Grammy Nominated Banjo Player to Headline Holiday Show at Mexicali Live

It's been 40 years since a teenage Tony Trischka plucked a banjo for 15 minutes at Syracuse University, where his father taught physics, and made $15.

"I said, 'Whoa that's a dollar a minute,'" he said. "And I just knew that this is what I would do for the rest of my life."

Trischka, Grammy nominated and widely heralded as one of the foremost banjo pickers alive, plays a celebratory holiday show at  on Dec. 28 to celebrate his four decades of playing professionally.  It's one of a few shows he's performing around the region, each with a different lineup, to showcase the breadth of his career.

"I wanted to celebrate in various formats," he said. "I look at this as a part of that."

Born in Syracuse, Trischka, 61, lived in New York City from 1973 to 1989 when he moved to Fair Lawn where he now lives with his wife and two teenage children.

His son Sean Trischka, now 17, will join him onstage at  to play drums. Other musicians performing that night will include guitarist Danny Weiss, and mandolinist Barry Mitterhoff, with whom Trischka played in a band with for 10 years. The show will also feature guitarist Tim Eriksen, bassist Skip Ward and Teaneck resident Joe Cardello on drums.

"This is just a one-off show," Trischka said.

Trischka said he'll play holiday music, such as the song Come All Ye Faithful, and songs from a holiday album he made called, "Glory Shone Around."

"We do a large variety," he said.

He said he will also play some of his original compositions.

"I look at this as a hometown gig," he said. "Friends and family will come out to the show."

He added that he and his wife, who is a teacher in Teaneck, have been coming to   since before it offered live music.

Trischka started out playing piano and flute but when he heard the banjo solo in the Kingston Trio's 1963 song, "Charlie on the MTA," his career path was set.

"I heard that and I said, 'That's it, I gotta' do this,'" he said.

Trischka said his influences include banjo legends like Pete Seger, Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs.

"Earl Scruggs had a profound influence on my life," Trischka said.

He said he is also influenced by the Beatles, Frank Zappa, Brian Wilson and Miles Davis.

"Once I started playing I just kept doing it and there was never a question of what I would do when I grew up," he said. "I just kept doing it."

Trischka, who has recorded more than 30 albums, has appeared on the David Letterman show, the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Live with Regis and Kathy Lee and Garrison Keilor's, "A Prairie Home Companion." He also worked on the soundtrack for the movie "Driving Miss Daisy."

"You need to be as wide ranging as possible if you're a banjo player," he said. "I do a lot of different things that are related to it."

Trischka also gives music lessons, has made instructional DVD's and teaches banjo courses online. He is also helping to make a documentary on the history of the banjo, tracing the instrument from its African roots through to America where it was one of the most ubiquitous instruments in the early part of the 20^th century.

"If you look at minstrel shows, the banjo was all over it," he said. "It was that real melding of African and American cultures. A lot of swinging jazz comes from rags played on banjos."

A YouTube video of Trischka performing on the David Letterman show with Steve Martin is attached to this article.