Country superstar Trace Adkins is set to bring his highly acclaimed Christmas show to New England this weekend. Stops on the tour include the Hanover Theatre in Worcester on Saturday night and the Wilbur Theatre in Boston on Sunday before returning to Providence’s Performing Arts Center next Friday. We recently caught up with Trace before his visits to New England to talk about the show, his Christmas album, and his holiday spirit.
After years of wanting to make a Christmas Album, Trace released his first Christmas album in October of 2013, titled ‘The King’s Gift,’ and after completing the album he thought it would be a great idea to build a show off of the album and the history behind the songs. “I always wanted to do a Christmas record and I finally got around to doing it a few years ago. And then after we put it together, the historical anecdotes that accompanied a lot of these songs were fascinating to me and I thought we could do this show and add some narration and really tell people about these beloved Christmas carols that we’ve all grown up with that we have no idea where they came from or how old they are. I do a song that the lyrics of the song are 1,200 years old. That’s just crazy. The newest song that we do was written in 1941. All of these songs are just old, old Christmas carols. I think the narration is something that people will find interesting.”
This is the second year of the Christmas tour for Trace and not a whole lot has changed from last year to this year except for some new musicians including a new bagpipe player. Also, Scottish singer Alyth McCormack will join Trace and the Sarepta Symphony on this year’s tour. Alyth joined Trace on the studio version of ‘I Saw Three Ships’ from ‘The King’s Gift’ and also during the end of last year’s tour when they filmed the DVD. And Trace is thrilled to have her on the entire tour with him. But if this is your first time attending Trace’s Christmas show, he says you can expect a traditional, family-friendly Christmas show that is full of old Christmas carols that we are familiar with and grew up with, but with a Celtic treatment. Trace decided that he wanted the album (and the show for that matter) to have the Celtic sound and approach because he truly wanted to be traditional with it. He says, I wanted it to be very traditional. If you heard these songs performed 100 years ago, this is what they would have sounded like. That was really the motivation behind doing it. When I said I wanted to do it traditional Christmas record, I meant traditional. Really taking it back old school.”
Being as traditional as the show is, you won’t be hearing any Bing Crosby covers or ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas,’ as many artists from all genres of music do at this time of year. He won’t even sing his favorite Christmas song, ‘The Christmas Song,’ which was written by Mel Torme in 1944. But instead some old and classic carols of which Trace really loves. And you’ll get to see Trace do something else that he really enjoys doing- acting. He loves being constantly surrounded by extremely talented and creative people and he calls it a ‘stimulating environment.’ Speaking with Trace, it was definitely recognizable that he is so proud of this album, and this show and that he has quite the Christmas spirit. He even got a little nostalgic with us when he told us his favorite Christmas memory. “I remember when Santa brought me my first real guitar. I was 10. It was a Yamaha acoustic.”
This year, as Trace again hits the road for the holidays, he has released The Christmas Show DVD. It features performances from esteemed guests Alyth McCormack, Andrea Zonn and Lily Costner, behind the scenes interviews with Trace, and was filmed during last year’s tour stop at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL. The DVD is now available at retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Barnes & Noble, online retailers and TraceAdkins.com.
So after the Christmas show tour is over, what can you expect from Trace? A new studio album is in the works and should be completed early next year!
You can purchase Trace Adkins’ Christmas album ‘The King’s Gift,’ on iTunes here.
Tickets are still available for his Christmas shows in Worcester, Boston and Providence!