Celebrate The Season With Sister Hazel

Gainesville resident Ryan Newell found out that a colder climate doesn't always equal more holiday spirit.

"We're in Milwaukee," the Sister Hazel guitarist said by telephone recently. "It's freezing cold. There's snow on the ground, but it's been there a while and it's turning into slush. It's really gray.

"It's kind of depressing, really," he said with a laugh.

The mood doubtless lightened up considerably later that evening, when Newell and his bandmates performed a set of holiday tunes interspersed with a few Sister Hazel songs.

The band is on its "Twelve Days of Christmas" tour, supporting its new holiday album, "Santa's Playlist." Most of the shows - including tonight's in Tampa - will benefit Toys for Tots. Concertgoers are encouraged to bring a toy or money to donate.

The stage is decked out with Christmas trees and the set features an appearance by Santa (Newell, actually), who, um, raps.

"I put this parody Christmas rap song together in my studio as a joke," Newell said. It wound up on the album and his bandmates insisted it be part of the holiday show's set.

Newell decided to don the Santa suit to perform the song, "Christmas Time Again."

"It makes it a little easier for me," he said, "because it's not me rapping. It's Santa."

The Christmas tour and album are part of an extremely productive period for the band, which also includes bassist Jeff Beres, singer Ken Block, guitarist Drew Copeland and drummer Mark Trojanowski.

Sister Hazel released its latest album of new material, "Absolutely," in 2006. This year they released "BAM!," a collection of demos and unreleased material, as well as "Santa's Playlist."

In January, the band will record an acoustic album for release in the summer.

Formed in 1993, the band recorded and released two independent albums before signing to Universal and scoring a national hit, "All for You," in 1997.

A follow-up hit never materialized, and Sister Hazel parted ways with Universal after two more albums.

But the band has thrived without major label support, continuing to release independent albums and touring constantly.

"We didn't wait around for labels to come to us," Newell said. "We took a loan out and made two records without a label. We bought a van and trailer and went on tour. We had a pretty incredible fan base before we were on the radio.

"To be able to make a living playing music is a blessing," Newell said. "The fact that I can actually do that and I don't have a day job and I ride around on a tour bus, and someone carries my gear and changes my strings - it's a dream come true and I'm not gonna complain that my face isn't on TV every two seconds."

Staying together for 15 years with the same lineup is an accomplishment in itself.

"We love each other like brothers and we fight like brothers," Newell said. "We used to fight about everything. We'd fight about whether we were going to Taco Bell or McDonald's for lunch.

"Now we don't sweat the small stuff," Newell said. "If it's something important we'll put our foot down but for the most part we're too lazy to fight."

ON TOUR

Sister Hazel

WHEN: 8 p.m. today

WHERE: Tampa Theatre, 711 Franklin St., Tampa

COST: $26; box office, (813) 274-8981; Ticketmaster, (813) 287-8844