Hot Stove Cool Music Benefit Concert Celebrates 10 Years In Chicago With Mavis Staples

As live events continue to return following a forced layoff amidst pandemic, the Hot Stove Cool Music benefit concert series is set to celebrate its 10th anniversary Friday night in Chicago.

Following recent online engagements, Friday’s slate at intimate Chicago club Metro marks the first in person installment since 2019, a diverse bill featuring a special performance by legendary R&B/Gospel singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples as well as performances by 90s alt rock singer songwriter Juliana Hatfield, indie rocker Ted Leo, Scott Lucas of Chicago alternative duo Local H, alt stalwart Kay Hanley of Letters To Cleo, New York Yankee outfielder turned guitarist Bernie Williams and many more, with VIP packages available.

What began in Boston in 2000 expanded to Chicago 12 years later following the hire of Theo Epstein by the Chicago Cubs as president of baseball operations. While Epstein has moved on to a position as an executive with Major League Baseball, the concert lives on as a Chicago summer fixture, bringing together the worlds of baseball and music.

“Well, as somebody who participates in a variety of charity events and organizations, this one is really just pure fun. Because it’s really all about live music,” said Hot Stove Chicago co-emcee Lin Brehmer, an on-air host of nearly 40 years at Chicago adult alternative station WXRT. “The thing that sticks with me over the years, is that rather than center it around one large charity that they raise money for, it’s always centered around smaller community charities – a lot of them for underserved neighborhoods – and also for pretty cool music not-for-profits like the Chicago Children’s Choir. To support that group [through Hot Stove] and then see them become the background singers for Pete Townshend’s ‘Quadrophenia’ performance [in 2017] at the Rosemont Theater was pretty cool. And they’ll be there [Friday night] and they’ll play,” he said.

The benefits of music at a young age are well-documented, enhancing cognitive skills while exposing kids to ideas like collaboration.

While it’s frequently a quick cut from the American curriculum today, for Boston musician Juliana Hatfield, who had music in the classroom at an early age, attended the Berklee College of Music and studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2012, the early gains thanks to music, art and sports were massive.

“Art, music and sports are all really important to children and adolescents. They were all really crucial and interconnected for me. I had access to all of these things while I was in school and I made use of all of them. And I really feel like without them, I would’ve been completely lost,” she said. “I was a very shy adolescent. I didn’t really know how to communicate. But I was able to be with my peers while playing music or sports or in art classes. And I think it’s a tragedy when those things are taken away from kids. Because there are kids who have no place to go or their home environment is bad. So having a place to go to play music or draw or kick a soccer ball around, that’s crucial. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I think it’s tragic,” said Hatfield.

“Music literally saved my life I think. I always had that in school. I was in choirs and I learned how to play violin in elementary school. And recorder. Everyone had to try. But it’s not just about the recorder or the violin, it’s a way of opening your mind up to possibilities when you’re young. And also your body – your fingers and your brain. There’s a lot of math involved in music. So all of these parts of your body and brain are opening up when you’re learning it,” Hatfield explained.

Since 2000, the Boston and Chicago events have raised nearly $14 million for the Foundation To Be Named Later and the Gammons Scholars.

Co-founded by Theo Epstein and his brother Paul Epstein, a social worker in Massachusetts, the Foundation To Be Named Later is a charitable organization which raises funds for nonprofits working to assist urban youth, seeing through the distribution of all funds raised to ensure a maximum impact is made at the local level in both Boston and Chicago.

Established by longtime baseball writer, MLB Network personality and guitarist Peter Gammons, the concerts have helped offer tuition grants and mentorship to over 225 students across more than two decades.

With reports that millions of American children may have never logged in for online learning amidst the quarantine of early pandemic, the Gammons Scholars have taken on increased importance and will be a centerpiece of this year’s events.

Growing up on Chicago’s south side, Staples had music in her life at an early age too, in her home, at church and alongside her father and siblings as part of The Staple Singers, who marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and tallied a #1 single in 1972 with “I’ll Take You There.”

Growing up on 33rd Street on Chicago’s south side, near artists like Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls, Mavis’ first public performance took place not far away on 48th, where the Staple Singers first sang at her Aunt Katie’s church in 1948.

“We would always be sitting on the floor in a circle rehearsing – and [Aunt Katie] said, ‘You all sound pretty good! I believe I want you all to sing at my church Sunday.’ And we were so happy we’d be singing somewhere other than on the living room floor!” said Staples during a 2020 conversation. “We get to Aunt Katie’s church and the people clapped us back! We didn’t know what an encore meant. We didn’t know that we were supposed to sing again. We had to sing the same song! It was the very first song my father taught us and that was ‘Will the Circle be Unbroken?’ We had to sing that song three times! And Pops said, ‘Shucks, these people like us! We’re going home to learn some more songs!’ And that’s what we did.”

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Staples has experienced a remarkable career rebirth since 2004, reaching a whole new generation of fans through work with artists like Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Ben Harper, M. Ward, Arcade Fire, Hozier and Run The Jewels. Her latest album, Carry Me Home, features performances captured alongside the late Levon Helm (The Band) in 2011.

“Here you have somebody who has been performing for somewhere in the vicinity of 70 years, from the time that she had to stand on phone books in a church to sing with The Staple Singers when they were just a Gospel act,” observed Brehmer, noting the important role she plays in Chicago. “It’s just so important that people go and see her. Especially if they’ve never seen her. She just has so much energy and so much life and so much positive energy towards things that people should have positive energy towards.”

“I’m just going to sit in the audience and sit there slack jawed in awe pretty much. Everybody is super excited that Mavis is gonna be there. Everybody I’ve talked to is just like, ‘Can you believe this?’ And that’s one of the great things about doing it,” said Scott Lucas of Local H. “We had Buddy Guy there [in 2019] and it was just kind of like, ‘Wow!’ Getting to see him at Metro and just watching the way he dealt with the crowd was a real education. And that’s the thing with all of these people, and all of these people from Boston, the education never stops.”

For Hatfield, this weekend’s performances will mark her return to traditional live performance following two years spent off the road amidst pandemic. As live music continues to make its return amidst uncertain times, Staples’ words during that 2020 conversation ring increasingly true.

“When people come to my concerts, I want them to leave there feeling better than they did when they arrived,” she said. “I know people feel down and mishearted but you have to continue to hold onto your faith. Hold onto hope. If we don’t, what do we got?”