♪ ♪ Four calling birds.

♪ Three French hens.

♪ Two turtle doves and a partridge ♪ In a pear tree.

♪ And a partridge in a pear ♪ Tree.

(Applause) Let me.

Let me ask you a question.

What is more fun than opening a gift?

Opening it early.

And that's just exactly what we're doing here tonight at the stone church here in Newmarket, New Hampshire.

We are celebrating the holidays early.

And for the next hour, you're invited to sit back and enjoy.

Tom Rush.

Tommy Makem and Bill Staines and Lucie Therrien.

And perhaps the most important person here tonight is Rick Watson, who was the glue that's holding it all together.

He's doing back up for us tonight.

You know, if you're a musician, you're on the road a lot.

And when the holidays come.

Well, you like to get home, to be with your family and with your friends.

Which is what we're doing here tonight.

Of course.

And when you're with your friends, if they are musicians.

Well, sooner or later, the music starts.

♪ (Applause) People ask me what I associate with Christmas and my longest, deepest memory of Christmas was all of all was a very, very bright lights.

And I suppose there's a precedent for that as well.

Way before there was a Christmas 5000 years ago, the people who lived in Ireland built, a megalithic tomb which is still standing today in very good order I might add, and they had left an opening over the doorway up into this tomb.

It's all carved stones.

It's in a place called Newgrange.

Newgrange About 20 miles north of Dublin.

And during the winter solstice, when the sun rose in the eastern horizon, it would come up and shine through this opening, over the doorway into this megalithic tomb, and crawl up the pathway and illuminate the back wall, which illuminated really the whole tomb.

And they figured when the sun God came and penetrated this tomb, that he renewed the spirits of the people who had died, and that they would live once again, he redeemed them from death.

3000 years later, one of the brightest stars in the heavens guided a bunch of shepherds to a place and outside of Bethlehem, where the baby Jesus had been born.

And we Christians call him the light of the world.

♪ As I went walking one ♪ Morning in the spring.

♪ I met some travellers ♪ On an old country lane.

♪ One was an old man t♪ He second a maid.

♪ And the third was a young boy ♪ Who smiled as he said, ♪ And the birds in the sky.

♪ Have the bright sun to warm us.

♪ Wherever we lie.

♪ We have bread and ♪ Fishes and a jug of red wine.

♪ To share on our journey ♪ With all of mankind.

♪ I asked them ♪ To tell me their name ♪ And their race ♪ So I could remember their kindne ♪ And embrace.

♪ My name is Joseph.

♪ This is Mary ♪ My wife ♪ And this is our young son.

♪ All bright ♪ And delight ♪ We traveled ♪ The whole world ♪ By land and by sea ♪ To tell the people how they might ♪ Be free.

♪ Like the wind in the willows.

♪ And the birds in the sky.

♪ Leave a bright sun to warm us.

♪ Wherever we lie ♪ We have bread and fishes.

♪ And a jug of red wine.

♪ To share on our journey ♪ With all of mankind.

♪ Sadly I left them ♪ I knew I would never see them again.

♪ One was an old man ♪ The second a maid ♪ Third was a young boy who smiled as he said ♪ We've the wind in the willows.

♪ And the birds in the sky.

♪ We've a bright sun to ♪ Warm us wherever we lie ♪ We have bread and fishes and a jug of red wine.

♪ To share on our journey ♪ With all of mankind (applause) what amazes me about the holiday season is all the traditions that there are.

There's Christmas trees and yule logs and wassail and Christmas carols and Christmas cards.

And the colors red and green are the the list is endless.

And of course, there are those traditions that are unique to our own families, that special food that we eat on Christmas, and a special ornament that we put on the tree.

Here's a wonderful story.

I know of this family, which on Christmas Eve, instead of putting decorations on their trees, that is ornaments, they blow up balloons and they cover the entire tree with balloons and then they blow up balloons.

They put them all over the furniture and all over the floor and all over the presents.

And then on Christmas morning, the fun begins.

But it seems to me that no matter what the traditions are that we celebrate, whether they are from Old French or Irish or Italian or Christian or Jew or old or young or rich or poor, each holiday tradition that we celebrate reminds us of something in our own unique lives, something wonderful, something that says home.

I always figured that the simple gifts were the best.

I remember people would maybe give you a lovely pin at Christmas time, or maybe a good book that you could keep for years and years and years and enjoy it over and over again.

