Clay's Picture Perfect Tours: Part 4 - 2004 Joyful Noise Tour

So far in our picture tour series, we have seen pictures and YouTube videos of the AI2 Tour, the Independent Tour, and the Solo Tour. Today we'll take a little journey back in time to Clay's first Christmas Tour, the 2004 Joyful Noise Tour. Clay has said that the Christmas tours are his favorite tours, and I think you can see the joy all over his face as he's singing these Christmas songs that he loves. I think its an awesome blessing for us to be able to share a little bit of the holiday season with Clay.

Here's a few memories from Clayboard fans from this JNT04:

Rpoppert - JNT 1 and 2 : DSIAFCD!!!! Good News. For JNT1: Him coming into the audience to dance with people for WAYDNYE. espeically the woman he picked up out of the wheelchair, which is one of the shows I was at.

BamaClayFan - The Christmas shows...so great! IF YOU'RE NOT 'YET' A CLAY AIKEN FAN AND SEE HIM 'LIVE'...YOU WILL 'FOREVER' BE A CLAY AIKEN FAN.
HE'S NOT ONLY THE GREATEST SINGER EVER BUT A FANTASTIC PERFORMER. HE'S A SUPERSTAR..!!

J4Clay - Hearing Good News and Don't Save It All For Christmas for the first time. He blew me away with both of those wonderful songs. Also seeing him in that loooooooong black coat. WOW!!

Here's a taste of that first tour.















Clay Singing "I'll Be Home For Christmas", 2004 Joyful Noise Tour

Clay's Picture Perfect Tours: Part 3 - The Solo Tour, aka NAT

I'll never forget Clay's Solo "Not a Tour". It started out as a few cities here and there, and it slowly grew and grew, more cities were added, till the "Not a Tour" became a Big Ol' Tour. This was Clay's first tour where he headlined by himself. The AI2 Tour of course featured all of the Top 10 contestants. The Independent Tour was co-headlined with Kelly Clarkson. But this was Clay's tour and his alone. And I don't think there was a Clay fan anywhere who wasn't totally wired up about this tour!

From The Clayboard, we have several memories from people who attended this tour:

From Sunshinewagon - The steps rising and Clay singing WTSHNN.

From INeedaClaybotomy - The Leg Wrap in Charlotte.

From Rpoppert - Being at the very first show, and not knowing anything. Everything was a surprise. The mother ship! I LOVED the video montage he used with TITN!!! Bringing up the singers and thre dancers.

From Riversend22 - Well it was an amazing tour but I'd have to say my two best memories was 1) Me dancing on stage with him at the Erie county Fair. Loved the way he laughed at me when I did the worm. And 2) Probably the entire Charlette concert...it was hilarity done to perfection.

From Tedy4Clay - Clay doing the "Nasty Dance" in Charlotte, 04'... I still watch this one over and over! Toooo funny!!! Clay singing with "Brianna"? the little 4 year old....awwwww!
Clay singing with John and John "ripppppping" the mike off the stand during "This is the Night".

From Beedawn - My favorite Clay Aiken concert of all times was the 2004 Solo Charlotte NC concert. Everything was perfect that night and I will always remember it.

As for my memories, in addition to having the closest seats I ever had (5th row), Clay was in Houston and one of my friends I had never met before in person, only online, came to go to the concert with me. It was as though we had known each other all our lives when we finally met. That's how Clay fans are. Then, I got to go to the concert in Charlotte because another friend I had never met emailed me and talked me into coming. There I was at the airport waiting for a carload of woman who I had never met to pick me up. Again, it was as though we had always known each other. And today, we are all the very best of friends. Of course seeing Clay live once again was next to heaven. I almost couldn't breath waiting for him to come out of the "mother ship". I'll never forget the feeling when he came up from there. And what a show!

Finding pictures to include with this tour was extremely hard for me. I have so many from this tour, and all of them are equally good. I hope you enjoy these. And I hope you enjoy the YouTube video I chose. Hey, I know you will...its little Brianna and Clay!!

Next will be Clay's first Joyful Noise Tour.

Clay Concerts - Some Things Change and Some Things Stay The Same - PART 3

Some people wonder why Clay fan go to so many concerts on one tour. "Isn't one enough? Why would you want to go hear the same songs over and over again?" What they don't realize is that a Clay concert is never exactly the same. Yes, the songs are the same, but Clay may add a little extra something to a song or two the next time he sings them. And of course, the banter. The wonderful, hilarious banter! Never is that the same! Give Clay a different audience to play off of and there's no telling what will happen on any given night! He is a top notch showman and entertainer. Saying and doing the most hilarious things that seem to come off the top of his head. What's not to love about going to several Clay concerts?

And yet, people do like the comfy cozy feeling of things being the same. Like a blanket or stuffed animal that you've had since childhood, its always the same and that is comforting for you. And that's the way many things at a Clay concert are. In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I've led you through the pictorial evidence of the "sameness" of some things about a Clay concert. Now, here in Part 3 are a few more things that fans will always love and look forward to seeing over and over again.


Hand Shakes At The Bus. If at all possible, Clay always comes to the bus to greet the fans. He goes out of his way to do this. Even lining up single file 2500 anxious fans waiting to shake his hand. How many stars do this? What a sweetheart.



A Big Belly Laugh. Once, maybe twice, probably several times on each tour, there is something that just absolutely cracks Clay up. Remember "Vermont is a city"? How about the girl he "kneed" in Charlotte. Its a given that this is going to happen many times in any given tour!



Pursed Lips. Oh my, thank goodness this one is a given! While singing a song, there will always be a time that Clay's lips form a perfect kissable pose. Very nice! Aren't you glad that some things never change?



The Microphone Caress. I remember first noticing this on his solo tour. The friend I was with was about to keel over! A gentle caress of the mic sends any serious Clay fan over the edge! And I guarantee, ladies, it will happen at least once in every concert.

Stay tuned for Part 4, our last part, in this series. Maybe some of you can send comments to CDD with your own things that never change on a Clay tour. If so, we might try to include them in a later article.

Clay Concerts - Some Things Change and Some Things Stay The Same - PART 2

Yesterday CDD started a series about those things in a Clay concert which, in spite of all the things that are constantly changing, remain the same from tour to tour. It was a pictorial walk through the same ol' same ol'. Somehow Clay takes the same ol' same ol' and makes it interesting, fun, and thrilling!

Today, we would like to continue that series with a few more pictures of things that we see over and over, from concert to concert and tour to tour.


The Audience Meet and Greet. There is never a tour where Clay does not converse one on one with someone from the audience, many times going out into the audience to greet that person. This tour it was Shawn's (the drummer)teacher. Previous tours it has been a child in a wheelchair, a woman to dance with, and a hen-pecked husband to call on to come up on the stage to perform! Who will be next?!!



The Lip Bite. Forever my favorite, I could fill a book with lip bite pictures. There's something about Clay's lip bite, first seen on American Idol, that always makes any smile on my face twice as big!



The Glory Note. Solitaire, Don't Save It All For Christmas Day, All Is Well, and this tour, Without You. The big as the Grand Canyon, longer than a trip around the world note that takes our breath away. Always. At every concert.



The Stubble. Its not at every concert. But I can guarantee you it will be at several concerts at every tour. Does he get too lazy to shave? Or does he know it drives us all crazy. Or maybe a little of both??


Check out the same ol' same ol' again tomorrow.