The Jersey Jam 4 MS

SATURDAY ALL DAY 3-7PM JUNE 13th ( NO RAIN DATE NEEDED ) 2009 - THE FIFTH ANNUAL JERSEY JAM FOR MS - A FREE OUTDOOR MUSIC CONCERT FOR THE BENEFIT OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS - PLEASE JOIN US IN THIS GREAT EVENT TO SUPPORT THIS WORTHY CAUSE, THANK YOU AND WE HOPE NEXT YEARS SIXTH ANNUAL SOUTH JERSEY JAM FOR MS IN 2010 WILL BE THE FINAL SUCCESSFUL CELEBRATION FOR FINDING A CURE!

A SPECIAL THANKS

I am sorry that we could not get together after the show on Saturday. I wanted to thank all of you personally for the strong performance. I was so impressed with everyone.

I never worked with a group of musicians and singers so professional, prepared and dedicated to a total team effort. Everyone just walked in and contributed right away

I am really going to miss those rehearsals. I loved listening to you all. Its been a long time since I was so excited about playing and performing. I was indeed privileged to have been on that stage with you.

I owe all of you a great debt of gratitude. Please do not hesitate to ask me to return the great favor that you have done for me.

There is going to be another MS Benefit in September in Audubon (indoors) and I hope we can all get together again.

Hope to see all of you again soon.

Once Again

THANK YOU

David Anderson

The 5^th Annual ‘JERSEYJAM 4 MS’ FREE Charity Concert in the Park was a huge success! Last count – over 3K raised to fight MS!

Despite Mother Nature getting a bit emotional this afternoon, she managed to contain herself just long enough to get the job done. When we arrived at 10am to begin setting up it looked threatening and by 1pm you couldn’t see your hand in front of you through the down pouring rain… when suddenly, about a 2pm break in the clouds, lifting and airing a few handy tarps, a broom for a puddled stage, a lil sunshine and determination was all we needed to revive this almost cancelled outdoor charity concert. Around 2:30pm the decision was made to push ahead when it was noticed that folks began showing up for the show and drying their wet seats in the stands, umbrella in hand. I was standing in the street monitoring the sky when a car pulled up in front of the venue and the driver was helping someone from the backseat into a wheelchair, at this point it was bring it on!

Arsenal Sound patiently waited for the call to be made and were perhaps a bit reluctant because it really didn’t look like we’d get too far. Folks with live Doppler weather forecasts on their cell phones showed storms on the horizon and heading our way. The crew and volunteers sprang right into action and the show started only about fifteen minutes late or so with The Groovement testing the soundcheck perfectly from the first note and got the event off on a righteous foot. More folks were arriving, some were dancing a lil down the aisles to their seats and there was a hopeful feeling in the air. The entire shows schedule was pretty tight to begin with and now all acts were asked to cut a song from their sets to try and make back some of the initial lost time. The audience applauded soundly for The Groovement’s short but neat set and you just knew this day was gonna be good somehow. Kids were already starting to dance in the ground pit up front as the next act (JJ4MS alumni) The Paisley Pickles.

Many of the amazing artists in the wings were also returning veterans of the JJ4MS charity, along with so many new friends joining us this year were the usual unsung heroes, supportive musicians, crew, volunteers and backstage help that have always paid attention to the kind of focus that this kind of event requires. There were even acts on the bill today that got rained out at the end of 08’s JJ4MS 7 hr. festival concert. Bo, Terry, Rusty, Jan, Mara and Tom were ready to go again. Maybe we didn’t have a rainbow but we had Bo Rains, under a gallant umbrella, putting a mystical halt to a lite drizzle and precipitating a gentle sun to come out and meet Terry & Friends sounding brilliant as always together. I really got an awesome sense of the great sound system during their set… perfection.

John Magill had played a benefit show for MS the night before at the coffeehouse, both solo acoustic and with his excellent band The Have Nots, Sonance and Zach Griffin that packed the place and made a few hundred bucks for the charity, he could already do no wrong in our eyes. Both sets, all three really (solo/coffeehouse/supersized) had each the two different venue rockin’right! Seeing him take that stage really got me goin’baby! Great songs with hot guitars and a big beat! He’s also the contact for Tommy Conwell’s drummer Wally. We’ve been doing these type of annual shows for quite a while now (from even before those Manny & the Yunksters days) but never has the vibe been more exciting. I gotta memorable moment while sitting behind the amps, tuning my guitars when Wally introduced Tommy as he arrived, looking every bit the man and made ya feel right off like we were ol’friends. Ray and Dave had been running a pretty tight ship when radio personality Michael Teirson shows up to introduce Tommy, who christens his introduction by breaking a guitar string on his well worn Telecaster causing Michael to un-expectantly tapdance on the mic…perfect again.

