Blue Christmas Concert highlights Heartland musicians

CARBONDALE, Ill. (KFVS) - Can a blue Christmas be a good thing? In the case of a fan-favorite music event returning to southern Illinois, it can.

The annual Blue Christmas Concert is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, December 14 at the Varsity Center in Carbondale.

People can come out to the Big Room to hear live music by artists from throughout the region.

The bar opens at 6 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance, or $25 at the door. Get them online by clicking here.

Performers include the following:

• New Arts Jazztet
• Union County Sal
• The Gordons
• Shad Cobb
• Mel Goot
• The Ivas John Band
• Dennis Stroughmatt
• Mark Stoffel
• Taylor Steele
• Smith and Hill

Ahead of the concert, Ivas John and Mark Stoffel appeared on Heartland Afternoon to perform the original song, “Christmas Ain’t Christmas.”

It’s the 14th year for the show, an effort originally started by John to bring together local talent.

“It started pretty humbly, really. The idea behind it was just to organize a few of my favorite musicians that I was playing music with at the time, and bring them together and put on a show for the fans. Never thought that it would grow into the heritage kind of event that it has turned into now after so many years.”

The popular event has a home in Carbondale’s historic Varsity Center, recently restored with help from the city and the State of Illinois.

Nathan Colombo, a Varsity Center board member, said Blue Christmas draws crowds of hundreds, completely filling the Big Room’s 500 seats in previous years.

“This will be the first big, full-fledged concert that we throw with all of our HVAC, sound and lighting, and all the bells and whistles in the room lending very well to the fantastic Blue Christmas show that Ivas and crew put on.”

John said planning for the production starts the day after the previous show. “Each year, I tell myself I’m not doing it again, that it’s just too much work, but then I get all the feedback from the people who came and they said how much it means to them, and then there’s just no doubt that it has to happen again.”

The concert combines a multitude of music styles, from jazz, to folk, to singer/songwriter and more.

“I love the idea of putting on a show like this, where you can get so many great musicians all in the same place at the same time,” John said.

For more details, visit the Varsity Center’s Facebook page.