Ryan Shupe & The Rubber Band ring in the holiday season

Students and families will get “Shupe-ified” this holiday season with Ryan Shupe & The Rubber Band’s collection of Christmas songs performed on Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. in the Rexburg Tabernacle.

Ryan Shupe, founder of the band, is a fifth generation fiddle player. As a child, he played in a blue grass band called Pee Wee Pickens, which once played for President Ronald Reagan.

Shupe never considered continuing as a musician until winning musical contests in college. After college he formed a band, bought a van and toured the U.S. They performed in Nashville, and eventually signed with Capitol Records.

At the concert this month, the band will play an original gospel Christmas song, a calypso version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “The Little Drummer Boy” with a bohemian twist and a song called “The Grinch went down to Whoville,” sung to the tune of “The Devil went down to Georgia.”

“It’s not Christmas unless we’re out playing,” Shupe said.

Shupe said they call themselves the “Rubber Band” because he wants flexibility with each performance. He has a pool of musicians to choose from and never knows who’s going to be in the band at each performance.

“The band is so unique because we don’t play just one genre of music at any of our shows,” Shupe said.

Purchase tickets online at eventbrite, where it says this concert “is a Christmas tradition you didn’t know you needed…But you do.”