UM: Jake and Brendan’s Holiday Show

For the seventh holiday season in a row, Umphrey’s McGee guitarists Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss teamed up for a special acoustic performance to benefit a local charity. This year’s show was held on Saturday night at the Park West in Chicago with proceeds going to the USTORM Foundation.

holidayshow

[Photo by Brett Saul]

The concert started out with Brendan and Jake on acoustic guitars tackling a few Umphrey’s classics before Brendan broke out a mandolin for the pair’s rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Going to California. Umphrey’s percussionist Andy Farag joined his band mates for the instrumental End of the Road that segued out of Going to California. Farag wasn’t the only guest, as Brendan and Jake also welcomed drummer Steve Krojoniewski, vocalist/trumpeter Jennifer Hartswick, guitarist Mike Rackey and USTORM board member Barry Brown at various points in the lengthy set.

Gulf Stream, Words, The Pequod > Simple Gifts > The Pequod > Turn and Run, Going to California* [Led Zeppelin] > End of the Road^, Made to Measure**^ > Who’s Cryin Now$ [Journey], Resolution^^ > Hajimemashite^^, Dreams^^ [Fleetwood Mac] / From the Beginning^^ [Emerson, Lake, and Palmer], Nothing Too Fancy^^ > Carol of the Bells / What Child is This^^, Bullhead City^^$$, Unknown Legend^^$$% [Neil Young], Great American^^%%, Human Nature& [Michael Jackson], In My Life^^$$ [The Beatles]

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters&& [Elton John], Nemo^#, Far Away Eyes^^%@ [Rolling Stones], Graceland^^$$%@@ [Paul Simon]

* with Brendan on mandolin
** with Jake on grand piano
^ with Andy on percussion
$ just Jake on grand piano
^^ with Andy and Steve Krojoniewski on drums
$$ with Jen Hartswick on vocals
% with Mike Rackey on pedal steel
%% with Mike Rackey on bow and saw
& just Brendan on piano
&& Brendan with Barry Brown on piano
# with Over the Hills and Far Away jam
@ with Barry on piano, Jen on trumpet, and Brendan on bass
@@ with Jake on bass

Jake and Brendan’s holiday shows always include a healthy serving of random covers with this year’s batch containing songs by such varied artists as Michael Jackson (Human Nature), Journey (Who’s Crying Now), Paul Simon (Graceland) and ELP (From The Beginning). You can’t have a holiday show without some Christmas songs, so the duo sprinkled Carol of the Bells, What Child Is This? and Simple Gifts among the covers and originals. We’d love to point you in the direction of a recording, but taping was prohibited and recordings of the past Bayliss/Cinninger holiday shows don’t circulate outside of a few tracks that were released as part of the Mantis pre-order program.

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