But the greatest gift that anyone could have offered me when I was a young fella growing up was a new song.

If somebody came along and gave me a song, I thought that was a wonderful gift to have.

And I want to give a gift to you who were looking, and I wrote a new song for you, wishing you all the best for the season and for every season that comes along with it.

It's called wishes.

♪ The Winter son has traveled far ♪ As far as he can go.

♪ The years last moon and evening star ♪ Gleam brightly on the snow ♪ and Christmas lights are shining bright ♪ From every window pane.

♪ Christmas music fills the night.

♪ It's the wishing time again ♪ I wish you joy and heart's content ♪ And freedom from all strife.

♪ Your days are spent with those ♪ who light your life I wish you love.

♪ Oh, that never ends.

♪ May all your troubles ease.

♪ My fondest wish for you, my friends.

♪ The heart and soul ♪ Of thee ♪ And this.

♪ The time of peace on earth.

♪ Let love come healing you.

♪ Seek out ♪ Someone you may have hurt.

♪ And ask forgiveness too.

♪ The new born King show us ♪ The way to love, forgive ♪ and heal and the loved ones ♪ Gather around each day.

♪ Let them know how you feel.

♪ I wish you joy in the heart's content ♪ And freedom from all strife.

♪ Hearthstone where your days ♪ Are spent with those who light ♪ your life.

I wish you love.

♪ That never ends.

♪ May all your troubles cease.

♪ My fondest wish for you ♪ my friends a heartened and soul at ease ♪ Let the bells ring ♪ A joyful sound ♪ Fill up the skies to greet ♪ The newborn King.

♪ He came to light the world with love.

♪ And all our hopes ♪ Renewed.

I ask him ♪ From his throne above ♪ To grant my wish for you.

♪ I wish you joy and hearts content ♪ And freedom from all strife.

♪ A hearthstone ♪ Where your days are spent.

♪ With those who light your life ♪ I wish you love that never ends ♪ May all your trouble cease ♪ My fondest wish for you ♪ My friend ♪ Are heart and soul ♪ At peace.

(Applause) Thank you very much.

Well, I have had enough time in the hot seat.

Tom Rush, would you like to take over?

Good man.

(Applause) Did you really write that song yesterday?

I certainly did.

That's amazing.

Outstanding part of, what the show tonight is about is gifts.

And, I'm told it's more blessed to give.

But on the other hand.

This guitar was a gift that was given to me very recently.

I had a fire last summer, lost a lost a lot of stuff that should have been lost.

But I also lost some, some old friends, some guitars, and in particular, an old Epiphone that had a fancy piece of inlay on the neck.

It was a naked lady with a snake, a biblical theme, and.

I'd had it forever.

I'd had it for about 30 years.

And, I miss that guitar.

But fellow named Mike Creasey came out of nowhere and said he bought a guitar about the same time I bought the one that ultimately became The Naked Lady.

And, he gave it to me, and it has all the same notes on it.

So, so so I'd like to do a song on this, this guitar.

It's a nice gift.

I'd like to do an instrumental.

Give me some blue.

♪ (Applause) Gifts can be kind of two sided things.

I got a boy, Benjamin, who's he's now about 15, but he was, I think, around seven when this occurred.

At school, they asked him to write a little essay about what he would like for the world for Christmas and what he would like for himself for Christmas.

Just two sentences, you know, nothing too strenuous.

And, his answer was for the world.

He would like peace.

He would like people to stop fighting and understand each other and get along.

And for himself, he wanted the G.I.

Joe hovercraft with the flamethrowers and rocket launchers and machine guns.

This guy could grow up to be president.

Benjamin and Richard, Richard being the younger kid, are two of the best reasons I have for coming back to New Hampshire for Christmas is wherever I am on the road.

The other reason is that I usually do a show down in Boston at Symphony Hall, right in between Christmas and New Year's, and get together with 2500 of my closest friends and, have a party, and we'll be doing it this year.

This is a New Hampshire song, and whenever I'm in New Hampshire, I try to sing this one.

This, I wrote quite a while ago.

I grew up in Concord, New Hampshire.

Back before Concord had become the cultural Mecca that, that it is today and, decided to write this song to try to glamorize Concord, New Hampshire, as best I could.

I tried to write an authentic, traditional Appalachian ballad that's missed the mark.

