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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > December > 08 > Entry
Preview: Guy Forsyth and Carolyn Wonderland holiday show
Deborah Cannon AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Americana shouter and multi-instrumentalist Guy Forsyth first crossed paths with blues rocker Carolyn Wonderland more than 15 years ago, at a 1993 gig in Oklahoma City. He was immediately smitten - with her shredding skills, sure, but even more so with her learned blues vocalist’s howl.
“She was an amazing spirit and a great guitar player, and there aren’t many people that can throw their head back and sing like that,” Forsyth says. “Austin is full of musicians of all types of caliber on all types of instruments, but nobody else can open their mouths like that.”
Wonderland, for her part, saw in Forsyth a counterpart so well-suited to her own voice that it was practically a kinship.
“There’s something familial about it. It’s like playing with your brother,” Wonderland says. “Family bands are always my favorite because they harmonize perfectly. They grew up listening to each other talk. Guy and I are kind of like that.”
Which makes the pair an ideal choice to headline a show centered on that most familial of holidays: Christmas. The two local musicians - and their bands - will join forces for two holiday shows at the One World Theatre tonight, as part of a brief tour that’s hitting the major Texas cities.
But those expecting a night of familiar standards might be a little surprised. Forsyth and Wonderland will dip into the usual suspects but also plan on incorporating less obvious choices - like John Prine’s “Christmas in Prison.”
For two artists well-versed in the nooks and crannies of American music, the Christmas season is fertile territory for exploration.
“The holidays have probably the biggest amount of shared music of any event in American life. We start to hear the Christmas songs when we’re children and some of them never go away - much as you might want them to,” Forsyth says.
That extensive canon of holiday music means a variety of moods, styles and outlooks are likely to make an appearance tonight - and appropriately so, given both Forsyth’s and Wonderland’s general reluctance to pigeonhole themselves into genres.
“We want to do stuff that resonates with you or stuff that makes you laugh and some stuff that might make you cry. We try to strike a balance and not have entirely sappy beautiful ballads,” Wonderland says. “It’s nice to do something that touches on all the emotions that hit you during the holiday: drunkenness, debauchery, forgiveness, all that good stuff.”
The show takes place Wednesday at the One World Theatre, 7701 Bee Cave Road. Tickets are $30-$40. Information: (512) 330-9500; oneworldtheatre.org.
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By QOTR
December 9, 2009 9:47 PM | Link to this
Loved, loved, loved the show. Thanks guys!