The tradition that is the Greater California Holiday Folk Choir started five years ago, when Greater California—not a place, but the troubadorish, ’60s SoCal sunshine-meets-gentle 21st-century psychedelica contribution to the Long Beach music scene—was asked to play {open}’s anniversary/Christmas party.

“We thought, ‘It would be kinda cool to put together a choir,'” says Terry Prine, Greater California’s primary vocalist/songwriter. “The first year it was a choir of six or so; it wasn’t quite a choir proper yet.”

The conception was immaculate enough that Prine and company were asked to repeat the feat the following year, by which point it was already destined to be an {open} holiday staple.

“The highlight of the holiday party was definitely having that as the main entertainment,” says shea M gauer, originally one of {open}’s co-owners and Greater California’s bass player for going on three years.

But late this spring gauer let go his stake in {open}, the superfab indie bookstore-and-more that last month closed up shop at its 4th St. location. But the end of an era didn’t need to mean the end of the tradition.

“I think we didn’t want to let it go,” gauer says. “It was something that people looked forward to so much that we said, ‘We need to find a home for this.'”

The band’s first choice was 4th Street Vine, the wine bar-cum-music venue a few doors down from {open} that had become a Greater California haunt. And gauer says co-owner Jim Ritson did not hesitate to welcome that tradition’s change of venue.

“We’d done a handful of shows over at 4th Street Vine,” gauer says. “It’s kind of our neighborhood comfort spot; we just love that place. And so it just seemed proper to do it there.”

As during previous years, the Greater California Holiday Folk Choir will be composed of a variety of artists from throughout Long Beach’s great music scene.

“Everybody involved in recent editions of [the Holiday Choir] are overly capable singers that have their own bands,” Prine says. “It’s kind of like my supergroup of Long Beach musicians. […] Everyone involved has an opinion and knows what they can do, what they’re capable of, and a lot of times it just kind of formulates itself. […] It says ‘Greater California Holiday Choir,’ but it really is a culmination of everybody involved. It’s everybody kind of bringing their own thing. […] When we first did it, we quickly learned that your initial selections are what directs everything, and after that it’s kind of its own animals. […] We organize it, but really it’s everybody’s ability that makes it as cool as it is.”

But Prine points out that the idea is for the event to be more of a sing-along than a performance, and he hopes that this year people participate even more than ever before, with a tentative plan to bring audience lyric sheets to the 10-song set, which will include material originally performed by The Beatles, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, Nick Drake, and R.E.M.

“One year there was even a crowd participant trying to sneak in and claim she was part of the choir,” Prine relates. “It kind of sparked that idea that it should feel like it’s a family tradition, and you’re going back to 4th Street, and it really should be for everybody.”

Greater California’s work with the choir has been so inspiring to the band that they are incorporating the concept on their forthcoming fourth album, having recorded choir material within the confines of the First Congregational Church.

“After the Christmas show, we would always think, ‘Yeah, we’ve got to get together and record this soon after, while it’s all fresh,'” gauer says. “Because we just enjoyed working together so much, we just wanted to capture that moment. So we took it that step further and utilized that Holiday choir in a Greater California song, which made it so much bigger than it was.”

“It just such a unique and powerful exclamation on some of the stuff we’re doing,” Prine adds, “giving a bigger sound without amplification.”

“What’s the saying?” gauer jests. “It made it Greater California than the sum of its parts.”

On a more serious note, with a couple of members getting set to move away from Long Beach, this is a transitional time for Greater California, with an uncertain future—fitting, say Prine and gauer, considering the calendrical timing of this years choir event.

“This is happening on the 22nd,” gauer says, referring to the event’s taking place on the first day after the Mayan doomsday or era transition (depending on who you ask), “so we really want to make it a celebration of, like, ‘Alright, we made it.'”

“We have so many things that feel unresolved,” says Prine, “so this will bring some feeling of resolution.”

But the pair come back to the sentiment that Saturday’s celebration is not about Greater California or the Holiday Folk Choir, but about community.

“Our invitation to everyone is to bring your singing voice,” says Prine. “We want it to be a roomful of voices.”

The Greater California Holiday Folk Choir[1] performs December 22, 2012, at 4th Street Vine (2142 E. 4th St., LB 90814) at approximately 9:45PM, although live music by California Lions and Bushmill Bros., along with DJ Donahue Dreidel spinning obscure ’60s holiday gems, begins at 8PM. Admission: FREE, but 21+ only, please.