Thanksgiving Dinner

Just like Thanksgiving dinner itself, our holiday musical selection features many courses, from savory to sweet…and even silly. No harvest feast would be complete without a little keyboard tinkling from the late Vince Guaraldi, whose "Thanksgiving Theme" from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! whisks us back to a pre-TiVo childhood when we were glued to the tube between the main course and dessert. Bing Crosby croons his way through a list of blessings to a big band melody in "I've Got Plenty To Be Thankful For," an Irving Berlin-penned classic from the soundtrack to Holiday Inn. And former Saturday Night Live dementoid Adam Sandler waxes poetic on the subjects of turkey, Mike Tyson, and baby oil, among others, in his heartwarming "The Thanksgiving Song."

In Next Steps, we go lyric-free, on an instrumental excursion through autumnal delights.

The coziness of harvest time's ambience is often most eloquently expressed without words, as you'll hear in these hand-selected instrumental tracks. Pianist Bill Evans employs a flute's airiness and percussive brushes on the drums to suggest a crisp fall breeze blustering through fallen foliage in "Autumn Leaves." Meanwhile, in the title track to Giblet Gravy, George Benson's funky horns and percolating guitar lines capture the bubbling warmth of a Thanksgiving meal staple cooking on the stovetop. And acoustic guitar wizard Sean Harkness evokes a contented, post-pumpkin pie fireside moment in his "Coming Home."

Whether it's trip-hop from the U.K. or gospel from the U.S.A., our Deep Cuts keep the holiday home fires burning.

Fiddle player Jay Ungar, best known for his GRAMMY®-winning "Ashokan Farewell," from the Ken Burns PBS series The Civil War, teams with wife Molly Mason for an acoustic trip through a musical time warp in their down-home-y "Thanksgiving Waltz." Folkie John McCutcheon's "Is My Family" weaves his resonant baritone around a guitar and hammered dulcimer with the cozy familiarity of a favorite sweater. In their smooth-soul-meets-trip-hop groove "Be Thankful for What You've Got," Massive Attack trance-channel Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions. And we close out our holiday celebration with "Thank You For One More Day," as the Dixie Hummingbirds give a spiritual shout-out to the Man Upstairs in gratitude for the bounty they've been given.

Ever since the Native Americans — quite literally — saved our bacon, we've set aside a day to give thanks, usually by stuffing ourselves like the turkey that's come to symbolize Thanksgiving. But it's not merely your spirit and stomach that need to be filled on this day of appreciation; your ears are begging for a little morsel of holiday goodness as well. Why not give them a treat too? Not only are these tunes the perfect accompaniment to the sounds of silver clattering against fine china (or even plastic against fine Melmac®), but you can also turn them up if you need to drown out that annoying cousin-in-law who's way too invested in the government conspiracy concerning Area 51. Whether your tastes run to classic rock, jazz, pop, folk, or soul, we serve up the ideal audio side dish for your festivities.