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.

KARL DENSON
Saxophone/Flute/Vocals
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Greyboy Allstars

What is your favorite holiday gift that you’ve given or received?
When I was four or five years old, my aunt gave me a remote controlled sports car. This was back in the ‘60s, so the controller was attached to the car by a wire.

What gift do you want most this year?
I don’t think about gifts for myself very much – it’s part of being a dad – but it would be something related to cooking.

What is your favorite holiday show as a fan or performer?
New Year’s Eve, 2000. We got stiffed for the gig, but we had one of the biggest laughs ever when Baby New got his diaper ripped off by a drunken girl. (Ed note: Baby New refers to Tiny Universe band manager Erik Newson).

BILL PAYNE
Keyboards
Little Feat

What is your favorite holiday gift that you’ve given or received?
My favorite gift received was a Kindle. I love reading. With all the traveling I do, I no longer have to figure which books I want to bring with me.

What gift do you want most this year?
A gift certificate for Amazon to buy books. Sound like a theme? Oh yes, and I would like World peace (don’t get me started).

What is your favorite holiday show as a fan or performer?
It was a New Year’s Eve show with the Doobie Bros. at the Cow Palace. We came out at the start of the New Year clothed in diapers. We were crazy, the crowd went crazy. It was a fun night. It was a long time ago.