Tidbits 10/15

• Some members of the Clay nation found a "new" review of Merry Christmas with Love over at Christmasreviews.com:

  Now Aiken has released Merry Christmas With Love, a lovely, heartfelt holiday card to his millions of adoring fans. The release definitely plays to Aiken's strengths; this is no frivolous pop froth. Aiken sings these Christmas classics with the gusto of a seasoned holiday music icon, somewhat reminiscent of Sinatra or Como. Aiken is often compared with Harry Connick, Jr., and it's a fair comparison. The arrangements are relatively straightforward, and Aiken's stylings are old-fashioned, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. Although Aiken's clean voice is accompanied by considerable engineering magic and background vocals, the production is largely restrained and tasteful. No annoying gimmicks clutter the fine music here.
  
  Merry Christmas With Love contains a dozen tracks, a smart blend of the old and new. As you might expect, the best-loved holiday chestnuts are here. The three lesser-known contemporary numbers are the title track, Celine Dion's (co-author) "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day," and the wonderful "Mary Did You Know?" (a personal favorite of mine!). Interestingly, there was apparently some ongoing debate regarding the order of selections on the CD. The album's back reflects one listing with the caution "See Label For Sequence," and the CD's label in fact shows the correct line-up ("Winter Wonderland" and "Sleigh Ride" are switched). The liner notes, which contain considerable information about each track's production and some nifty photos of Aiken, present the songs in a third (and entirely different) order. None of this affects the recording's quality, of course, but it is fascinating to consider the strategies involved when stringing holiday tunes together into an entire album.
  

• Broadway World - article about a project Clay's musical conductor, Jesse Vargas, is involved in:

  The CD was arranged and musically directed by Jesse Vargas (Bare; Clay Aiken tour) and was produced by Alan and Vargas at Track 9 studios, New York City.

• Tech Digest - calculating the success of an album using the "Moby" equation -

  There's several factors within the formula, such as 'the sacredness of the song involved in the shilling', with John Lennon's 'Imagine' at number 10, and 'Disco Duck' at number one, and 'the artist's underground, nonconformist or punk origins', showing the Rolling Stones at number 10, and American Idol-darling, Clay Aiken, at number one.

• Tallahassee Democrat - pageant queen dances to TITN -

  Keister was interviewed by a panel of judges about her current and future life goals and knowledge of local, statewide, national and international current events. She performed a lyrical jazz dance during the talent portion of the competition to Clay Aiken's “This is the Night.”

• There Was A Man posts a cute YouTube Clay montage
• The ConCLAYve's Corabeth on why Claymates are a lot like Red Sox fans -

  1.Obsessive-Compulsive
  Clay fans certainly have our rituals, from the way we purchase tickets to the things we do to prepare for a concert to the fact that (as Clay once told an audience)we spend “25 hours a day” on the message boards.