It's a Holly Jolly Christmas with Pam Tillis

Fitting that Burl Ives, the voice of the lovable snowman from the now-classic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” animated Christmas special, was a good friend of the Tillis family. For now proud family (and Opry) member Pam Tillis is working to ensure Nashville visitors and residents alike have a Holly Jolly Christmas in Music City. She’s spreading holiday cheer these days during The Pam Tillis Christmas Dinner presented by Christie Cookies running at the beautifully decorated Gaylord Opryland Resort through Christmas Day.

Tillis says she borrowed from some of her favorite Christmas classics by Ives, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Vince Guaraldi to create a holiday show all her own. She says that while some of her past Christmas shows have included a wide variety of music, it was important that her Nashville show be “heavy on country.” So in other words, at this dinner party, plan on some fine steel guitar and fiddle with your Winter Wonderland and your I’ll be Home for Christmas. Country-to-the-core father Mel joins the fun via video screens each night, as well. “He’s always happy to stand in the spotlight,” Tillis smiles.

And for fans who visit Tillis’ Christmas Dinner Party as much for the Tillis as for the Christmas, the CMA award-winner offers her signature Maybe it Was Memphis as well as a medley of what the singer calls “her essentials,” among them: Don’t Tell Me What To Do; Cleopatra, Queen of Denial; Shake the Sugar Tree; and Mi Vida Loca. While the audience will find the medley devoid of ballads for (“they just ate a huge meal,” Tillis reasons), it otherwise encompasses the most memorable songs of her country chart-topping career, which began in 1990. The dinner party host says it means a lot that the tunes have stood the test of time. “Music that makes an impact is what you always hope you’re creating,” she says.

While serving up a Holly Jolly Christmas in 38 consecutive shows spreads holiday cheer to others from across the country, it doesn’t allow the Opry member much time for her own holiday away from the show. During her one day off, Tillis laughs “you would have thought I would lay on the couch.” Instead, she spent her downtime decorating and preparing for lots of family coming in to spend the holiday at her Grandma Tillis’ old log cabin in the country.

And like many of the friends who attend her dinner party, Tillis says she’s been spending more time in awe of the décor at Gaylord Opryland than checking off items on her Christmas shopping list. “I’m a Christmas Eve shopper,” the award-winner says. “The less stuff that’s left in the stores, the less decisions there are for me to make.”

by Dan Rogers

 --For information on Pam Tillis’ CD collection, click here.