‘Tis the season to be whatever works for your holidays, but it is most definitely “the season” as ubiquitous decorating, non-stop shopping and most importantly to us, literal live music permeates the landscape with complete abandon. The aforementioned season, as the song says, only comes once a year so let’s get out and see what there is to hear.
Thursdays give us good tidings of great joy by hosting live music throughout the month. At The Pharmacy Gallery downtown, Max Beckman curates a jazz holiday program with the David McEatheron Trio, including selections from A Charlie Brown Christmas which pretty much takes the Christmas cake for jazz-influenced, seasonal music.
Also downtown, Dumb Records, the intrepid store chockfull of music-related objects, hosts an all-ages, hardcore music concert with Shadow Age, Phantom Pike, Felicity’s Angel, Death and Serenity.
Now we’ve covered jazz and punk, so let’s go for more variations on the music theme when John Drake drops in to Mother Road Diner for bluesy-based tunes-plus, while Elvis Himselvis, myself and Amy Battles hit at It’s All About Wine for holiday songs and more. And since it’s the second Thursday of the month we have Thursday Night Live at Motorheads showcasing local musicians including a stellar group of young songwriters collectively called Whiskey Killers (Stefan Huffman, E.J. Greene, John Greene, Niko Boeker, Elijah Settles, Jason Ramsay and Seager Shymansky), as well as Triple Threat (Julie Nergenah, Jamaica Sellers and Jen Stiltz) covering “funk’n country and 80s rock” with three female lead singers doing three-part harmony and Bruce Combs as special guests for December.
You just might want to hang out at the Danenberger Family Vineyards WineRocks stage for the weekend as the established tribute band venue offers a couple of great shows at the event space near New Berlin. Friday brings us none other than The Nielsen Trust featuring Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick with family members, sons Daxx and Miles, plus Miles’ singer-songwriter wife Kelly Steward and openers Drew Cagle & The Reputation.
On Saturday DFV presents the annual, ever popular – for all the right reasons – Happy Hollowdays show from The Deep Hollow trio of Elizabeth Eckert, Dave Littrell and Micah Walk. Included are all the trimmings of TDH favs and holiday songs, along with a costume contest and a famously fine fun time for all.
Friday night around town delivers lots of goodies including Mattison Avenue at Pole Barn Chic for the cool Yule Ball event featuring local artisans as well as a fundraiser for the Missing Link organization and Second Street Harmony with Albert Capati and Lisa Lowe at The Library Pizza and Sports Bar, our newest venue in town located at one of the oldest places around in the former Crows Mill Pub (Bootleggers, Crows Mill School and Navy Club, respectively, if you want to take the time machine).
Saturday keeps up the entertainment excitement with the Deep Lunar Blue and Friends Holiday Jam at George Rank’s, Craig Russo Latin Jazz Project at Boones and Red Ribbon Revue at Harvest Market Farmhouse Brews to name a few of the many marvelous music performances out there for your enjoyment.
On Sunday, we have plenty more, including Kevin Aldrich’s guitar, song and poetry recital at the Jacksonville Public Library’s Under the Dome program, the Claudey Blue Band (a new rockin’ Tom Hart project) hosting a Toys for Tots and food drive fundraiser at the Curve Inn and Robert Sampson at Trails End in Curran celebrating the release of his new album of original holiday songs, Christmas with Lefty Preacher, now available on most streaming platforms.
Please be sure to peruse our listings for all the other gigs out there.
This article appears in December 11-17, 2025.
