By Michael P Coleman
It's been a whirlwind holiday season so far. I've been blessed this season to see Lion Kings and Grinches, and have spent quality but far too little time with friends and family.
The blood coursing through my veins is probably maple syrup at this point, given the amount of desserts in which I've indulged over the last few weeks. I'm sure that my cardiovascular system is going to shout "hallelujah" when I climb back onto that elliptical in a couple of days, after a well-deserved but too far prolonged sabbatical.
Just after Christmas this year, I received devastating news of a loss that's been difficult to shake this week, but I'll get there. As I sip my tea this morning, I'm thinking of staying in and bypassing tomorrow night's New Year's Eve revelry, and getting some rest.
The season's highlight, so far, has to be Johnny Mathis in concert on December 21. For a holiday performance just four days before Christmas, I would have walked to Modesto to see him. If you've ever been blessed to attend one of Mathis' holiday concerts, you know what I mean. I've attended a handful of his Christmas shows, beginning with my first in 2015, in San Diego. They simply never get old.
That's not true of Mathis himself, and he'd be the first to tell you that! The last few times I've had a chance to speak with him, he's answered the question "How are you, sir?" With "I'm pretty good…for an old guy!" He has a little snow on the roof these days, as is befitting a man in his late 80s, or one that's not patronizing Just For Men, anyway.
Onstage this season, he's sporting a mustache which I happen to like, although it has Mathis' rabid online fans divided. I'll never forget the Christmas when Mathis, greeting me backstage after a show, cupped my face in his hands and exclaimed "You're hirsute! I love it," commenting on the beard I sport leading up to Christmas each year.
I kept that Christmas beard until July.
Mathis' voice isn't quite as supple as it used to me, he doesn't hit his highest notes quite so effortlessly, nor can he hold a note, like that magical one near the end of "Misty," quite as long.
But Mathis still sounds fantastic, remembers most of the words of his songs, and reduced this writer to tears — literally — during his performance of his Grammy-nominated "Sending You A Little Christmas" from 2014. Every time I hear it, I think of my youngest daughter, Kristina, who's usually not with me at Christmas, and I'd not yet listened to the song before that show. After Mathis' flawless performance, I found myself apologizing to the woman seated next to me, as I worried that my tears had marred her second Mathis concert. (She assured me they hadn't.)
Some of the crooner's holiday songs, like "We Need A Little Christmas," "Winter Wonderland," and "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year," seem to be more beloved by him than others. He seemed to shave 20 years off during the latter of those, and he gave one of his musical idols, Nat "King" Cole, a run for his money during "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)."
Mathis is, still, a consummate live performer. I can only describe the introvert as "cute" as he stumbles during spoken onstage banter between songs. We all know that his dad was his "best pal," and that many of his bandmates are golf buddies. But it doesn't matter. Just like when we're hanging out with dad, we let him tell his stories, over and over again…just like my kids let me tell mine.
There was at least one real surprise of the night. Mathis didn't make a single on-stage mention of his new album, Christmas Time Is Here. I would have bet you a fruitcake that he'd have performed either "Merry Christmas, Baby" (which he'd never recorded before) and would have closed the show with "Auld Lang Syne." He didn't.
Nor did he offer his new album for sale, or any merchandise in fact, in the lobby before or after the concert. Some artists, it seems, share Christmas music with us simply because they love singing it. You won't catch Johnny Mathis onstage in a drop top sleigh, wearing a pair acid-washed jeans, and screaming to a DJ to play a Christmas song.
No, you will not.
When Johnny Mathis stands center stage, looking dapper in a double breasted suit, crosses one foot at his ankle, leans on his microphone stand, and sings "When A Child Is Born," it just doesn't get any better than that. Yeah, he had to read the lyrics to the spoken interlude, but I would have had to, too, and I've heard the song at least 100 times.
I'd share pictures from the show if I'd taken any, but I decided to honor Mathis' and the venue's request to not take them, according to two pre-concert announcements. I thought it was the least I could do in honor of an artist that I have loved for so long.
This morning, as the sun rises behind a curtain of clouds, I'm wistfully contemplating next weekend, when I'll pack away my Christmas decorations for 11 months as I'll play Mathis' new album. As I do that, I'll also be thanking Mathis for making this year's lead up to Christmas one of the most memorable I've ever had.
Quite simply, as the O'Jays told us decades ago, Christmas just ain't Christmas without the one you love. And the one I love, especially at Christmas, is Johnny Mathis.
Keep an eye on his website, JohnnyMathis.com, for details on his 2024 shows, including his holiday concerts. Yes, he's still on the road. And yes, he is still, as he has been since 1958, the undisputed Voice Of Christmas…even if he never tries to register a trademark on that title.
Mathis has been the Voice of Christmas for 65 years, since 1958.
Thank you, Mr. Mathis. I hope your holidays have been as great as mine have been, and I hope you have a very Happy New Year.
Connect with freelance content creator Michael P Coleman at MichaelPColeman.com.
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