For singer Vanessa Williams, mother of four, the holidays will be busier than usual: She'll be on TV, she'll perform at the White House, and she'll embark on a Christmas tour.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published November 25, 2004
Vanessa Williams
You'll forgive Vanessa Williams if she seemed fatigued, not quite in the mood to be pestered by a reporter.
She's a mother of four, with two teenagers, an 11-year-old and a 4-year-old. That's enough to leave anyone exhausted. But just hours before this interview, she had returned to her home in the New York City suburbs from Japan, where she had played a series of successful concerts.
She barely had time to catch her breath before she headed into the city for some shows. Then there was an A&E Live by Request show coming up and a performance at the White House. Oh, and then she would hit the road for a Christmas tour, which stops at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Dec. 18.
She has just released her second Christmas album, Silver & Gold, a middle-of-the-road collection of religious and secular seasonal songs with a jazz tinge.
"Well, for me as a mother of four, Christmas is the most joyous time of the year for me," she said.
She no doubt meant it, but as jet lag set in and her 4-year-old fussed happily in the background, the joy sounded as if it had been recollected from years when things weren't quite so hectic.
She became a bit more animated when she talked about the music she would be performing on the tour.
"There's just so much great Christmas music," she said. "But I'm also going to do my hits and some songs that have more to do with the time of year than with Christmas itself, things like Baby It's Cold Outside. So non-Christians who want just entertainment will have something in the concert, too."
Another Christmas album seemed like a great idea for a number of reasons, she said. Besides her maternal affection for the season, it's a time of year that's rife with ready-to-go songs. And it made sense from a commercial standpoint.
"I had just signed with Lava Records, and my first Christmas album was successful, so it seemed like a good way to get started with the new label," she said.
Besides, Lava, an Atlantic Records subsidiary, seems to like the idea of themed records. Williams' next recording, due out next year, will be Everlasting Love, a collection of love songs from the 1970s.
Even though she was scheduled to be off on tour days after this interview, Williams said she didn't have many specifics about what audiences would see and hear.
"We haven't done the set list yet, so I don't really know," she said. "I'll have a five-piece band and background singers. Generally I have dancers, but I don't know whether we can carry them on the road. People who come for a Christmas concert will hear the Christmas songs, but people who come to hear my hits will get those, too."
