By LEE WARD / THE INDEPENDENT
ASHLAND — Coming to Ashland gets country music artist John Berry in the Christmas spirit.
“When we pull into Ashland and all those Christmas decorations are strung across the street, we just know it’s going to be a great time,” he said. “You can sense the vibe in the town.”
Berry and his band are quite familiar with Ashland, having played the Paramount most every year of the 14 years he’s done a Christmas tour. He even remembers performing in the historic theater before the renovations.
“I believe we were the last act before its renovation and boy, what a renovation it was,” Berry, a South Carolina native, said. “It’s a spectacular room. Absolutely spectacular.”
He said the amenities offered to performers are great, and he especially likes the washer and dryer and the showers in the dressing rooms. “It’s a great stage to build our stage one and one of the best house crews, if not the best house crew, we’ve worked with.”
During this year’s show, scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, Berry said he’ll offer a mixture of music.
“There are two parts to the show,” he explained. “In the first part, I’ll perform songs off my greatest hits album and some from my current one, “Those Were The Days. It will be about 50 minutes long.
“Then there’s an intermission and the Christmas set is about an hour and 10 minutes. ... It’s not a generic holiday show. It’s a Christ-centered Christmas show with traditional Christmas songs. We do ‘The Christmas Song’ and ‘Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow,’ but we also do ‘O Holy Night’ and ‘O Come Emmanuel.’ I talk about the Christmas story as it is written in the Bible.” He said he hopes church groups will attend.
Making Berry’s Christmas tour nearly every year has made seeing his show a family tradition for many. He said the opry house in Macon, Ga., has been on his schedule all 14 years and there, he has audience members who used to attend with their parents. “That’s very cool,” he said. “Hank Williams has nothing on me.”
LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.
