Warren Haynes presents: Christmas Jam 2022
Katie Jacoby and Scott Metzger had just finalized plans for a short run of shows in the South when they got a message.
“We released our tour schedule for early December, and then Warren [Haynes] reached out to Scott and said, ‘Hey, we saw you’re playin in Asheville on Dec. 10, and you don't want to be playing in Asheville on that night’ — because I guess they had plans for Christmas Jam, but it hadn't been announced yet,” Jacoby says.
“And so an invitation was extended to both of us to join, and we could not be more excited — and also relieved that we're not going against Christmas Jam.”
Closing out a year that’s seen her play alongside The Who and Bruce Springsteen, the New York City-based violinist and singer/songwriter and her guitarist husband are part of a lineup that also includes Phil Lesh & Friends (feat. Haynes, John Scofield, Rob Barraco, and John Molo), Tyler Childers, Gov’t Mule, Brothers Osborne, Dinosaur Jr., Audley Freed, Mike Barnes, a solo set from Hiss Golden Messenger, and more.
It’s the 31st edition of the Jam, a benefit show for the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and BeLoved Asheville, and the first since a memorable two-night run in 2018 that, thanks to a snowstorm that halted travel plans, also included a pop-up show that Sunday night at The Orange Peel by Gov’t Mule and Dave Grohl.
"I wanted to take a break after 30, but just for one year to regroup, kind of reassess and maybe reinvent it a little bit,” Haynes says. “But I never wanted to step away from it and stop doing it. It's a wonderful opportunity. I really enjoy it and look forward to it every year.”
In 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed plans to bring back the Christmas Jam. Though the 2021 iteration nearly occurred, Haynes made the difficult decision to nix it that August as the prospect of getting people sick at a charity event proved too daunting.
“Last year I thought it was actually going to happen, and then we wound up having to cancel everything later in the year,” he says. “Gov’t Mule canceled our Beacon [Theatre] shows that we do at the end of the year for New Year’s. It's been really frustrating not being able to bring it back, you know? But it looks like we're finally there.”
Haynes starts making calls around April to begin putting a potential line-up together. But due to constantly shifting schedules, he says that this year’s collection of artists doesn’t necessary overlap with those he had in mind for the two canceled events.
“My relationship with Tyler Childers and the Brothers Osborne is fairly new. We only started working together in the last few years — I'm always looking to include people that have not been part of it in the past so we're not just relying on people who have done previous Christmas Jams,” Haynes says.
“But I always as well look forward to the people that have been so supportive through the years. Phil Lesh has done it so many times, and I'm extremely grateful. But it's nice to just keep the lineup expanding all the time, if possible.”
Other first-time recruits include rockers Dinosaur Jr., longtime friends of Haynes whom he feels “really round out the picture” of the Jam. And Durham-based artist Mike “MC” Taylor, aka Hiss Golden Messenger, whom Haynes hopes will return at a future Jam with his full band.
“The important part for me is it just to be music made by like-minded people — people that share the same kind of vibes and spirit,” Haynes says. “And I think it's really important that it be diverse because it's such a long show that to do too much of the same thing would be quite redundant. The Christmas Jam audience is mostly made up of people who take music very seriously, even though their taste in music may vary drastically from person to person.”
However, such diversity is noticeably lacking on the representation front. A jaw injury forced Beth Hart to drop out of the event, leaving Jacoby as the lone female artist on the lineup. Though Haynes is understandably coy about whether any surprise special guests — Susan Tedeschi? Grace Potter? Sheryl Crow? — might raise the amount of women on the stage, he agrees that the current number isn’t ideal.
“That's always been a concern. Especially the last 10 years or so, it's been more and more on our radar, so to speak,” he says. “We just haven't been as successful as making it happen as we would like.”
Perhaps best known for playing violin on “Baba O’Riley” while on tour with The Who, Jacoby may very well lend her instrumental prowess to sets throughout the night. She’s excited to reunite with Lesh, with whom she played at the Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco this August, and see Dinosaur Jr. for the first time.
The trip will also be Jacoby’s first to Asheville, though she’s a self-described “massive Thomas Wolfe fan” and hopes to make time to visit the “Old Kentucky Home” and maybe even the author’s grave at Riverside Cemetery. But at a time when housing security feels increasingly dire, the opportunity to help raise funds for two critically important local nonprofits remains at the forefront of her mind.
“It's an immense honor,” Jacoby says. “And just the fact that people can gather again after all of the pandemic shutdowns, I think it'll be really beautiful that we're all together and that everyone's coming together to support this incredible cause.”
IF YOU GO
Who: Warren Haynes presents: Christmas Jam
When: Saturday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m.
Where: Harrah’s Cherokee Center — Asheville, 87 Haywood St., harrahscherokeecenterasheville.com
Tickets: Sold out; 4K livestream, $30, xmasjam.volume.com
(Jacoby photo by Orel Chollette; Gov’t Mule photo by Jay Sansone)
