Christmas Tour Starts Tomorrow - Concert Preview Articles

With the Christmas tour starting tomorrow, a number of media outlets are running concert preview articles. Don't forget, all the latest tour news, recaps, photos and more will be posted on our Christmas tour blog.

• The South Bend Tribune interviewed Clay by phone from LA...

  "All is well," he says by telephone from somewhere in Los Angeles. "Before I start a tour, I like to make sure everything is working."
  
  It's not a bad idea, considering how busy the 2003 "American Idol" runner-up has been lately.
  
  Aiken recently appeared on the Fox game show "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" He taped the "Capitol One Holiday Celebration on Ice" with Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen (which will air Christmas Day on NBC). And he will make his Broadway debut Jan. 18 in Monty Python's "Spamalot."
  
  Aiken says that part of the reason he took on the role was because he was already planning to be in New York working on his new, yet-to-be-titled CD.
  
  "There's really not much to tell," he says of the project. "We just started working on it. We're finding songs for the new album right now and we just hired a producer."
  
  In the meantime, Aiken has plenty of projects to keep his obsessive fans -- known as Claymates -- buzzing.
  
  One of the reasons Aiken says he continues to do an annual holiday tour is to celebrate those who support him -- even if their loyalty is, at times, baffling even to him.
  
  "If I knew (what it was), I'd be making a serum," Aiken says, laughing. "They are a really close-knit group. I think they came together because they were fans of the show or the music or whatever, but they stayed together, not because of me, but because of themselves. ... (The tour) has become our own Christmas tradition."

• ... and the Wilke Barres Times Leader ran this:

  In the past five years, he has released four albums and is embarking on his eighth tour, which makes a stop at the F. M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre at 7 p.m. Dec. 4. Last year, his appearance at the venue was sold out.
  
  His day job is to sell as many albums as possible – and he has sold millions – but he doesn’t stop there. He is a philanthropist who has raised millions of dollars for various causes, begun the Bubel/Aiken Foundation and traveled with UNICEF.
  
  “I could go out and just sing,” he said, adding, volunteering “is what I do with my downtime. … When you go out there (on stage), there’s only so much of that you can take with you.”
  
  But what he gives to his fans, affectionately called “Claymates,” is so much more. Aiken went through life as an underdog, a nerdy guy with a charisma hidden behind his glasses. He swapped those for contacts and let the “American Idol” producers change his hair.

• Kalamazoo Gazette ... "Aiken and Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra present holiday concert"

  These days, there's one pop performer trimming the proverbial tree with his own holiday song stylings: 2003 ``American Idol'' runner-up Clay Aiken.
  
  Aiken, accompanied by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, will wrap his voice around seasonal tunes new and old when ``Christmas With Clay Aiken'' hits Miller Auditorium on Friday.
  
  ``It differs a little bit every year,'' said Aiken, who called from his cell phone on his way to a doctor's appointment. ``For example, the first tour we used children from local orchestras, elementary schools, high schools,'' he said. ``We have a tradition of involving people from the communities we visit in the show. This year, we're allowing fans who've submitted their own Christmas memories through our Web site to tell those holiday stories along with the music. It's going to be kind of like a big Christmas card.''
  
  Aiken's ``Merry Christmas With Love,'' a mix of classics and originals, debuted atop Billboard Magazine's Holiday Album Chart when it was released three years ago. In fact, the album enjoyed the biggest debut week sales for a Christmas album since SoundScan began tabulating sales in 1991. In addition, it debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- one of the highest-ever debuts for a holiday album on the pop music charts.
  
  ``I hadn't planned to do one (a Christmas album) so early to start with. I wanted to get out two pop albums first,'' he said. ``After doing it, the Christmas touring has easily become one of my favorite times of the year.