Nelson twins celebrate family legacy during ‘Christmas With the Nelsons’ at the Arcada Theatre
Matthew and Gunnar Nelson may be best known for their early-’90s hits “After the Rain” and “(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection,” but they’ll be performing Christmas classics while celebrating the legacy of their famous family at their upcoming show at the Arcada Theatre.
Matthew and Gunnar, who are the identical twin sons of music legend Ricky Nelson and grandsons of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson of the TV show “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” will bring “Christmas With the Nelsons” to St. Charles Tuesday, Dec. 9.
This multigenerational show will not only feature a live band, but also a multimedia display, with videos of the twins as children with their famous father and grandparents, as well as plenty of family stories and sibling banter.
“The show is about three generations of Nelson family Christmases,” Matthew Nelson said. “It’s for people who grew up with ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ and Ricky Nelson. It’s not just us playing Christmas songs with our normal set. It’s a Christmas show with one or two of our songs — classics and originals — and we bring our dad in to play on the video, so it’s a big part of the show.”
The twins are no strangers to playing holiday music. They released their Christmas album “This Christmas” in 2015, followed the next year by the double album “This Christmas Too,” with both instrumental music and Christmas classics.
“Our dad never did a Christmas album, and we realized that, as songwriters, there are few lofty goals and one is to write an original Christmas song that becomes a hit,” Matthew said. “Gunnar said he wanted to write a Christmas hit song, and then he wanted to do an entire [Christmas] album. So we recorded it in Nashville and played all the instruments. It’s an acoustic album with a lot of harmonies.”
Encouraged by their father, the twins began playing music as children and graduated to playing clubs in Los Angeles by age 12. The duo released their first major label album, “After the Rain,” in 1990, which led to the top 10 hit “(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection,” which was also in heavy rotation on MTV.
These days, the twins live in Nashville and have been consistently touring and making music in the years since they hit the rock scene. Their first book, “What Happened to Your Hair?,” will be released Dec. 16.
“It’s a 500-page book, all of our memoirs,” Matthew said, promising stories about their family and unconventional upbringing in southern California.
As for the Arcada show, Matthew said that fans can expect a wholesome, nostalgic holiday show.
“What you’ll get is seeing people who love what they do,” he said. “It’s an unbelievable multigenerational show told through Christmas music. It’s a refreshing dose of the real thing.”
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“Christmas With the Nelsons”
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9
Where: Arcada Theatre, 105 E. Main St., St. Charles
Tickets: Start at $57 at (630) 962-7000 or arcadalive.com/