There’s a holiday concert coming to Eastern Idaho just in time for the Christmas season.
Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand will be at Thunder Ridge High School on Monday, Dec. 1 to perform their Christmas concert.
The RubberBand performs rock and roll bluegrass music, and will perform a variety of Christmas songs, along with several variations of their own songs. For example, the popular country song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” will be sung as “The Grinch Went Down to Whoville.”
Shupe says the concert is fun for the whole family.
“It’s a great show for anybody, so I would say bring everybody you have,” Shupe said. “We get a lot of people who come to the show and say, ‘I wish I would have brought my cousin or my kid,’ or whoever, so it’s great for the whole family.”
When Shupe started his band in college, he never dreamed he would still be making music today.
“I figured everybody wanted a band in college,” Shupe said. “I had already been playing music for a long time as a kid, so I organized this band, Ryan Shupe and The Rubberband. I didn’t really know who was in the band, I just knew I wanted to have one. I called it ‘the Rubberband,’ a flexible band, so people could come in and out if they wanted to.”
As the name “Rubberband” implies, it’s a group where a Shupe will draw from a pool of guys to play in certain shows when other band members are gone on vacation or doing something else.
The band first signed with Capitol Records in Nashville and is now independent.
The band has now been together for almost 30 years.
“I don’t really think that I’m old, but I just feel like it’s crazy how long we’ve been playing already,” Shupe said. “It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but it’s been a really fun journey.”
Shupe says his kids are always wanting him to release new songs.
“My kids are funny because they’re like, ‘Dad, you need to record more songs, get it out there,’” Shupe said. “They’ll hear all these demo songs that I have and they’re like, ‘Why is this not released?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’ And they said, ‘Dad, make it happen.’”
The Christmas concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 1. For tickets, visit Ryan Shupe’s website.