In the Christmas Spirit: Piano Guys, Part II | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: If you appreciate the musical and cinematography creativity of the extra talented Piano Guys, as much as we do here at BCN, you can easily access all of their segments here.

    As I mentioned in the last post, I found these (Piano) guys, when I was searching for Christmas carols, specifically "Carol of the Bells". When I conducted a bit more research, I found that the Piano Guys had done a number of other Christmas carols, all remarkable in one context or another, all extremely unique.

    Like the other videos of their excellent renditions of Christmas Carols in our three part series, Piano Guys have perfected their unique style of presenting the ultimate Joy and Grace surrounding the birth of the Christ Child, without sacrificing the humbling and yet, most serious message of this exact birth of Christianity - the world's one religion born from deity, His most perfect Peace.

Piano Guys (from left to right): Al Van Der Beek, Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharpe Nelson and Paul Anderson: Above.
    Piano Guys are spirit filled entertainers, who wish to project all that that know of that spirit through their music, which resonates so well in these Christmas carols for this holiest Christian holiday celebrated worldwide. To better illustrate this truism, please examine the words of the Piano Guys from their website, which also informs one where they are performing, and how to obtain their most original style of making beautiful music. Here below is their maxim:

    So many people inspire us, our music and our videos. When we began as The Piano Guys, we drew our inspiration from sources we’ve known all our lives – family, God, nature, classical composers and others we've looked up to. We could never have imagined all the stories we’ve received from people who have listened to our music and watched our videos since we began – stories that have made us laugh and that have made us cry; stories that have motivated us to reach even higher; stories that have kept us going when we've wondered how we can. These people and their stories are the reason we are The Piano Guys and the reason we never want to stop making music videos. If you are one of these people, thank you from all of us for being our inspiration. - Piano Guys


Here below is the Christmas carol "O Come, Emmanuel", shot as the story of Chirst in keeping with the birth of the Christ Child, and well beyond until The Last Supper:

Here below is what is not a Christmas Carol, but is most emblematic as to who the Piano Guys hold themselves out to be. And in that spirit, I, for one, believe them:

Like the video above, "Somewhere over the Rainbow" is no Christmas Carol; however, really dig this tune, especially at Christmas, and I especially love the Piano Guys rendition of the late Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole's version of this classic, with Piano Guys marrying Aaron Copland's "Simple Gifts" from his classic "Appalachian Spring" to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Beautiful:


    Publisher's note: If you are really in the Christmas spirit, or just in the need for more, please click here to access all of the holiday spirit in melody and narrative that BCN can harness and offer for this Yuletide Season.