Features

Happy Holidays from Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Ben Kaufmann, Karl Denson and Bill Payne

Artists reflect on their favorite holiday moments

With the holiday season once upon us again, we asked some of our favorite artists to ponder the most memorable gift that they’ve ever given or received, the gift they want most this year and a notable holiday performance that they’ve attended or played. From the literal to the metaphysical, and the old to the new, their responses elicited a range of emotions that got us thinking about our own holiday highlights.

This is our second installment, click here to read our first collection which features Mike Gordon, Mickey Hart, Al Schnier and Tom Blankenship.

SUSAN TEDESCHI AND DEREK TRUCKS
Susan: Guitar/Vocals; Derek: Guitar
Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Allman Brothers Band (Trucks)

What is your favorite holiday gift that you’ve given or received?
Susan: My father giving me his Martin 00-18 for Christmas. It’s a beautiful sounding instrument and I love the idea of it being passed from one generation to the next.

Derek: I remember waking up one Christmas morning—1989, I think—and hearing my dad playing an electric guitar that was plugged into our home stereo. It was just a beater guitar but it’s still the most excited I’ve ever been about an instrument or Christmas gift.

What gift do you want most this year?
Susan and Derek: Time at home with our family—and maybe for our cell phones and Internet connection to go down for a few days.

What is your favorite holiday show as a fan or performer?
Susan and Derek: I think we would have to go with New Year’s Eve 1999-2000. Susan and I had the chance to share the stage with John Lee Hooker, who was 82 years old at the time, for the countdown. I can’t think of a better way to have started the next millennium.

***

BEN KAUFMANN
Bass
Yonder Mountain String Band

What is your favorite holiday gift that you’ve given or received?
A gift certificate—written in crayon of all things—for a free punch in the face to the politician of my choice.

What gift do you want most this year?
To find my car keys and house keys. They were there a second ago—and now? Santa, I’m looking at you!

What is your favorite holiday show as a fan or performer?
I have to go Halloween: Phish at Glen Falls Civic Center when they did The White Album. I never thought I needed to see Fishman naked onstage. But, as it turned out, I did need to see that—albeit from the nosebleeds though somehow that seemed close enough.