The Clay Aiken Christmas Experience, cont'd.

Picking up after the recaps of my own tour experience, I here offer the four stories that were read on tour. These were stories that were submitted by fans for the 2007 concert tour, and selected specially by Clay to be read again this time around while he went backstage to read a book. Or at least change his clothes. *g* Each of the stories segued into a song, so the montages here include those songs.

Story #1 is "Mary, Did You?" about how a mother found solace over the death of her son by meditating on the figure of Mary in the manger. It is followed by Clay's "Mary, Did You Know?"



For story #2, there was one story that was used through most of the tour, but a second "story #2" was recorded especially for one stop at which the reader and her son had a meet-and-greet with Clay. Both stories are about mothers and sons, and are followed by Clay's "Merry Christmas with Love." (For these montages, I used different clips for the song portion, so that each story-and-song montage is unique.)

Story #2 - "The Lights of Christmas" (with Kurt)


Story #2 - "Never Too Old" (with Mike)


The third story was told by Clay Aiken's mother, Faye, and preceded the "Sentimental Medley" ("Ill Be Home for Christmas," "The Christmas Song," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas") during the tour. The story is presented here without the medley (I'm montaging that separately, due to length).

Story #3 - "Christmas Time's a-Comin'" (Faye's story)

[Update 1-21-2013: Here is the "teal" version of the Sentimental Medley, which followed Faye's story during the concert. Check back soon for the "purple" version!]
All four of these stories were published in the book Remember When, available from the National Inclusion Project.

For the record, I also submitted a story back in 2007, "Christmas and the Great Tormentor." I recorded it for my brother, that devil of a Christmas packaging tormentor. Someday I might post it here, but for now it's just a family thing.

Love, hosaa
Remembering when....

The Clay Aiken Christmas Experience

I fell a little behind in my recapping. Totally skipped the lovely evening of ballet (Suzanne Farrell), courtesy of a friend with season tickets, and the very interesting world premiere of Young Robin Hood at Round House (as always, I liked the dancer the best). Autumn just gets busy, you know?

I didn't have to travel nearly as far as some of his more dedicated fans, but the two Clay Aiken Christmas concerts I was able to attend were just far enough away to prompt me to splurge on hotel reservations. Shippen Place in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, was quite lovely, as was the venue, Luhr's Center on campus of Ship-U. Very classy place. The town, a bit run down, however, though I'd be happy to go again sometime.

That is, unless of course Clay promises to come closer to home: e.g., the Birchmere, Strathmore, Kennedy Center, National, Warner, Constitution Hall, and the forthcoming Bethesda Blues and Jazz Club, opening (they say) in February. (I already called dibs on front-row center when Clay plays there.)

Just four days after Shippensburg, Clay played at Easton, Maryland's historic Avalon Theatre (which I have yet to type without adding a g on the end - Avalong). It looked down-in-the-dumps in the Google Street photos I saw, but in real life it was quaint and cozy inside. And the town of Easton is exactly the kind of small town I'd love to live in. I'd totally go back, even if Clay played all of those above mentioned venues in the same tour.

Those who know nothing of these things and still sneer with an air of superiority ask why in the world one goes to more than one Clay Aiken concert in the same tour. Not to mention the fact (which they wouldn't know anyway) that the 2012 iteration of the Joyful Noise Tour (JNT) is more or less a "Best of" previous versions (but without dancers, truckloads of sets and equipment, and elves and heh-heh fairies).

The venues, the towns, the pick-up musicians, the condition of Clay's voice, and the vicissitudes of Clay's hair all make for completely different experiences from one night to the next. Even his banter, dependent on the same basic sets of tall tales, writhes to hilarious alterations.

This year's big audience interaction bit involved someone being chosen to pull a random Christmas carol out of the bowl and see how much of the lyrics they get right. It's funny because Clay himself has a tendency to rely on his own "random-lyric generator," as it has been lovingly named. I was all set to do dramatic interpretations of "Little Drummer Boy" or "Rudolph, the Reindeer with the Red Nose" (using person-first language here), but he didn't call on me.

Those who know nothing of these things and still sneer with an air of superiority actually think Clay ought to know me by first name by now, since I'm apparently his "number-one fan." In fact, even with two "meet and greets" now, and two group photos at the charity galas, I still haven't made eye contact with the guy. I'm not nearly vivacious enough (that's a nice word for it - vivacious) to get his attention. Those who are and do, well, that's entertaining, too. All part of the Clay Aiken experience.

The other reason to go to multiple venues is to see what works on my camera. Camera settings I borrowed from other "clack" gatherers worked pretty well in the gorgeous and spacious auditorium at Shippensburg, but not at all in Easton's tiny Avalon. (Pause to delete another g.) And for video, I just totally used the wrong format (AVCHD) in Shippensburg; switching to mp4 for Easton worked pretty well, except for having the "up my nose" view from the second row.

So here is just a little taste of the Clay Aiken Christmas Experiences.

Shippensburg:

And Easton: