Suzy Bogguss to bring Christmas spirit to Rams Head Tavern

Grammy Award winner Suzy Bogguss, who turns 60 this month, has no intention of slowing down.

“If I’m at home for a few weeks, I’m chomping at the bit to leave and go out on the road and tour,” she said. “If I wasn’t out there for 150 days a year performing, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Bogguss won’t have to answer that question any time soon. The iconic country music singer who has sold about four million records will continue to be pretty busy for the next six months as she travels throughout the country as part of her seemingly endless tour.

“I can’t tell you how much my fans mean to me,” she said. “It’s a special connection when I’m on stage and look out into the crowd and see my fans singing all my songs with me. That’s one of the reasons why I love performing. My fans have always been so good to me.”

Bogguss’ Christmas tour will stop at the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis, where she’ll treat fans to a mix of holiday classics and original hits on Dec. 15 at 8 p.m.

“I’ll sing a little bit of everything, so it’s not going to be entirely a Christmas concert,” Bogguss, who has recorded two Christmas albums, said. “I’m definitely going to sing songs that I’m known for.”

Fans can certainly expect to hear many of Bogguss’ hits, including “Outbound Plane,” Someday Soon,” “Letting Go” and “Drive South,” but they’ll also hear “O Holy Night” “Winter Wonderland,” “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and of course, “Mr. Santa,” which she wrote with Chet Atkins and based off Atkins’ 1954 hit “Mr. Sandman.”

“It’s an old-fashioned concert,” said Bogguss, who’ll be backed by a four-piece band that includes an acoustic guitarist, an electric guitarist, a bassist and a keyboardist, said. “And by that I mean we don’t have any drums and you’ll hear the acoustic guitar more than the electrical guitar.”

In 2005, Bogguss won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album for her work on “Beautiful Dreamer,” a compilation of 18 songs originally written by Stephen Foster in which she sang “Ah! May the Red Rose Live Away!”

Bogguss, who was signed by Capitol Records while she was singing at the amusement park that went on to be named “Dollywood,” has 10 albums, of which one “Aces” went platinum and three others going gold. Her 1992 duet with Lee Greenwood, “Hopelessly Yours,” ascended to No. 12 on the country singles chart and received a Grammy nomination for Vocal Collaboration.

She owns eight top-five hits and performed at The White House, on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Live With Regis and Kelly,” and “The View.” She’s also appeared frequently as a guest on “A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor” on National Public Radio.

Bogguss envisions herself following in the footsteps of her role models, such as Judy Collins, 77, and James Taylor, 68, who are still touring.

“There’s nothing else that I feel that I’m missing in my career,” Bogguss said. “I just love what I do. I’m going to be 60 soon, so people may think that I’m getting long in the tooth. But I feel great and my voice feels great. I don’t see me giving this up any time in the foreseeable future.”

If You Go

Who: Suzy Bogguss

When: Dec. 8, 8 p.m.

Where: Rams Head Tavern, Annapolis

Tickets: $42.50 and can be purchased at www.ticketfly.com