The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 34

D2 LivingArts The Boston Globe SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2006 Barenaked Ladies deliver family fare for the holidays "L--'f ii 7 Holiday Pops With the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Barenaked Ladies, Renese King, and the Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes and Drums At: Symphony Hall, Thursday night tar Vrt it If I 1 if'- 1 tures." But mostly the evening was about carefree romps through old favorites such as "White Christmas." A special nod goes to the chorus, grinning and swaying and singing with gusto all night, espe Barenaked Ladies, including (from left) Steven Page, Jim Creeggan, and Ed Robertson, joined the concert that, for the most part, offered wholesome family entertainment. ment for the whole family, with BNL, the Pops, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, gospel singer Renese King, and the period-costumed Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes and Drums. Barenaked Ladies are a good match for Holiday Pops. Both aim for crowd-pleasing fun rather than deep artistic exploration, and both deliver reliably, year after year. The night's musical menu was rich in traditional spirituals and holiday favorites over three sets, with the middle one devoted to BNL's alternately jokey and heartwarming songs.

Biggest laugh of the night: When BNL's Ed Robertson said, "I'd like to welcome to the stage Miss Sarah McLachlan," and the crowd roared until he admitted that this was only a wish on his part, with no basis in reality. Second biggest, more pointed laugh: When Page said, "In Canada, Boston Pops is a kind of cereal that was banned because of the ar- if j'V if- cially after donning Santa hats and sparkly reindeer antlers. Thursday's was definitely a Holiday Pops audience, full of families and office groups, not the dressed-down rock fans who've of sound that heightens that emotional impact is what we try to do. As far as strings go, I just love them in the right places. And I think Ethan's arrangements just keep getting better, not only on my records but on other records he's made.

Q. How do you re-create that stuff live, or do you even try? A. I'm touring with a band. I have a pedal steel player, a drummer, and a bass player, and we approach the songs differently than the record. I wouldn't want to recreate the record every night, but I think the sound we make is really nice.

0- A theme of the record is the concern over the white noise that distracts us in life, and the songs take an almost stealthy approach, forcing the listener to lean forward to catch it all. Was the music itself crafted to reflect the larger lyrical issues about our collectively diffused focus? A. I hoped that it would. We worked pretty hard to make a record that we felt 1 ti .1 Ray plays the Theatre 7:30 p.m. LaMontagne's in a good place By Joel Brown GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Let's do the Grinchy part first.

"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is about starving Africans. Music The 1984 Band Aid charity anthem is just Review not a funny song. Giv- en the situation in Darfur, the lyric remains sadly current. How odd that Barenaked Ladies played it for laughs at Holiday Pops on Thursday night. Frontman Steven Page mugged a bit and did a giddy little Snoopy dance, briefly joined by conductor Keith Lockhart.

Then Page threw it to drummer Tyler Stewart to deliver the controversial "Tonight thank God it's them instead of you" line, drawing a cheer from the crowd. Now, sure, Barenaked Ladies are nice guys and all heck, they're Canadian and I'm sure they didn't mean anything. This wasn't some sort of Borat-style provocation. They were just clowning around, and the audience didn't seem to mind. But what were they thinking? Let's hope WBZ (Channel 4) cuts that number when the concert airs as a TV special next Christmas.

Because the rest of the evening was state-of-the-art, middle-of-the-road holiday entertain- Time is short for Ch. 56 news crew "THE 10 O'CLOCK NEWS" Continued from Page Dl Starting Tuesday night, the CW56 will broadcast a 10 p.m. newscast from WHDH's studios with 7News anchors Frances Rivera and Matt Lorch. The WLVI building on Morrissey Boulevard will be sold. For many longtime employees of the station, the sale of an institution they grew up watching is hard to take.

"I feel sad for myself and these people. There's no going back to visit," said Pamela Johnston, a Natick native who has been news director for four years. Johnston plans to leave journalism and pursue a career in public relations. "We will walk out of here with our heads held high. This was an independent voice.