But, I still like the song.

♪ Way up north ♪ By the ice bound ocean ♪ I was born.

♪ I was born way up north ♪ In the Merrimack canyon ♪ That's my home.

♪ That's my home.

♪ When I was younger, ♪ In my school, ♪ I walked the mountains ♪ Made of stone ♪ The distant sand ♪ About tomorrow ♪ I did wish ♪ I was going gone.

♪ As i grew ♪ Indeed I rambled ♪ Out along ♪ The open road.

♪ There I learned the rainbow circle.

It's truly said ♪ That's the sign of stone.

♪ Now I'm old.

♪ My dreams ♪ They wander ♪ Far away.

♪ To yesterday.

♪ I'm going home ♪ To the Merrimack canyon ♪ Find the grass ♪ That hides my grave.

♪ So let the birds fly down back.

♪ Let the storms ♪ Roll along the sea.

♪ I was born ♪ In the rainbow circle ♪ Stony mountain that's over me ♪ Stony mountain ♪ That's home to me.

♪ Stony mountain, ♪ That's home to me.

(Applause) ♪ (Applause) You are looking at someone who has spent more holidays away from home than he would care to remember.

I remember one Hanukkah that I spent in New York with a dear friend of mine and his family, and they had a little daughter, two year old.

And every night for eight nights she would light another candle for the menorah.

And although this wasn't strictly good Judaism, he admitted every night, she also received a present, a gift.

And I was, I don't know, in my mid 30s, but I remember thinking that I would give anything to change places with that little girl.

So much love.

But the holiday that I remember most never happened to me.

It happened to a friend of mine.

It was his first Christmas away from home and he had an apartment.

It was not much of an apartment.

He had a couple old chairs and a beat up couch and a table.

I remember it had three legs which you could eat on, which had to be really careful.

And Christmas Day came and he went to work, and he worked all day very hard at his very first real job.

It was at a radio station.

And later that day he came home and there on his doorstep was a package, a little red package, and it had his name on it, and he picked it up and he held it for a minute or two.

And he told me that at that time, in his mind, this gift was from everyone, and that he ever know.

And then he opened it up.

And inside was a beautiful silver spoon.

And there was a note, and the note said, I hear you have a new life and a new apartment, but I'll bet all of your things are second hand.

Well, here's something that isn't something new for a new life.

May, they both shine and the note was unsigned.

And, you know, every holiday season since, he has taken that spoon out and has shined it up and has put a red ribbon around it and has placed it right on his bookcase.

And every time he looks at it, he tries to think of who could have been that sent it to him.

But until he knows it was from everyone.

♪ (French Lyrics) (Applause) My idea of a perfect New Year's Day is still always to have some a group of friends over to toast the new year in.

And I usually, play some French Canadian fiddling all day long.

That sort of lifts our spirits.

So my gift to you tonight is a song that I wrote that reminisces of my sings and traditions that are part of my heritage.

And it's called collage.

♪ (French Lyrics) (Applause) Thank you very much.

This next song is a French Canadian traditional song.

It was written for the soldiers that had been exiled for taking part of the political uprising of 1837, in Upper and Lower Canada, and it's since then been adopted by all French Canadians that are away from home.

Acadians and Franco Americans.

It's called an errant Canadian or a wandering Canadian, ♪ (French Lyrics) (Applause) Bill, I think people are ready for a little English music now.

(Applause) Well, the Christmas season is a time of faith.

And, this is a song that, is about faith and having faith in something that's just a little bit beyond, what we can handle ourselves.

And it's one called the Faith of man.

And there's a chorus to it, and I'm going to get you all to sing out on the chorus.

It's here.

So don't be bashful.

Just try the harmony parts.

Single harmony parts.

Just don't everybody sing harmony.

That's a bummer.

But ♪ one day a babe was born along the highway.

♪ ♪ Took the babe and held it ♪ Proudly in his hand.

♪ And the woman smiled ♪ A gentle smile ♪ Whispered something softly ♪ In it's ear ♪ Perhaps a little prayer ♪ To help growing.

♪ Perhaps a word of comfort through the faith.

♪ Here's the chorus.

♪ And you can trust the moon ♪ To move the mighty ocean.

♪ You can trust the sun ♪ To shine upon the land.

♪ You take the little that you know ♪ And you do the best you can.

♪ And you see the rest.

