“Nothing brings the holiday spirit like a 6-foot-2, Jesus-lookin’ Santa rippin’ a funk lead guitar and stomping about the stage.”
Musician Kyle Wilson’s Facebook post is a fun — and right on the money — description of a Santa Claus suit-wearing Ryan Chrys, who, with steel guitarist Bradley Weaver and acoustic guitarist Bill Nershi, opened Sing It To Me Santa, a wild and super-fun holiday concert that Libby Anschutz, in cooperation with KBCO and Take Note Colorado, started three years ago to fund music education in the Denver Public Schools.
This year, sponsorships alone generated $200,000.
Chrys and Weaver are members of the outlaw country band Ryan Chrys and the Rough Cuts; Nershi is a founding member of String Cheese Incident, and the three were part of a bill that also included performances by The Record Company, Isaac and Anna Slade, Vine and Anschutz’s band, Tracksuit Wedding.
The Record Company is a Los Angeles-based trio that has opened for John Mayer, Trombone Shorty and B.B. King. Rolling Stone included The Record Company on its 2016 list of “10 New Artists You Need to Know,” and the band’s debut album, “Give It Back to You,” has been nominated for a Grammy.
Isaac Slade, of course, is the lead singer of The Fray; he married Anna in April of 2006 and they have collaborated on several recordings, including the Hymn Project.
In addition to the musical acts, Sing It To Me Santa also included a VIP reception where folks like Gov. John Hickenlooper, who helped start the event that “raises the roof for music education in the Denver Public Schools,” enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres before crowding around the stage at the packed-to-the-rafters Ogden Theatre.
Others joining in the fun were Sage Hospitality’s Walter Isenberg and his wife, Christie, the founder and president of Amp the Cause; Hickenlooper’s senior adviser, Jamie Van Leeuwen; Michael Niyompong, chief operating officer at Clayton Early Learning; Ferd and Christy Belz; Maria Trujillo; Tay Hamilton; Karen Radman; Gwenette Campbell; Jodi Dyce and Chuck Morris, the chief executive at AEG Live Rocky Mountains.