On December 14, Lindsey Stirling switched genres and accompanied some of country music’s top female stars on ABC’s CMA Country Christmas.
During the show, Lindsey performed “Joy to the World” with co-hosts Amy Grant and Trisha Yearwood. She also joined Trisha for a rendition of “O Holy Night,” then teamed up with Grammy winner Ashley McBryde for “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”
If you missed it on Thursday, you can watch it December 20 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC, or stream it the next day on Hulu.
The performance definitely wasn’t Lindsey’s first rodeo (literally) when it comes to country music. As she told ABC Audio recently, “When I was in college and trying to test the waters of being a professional violinist, I played with a country band … I was a fiddle player and backup singer … and we did, like, the rodeo circuit.”
“So I really dove deep into country for a minute there. And I do like country music, and who knows? Maybe someday I’ll be ready to, like, kind of full circle it back and do, like, a fiddle album, because I love fiddle music.”
In case you’re wondering, during her stint in the country band, Lindsey played the ultimate country music fiddle song — “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by the Charlie Daniels Band — quite a few times.
“That’s a staple as a violinist, fiddle player,” she said. “Because that’s the thing that you probably get asked more than anything to play is, like, ‘Can you play “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”?"”
She laughs, “It’s like, ‘Well, I could play a concerto for you, but I know you wouldn’t care, so yes, I’ll play “Devil Went Down to Georgia”!"”
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