The band\u2019s most popular holiday song, \u201cLittle Saint Nick,\u201d<\/strong> is the highlight of The Beach Boys\u2019 Christmas Album<\/strong><\/em>, but when taken as a whole, the album\u2019s mix of originals and classics sparkles like a handful of gems in the California sun. The songs range from surf pop sprinkled through with Christmas themes, to their signature smooth, multi-part harmonies that vibe on like an unhurried barbershop quartet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Love is the only member of the original Beach Boys who is still part of the touring lineup. He carries on his original role as band co-founder to lead the current iteration of the group, which includes nine onstage musicians, including Bruce Johnston<\/strong>, who joined the band in 1965 after Brian Wilson<\/strong> left the touring aspect of The Beach Boys behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Love, putting on a holiday show feels like carrying on his family\u2019s strong tradition of celebrating Christmas with music. Love\u2019s son Christian also performs with the group, and Love featured the voices of all four of his children on Reason for the Season<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI remember as a boy getting together with aunts, uncles and cousins at our house during Christmas and we\u2019d practice Christmas carols and go out caroling round the neighborhood in the late ’50s,\u201d Love said. \u201cThe first time I saw my cousin Brian sing, I was sitting on my grandmother’s lap and he was singing ‘Danny Boy’ at the Christmas gathering. There\u2019s never been a time in my life when there wasn\u2019t music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although holiday songs and mainstay Beach Boys hits from the ’60s are the bread and butter of their performance, Love still aims to surprise and delight audiences of all levels of familiarity with the band, including with a musical tribute to friend and Beatle<\/strong> George Harrison<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI like to do a song called \u2018Pisces Brothers\u2019 because in February and March of 1968, George Harrison and I both had our birthdays in Rishikesh, India, by the Ganges River, learning from the Maharishi,\u201d Love said. \u201cIt was fascinating, with the Maharishi giving lectures and us meditating several hours a day sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether audience members are casual fans or are deeply knowledgeable about the band\u2019s catalog and history, Love appreciates that people of all ages continue to identify with The Beach Boys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Beach Boys\u2019 music is tangled up in so many generations,\u201d Love said. \u201cWe find that at concerts we have a lot of original fans in their sixties, seventies, and eighties, but their children and maybe their grandchildren love The Beach Boys, too. Maybe they saw us on Full House<\/em> or something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the band began in 1962, they have toured extensively and have no plans to stop, if the pandemic doesn\u2019t sideline them again. After this holiday tour ends in Calgary on New Year\u2019s Eve, the band plans to resume touring over the summer in Europe, with stops planned in Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, and maybe even Portugal and Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur music has reached around the world,\u201d Love said. \u201cThe energy at our shows isn\u2019t as intense as when girls were screaming and dancing a lot in the early days, but people are still appreciative and still singing along and having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saturday\u2019s show begins at 7:30 pm, and tickets are available online here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n by Sydney DuPriest The Beach Boys are bringing their \u201cHoliday Harmonies\u201d show to the Gertrude C. Ford Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":116088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11658],"tags":[20062,20061,414,2233,20056,20059,20057,20058,19255,20060],"class_list":["post-116086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","tag-brian-wilson","tag-bruce-johnston","tag-ford-center","tag-gertrude-c-ford-center","tag-holiday-harmonies","tag-little-saint-nick","tag-mike-love","tag-reason-for-the-season","tag-the-beach-boys","tag-the-beach-boys-christmas-album"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021-12-07-Beach-Boys.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Beach-Boys-Xmas-Tab-V2-71921-r1-cropped-copy.jpg\")
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