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For fourteen years, a band of stars from the East (Nashville that is) has guided the way for local kids of all ages seeking the Christmas spirit with its annual live renditions of
A Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
Rolling Stone mistakenly selected the 1965 TV soundtrack album as the fourth best Christmas album of all time, when it is clearly the best Christmas album of all time.
Were these normal times, the band - keyboardist and leader Jen Gunderman, bass player James Haggerty and drummer Martin Lynds - would be packing in crowds for the fifteenth year, at 3rd & Lindsley and the Belcourt Theater. The sacred liturgy would commence, beginning with the softly swinging “O Tannenbaum,” through the iconic triad riff of “Linus and Lucy,” the lilting snowfall of notes in “Skating,” the audience singalong on “Hark The Herald” (Oh my, I have something in my eyes) and the plaintive conclusion, a divine jazz arrangement of the old English carol “Greensleeves.” The performances, which feature a special guest soloist each time to bring improvisatory surprise, mingle Music City mastery and childhood memory like little else.