John Berry announced the first thirteen dates of the 30th Annual "Christmas With John Berry" Tour, opening November 27 at The Eagle Theater in Sugar Hill, Georgia, and running through December 20. More shows are still to come.

The format has not changed much in thirty years, because it works. Berry plays a first half of his hits, breaks, and comes back to a decorated stage for the carols and the stories between them. The set moves around every year, but "Little Drummer Boy," "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Let It Snow," "Mary Did You Know" and "O Holy Night" stay put.

"Thirty years have passed, and I never could have imagined what an incredible blessing it would be to share my music while celebrating the birth of Christ," Berry says. "Robin and I are deeply grateful to see so many familiar faces return year after year with family and friends to celebrate the joy of the Christmas season together. Sharing this special tradition with all of you is a true gift, and I am forever thankful for your love and continued support."

Robin Berry, his wife, sings beside him on stage and has for the length of the run.

The tour grew out of O Holy Night, the Christmas album Berry cut for Capitol in 1995, and it has now outlasted his years on country radio by more than two decades. Two other thirtieths land in the same season: "She's Taken a Shine," which reached No. 2 in the fall of 1996 and became his last top-ten single, and his debut on the Grand Ole Opry.

Berry had one No. 1, and he missed it. "Your Love Amazes Me" topped the country chart in May 1994 while he was at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where surgeons spent five and a half hours draining a benign cyst from the third ventricle of his brain. Somebody ran off a copy of the chart and taped it to the wall next to his bed. "I had brain surgery that morning, and I couldn't remember squat," he has said. He was back onstage at Fan Fair within a month.

The debut album went platinum. Six more singles reached the top ten, among them "Standing on the Edge of Goodbye," "I Think About It All the Time" and "Change My Mind." He was nominated for the CMA Horizon Award and twice for a Grammy, and won one in 1996 for Amazing Grace: A Country Salute to Gospel Vol. 1, singing "Blessed Assurance." A Midsouth regional Emmy came later.

Then, in 1997, with the run still going, he had surgery on his vocal cords. An album was shelved. He lost a year, and Capitol let him go in 1998. He started his own label, kept the audience he had built in Athens and Georgia in the 1980s, and went back to work.

In January 2019 he was diagnosed with cancer of the tonsils, had them removed, and went through thirty-five combined treatments of radiation and chemotherapy. He was declared cancer-free in May. The gospel album he made afterward, Find My Joy, is largely about that year.

He also turns up on The Last Duet, the Dan Seals tribute due August 28 from Melody Place Records and the Seals estate, produced by Kyle Lehning, which pairs Seals' extracted vocals with living singers. Berry, a Capitol labelmate of Seals in the 1990s, takes "Wood." Alabama, Tanya Tucker, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Jamey Johnson, Marie Osmond and John Ford Coley are also on it.

The 30th Annual "Christmas With John Berry" Tour

Nov. 27 — The Eagle Theater, Sugar Hill, Ga.
Nov. 28 — Pickens County Performing Arts Center, Liberty, S.C.
Nov. 29 — South Jackson Performing Arts Center, Tullahoma, Tenn.
Dec. 3 — The Performing Arts Center of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
Dec. 5 — Historic Holmes Theatre, Detroit Lakes, Minn.
Dec. 11 — Alpena Events Complex, Alpena, Mich.
Dec. 12 — Hastings Performing Arts Center, Hastings, Mich.
Dec. 13 — Dogwood Center for the Performing Arts, Fremont, Mich.
Dec. 15 — Majestic Theatre, Chillicothe, Ohio
Dec. 16 — Rockmart Theatre, Rockmart, Ga.
Dec. 17 — The Classic Center, Athens, Ga.
Dec. 19 — The Piedmont Grand Opera House, Macon, Ga.
Dec. 20 — Harkin Hall, Madison, Tenn.

The December 17 stop is in Athens, where Berry spent most of the 1980s playing bars and selling self-pressed records off the stage to college kids.

On-sale dates and additional shows: johnberry.com/tour.