened to so many (potential songs), I want to pull the best out of a big crop and be happy with the outcome. It'll probably come out in the first part of next year, but the goal really was to take our time and do it right."

Aiken's concert Monday is based on his disc "Merry Christmas With Love." It's his second holiday-themed tour, although his inaugural trip last year didn't include a stop in the Cities.

"Everybody sings Christmas songs, so what's going to get people to come out and see me sing Christmas songs? I wanted to figure out a way to make it different and new, so I sat down in my pajamas one day and wrote a script that ties the songs together.

"I hired my old high school choir teacher and a little boy out of Raleigh to play the lead characters, and their story connects all these songs. It's not necessarily a play, and I'm not part of the action — we're really the soundtrack to these vignettes.

"It's very heartwarming. By the end of the concert, everybody in the audience had better be crying. I wrote it, and I still get the chills."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Aiken said he'd like his holiday shows to become an annual tradition. (Christmas shows are money in the bank — just ask Lorie Line.)

"We encourage people to dress up and wear your Sunday best," Aiken said. "The crew even dresses up. It's a great way to finish the year and say thanks to the fans for supporting us."

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