It will be missed." Veteran journalist Jack Hynes, who started at WLVI in 1984, had harsher words. "I think everybody is angry and sad and bitter about what transpired," he said. "I for one feel that it was something that probably shouldn't have happened. If Tribune wanted to sell the station, they should have sold it to someone who was going to maintain it. All Channel 7 is going to do is close it down and 150 people are out of work the week before Christmas.

"Where are these professionals going to go? The town can't absorb them so they have to relocate or get out of the business," he said. In a statement, Ansin said yesterday, "We had no responsibility for the payroll or severance pack- BOSTON BALLET Itltilttlli Artilltt Di't, NutCkeR MSwi Strut NOW THRU DEC 30 AT THE OPERA HOUSE CALL TODAY Ticketmaster.com sb 617.931.2787 1 tl Bostonballet.org 617.695.6955 Smear madness LaMontagne Orpheum Monday at Tickets Call 617-931-2000 or go to ticketmaster.com. "I don't know what I'm going to do come Tuesday," said "The Ten O'clock News" anchor Karen Marinella (with chief meteorologist Mike Wankum). "I've never not worked." JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE Boston Pops for a holiday shown up for Pops outings with the likes of My Morning Jacket. Everyone's expectations seem to have been fulfilled by the time Santa showed up onstage to conduct the closing carol singalong.

forming? A. I think people get that impression really because for me I have to get into a certain zone, and then I have to stay there. Now, if I were to break in between every song and chat with people and so on about I don't even know what the hell you'd talk about that wouldn't work for me. I have to get into a zone and stay there, and that's just what music is for me, that's the process for me playing live. Q.

But are you at least comfortable in that zone? A. That's just the place I have to be. I don't know if it's any more or less comfortable than any other state of mind, but music is wonderful, and there are many, many, many more really good nights than there are difficult ones. Q. Several of the songs deal with strained or damaged I romantic relation ships.

How does it feel to know that you're providing solace for the brokenhearted? A. I don't know. I write songs just to express myself, and I hope that people connect with them. Q. You've proved very popular with "American Idol" winners.

Taylor Hicks performed "Trouble" on this year's show, and Kelly Clarkson has been performing "Shelter" live. A. Yeah, I heard about that. It's nice they like the songs. Q.

Have you heard either? A. Nope. Q. Any interest in hearing them? A. Who knows? I haven't really met anybody who has a recording, but I was pleased that they sang them.

It's fine. Anybody who likes the songs and wants to sing them is fine by me. I had to get out of my system tificial sweetener they use." Ouch. The musical highlight was the Pops' lovely and focused delivery of Respighi's meditative, faintly exotic "The Adoration of the Magi," from "Three Botticelli Pic DINA RUOICKGLOBE STAFF cause of poor ratings. Viewership in the evening has also been a constant challenge.

On the up side, political analyst Jon Keller, who worked at the station for 12 years, became well known for his "Keller at Large" reports. He is now with WBZ-TV (Channel 4). And for years, the huge billboard featuring Marinel-la's face was a landmark on Interstate 93 south. "My parents on the Cape would drive up every time it changed," said Marinella, who grew up in Plymouth. The anchor is in an unusual position because she's married to Channel 7 anchor Jonathan Hall.

"I will watch Channel 7 and root for them. That's where the paycheck is," she quipped. But as she prepares her final comments for Monday, she finds little to cheer about. After delivering the day's news, she and co-anchor Frank Mallicoat will thank viewers and recognize behind-the-scenes staffers, i hen they will turn the newscast over to station commentator Hynes, who launched the current show in 1984. "I remember the first day I sat next to Jack," said Marinella.

