Platinum-selling jazz rockers Squirrel Nut Zippers will be performing favorite holiday tunes and songs from their Christmas Caravan album during an upcoming concert at the Holland Theatre.
The nine-piece ensemble is slated to perform their lively blend of New Orleans style jazz, swing and rock in the local performance slated for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17, one of 17 stops on their Holiday Caravan Tour.
SNZ began their musical journey in the mid-1990s in Chapel Hill, N.C., as a musician’s escape from the cookie-cutter world of modern rock radio at the time.
Band leader Jimbo Mathus, along with drummer/percussionist Chris Phillips, formed the band as a casual musical foray among friends and family in the area. It wasn’t long before the band’s quirky mix of jazz chords, folk music, and punk rock leanings spread out of the region and attracted a national audience.
Since reactivating in mid-2016, SNZ have been performing to packed houses across the country and around the world.
As Mathus has said since the band’s re-launch, “it’s not a reunion, it’s a revival.”
The Holiday Caravan Tour also will feature original SNZ songs, such as ones from their most recent album Lost Songs of Doc Souchon, which debuted in late 2020.
The album features 10 brand-new tracks – a combination of newly-penned Zippers songs, along with a few tunes from past times – and has received acclaim from fans and critics alike.
“This new album was inspired by all of the mysterious characters from the history of New Orleans jazz music,” Mathus said. “It speaks to the hidden roots of where our aesthetic, interests, and philosophy comes from. It pulls on the hidden thread.”
Prior to Lost Songs of Doc Souchon , their most recent studio album Beasts Of Burgundy was released in 2018 and debuted at number four on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart upon its release.
Back in 1998, SNZ released their first and only holiday album – Christmas Caravan, which went on to sell a quarter of a million copies and reached number 12 on the Billboard Holiday Albums chart.
The Holiday Caravan, the band’s longest holiday tour to-date, began Nov. 30 in Asheville, N.C. and concludes in Nashville Dec. 19. Other stops include New York, Detroit, Cincinnati, Alexandria, Va.; Beverly, Mass.; and many others.
Tickets are $25 to $45 and can be purchased online via www.hollandtheatre.org, or by calling the box office (937) 592-9002. Youth tickets for $5 also are available for ages 17 and under.