For Tony Trischka, it always comes back to the banjo.

“Tony Trischka’s Holiday Show” is at 7 p.m. Dec. 11, Godfrey Daniels, Bethlehem.

In addition to Trischka on vocals and banjo, the Godfrey’s concert includes Tim Eriksen, vocals, banjo, fiddle, guitar, bajo sexto (Mexican bass); Hannah Read, vocals, fiddle, guitar; Jared Engel, bass, banjo, tuba, and Sean Trischka (son of Tony and his wife Assunta), vocals, drums.

Tony Trischka is progenitor of the progressive bluegrass music movement known as newgrass, which has rock, jazz and other genre influences.

Trischka presented his Christmas-themed concert in 2024 at Godfrey’s where he has performed for some 27 years.

“I’ve been going there [Godfrey Daniels] since the early ‘80s. We had a band called Skyline. It’s home away from home,” Trischka says in a phone interview from northern New Jersey. In addition to their son, Sean, he and his wife have a daughter, Zoe.

At the Godfrey’s concert, don’t only expect “chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” as goes the “The Christmas Song,” written by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé and first recorded in 1946 by the Nat King Cole Trio.

“We try to find songs that interest us as much as we love the standard Christmas songs. And we do a few of those,” says Trischka.

One of the lesser known classics to be heard at Godfrey’s is “Christmas Is A-Comin’” by Woody Guthrie (1912-1967).

Recalls Trischka:

“I’m friendly with Nora Guthrie, who is Woody’s daughter, and I had the opportunity to go to the archives when they were located in New York City. It’s now the Woody Guthrie Center located in Tulsa, Okla.

“Nora found a whole bunch of Christmas and Hanukkah lyrics. She went through the piles and found lyrics that would be of interest to me for this project. I was actually holding his [Woody Guthrie] typewritten sheets. It had his DNA.”

Trischka has performed with, in addition to Skyline, the groups, Breakfast Special, Country Granola, Country Cooking and the Down City Ramblers, the latter his first group when as a native of Syracuse, N.Y., he started playing the banjo.

Trischka, who attended Syracuse University, encountered two of his music heroes, Bob Dylan and John Lennon, in Syracuse:

“Dylan played at the Regent Theatre. I went to the concert with my banjo teacher, who knew Dylan from the Village. Jon Gaines. We were invited to his hotel room.

“And he [Dylan] asked if I wanted anything to drink. I was 14-years-old at the time. I said, ‘I’ll have a Coke.’ He [Dylan] went down the hall and bought me a Coke. And it was all downhill since then.”

Trischka continues with another anecdote from the ‘Cuse, as it’s nicknamed:

“I was a fine arts major. They wanted me to write the text for a slide show about the Everson Museum. Two weeks later, it was announced that Yoko was doing an exhibit [‘This Is Not Here,’ her first museum show] for John’s 30th birthday. James Harithas [1932-1923] was the new director [at the Everson] and he knew Yoko.

“They [John and Yoko] both came in [the Everson]. And John sort of came in twirling. And in your minds, ‘We said, Oh my God, it’s John Lennon.’ I had a question about this maze that I was constructing with some other folks. I didn’t say anything. I was too in awe.

“Had I realized that he [Lennon] started playing the banjo before the guitar, I would have struck up a conversation. It always comes back to the banjo.”

Trischka has recorded some 32 albums, including “Glory Shone Around: A Christmas Collection” (Rounder, 1995).

Joining Trischka on the Grammy-nominated “Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular” album (Rounder Records, 2007) were banjo meisters Steve Martin, Earl Scruggs and Béla Fleck, a former Trischka student, and bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice (1951-2020).

Trischka recorded Earl Jam: A Tribute To Earl Scruggs” (2024).

Trischka has two new singles, based on the jam sessions that he transcribed between Earl Scruggs (1924-2012) and John Hartford (1937-2001), which became “Earl Jam.”

“On the recordings, I play his [Scruggs] notes note-for-note so people can hear what Earl did,” says Trischka.

Scruggs is credited with popularizing a finger-picking style of banjo-playing that defines bluegrass.

With Lester Flatt, Scruggs recorded the hit instrumental, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” in 1949, later heard on the soundtrack of the movie “Bonnie and Clyde“ (1967).

Flatt and Scruggs recorded “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” theme song for the TV sitcom, “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1962-1972).

Trischka was music leader for the Broadway show, “The Robber Bridegroom” (1976).

He produced Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers’ “Rare Bird Alert” (2011), a Grammy-nominated album that included The Chicks and Paul McCartney.

Trischka was music director for the documentary film, “Give Me The Banjo” (2011), which Martin narrated.

“I just composed a chamber piece for instruments and soprano. It’s debuting in Boston,” says Trischka.

Trischka has performed on National Public Radio programs, written instructional books and DVDs about playing the banjo and has a website, “Online Banjo School with Tony Trischka.”

“It starts from the absolute beginner, how to hold a banjo, to the very advanced,” Trischka says.

For the concert at Godfrey’s, “We do a wide variety of things,” says Trischka.

“We do shaped-note singing of songs that go back to the 1700s. I’ll do a banjo medley of Christmas tunes.

“We’ll do ‘Light of the Stable ‘by Emmylou Harris. We do a Christmas fiddle tune. We do my favorite Christmas song of all, by Ruth Crawford Seeger, ‘Mother’s Child (Child of God).’

“And we do a couple of original tunes by Hannah Read.

“‘Dominick the Christmas Donkey,” an Italian song, which my son sings,” Trischka continues.

“We do ‘Christmas Time Is Here’ from the Peanuts’ movie [“A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the 1965 TV special that included the Vince Guaraldi tune].”

The Godfrey’s website has a photo of Trischka and his band mates ready for the concert in festive attire. You could call some of the tops Ugly Christmas Sweaters. Will the group be sporting them for the Godfrey’s concert?

“I’m not at liberty to say,” says Trischka. “I will plead innocent on that front.”

You will just have to attend “Tony Trischka’s Holiday Show’ at Godfrey Daniels and see for yourself.

It always comes back to the banjo.

And holiday sweaters.

“Tony Trischka’s Holiday Show,” 7 p.m. Dec. 11, Godfrey Daniels, 7 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem. 610-867-2390, https://godfreydaniels.org/