"I looked at him and said, 'Jack, I used to watch you as a little He said, 'I never want to hear those words Hynes, who's been a Boston on-air journalist since 1955, isn't sure what he'll say on Monday. Perhaps it doesn't matter. "In 50 years, I don't recall anything like this happening, where they just shut the station down, turn out the lights, and lock the door," he said. "It's such a shame." Suzanne Ryan can be reached at sryanglobe.com. For more on TV, visit oston.comaetv.

By Sarah Rodman GLOBE STAFF With his itinerant background and mesmerizing smoke-and-rust vocals, Ray LaMontagne appeared as a natural-born troubadour on his universally acclaimed 2004 debut, "Trouble." The New Hampshire-born singer-songwriter recently released the even better follow-up "Till the Sun Turns Black." He comes to the Orpheum Theatre on Monday. As his tour bus wound its way to a stop in Tennessee, we caught up with him by phone to discuss his new musical directions, his guarded performance style, and how he's become a hit with the "American Idol" set. 0- After touring for "Trouble," you said that you had a wealth of material to record a follow-up. How did you whittle it down to the 11 songs on "Till the Sun Turns A. I just felt that these were the songs that I had to get out of my system.

Some songs just don't need to be recorded. I don't know how to explain it, but that sort of finality doesn't have to happen. And then some you just have to get out of your head and the only way to do that is to get them on a record, get it the way you want it, the way you hear it, so you can look at it and say, "There it is, that's exactly what's been crawling around in my mind for the past year." Then you can just sort of get away from it. Q. You and producer Ethan Johns took some interesting turns away from the rootsy sound of "Trouble" on the new album, incorporating more atmospheric electronic sounds, soul-style horns, and gentle string arrangements into the songs.

Was that a purposeful change? A. I think it just kind of happens, I suppose, when you're really in the thick of it trying to make a song as effective emotionally as it can be. So whatever sound or lack Ray LaMontagne says his latest ages for the people of WLVI. The Tribune Co. put the station up for sale because it was no longer economically viable as a stand-alone station doing one newscast a day." In 1966, WLVI launched as an independent station called WKBG, which was partly owned by The Boston Globe.

It broadcast a 10 p.m. newscast from 1969 to 1970 and then resumed that program in 1984. Through the years, and its affiliations with the WB network and more recently the CW network, the station hired a number of future stars, including Natalie Ja-cobson, public affairs director in 1969, and Uma Pemmaraju, an anchor in the 1980s. Jacobson went on to become the longtime leading anchor at WCVB-TV (Channel 5). Pemmaraju is an anchor with Fox News Channel.

Jim Thistle, who was the station's first news director, remembers when it first moved from Commonwealth Avenue in Brook-line to its present location on Morrissey Boulevard in 1969. The beginnings were humble. "It was an old supermarket. They put the news department in the meat locker, which was a good size," said Thistle, now the director of the broadcast journalism program at Boston University. Throughout its history, WLVI has had some low points.

It attempted a morning newscast in 2000 but canceled it in 2002 be- BOSTON'S linOAWUS WHODUNIT omnia HArmuse wnnten itrn it 28 TICKETS 1219-24 MUSTUYYKC17 KorucriONi Amy could draw you in from the first song and hopefully keep you there until the end. 0- So many of the songs feel deeply personal, yet you have an ability to create music that is intimate but not alienating in its specificity. That said, do you ever get fans who just want to give you a hug in response to the melancholy nature of the material? A. Writing songs is a good way to work through stuff sometimes, and some of the songs are tougher to sing on a nightly basis. Sometimes I just don't sing them.

Q. In front of 'a live audience you seem very tightly coiled and maybe even a little uncomfortable while playing. Do you enjoy per- album comprises 'he songs that WEP THU i FRI I SAT SUN I MUN Deo 20 Dec 21 Pee 22 Oec 23 Pec 24 Dec 25 at at at at 3 no enow Pec 27 Dec 2b Dee 29 Dee 30 Dec 31 Jan 1 2 at at at at hqqhow 7 Pec 19 i Dac 26 at.