The first one was a reunion at a club called 45 Cherry, December 22, 1988 - a few hometown musicians, a half-empty room, no particular plan. Thirty-five years later Dave Grohl is on stage at the U.S. Cellular Center performing his solo instrumental album *Play* in front of a sold-out Asheville crowd while Eric Church and Joe Bonamassa wait in the wings. Warren Haynes, the Asheville-born Allman Brothers and Gov't Mule guitarist who started the whole thing, is somewhere backstage making sure the night runs late enough. It always runs late. The Warren Haynes Christmas Jam is a tradition now, and Habitat for Humanity has more than 50 houses to show for it.
Haynes grew up in Asheville, learned to play in the Western North Carolina bar circuit, and joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1989 just as the Christmas Jam was getting started. The early years were small - the Thomas Wolf Auditorium, Be Here Now, the kind of venues a Grammy-winning guitarist could fill on hometown affection alone. Then the lineups started getting strange. Gregg Allman came down. Then John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. Then Dave Matthews. Then Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, The Doobie Brothers, Steve Miller. The show moved to the Asheville Civic Center, later renamed the U.S. Cellular Center, and started selling out in hours. By the 20th anniversary in 2008 it had grown into a two-night marathon - Friday and Saturday, two completely different bills, twelve hours of music.
Haynes settled on Habitat for Humanity as the primary beneficiary in the late 1980s, after a few years of cycling through Vietnam veterans' charities, AIDS organizations, and homeless relief groups. The choice stuck. More than 50 energy-efficient Habitat houses have been built with Christmas Jam money, with the Jam raising nearly $3 million for Asheville Area Habitat over its lifetime. The Jam has handed over single donations of half a million dollars at a time - among the largest contributions Asheville Area Habitat has ever received. A volunteer event called "Before the Jam, Lend a Hand" runs in the days before the concert, putting fans on construction sites alongside Habitat regulars. The musicians get the encore. The neighborhoods get the houses.
The 2008 lineup, for the 20th anniversary, was a kind of greatest-hits exhibition of American rock: The Allman Brothers Band, John Paul Jones, the Derek Trucks Band, Ben Harper, Steve Earle, Johnny Winter, Travis Tritt, Joan Osborne. The 2013 silver anniversary brought Gregg Allman, Widespread Panic, the Phil Lesh Quintet, Keb' Mo'. The 2016 show featured Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, Michael McDonald of the Doobies, Alison Krauss, and a Last Waltz Band recreation. The 2018 edition included Dave Grohl performing his solo instrumental *Play* live, plus Eric Church, Grace Potter, Joe Bonamassa, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket. The setlists run past 1 a.m. Songs get covered, traded, mangled, and rebuilt. The crowd never leaves.
The main event is only part of it. "Xmas Jam by Day" spreads across Asheville's smaller venues in the daylight hours - The Orange Peel, Salvage Station, neighborhood bars and listening rooms - featuring collaborations between visiting headliners and Asheville's deep local talent pool. An annual art show hangs concert posters and music photography. The whole weekend turns into a slow-rolling festival, with musicians wandering from stage to stage and fans crossing town between sets. For Asheville - a city that has cultivated a music-scene identity rivaling Nashville's per capita - the Jam is part proof of concept and part homecoming.
What's striking about the Christmas Jam isn't just the lineup or the longevity. It's how rooted it is. Haynes could have moved this thing to Atlanta or New York and tripled the gate. He didn't. The show stays at the U.S. Cellular Center, at 87 Haywood Street, half a mile from where he learned to play guitar. The houses Habitat builds are in Buncombe County. The volunteers come from the neighborhoods. A musician who toured with the Allman Brothers and Phil Lesh and Bob Weir - who could legitimately call any major American city home - decided that Asheville in December was where he wanted to keep showing up. Forty years in, the math still works.
Coordinates 35.5973° N, 82.5555° W, downtown Asheville at the U.S. Cellular Center on Haywood Street. Nearest airport is Asheville Regional (KAVL) about 10 nm south; Hickory Regional (KHKY) about 65 nm east, Greenville-Spartanburg (KGSP) about 55 nm south. Best overflight on cool, clear December evenings - the arena is in the dense downtown grid south of I-240 and east of the French Broad. Recommended altitude 3,500-5,000 ft AGL.