Sunday, December 15, 2024
6 pm Doors // 7 pm Music
All Ages
$60 (+taxes/fees) VIP Seating (includes premium seating and pre-show reception with Billy & SimpleGifts!)
$50 (+taxes/fees) Preferred Reserved Seating
$45 (+taxes/fees) Advance Reserved Seating // $50 (+taxes/fees) At The Door
Ticket purchases are final and non-refundable
Facebook RSVP
The much beloved holiday tradition returns! SimpleGifts with Billy McLaughlin present Christmastide at The Parkway.
Over 20 years of arranging, recording, and touring finds SimpleGifts in peak creative mode this holiday season. "We are more excited than ever about bringing folks together around the traditional carols and hymns that we have passionately reimagined like no other show," says bandleader Billy McLaughlin.
Celtic whistles, violin, piano, acoustic guitar, and percussion are topped off with angelic three-part harmonies giving this legendary ensemble its signature "Old-World Modern" sound. Audiences of all ages laugh, cry, celebrate, and sing-along to perhaps the most original versions of Christmas classics you will ever find — as heard on the group's six outstanding holiday CDs. Warm up your ears for the show on Spotify or wherever you stream your music.
Long-time fans look forward to welcoming you back or meeting you for the first time and just might have a Christmas cookie for you!
The siren-voices of SimpleGifts (Carin Vagle, Karen Paurus, and Amy Courts) soar with a Celtic twist (Laura MacKenzie on whistles/flutes/bagpipe), along with acoustic guitar (Billy McLaughlin), bass guitar (Dan Ristrom), drums (Patrick Nelson), percussion (Billy O), and fiddle & mandolin (Nathan Wilson).
Billy McLaughlin has been changing people’s idea of what an acoustic guitar can sound like since the 1980’s. He is recognized as an innovative performer and composer who embraces the advantages of acoustic guitar amplification, unorthodox techniques and altered tunings while celebrating a gift for melody. His enormous yet fluid acoustic guitar tone has carried him around the world, to Billboard’s Top-Ten Chart and most recently through a devastating medical disorder called focal dystonia. McLaughlin has had to re-learn the guitar left-handed and is in the early stages of what might be described as ‘one of the great musical-comeback stories of all time.” His story is the subject of an award-winning documentary film called Changing Keys – Billy McLaughlin and the Mysteries of Dystonia.
“…you may swear Billy McLaughlin is two of the greatest acoustic guitarists you’ve ever heard.” — Pittsburgh Post Gazette
“… it’s amazing that such an extensive sound comes from one instrument.”
— Chicago Sun Times