Aimee Mann's 2nd Annual Christmas Show
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Aimee Mann announces the return of her annual holiday tour for its’ second year. Last year’s homage to the holiday variety show of yore debuted to sold-out crowds on both the East and West Coast, featuring a mixture of music from Ms. Mann’s Christmas CD One More Drifter in the Snow, a host of comedians ranging from Paul F. Thompkins and Fred Armisan, and special drop-in guests including John C. Reilly, Rachel Yamagata, Nellie McKay, Morgan Murphy and fellow singer-songwriter Grant Lee Phillips pitching in as the Grinch all along the way. The New York Times describes the holiday pageant as “Delightful…a Santa-stupefying balance of naughty and nice…with the giddy warmth of an eggnog buzz. Hangover included of course.”
This year Paul F. Thompkins will return to host along with guests Nellie McKay, Ben Lee, Ben Gibbard, Patrick Park, Sean Hayes, Chuck Prophet, Josh Ritter, Joe Henry, Grant Lee Phillips, members of the Decemberists and Morgan Murphy (see below for dates with guest listings). The tour will begin in San Diego and head up the coast through Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland then on through Colorado to Minneapolis and Chicago finally over to the East hitting New York, Boston and capping off in Alexandria, VA.
One More Drifter in the Snow, Aimee Mann's first Christmas album released through her own SuperEgo Records, continues to be a holiday standard on the shelves. "I wanted to do a Christmas record that reflected the whole range of emotions that people have around Christmas." Aimee said, "I thought a lot about the feeling I had about Christmas as a kid, the almost spooky beauty and mystery that the holiday has, and wanted to do something that echoed that musically."
Mann and her producer Paul Bryan used the Peanuts Christmas special as one jumping-off point, with both the jazz-inflected Vince Guaraldi Trio soundtrack and comic melancholy of Charlie Brown as influences. "Another major influence for me was the Johnny Mathis Christmas album, which was a record I heard as a kid in my house every Christmas, and almost came to be the archetypical Christmas record for me. That's why I wanted to make sure at least half of the songs on the record were classic Christmas standards that everybody knows."
The album is also sprinkled with some lesser-known but no-less-classic songs: the Jimmy Webb song "Whatever Happened to Christmas," which opens the record; "Christmastime" written by Michael Penn; the brilliant "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from the Dr. Seuss cartoon "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," featuring Grant Lee Phillips' inspired narration; and an original song, co-written with producer Paul Bryan, "Calling On Mary."
Producer Paul Bryan explains, “The CD definitely harkens back to the classic albums of the 40’s & 50’s but it’s not retro at all, it’s a soulful album influenced by the bar-setting albums of Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis and Peggy Lee. We aimed for an album that would be just as beautiful and thoughtful as those still
are.”
With lush artistic musical arrangements, Bryan notes that “the band had a great deal to do with this record, and really sounds like a little orchestra at times. Patrick Warren had an arsenal of vintage keyboards that he used, percussionist Jay Bellerose brought in a 1930’s style orchestra kit and guitarist Duke Levine’s Glen Campbell California-like sound all contributed to the distinctive quality of the music.”
Look for One More Drifter in the Snow in stores now. In the spirit of the classic Christmas variety show, Aimee will also play a select number of holiday tour dates hosted by a well known comedian and featuring special guests. Check out www.aimeemann.com for updates on the tour.
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