On December 16th Cody Fry and friends performed for a sold-out house, much to Cody’s surprise given the concert was on a Tuesday night. People of all ages joined in the Nashville Symphony Schermerhorn Symphony Center to celebrate the holiday season.
Fry first gained popularity from his appearance on the 14th season of American Idol, in which he made it to the top 48. In 2021 his music became a hit to a wider audience, with his song “I Hear a Symphony” going viral on TikTok. Since then, he has been able to perform in many prestigious venues, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the Nashville Symphony. Along with this honor he has been nominated for 3 Grammys, including this year in the 28th Grammys for the “Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals” category with his cover of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”
As most orchestra shows do, this show started with a disclaimer of all the rules of the symphony, although different from other shows this announcement was made by the big man in red himself, Saint Nick, urging attendees to follow the rules in fear of being put on the naughty list. This simple intro was only the tip of the iceberg for the charm and humor in the performance.
The first song in the setlist was a cover of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” After the first song Cody made sure to give praise to the orchestra, noting to the audience that the prep time for the show was not long at all.
“The orchestra did a full run during their rehearsal earlier that day, and now we’re all here,” he said.
As the show progressed, an ongoing theme was introduced, that being letters. Cody opened a letter delivered to him from a young boy named Ricky, it read “Dear Cody, do you know any Christmas songs that aren't slow and boring?” To satisfy Ricky’s request Cody led the audience in a sped up sing-along of “Deck The Halls” and “Jingle Bells,” including a short transition featuring the notorious equine racing song “William Tell Overture”.
He followed that up with a performance of his own Christmas song, “Alone on Christmas with You”. Cody was accompanied by his wife, Haley Fry and Caitie Beasley on backing vocals, Nathan Dugger on guitar, Steve Goold on drums, and Scott Mulvahill on Bass.
During the show, Fry reflected on Christmases past, sharing how as a kid the whole experience was the most magical thing one could ever have. He showed pictures of past holidays including one of he and his father when he was a baby, and a photo of him crying in his grandmother’s arms, overcome by happiness from getting Donkey Kong 64 that year. He then changed the focus from him to his 2-year-old daughter, showing a photo of her in awe at an ornament on the tree.
He used this to segway into his song “Photograph”, which he combined with Claude Debussy’s “Claire De Lune”. Within this song he changed a single word, which completely altered the scope of the song. In the studio version there is a lyric that goes “Kids are probably soon, don't get me wrong I’m ready”, but in this performance, he sang “Kids are probably now”.
Instead of yearning to stay in a memory due to a fear of change, Fry’s intended message was to hold on to an experience in order to keep the memory alive.
After this, a letter was displayed on screen and the audience got to read about an old British woman sharing the gifts her husband had given her that Christmas. These included including too many birds, lords, ladies, maids, drummers, and pipers, noting that the 5 golden rings were a welcome surprise among the madness. Cody and the orchestra then went on to perform “The 12 days of Christmas” going around the venue to let audience members sing “5 golden rings”.
Then, Ricky was back with another letter, this time requesting Cody’s top 19 favorite Christmas movies. To the tune of Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” he listed his top 19 movies including Die Hard, Nightmare Before Christmas, and his top movie, Elf.
To end off the first half of the show, he performed a mashup he released earlier this month of “The Christmas Waltz,” and “Waltz of the Flowers.” Before going to the intermission, the audience was encouraged to go to the lobby to write notes to loved ones that would have a chance to be presented during the show.
Fry’s Christmas original “From the Cold” opened the second half of the show. Following this another letter was shown over the screen from a horse suffering from insomnia. The horse’s condition was due to fear related trauma from the whip cracking included in the song “Sleigh Ride”. The orchestra then began the piece with Cody leaving the stage, later he returned with a sealed box from which he pulled out a variety of instruments to replace the slapstick, those being a whoopie cushion, a rubber chicken, and a celebratory whistle. These however did not satiate his creative vision. He went backstage and shortly returned with an air horn.
For the next piece he got his vocalists, bassist, guitarist, and the orchestras conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez to perform “Silver bells”. Alongside the guitar and upright bass, Lopez-Yañez played ukulele, and Fry brought out a melodica. After this he played “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” an arrangement by his father.
He then took a break from the Christmas songs and fulfilled another one of Ricky’s wishes. This one was much different from the others, requesting for a song about Cody waking up in a train station and subsequently being hit by that train. He then went into his songs “Caves” and “Underground”.
After this we were brought right back into the Christmas spirit with a story from the narrator Jason Dyba. This story depicted a neighborhood that exchanged letters every Christmas to show their appreciation for their community. Transitioning out of the story Cody and the orchestra performed his cover of “What a Wonderful World”, during this the notes written during intermission were displayed on the screen, giving those in the audience who had letters written to them a chance to hear what their loved ones had to say. For the final two songs of the night they performed an arrangement of “O Come All Ye Faithfull” and “I Hear A Symphony”.
This show was a masterpiece of musical expression and a love letter to Christmastime. Alongside the music, the story and charm from both Cody Fry and the production team brought the show over the top. Having just started winter break a few days before, it was a great way to get into the holiday spirit.
