Since 1993, bringing simple joys at Christmastime has been Jim Goodrich’s work, the best of all possible work. A classically trained baritone with a Master of Arts in Vocal Pedagogy, Jim has a wide and varied performance experience for even longer, including singing with the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, and numerous small ensembles, from Big Band to Rock duo Jim & Tim and more; and every winter since 1993, he has carried the carols of the season to wherever people gather.
In 2016 he founded The Caroling Connection to bring that craft to more rooms and more streets. Since then, the company has sung along Festival Lane at the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival, and in the parade itself for national broadcast twice, produced by ABC7. They have sung at Kenosha’s HarborHoliday – International Market & Festival, including the Civil War Museum’s Victorian Christmas, at Elgin’s Winter Wonderland and at tree lightings from Elgin to Addison. Their voices have been heard at Historic Corron Farm in Campton Township, and Century House in Addison, both authentic 19th Century structures filled with living history, Block 37, at the Service Club of Chicago’s holiday luncheon, as well as the original Home Run Inn location in Chicago.
In early 2020 something came to Jim’s attention that planted a seed. Jim’s wife, Theresa L. Goodrich, was researching and writing Living Landmarks of Chicago and found something that strengthened a family tie in Chicago. Jim is cousin to Grant Goodrich, a lawyer, staunch supporter, ally, and contemporary to Abraham Lincoln, serving alongside him in three federal land-fraud cases, and Goodrich even offered Lincoln a position at his law firm. In 1850 the nine founders of Northwestern University held their first recorded meeting in Goodrich’s law office, and he wrote the university’s charter. He also funded the book The Goodrich Family in America tracing the family’s genealogy back to England, and even to the history of the Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire, England, long considered the best preserved example of a Medieval castle in the United Kingdom. So while Grant Goodrich was helping to build Chicago, Charles Dickens was to write A Christmas Carol in the Victorian Era that dawned the same year Chicago was incorporated. 1837.
Jim chooses every Goodrich Caroler first for musical ability, talent, and training. The costumes, the songbook of more than seventy carols, and the magic of the evening are all built from that foundation. And that’s just the beginning. The holiday season is almost magical in its warmth and welcoming nature. The goal of Goodrich Caroling is to give our audiences and clients that simple joy, as well as being a part of something larger than yourself, being part of the Goodrich Caroling family.
You can also send an e-mail to [email protected] or give Jim a call at 630.492.0487. He’d love to talk with you about your holiday plans.
P.S.
When you see Jim, ask him about how he honors his heritage at each performance.