With one of the quickest string changes ever made, the fight against MS never hit so hard! Real RocknRoll in it’s truest hotrod guitar form! What an honor to have had him plugged into my lil ol’Boogie Amp, turned up t’10 it’s said. 25 years rockin’Philly! Incredible!!! He’s everything we hoped for and just what we needed! If you weren’t on your feet dancing by now you were surely on the edge of your seat. I’ve witnessed many shows at the dell and this was by far the coolest!!..and he’s doing this for us, everybody’s having a great time and it’s still not raining, right around then Donna said t-shirts and stuff were selling out and the guitar/bike raffle was filling up nicely too. It was too good to be true but at that point we had officially pulled off another successful free outdoor charity concert and the headliner was just gettin’started…there’s Tommy Conwell knockin’em out in the back row!!!

Only the biggest of stars got to have an encore this day, or so it seemed and as the electricity moved off stage and kinda all over backstage, a courageous and confident Carsie Blanton conspicuously stole their hearts with something completely different. The scheduling agreements had Tommy leaving for another show around 6pm and Carsie requesting a later slot so to fit an earlier afternoon gig into her very full calendar. I was a bit concerned for anyone having to follow The Tommy Conwell Band let alone a solo female singer but when I asked her about it, she didn’t care and she was right. Her more intimate sound uniquely held it’s own and danced magically through the air. I heard she had a bunch of CD sales right after her set.

To even think we got this far this day is more than I can now (then) process. While being mesmerized by Carsie, I almost forgot to get ready to get up there next with Dave and the band. We’d been rehearsing this act in our heads longer than the time it took put together this really fine vocal group and players production, mostly the keen vision of the musical director, Dave Anderson. Just as I get backstage and reach for my gear, our drummer John asks me where the rest of the drum kit was (be prepared, I said) which sent me scramblin’moments before we’re to start playing. John solved the dilemma by using a folding chair for a drum stool and only using the hi-hats for cymbal crashes but ended up looking pretty sheik and classic without all those usual cymbals all over and during the set I didn’t even notice they were missing (except he looked particularly cool). Thankfully the tone from an ol’Bassman Ten amp never fails because I didn’t get no soundcheck. Fumbling with two guitar changes in a tight set can be tricky but I figured the electric 12 string was worth it. I had just bought a level boosting pedal to use for this one 8 bar 12 string solo part but in the heat of the moment, I couldn’t find the button on stage in time for the solo to begin and was miraculously saved by one of the Arsenal guys, Al or Jeff at the mixing board by punching up the solo immediately and helping me keep that moment alive, thanks men. Natalie’s lead vocals were superb as advertised, I warned her that I’d be over to share the mic at some point. Dave and Benita were hotter than a volcano together and Stylin’Steve was so tasty and had the nicest shirt!

Everyone in this band worked damn hard, rose to the occasion and had a great time with each other. Tom Harwell’s like standing on a rock, the secret weapons were Maria Panvini and Kate Quinn and we never got to get to their solo singing parts but know they were integral voices in the harmonies, Brian’s tone was huge and Mark & Edie were the cornerstones we were balanced upon. We were so into the moment, the very folks that cut a song from everyone else didn’t know when to stop. We likely played two songs too many but the last two were a medley and destined to be heard, we could hardly contain them at rehearsals and couldn’t keep them to ourselves either. You Can’t Sit Down was the only way to end the day! I got to sing this song I wrote with this wonderful band about giving lil comfort t’your neighbor before the finale when the guitar raffle ticket was drawn and in an ironic random coincidence, for one $10 ticket, our nextdoor neighbor Cody won the Stratocaster!

We can’t believe it! The perfect ending to a challenging day…then the rain just started to fall again. I said too loud that we miraculously got it all in somehow when the soundman reminded me how much water his equipment was sitting in. Packing up went swift and relatively smooth (considering) with the whole crew pitching in. After our sore legs and a bashed up finger or two moving big gear in the pouring rain we were reminded that there’s always just one more thing t’do before ya can say it’s done, indeed! No headliner goes around in the rain cleaning up trash after a big concert and when you’re doing it with such a dedicated group of volunteers it becomes an honored privilege no matter who ya think ya are as the cold rain reminds us of our service. My hat’s off to the stars, the underground and all you in-between.

We made a real difference with this gift of song we’ve been given, between John’s pre-benefit show, the food concession, our son-in-law’s awesome wishing well, t-shirt & merch sales, the bike and especially the guitar raffle we raised over 3K for The National MS Society, that’s almost equal to the last two years combined even after all this years extra expenses and if the weather had cooperated better there may have been double the amount of people attending…outstanding!

As you might know there’s a second sore leg to this quick yearly journey with another 4 hour Sept.19^th scheduled date at the Auction House in Audubon NJ for the 1^st annual JJ4MS Part 2 Indoor Charity Concert. A repeat performance of sorts (7-11pm) meant to included more of our musical friends looking to help the cause, we hope everyone can make it and we’ll want to have anyone involved who’d like to perform, crew or volunteer. Everyone doesn’t hafta get up on a stage to support a worthy cause but the stage is supported by everyone. We encourage our musician friends to group together in bands however they can (if possible) and cover each others material in 25 minute sets so more players can be included at the event as on-stage performers. There’ll likely be 8 half hour slots. It’s most humbling when you see such impressive entertainers listening in the seats and showing their support…this show’s for you.