Why Trisha Yearwood, Lady A, Dave Koz, Robert Earl Keen hit the road for Christmas
There are plenty of reasons for musical acts to do Christmas tours.
The tours are brief, often joyous, packed with familiar songs and attendees primed to sing along and enjoy the festivities.
We asked four artists stopping in Atlanta for Christmas-themed concerts to explain their reasons for jumping on the holiday bandwagon.
Trisha Yearwood
Yearwood, who grew up in Monticello, just released “Christmastime,” her third Christmas album, so clearly this holiday is a big deal for the legendary country artist.
Yet, this is her first Christmas tour. Since her latest album features an orchestra, she is playing with local orchestras, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, at Atlanta Symphony Hall Dec. 10.
“You feed off the musicians in the room,” Yearwood said. “When you hear these lush symphonic arrangements, it really puts you in the Christmas spirit.”
Yearwood opens the album with “Christmas Time is Here” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” a song she walked down the aisle to when she got married to Garth Brooks in 2005.
Her stop with the ASO coincides with the couple’s 20th wedding anniversary. Although he is doing a residency in Las Vegas in December, he has no concert date Dec. 10, so he will likely be in Atlanta. Will he come on stage and sing a duet with her? She isn’t saying.
Her current album includes “Pure Imagination” from “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory,” which she will perform live.
“Technically, that’s not a Christmas song,” she noted. “But lyrically it works. It’s a song about dreams. When you hear it in context, it makes sense.”
“Christmastime with Trisha Yearwood: 12 Days of Christmas Tour with ASO,” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10. $76.25 and up. Atlanta Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. ticketmaster.com
Dave Koz
It would be hard to compete with Grammy-nominated smooth jazz artist Koz when it comes to dedicated Christmas tours.
He hit the road at this time of year in 1997 to deal with the death of his father and since has only skipped 2020, when he subbed out live stops with a virtual concert.
“The tour has always been about family, the preciousness of life and being together with loved ones,” Koz said.
In recent years, he has launched the tour in Atlanta at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre: “We’re there on Black Friday, the official start of the season. And the Atlanta audience is tailor-made for us. Everybody comes dressed up and ready to party.”
His holiday tour, he notes, brings a more multi-generational mix to his audience than his regular tour.
“This music,” he said, ‘seems to erase the lines that separate us.”
His band this year includes his longtime collaborator Jonathan Butler as well as Season 10 “American Idol” finalists Casey Abrams and Haley Reinhart.
“The musicians change,” Koz said. “The repertoire changes. The year changes. But the feeling of the Christmas show has always remained constant.”
“Dave Koz and Friends Christmas Tour,” 8 p.m. Today. $64 and up. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. cobbenergycentre.com.
Robert Earl Keen
Keen, a witty, beloved veteran Americana singer, is not the first artist you’d think of when the idea of a Christmas concert comes to mind. He’s not exactly Mariah Carey.
Yet on Oct. 29, 1994, both Keen and Carey released Christmas songs at the same time. Hers ― “All I Want for Christmas is You” ― became an unavoidably chipper pop nugget that will outlive us all. Keen’s ditty is a quirky, winking ode to a dysfunctional Texas family dubbed “Merry Christmas from the Family.”
In the much smaller world of Keen fans, he created a song for the ages. About 15 years ago, he sensed his fans expected him to play it in December.
“I noticed people would be lookin’ at me, arms crossed,” Keen said. “They couldn’t wait for that song. I couldn’t suffer through this apathy to get to this one song anymore. So I started building a show with actors, and the band became the Christmas Men. It morphed over time. We’d create themes like ‘Out of This World Christmas,’ and one of the band members would sing ‘Rocket Man.’ Another year we did ‘The Road to Christmas,” and I sang ‘King of the Road.’”
In other words, the set list at the Eastern Dec. 14 will include a few hits, a few covers and only a few actual Christmas songs. “It’s not so much about Christmas but bringing the spirit of Christmas to the show,” Keen said.
This year’s theme, he said, is “The Greatest Christmas on Earth.” “I’d say,” Keen said, “there’s a little puffery going on there.”
“Robert Earl Keen presents ‘The Greatest Christmas on Earth,’” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 14. $63-$327. The Eastern, 77 Memorial Drive SE, Atlanta. axs.com.
Lady A
Despite Lady A releasing a Christmas album more than a decade ago, this country music trio is only now going on its first Christmas tour, including a stop at Atlanta Symphony Hall Dec. 5.
“We would tour so hard every summer, we get burned out,” said Charles Kelley, who grew up in Augusta and graduated from the University of Georgia. “The last thing you want to do is go out one more time.”
But this year has been light on touring since “we were focusing on having babies and families. We’ve all had our last kids.” (Hillary Scott had her fourth child in July. Kelley had his second child in September.)
The concert will include cuts from the act’s “On This Winter’s Night” album and their most recent addition, “On This Winter’s Night Vol. 2″ featuring the sweet, upbeat original tune “Wouldn’t Be Christmas.”
“As an artist, we’re all trying to get that next Mariah Carey song,” he said. “It’s fun to do that, though we know it probably won’t happen.”
Kelley said they also enjoyed playing around with classics, going “more laid back” with “Last Christmas” and “Winter Wonderland” to give them a more “beachy” feel.
He hopes Lady A live can give these familiar songs “the warmth of our harmonies. That’s where we really lean in.”
And he plans to insert humor into the show. “There are no rules when it comes to a Christmas concert,” he said. “You can be as cheesy as you want.”
“Lady A: The Winter Night’s Tour.” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5. $122.95, Atlanta Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. ticketmaster.com.
A sampling of other Christmas tours
“Lauren Daigle: The Behold Christmas Tour” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4. $68-$222. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. foxtheatre.org.
“Amy Grant, Cece Winans & Michael W. Smith: Christmas Together” 7 p.m. Dec. 6. $53.50-$219.25. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. foxtheatre.org.
“For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas, 7 p.m. Dec. 8, $54.24 and up. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. foxtheatre.org.
“Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Ghosts of Christmas Eve” 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 14. $77.25 and up. Gas South Arena, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. ticketmaster.com.
“Leslie Odom, Jr.: The Christmas Tour” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 15. Sold out. Atlanta Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. ticketmaster.com.
“Celtic Woman Symphony Christmas Tour” 8 p.m. Dec. 20, and 3 p.m. Dec. 21. $76.25, and up. Atlanta Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. ticketmaster.com.
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
