01:00 AM EST on Saturday, December 3, 2005

BY TIMOTHY FINN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Like Perry Como and Andy Williams before him, pop vocalist Clay Aiken is using the Christmas season as a reason to perform his favorite holiday music. As he did last year, Aiken is exercising his jollies for "Jingle Bells" and other holiday standards in a nationwide musical revue.

This year, however, he's giving the show a twist. His Joyful Noise Tour, which comes to the Providence Performing Arts Center on Friday, isn't just a Christmas carol recital. Instead, he has written a script and hired actors and actresses to star in skits that loosely tie the songs together.

Intrigued or confused? He explained the concept in a recent phone interview.

Q: What will people see when they go to this show?

A: It's different from last year's show . . . . Last year we did a typical Christmas tour with a full orchestra and some singers. This year I wanted to do something different and more adventurous. So we decided to forgo the orchestra and hire a group of actors and actresses to follow a storyline that kind of brings the songs together and gives them some extra meaning.

Q: Whose idea was this, and who wrote the script?

A: It was my idea. I started thinking about it after last year's tour. So early this year I sat down and wrote the scripts. Then I hired my high school chorus teacher, Alison Lawrence, to play the lead in the show.

Q: How does this show fit into any long-term career plans you have? Are you positioning yourself to be something of a pop singer like Andy Williams?

A: I really don't want to pigeon-hole myself as any one thing. I mean, I didn't expect to be a singer; I expected to be a teacher. I didn't plan to be a performer and to do something like this for a career. It happened because I was open to it, we got lucky and we worked hard and we had success.

I don't have any 5- or 10-year plan because I want to be open to all possibilities. I don't want to pin myself down. It could all end in 2 or 4 or 20 years, but if it does, I don't want to look back and think I should have done something but I didn't because I was so focused on something else.

Q: You say none of this was planned or expected. How has everything that has happened over the past two years changed you?

A: I've matured and learned what to expect in the Hollywood climate. I knew nothing when I came out here. I've learned how to handle myself. I used to be a horrible businessman, but I've learned a lot about that, too. Mostly I've learned to stand my ground.

Q: Without pinning yourself down, what can you tell your fans about your next studio album?

A: I know for certain there will be one next year. My executive producer is Jaymes Foster-Levy, who was a judge on the Popstar show, the precursor to American Idol. She was the mean one [laughs], but she's been great.

We've been taking our time, trying to pick the best songs. The new record won't be too far off from the first one, but on the other hand I'm not going to try to be something I'm not.

Clay Aiken's Joyful Noise Tour is at the Providence Performing Arts Center, 220 Weybosset St., Providence, at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $40.50 to $75.50. Call (401) 421-2787 or go to www.ppacri.org.