Christmas Comes Alive at the Center for the Arts of Homer on December 4th

Mike Eves: [00:00:00] Good morning. It’s Mike Eves right here on X 1 0 1. Always classic. Joining me in the studio CV Abdallah. CV Welcome. And, you’ve been putting together a pretty awesome, called Christmas Live in 25, and it’s going to be a fundraiser as well, happening at the Center for the Arts. CV, let’s get into it.

Why did you first of all, why did you think we needed to have a great show? Wait folks. Wait till you hear some of the, the people coming back for the show. It’s a, who’s who of some of our local musicians, but, CV, I want to welcome you into the studio this morning.

CV Abdallah: Thank you, Mike. This is the whole Christmas music.

Concert has been in, something in back of my mind for years. And, is an old band. Used to say to me, sometimes life gets in the way and seemed every holiday would creep up, and I’d go, I missed it. Last year, around this time, I was having lunch with a couple of my old musical buddies who were on the show with me.

I mentioned it and they were man, let’s do it. So now. My feet were to the fire and I had to pull up together. And, thankfully I was able to get the musicians I wanted out of the Syracuse area.

But [00:01:00] I knew if I was going to, and I was talking with Danny McNeil who’s a good buddy of mine.

He said, you gotta have it at the center of the arts. I was wow, that’d be perfect.

Mike Eves: But then

CV Abdallah: I realized, I got Syracuse musicians and people from Syracuse know them, but not a lot of people from around here.

And there’s always been such a great music community around here.

I was I gotta grab some people. Here as well. And have one big show for the whole CNY area.

Mike Eves: I love it. And I love the name Christmas Live in 25. Let’s talk about some of those bands coming. Mention what day we got coming up here.

CV Abdallah: Be Thursday the fourth. Next Thursday the first Thursday in December. Show at six 30 at the, center of the Arts. Stress the importance proceeds for this is for CNY food bank we were doing a little research and we we realized that.

The counties around Central New York are some of the poorest counties in the country. And this was even before all the stuff that’s happened over the last few months. We wanted to do it that, back then we wanted to do it for the food bank, but even now it’s so much more important

for the holidays that we [00:02:00] succeed with this for that. And to me, it’s a great way to kick off the Christmas season, I love Christmas. I know a lot of people do, and having it right off after Thanksgiving, which is a perfect timing

Mike Eves: for us. That’s right. Tickets are available at the Center’s Box office and at the Center website, which is Center for Art, the number four art, dot org cv.

Great. The CNY food bank, they do so much, know what’s going on awesome. Right before the holidays when people especially, need it this year. Let’s get into some of the, musicians let’s hear about a little bit of this lineup.

CV Abdallah: From here in the Courtland area. Ted Walsh I went to high school with, and Mike Starr I grew up with. And I went to those two. And Ted’s have he and his daughter mad, mad Daddy. They’re open a show.

They’re, people who don’t know who they are. They’re more Americana folk. Style of music. Michael Starrs put a bunch of local musicians together. Dan Austin, Kyle Hollowell, Harry Norton. I’m familiar with some of those guys. Stephen Samantha Daniels. And, and they’ll be playing, what I would define as more maybe radio Christmas songs.

Some of all your [00:03:00] favorites and sing-alongs and then my group, which is Rebels Without a C Clause. Catch the play on words if you can. I’ve got musicians from the Syracuse area. Most notable Edgar Pagan plays in a bunch of different, projects. He has his original band group of Pagan.

He and I have played together over the, since forever, over the years in several projects. Christopher Ames, who, has the Christopher Ames Band, he’s been a big part of. Beatle cues. He’s, he and I have worked together. And then, Bob Carer who, and he and I were in a Springsteen tribute band.

Full of God. And, is Joel Herbert and his wife Danny Rocco. Danny was one of the lead singers in the contemporary Christian group. I almost said Abba. They’re a lot Abba Avalon. And they had several, national records out.

Mike Eves: That’s a very rarely rare, very impressive.

CV Abdallah: And we’ll be doing, we’ll be doing traditional Christmas songs, but in very. Current arrangements. It’s all electric, it’s all

Mike Eves: rock

CV Abdallah: and

Mike Eves: A little bit of flare, if you will. Plugged into that as well with me, this morning. CV Abdu, he’s one of the organizers.

Christmas Live in 25. It’s [00:04:00] coming up at the center, next Thursday. That is Thursday the fourth in tickets are what, 10?

CV Abdallah: They’re $10. $10. Stress to people, you can bring non-perishables to the show. We will gladly take them to the food banks. We’ll make sure that they get those.

And ’cause at the time, we we wanted to have a show. We didn’t realize the need was going to be as great as it’s become. We want people to do that. And I would also. Talking to Ty, who is the director at the center. He’s got,

A mailing list of 15 or 1800.

We’ve been promoting it in Syracuse crazy. We were on Bridge Street. Oh we Bridge Street too. Nice. Yep. You’re hitting all the stops. Awesome. And my, my concern right now is, it would be great to sell it out.

I would encourage people. If you’re thinking about going, go online, get the ticket.

Hey, if you make, you can’t make it that night for whatever reason. You donated $10 to the food bank. Exactly. It, it’s good. So didn’t lose anything.

Mike Eves: It’s a good cause. And what a way to kick off the Christmas season there’s nothing better than seeing live music then Christmas songs.

Everybody knows. Yep. It’s exciting to hear. You guys are going to put some nice spins on them too. Cv we’re [00:05:00] almost outta time this morning. What else do you want to say? Of course, all the proceeds are going to the CNYF. Food bank. But anything else you want to say before we wrap it up here?

The only

CV Abdallah: thing I want, I want to thank I’ve I, we were able to grab four sponsors to help us with this show. Nice. Mick Neal. Insurance is a, is a huge player in all this. Danny has helped me make this happen. They’ve been such a

Mike Eves: long time supporter. Of music with, obviously we’re going back to McNeil music

him and his brother, they’re great.

CV Abdallah: McNeil Insurance, Stanley Steamer, Han Welding. And then, Mercedes, salon and day spa all up in Syracuse. Nice. But they’re all central New York and they, they also are helping sponsor the show. I want to give a, a, a nice shout out to them because That’s awesome.

They’ve been very helpful with us.

Mike Eves: Yeah. Yeah. No, without the sponsors, none of it would be possible and it’s awesome. We’re talking Christmas Alive here in 25 cv. What an awesome, conversation. We could go probably, all morning with this, but we’re out of time, but we’re talking Christmas Live in 25 and it’s coming up.

On, six 30 next Thursday. That would be December 4th. It’s coming up fast. Fast, yeah. And all proceeds benefiting the [00:06:00] CNY food pantry, cv. Anything else you say? One, one last quick word here.

CV Abdallah: No. Have a Merry Christmas if you can’t make it. If you can, you’re enjoy the show.

I try to figure out a, a, a catchy name for next year. ’cause I would like this to be an annual event. Yeah. I like it. Yeah, no, I and s live in 26 doesn’t go well, but yeah. No. We’ll, we, we got a little bit of

Mike Eves: time. Hey C, thanks for joining us here this morning. Thank Appreciate it on X 1 0 1.

Always classic. I’m Mike Eves.