Umphrey’s McGee Members Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss Plot Annual Holiday Show in Chicago

Photo Credit: Zach Blum

Members of Umphrey’s McGee, Brendan Bayliss and Jake Cinninger, have announced their 21st annual holiday show. The event will take place on December 9 at Park West in Chicago, with featured guest and fellow UM mainstay, percussionist Andy Farag.

In addition to Farag, the celebratory occasion will include special guests Mike Racky and Michelle Hallman. Moreover, the event functions as a benefit for The People’s Music School, the largest tuition-free music school in the Chicago metropolitan area. The duo’s newly announced gig will occur after Umphrey’s McGee close out their three-night Georgia Theatre residency, slated for Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and 2, in Athens, Ga. 

In other Umphrey’s McGee news, the band will receive a reoccurring JEMP Radio showcase. The pilot episode of Pure Saturation will air Saturday, Nov. 4, at 10 p.m. The listener-supported station will play over two hours of music, featuring studio and live cuts, spanning the band’s 25-year legacy. 

The show will be hosted by Kevin Cassels, author of The Pharmer’s Almanac VI, along with Karl Engelmann, author of several Umphrey’s songs, as well as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of Ali Baba’s Tahini, the band he co-founded with Umphrey’s guitarist Cinninger in 1997.

“The most common response I hear when people are first exposed to Umphrey’s is ‘I had no idea they sounded like that,’” says Cassels, “especially from those unfamiliar with jam bands, and also from those within the scene that just thought Umphrey’s was ‘heavy metal Phish’ but were unfamiliar with the band’s songwriting craft, gentle acoustic music, and mastery of harmony and melody.”

Pure Saturation is the first show to be a part of ‘Adolescent Subtle Sounds,’ JEMP Radio’s new Saturday night block of programming created by Sweeping Views, which features a rotating roster of new shows and content every Saturday night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Listen here.

To purchase tickets for Bayliss and Cinninger’s holiday show, visit this link.