♪ The quiet faith in man.

♪ You can trust the moon ♪ To move mighty ocean.

♪ You can trust the sun to ♪ Shine upon the land.

♪ You take the little you know ♪ And you do the best you can.

♪ And you see the rest.

♪ The quiet faith in man.

♪ The tractor makes its way ♪ Along the fence line.

♪ The seeds drop precisely ♪ In the row.

♪ Before too long, ♪ The crops start to show.

♪ And the farmers sees the fields ♪ Around him.

♪ Whispers something low ♪ Beneath his breath.

♪ Perhaps a little prayer to build ♪ The growing.

♪ Perhaps a word of ♪ Thanks for all the rain.

♪ You can trust the moon to move ♪ The mighty ocean.

♪ You can trust the sun ♪ To shine upon the land.

♪ You take the little that you know ♪ And you do the best you can.

♪ And you see the rest.

A quiet faith in ♪ Man.

♪ There's a storm tossed ship tonight.

♪ Out on the water.

♪ There's a soul sails alone.

♪ Out on the blue.

♪ There's a dreamer ♪ with her eye upon the heavens.

♪ And they're all looking ♪ For a way to break through.

♪ Trust the moon to move ♪ The mighty ocean.

♪ Trust the sun to shine ♪ Upon the land.

♪ You take the little that you know.

♪ And you do the best you can.

♪ And you see the rest Quiet faith in man.

♪ You take the little that you know.

♪ And you do the best you can.

♪ When you see the rest.

A quiet faith in man.

(Applause) Well, I do a lot of songs about traveling around, because I do a lot of traveling around the country, and it's nice to get home at this time of year and be home at this time of year for the holidays.

This is a song about where I live, and oddly enough, it's called where I live, and it was written.

We had been running this farmhouse for a number of years, and when we got to build our own house, we moved about 200 yards down the road.

And so the song I was that was good because the song still holds true, you know, and I like the song, and I didn't want to have to change the title or I don't live for some reason, I just didn't quite have it or where I used to live in Somebody Else lives now and didn't have it either.

But, Some images from around home for me.

♪ Where I live, ♪ there is a river and it freezes with the cold ♪ and all except some open water neath the bridge ♪ and the ducks together they're black and red.

♪ They fill the air wing in and across the pines.

♪ Along the ridge.

♪ And in the early morning sun the silver mare breaks ♪ on the run across the fields and out along ♪ A little stream ♪ Woven like a winter wind.

♪ And beyond the fence and back again.

♪ She loves the time she smooth as anything I've seen.

♪ There's a field of winter rye.

♪ And it smells so sweet when it is high ♪ I whisper to you so you almost cannot hear.

♪ Shining like a satin sea ♪ Beneath the moon ♪ When it is spring.

♪ There's a tree that stands out back.

♪ Waiting for the falling ax.

♪ To split its rings.

♪ And show the secrets deep inside.

♪ Years of drought, little growth.

♪ Years of good it's seen both.

♪ But now it's there.

♪ And waiting only for the fire.

♪ There's a truck that's broken down.

♪ That I used to take to town till the axle went ♪ And I left it there to die.

♪ I'll get it fixed.

♪ I used to say ♪ that was back before the day when things got busy.

♪ And now I've never had the time ♪ For where I live.

♪ There is a road that seen me come and seen me go.

♪ And taken me so far I thought I'd lost my way ♪ Back to where my life is slow.

♪ Back to everything I know.

♪ Back again.

♪ To where the river slips away.

♪ Where I live there is a road that's seen me come ♪ And seen me go ♪ Taken me so far I thought I'd lost my way.

♪ Where I live there is my heart.

♪ It won't be long before I start back again.

♪ To where the river slips away.

♪ And where I live there is my heart.

♪ Won't be long before I start back again.

♪ To where the river slips away.

(Applause) Can you imagine a holiday season without lights.

Lights in windows.

Lights on trees.

Blinking lights.

Colored lights, candles.

And each one pushing back the darkness just a little bit.

In our ancient past, we dreaded the darkness and the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, filled us with fear.

Unless.

Unless it could be filled with the warmth of people singing around the fire.

You know, maybe that's the collective memory that makes us smile when we see the lights at a holiday time.

You know, before trees, before ornaments, before Christmas, before Hanukkah, before all of that, there were simple gifts.

People light music.

♪