Rolling Stone Magazine JNT Article

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."

Clay Aiken tour dates:

11/2: Vancouver, Queen Elizabeth Theatre
11/3: Portland, OR, Rose Garden Arena
11/5: Eugene, OR, Hult Center For Performing Arts
11/6: Seattle, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
11/8: Oakland, CA, Paramount Theatre
11/9: Los Angeles, Kodak Theatre
11/10: Los Angeles, Kodak Theatre
11/11: San Diego, San Diego Civic Theatre
11/13: Phoenix, Dodge Theatre
11/15: Salt Lake City, Delta Center
11/16: Denver, Colorado Convention Center
11/18: Council Bluffs, IA, Mid-America Center
11/19: Kansas City, Midland Theatre
11/21: Minneapolis, Northrop Auditorium
11/22: Chicago, Chicago Theatre
11/25: Louisville, Louisville Palace
11/26: Cincinnati, Cincinnati Music Hall
11/27: Youngstown, OH, Convocation Center
11/29: Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall
11/30: Reading, PA, Sovereign Center
12/2: New York City, Beacon Theatre
12/3: New York City, Beacon Theatre
12/4: New York City, Beacon Theatre
12/6: Boston, Orpheum Theatre
12/8: Albany, Palace Theatre
12/9: Providence, RI, Providence Performing Arts Center
12/10: Wallingford, CT, Chevrolet Theatre
12/11: Camden, NJ, Tweeter Center
12/13: Washington, DC, DAR Constitution Hall
12/14: Baltimore, Lyric Opera House
12/16: Nashville, Gaylord Entertainment Center
12/17: Atlanta, Atlanta Civic Ctr. Theatre
12/18: Pensacola, FL, Pensacola Civic Center
12/20: Columbia, SC, Township Auditorium
12/21: Charlotte, NC, Charlottte Bobcats Arena
12/22: Raleigh, NC, RBC Center
12/27: Hollywood, FL, Seminole Hard Rock Live
12/28: Melbourne, FL, Maxwell C. King Center
12/29: Clearwater, FL, Ruth Eckerd Hall
12/30: Clearwater, FL, Ruth Eckerd Hall



KAREN BLISS
(Posted Nov 02, 2005)