A bounty of holiday shows

AARON NEVILLE has a lot on his mind this holiday season. The ethereal-voiced R&B; crooner saw his hometown of New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina this year, and his asthma has so far made it impossible for him to return to the wounded environment of the Big Easy.

Among the things helping him cope is Christmas music: prayers, hymns, carols and gospel classics. And proceeds from his new album, “Christmas Prayer,” are being donated (with matching funds from EMI) for New Orleans relief. “We’ve got a lot of people suffering out there,” Neville says of the ancestral home of jazz and myriad other categories of American music. “I cried when I saw Fats Domino being pulled out of the water.”

That’s how Neville has spent these last several weeks, singing these tunes and his hits on the road. And Neville will be stepping away from his solo tour to join Peabo Bryson for “The Colors of Christmas” at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Dec. 16, along with singers Oleta Adams and Melissa Manchester for a night of holiday songs and contemporary hits.

It will mark Neville’s second appearance at the 13-year-old event. “It’s an uplifting show,” says Neville. “It gives your heart something. It gives you hope. Christmas is the best season of the year. I always say I wish it could be like that all year long, with everybody treating each other nice.”

The concert is also part of a crowded holiday season that offers music fans a variety of choices, among them: the Brian Setzer Orchestra’s “Christmas Extravaganza” at the Gibson Amphitheatre (Dec. 17); the hugely successful Trans-Siberian Orchestra at Arrowhead Pond (Sunday); and the Blind Boys of Alabama at Walt Disney Concert Hall (Dec. 23).

Many of these concerts mix the most familiar holiday tunes with a larger program of pop music. In the case of “The Colors of Christmas,” says Bryson, the longtime host, the entertainment crosses social and political boundaries, while also managing to reflect the tenor of the times.

Last year, Bryson says, “it was really about healing and about peace, and feeling that we would like the conflicts in the world to be over.”

Holiday concerts are also a hugely successful business, with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra expected to be one of the top-grossing concert tours of the year. The rock-opera ensemble is so popular that two groups now tour under the TSO banner. Concert industry magazine Pollstar predicts the tour will earn more than $13 million before New Year’s.

“There seems to be more and more of them every year,” says Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni of the growing wave of holiday shows. “There have always been holiday concerts, but I think more artists have found if they tailor a show for the holiday season, they do bigger business. It gives them a hook.”

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra emerged a decade ago from the recording “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24),” a surprise hit from producer-guitarist Paul O’Neill. The New York musician had dreams of combining a full symphony with a hard-rock band, and soon began work on a successful trio of Christmas albums, including the newest, 2004’s “The Lost Christmas Eve.”

O’Neill says Christmas was an obvious theme for the group. “Because we have a full orchestra and a full rock band, you need a subject that is larger than life,” he explains. “I was always fascinated by the power of this day, not just on the intimate level of how people treat their neighbors and strangers. But it also affects the way nations and states treat each other.”

AT Disney Hall, another kind of gathering will unfold Dec. 14 from singer-songwriter Judith Owen and her husband, humorist Harry Shearer. Their “Holiday Sing-Along” grew out of the couple’s annual gatherings at their Santa Monica home, where friends sing a repertoire that varies from classic carols to Spinal Tap’s farcical “Christmas With the Devil.”

Among those friends have been pop musicians such as Richard Thompson, Julia Fordham, Van Dyke Parks and the classic songwriting team of Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller. And one year, actor Tom Hanks read “The Little Drummer Boy.” At Disney Hall, the stage will replicate Owen’s living room, down to Shearer’s favorite chair, with several surprise guest performers.

“When you see people singing together, and their faces literally beaming with the corny happiness of it all, it’s such a fine thing,” says Owen, who grew up singing carols in Wales. “I hope we can translate that to a large space.”

They are part of a full schedule of holiday events at Disney Hall, including: “Light of the Stable” with Emmylou Harris and guitarist Buddy Miller on Dec. 12, the 12-voice Chanticleer on Dec. 20, Manhattan Transfer on Dec. 21, and two New Year’s Eve shows by the modern swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

For Clarence Fountain of the Blind Boys, carols are just another brand of gospel, which they will perform with great joy and seriousness as part of “Go Tell It on the Mountain” at Disney. And definitely with no secular music on the program. Never, ever.

“No, that’s not our category. We’ve got our own way of believing, and you can’t serve two masters at one time,” Fountain says from his home in Baton Rouge, La. “You got to stay away from the ones that say, ‘It’s Christmastime / I’m talkin’ to my baby / I love my baby,’ and all that mischief.

“I want longevity, and everything that makes us great in the eyes of the people. But with rock ‘n’ roll, you got a pile of money -- and that distracts you all night.”

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Holiday picks

Sunday, 8 p.m.: Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. $18. (714) 704-2500.

Dec. 12, 8 p.m.: “Light of the Stable” with Emmylou Harris and Buddy Miller, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A. $26 to $77. (323) 850-2000.

Dec. 14, 8 p.m.: “Holiday Sing-Along” with Judith Owen and Harry Shearer, Walt Disney Concert Hall. $10 to $50.

Dec. 16 to 18: “The Colors of Christmas,” featuring Aaron Neville, Peabo Bryson and Melissa Manchester, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. Friday and Saturday shows, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m. $37.50 to $78.

Dec. 17, 8:15 p.m.: Brian Setzer Orchestra’s “Christmas Extravaganza,” Gibson Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City. $42.50 to $70. (818) 622-4440.

Dec. 20, 8 p.m.: Chanticleer, Walt Disney Concert Hall. $22 to $67.

Dec. 21, 8 p.m.: Manhattan Transfer, Walt Disney Concert Hall. $26 to $77.

Dec. 23, 8 p.m.: Blind Boys of Alabama, Walt Disney Concert Hall. $26 to $77.