Meet Arianna Holiday: Local singer to perform music from her new Christmas album

Arianna Holiday, 2024. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO: Gem City Pin Up Photography

Arianna Holiday, 2024. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO: Gem City Pin Up Photography

The weather outside may be frightful, but the music inside will be so delightful.

Arianna Holiday & the Gem City Slay Bells and Noah Back will be performing the first Let It Snow Show on Dec. 7 at Taffy’s of Eaton.

This is a family-friendly event. Ugly sweaters are encouraged.

The show will be a preview of Arianna Holiday’s new 10-track Christmas album, “Holly Jolly Holiday,” which offers revamped seasonal classics and news ones, too. Physical copies of the album will be available at the show. It will be released digitally on Dec. 9.

In addition, Arianna Holiday and the crew will also be recording a live album at the Let It Snow Show.

Leading up to the “Holly Jolly Holiday” release, several singles have been delivered over the past year, including “When You Wish Upon a Star,” “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Let It Snow.”

The original song “Every Day is a Holiday” was written by Holiday’s niece, Brooklyn Genovesi. She was six-years-old at the time it was penned.

“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” will also be getting a fresh makeover from the single version she released around this time last year.

Holiday’s band, the Gem City Slay Bells, which contributed to seven songs on the album, is mainly made up of members of Dayton vampire rock band, DracMina: guitarist Ben Bernard, bassist Emma Graham and Carissa Silver (aka Jingle Jangle Jane) on glockenspiel. Lord Veil, who is Dracula in DracMina, served as the project’s director.

Kyle Truit (Mojo Power) is on drums, and guitarist and singer Noah Back is featured on “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and “Let It Snow.”

Arianna Holiday, 2024. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO: Gem City Pin Up Photography

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“Holly Jolly Holiday” is a dynamic record; it opens with 1940s opera, and ends with a crescendoing symphonic metal version of “The Little Drummer Boy” — double kick drums and all. Between the bookends are homages to Brenda Lee and Dean Martin, and the mid-century festivity sounds found on vinyl hibernating in attics year round.

“I think that the holiday season is going to be my peak season moving forward,” Holiday said. “I just have such a love for Christmas music and just the whole atmosphere of it.”

This record is the second that Arianna Holiday released this year, after the poppier, non-holiday effort “Brainstorm” from May. “Brainstorm” was heavily inspired by her journey as a brain tumor survivor.

Prior to singing, Holiday was a health coach and a powerlifter. After being diagnosed with a pituitary gland tumor, she lost her ability to do just about everything that she loved doing — that is, until she found music a year-and-a-half ago.

“I thought I was going to gain back a lot of my physical abilities; that just wasn’t the case,” she said. “But honestly, as tragic as a lot of that was, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, because I’m happier now with music.”

Brandon Berry writes about the Dayton and Southwest Ohio music scene. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.


How to go

What: Let It Snow Show, with Noah Back and Arianna Holiday & the Gem City Slay Bells

When: 7 p.m., Dec. 7

Where: Taffy’s, 123 E. Main St., Eaton

Cost: $10

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