Trisha Yearwood ends watershed year on a high note with Christmas tour
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Trisha Yearwood performing at Rockefeller Center. Photo: Peter Kramer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Trisha Yearwood feels like celebrating, and she's inviting Nashville to the party.
State of play: The grande dame of '90s country music is closing out a year of firsts with (another) new album and her first-ever Christmas tour, which will pair her lush voice with symphonies around the country.
- Her album "Christmastime" is out Friday. Yearwood will kickstart her tour next month in Music City.
Flashback: The festivities are only months removed from Yearwood's other new album, "The Mirror," which saw the singer embrace songwriting for the first time in her 35-year career.
- Yearwood reached fame as a premier interpreter of other people's songs. Her shift to songwriter was revelatory and well-received.
What she's saying: "This is the best time of my life career-wise, even though it's not the big '90s thing," she tells Axios. "I feel like I'm finally my whole self, and I love it."
Zoom out: Her joy spills over into "Christmastime." Yearwood recorded the whole 12-track collection in four days, singing live with an orchestra in Los Angeles.
- Many of the 50+ musicians played on her 2019 standards album, "Let's Be Frank."
- "When you're creating something live like that, you all feed off each other, and there's just this energy," she says. "It's kind of a love fest."
Fun fact: The day after Yearwood wrapped her album, she says, the musicians were booked to record the score for "Only Murders in the Building."
Zoom in: The arrangements are spritely and surprising, and so is the track list, which zigzags between holiday favorites and unconventional picks.
Case in point: A soulful take on "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" is followed by "Pure Imagination" from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." Yearwood says she relished those unexpected turns.
- "To be able to bring something new to the party is pretty rare and pretty cool."
Yearwood included one original: "Merry Christmas, Valentine," which she co-wrote with her husband, Garth Brooks.
🤔 Adam's pick: As a Trisha superfan, my standout song was "Years," a bittersweet reflection on the passage of time written by Music Row pro Beth Nielsen Chapman. It's got the same heart-rending quality as "The Song Remembers When."
What's next: Yearwood's 12-date Christmas tour aims to recreate the magic of those recordings with local symphonies in each city.
- Yearwood says the setlist will be holiday-forward, but she might slip in some of her biggest hits.
- "I just don't think I can do a show without singing 'She's in Love with the Boy.' I don't think it's legal."
If you go: Yearwood performs with the Nashville Symphony Dec. 2-3 at Schermerhorn Symphony Center.