Thanksgiving in the United States is a time to be thankful that it is almost Christmas time! Am I right? OK, I am half joking. I know the holiday is a day to give thanks for what we have and who we have and music should be a part of that.
But if it's Thanksgiving and we could have some surprise guests, why not a few musicians? Maybe you are already know a few. If you do, good for you.
But what about ones we do not know. Musical artists we would have as dream guests for Thanksgiving. Three for me are as follows.
Tom Waits would be great at Thanksgiving
The stories Tom Waits could tell and will tell if invited to Thanksgiving. He's been an important cog in the music business since the 1970s and knows a ton of people. But mostly I would love to have Tom Waits over to ask him how he comes up with all the ideas for which instruments to use for which songs.
For the best experience, you would need to make sure Waits' wife, Kathleen Brennan, is there too. They write songs together. So if you want to get to the bones of how Waits makes music, having the two of them at Thanksgiving would be a huge win.
Mark McGrath would be fun to have at Thanksgiving
This might be an odd choice because McGrath has not been relevant on the music scene in some time. But he has always been a bit underrated in how much about music he knows. He's been on several game shows and there never seems to be a music answer he doesn't know.
You will basically want to gather family and friends around and play a music trivia game. McGrath will be on your team and will be the ringer. You won't lose.
Dolly Parton would be excellent to have at Thanksgiving
I am not a huge country music fan, but disliking Dolly Parton seems to go against human nature. She is ever-joyful, and while she would be great to have around at Christmas, she'd be a winner at Thanksgiving as well. She might even offer to serve the dinner itself because she is, well...a good person.
You would probably have to go ahead and have her new album, Rockstar, on vinyl and be playing the record during Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe Dolly would even sing along!