John Legend brings Christmas cheer to the Peace Center: Upstate Beat

Apparently, John Legend, the passionate, soulful vocalist with platinum albums and Grammy awards galore, doesn’t like having down time. This time of year, he’d typically be one of the judges on NBC’s hit TV show “The Voice,” but he’s not on the panel this year — though he says he will be back next year.

But instead of kicking his feet up during his “year off,” Legend released his first-ever album of children’s songs, “My Favorite Dream,” and put together a holiday tour based around his popular 2018 Christmas album, “A Legendary Christmas.” The tour arrives at the Peace Center Dec. 16.

“I thought it would be cool to finally be able to tour the Christmas album again,” Legend says, “because I enjoyed it so much the last time. I was really excited to come back out and celebrate the holidays with people.”

The set list for “A John Legend Christmas” tour features classics like “Silver Bells” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” but it also contains original songs from “A Legendary Christmas,” all played by a tight four-piece band with backing vocalists, as opposed to the full-on production that holiday shows can often be.

“I think the band is the perfect size,” Legend says, “because it’ll have a bit of intimacy. I like all my shows to have an intimate feel, and I felt like in order to bring these songs to life, I needed the rhythm section and the ladies to come sing with me. This is the right balance.”

Legend plans on adding some songs from the “My Favorite Dream” album, which was recently nominated for two Grammy awards.

“So much of the wonder of the holiday season is about what we want to do for our kids and the kind of experience we want to give them,” he says. “And I felt like a couple of songs from “My Favorite Dream” would work really well for this tour.”

As if he weren’t busy enough, Legend has also released a remixed and expanded version of his 2004 debut album, the double-platinum “Get Lifted.”

He says that the process of listening to his first album again made him think about the advice he gives young artists on “The Voice.”

“As a coach on ‘The Voice’ or just in meeting younger artists in my travels, one of the things I always talk about is being a great collaborator,” he says. “That means being open to other people in the room so that the best ideas win.”