The Kay Brothers bring Christmas home to The Blue Note

Mid-Missouri's stompgrass band plays its holiday show on Thu, Dec 17, with tickets from $19.30 to $26.

Every town has a show that tells you the holidays have arrived. In Columbia, one of those is the Kay Brothers taking over The Blue Note with banjos, fiddles and a set list full of carols. The date this year is Thursday, December 17, and it was announced last week, on October 29.

Here's what to know. The Kay Brothers play The Blue Note at 7pm. Tickets are $19.30–$26 through Ticketmaster, where it's billed as the Kay Brothers' Christmas show. The room holds about 835, so even a hometown crowd that turns out in force can fit inside.

This is a Missouri band through and through. Bryan and Pat Kay started the Kay Brothers in March 2012 after years of playing in other groups, and they call their sound "Missouri stompgrass," a mix of old-time folk and traditional bluegrass, according to Jefferson City Magazine's profile of the band. Mid-Missouri papers have followed them along the way, from a homecoming set at the Moniteau County Fair to a return to the Finke Theatre in California, Missouri. Missouri S&T has also brought them to the Leach Theatre in Rolla.

The Christmas show is its own thing. Inside Columbia describes the band's holiday concert as a blend of festive tunes and country songs, so you'll get "Jingle Bells" next to the stompgrass originals people come for the rest of the year. A Columbia concert roundup once put it well, calling the brothers "renowned local purveyors of a romping, stomping form of Americana" who bring "warm strings and familial harmonies" to their holiday celebration, as quoted in a December concert guide.

Warm strings and family harmonies, eight days before Christmas, on Ninth Street.

The Blue Note is the right room for it. It's Columbia's downtown concert hall, big enough to feel like an occasion and still local enough that half the crowd seems to know the band personally. A Thursday a week before Christmas lands right after finals, when the campus has emptied out and the town gets a little quieter. That's a good time for a show that feels more like a family gathering than a concert.

At under $30, it's also one of the easier holiday plans to make. Bring the relatives who are in town early, the coworker who claims they don't like bluegrass, and anyone who needs a reason to put on an ugly sweater and stomp along.

Grab a ticket, bundle up for the walk, and leave room for a few encores. With this band, the stomping usually lasts longer than planned.

Sources: Five Peas in a Pod – Jefferson City Magazine (jeffersoncitymag.com); The Kay Brothers come home for Moniteau County Fair – California Democrat (californiademocrat.com); The Kay Brothers return to the Finke Theatre – California Democrat (californiademocrat.com); The Kay Brothers to perform at Leach Theatre March 10 – Missouri S&T (news.mst.edu); The Kay Brothers Christmas Concert – Inside Columbia (insidecolumbia.net); 6 must-see December concerts in Columbia (aol.com); The Kay Brothers Christmas at The Blue Note – Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.evyy.net)