Soulshine Rising: Stefani Scamardo on the Origins of the Benefit Concert and Future Plans for Christmas Jam

Just days prior to the official announcement of Christmas Jam 33, Hurricane Helene laid waste to portions of Asheville, NC where the benefit has taken place for over three decades. Warren Haynes, an Asheville native, has spearheaded the event since year one, which directs funds to Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and BeLoved Asheville.

Due to the devastation wrought by the hurricane, Christmas Jam was forced to postpone until 2025. In its stead a special fundraising concert will take place this Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Soulshine will feature music from Warren Haynes Band, Dave Matthews Band, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and Goose, with special guests Trey Anastasio, Mavis Staples, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Robert Randolph, Trombone Shorty and Joe Russo. Although the show is sold out, a livestream will be offered, starting Sunday at 7pm ET.

Stefani Scarmardo, the founder of Hard Head Management and Evil Teen records, has long served as a producer of Christmas Jam and led the charge to create Soulshine. Scarmardo has managed Gov’t Mule for well over 20 years and was a longtime host on SiriusXM’s Jam On. She is also married to Haynes, which has long linked her to Asheville. As for the future of Christmas Jam, she affirms, “We want to get back there. It’s like a magnet pulling at us.” In the interim, she pledges that Soulshine “is going to be special. We’re going to put a lot of music into this one night, with a lot of surprise collaborations and breakdowns.”

At what point did you realize that Christmas Jam wouldn’t be able to take place this year?

It came about really quickly because the first few days after the hurricane hit we were in a pretty dire mode. There was no phone service at first, so we hadn’t heard from Warren’s family or his good friends down there, and it was a little scary. We knew they didn’t have water. We knew people’s houses were flooding.

So during those first few days it was really just reaching out. We were working with the same charity that we work with for Christmas Jam, BeLoved Asheville. We were speaking with them and working on getting donations to them, getting the word out about them to other bands and other management companies because we knew BeLoved was doing real work on the ground and helping people. We would be talking to them and they were like, “Yeah, there are these elderly people who live in a trailer park up on this mountain. They can’t get down. They don’t have food. We’ve got to get to them.” It was really intense.

After that first weekend, we were also talking to people from the city. Christmas Jam takes place in the Civic Center, which is a municipal building. So they’re all city of Asheville employees, and had a lot of insight as to what was going on within Asheville. It very quickly turned into search and rescue. A lot of that was headquartered out of the Civic Center.

After that first weekend we kind of knew. That was the week were going to announce but the conditions were still so bad and they were in the midst of it. It was a big decision to pivot but Warren and I were both focused on “How do we get as much help down there as possible?” Roads were closed and there was no access. So we were really focused on getting funds to the right places to be able to help the people who needed help.

What led you to Madison Square Garden?

We realized really quickly that it was going to take a lot of money to fix what was happening. There’s a huge area that’s been afflicted by the hurricane. So we started focusing on “How do we get the more funds?”

That’s when we thought that while Warren’s from Asheville and we do consider that home in a way, we live in New York. It also seemed like New York was the place where we could make a dent. So we began thinking about the biggest place we could go in the city.

Our favorite room is the Garden. We’re big Knicks and Rangers fans. We love going to shows there. We did the last Brothers show there. That and the Beacon are our spots. So we were kind of focused in on the Garden because we love that room so much. It’s right in the heart of New York City, everybody loves the Garden and it’s high profile. We could bring a lot of attention to the cause and raise some money.

Then we thought, “Let’s bring in a couple of our friends and do it together to make it as big as possible.” One of my very best friends, Pete Shapiro seemed obvious. It’s always great to work with him on a project. We’re so close that it’s really natural.

Then, one of our oldest friends in the music business is Coran Capshaw. We love him and we consult with Coran all the time. He’s so smart and we thought he’d make a great partner. At the time, we weren’t thinking about Dave Matthews at the Garden or anything like that. It was more about the people that we wanted to try to do this with. So Peter and Coran were in and we were like, “Let’s have a great charity concert.”

Then we started working with the Garden, finding the open days and talking to talent. The talent was so unbelievable. The few people that we reached out to were immediately on board. It was really amazing.

I’m so proud to say all these guys are such close friends and wonderful people. It’s kind of a cream of the crop of talent, but they’re also great people, every one of them. So the lineup happened organically because as we talked to these people, they said yes, and really quickly we felt like we had a big show.

The final piece was the Dave Matthews Band—being able to build on them already living in the venue for a couple nights made it kind of easy for us to slide in there.

We’re doing everything possible to find every financial benefit we can to save money. It’s an expensive room but we’ve been able to do with the help of Dave and the Garden itself and Live Nation—they’ve all been so helpful to maximize everything about the room and the event.

It’s also been great working with the Red Light team headed up by Ann Kingston.  Ann is not only an amazing person but really good at what she does. She’s been instrumental to the show in every way. 

We’ve also had some amazing donors come in, like the city of Asheville with their Explore Asheville Marketing Fund, which was great. There are many others as well, who continue to make commitments (including Hilton, NetJets and Newrez which has pledged $500,000 to aid the recovery and rebuilding efforts.)

A lot of Dave Matthews camp is from the western coast of Florida that got really affected—down in Sarasota and Bradenton. So I think it’s great that the show’s going to benefit both Western Carolina and that part of Florida.

You initially became connected to Asheville through Warren and then Christmas Jam. Can you talk about your perspective on that area over the years?

Asheville is one of the coolest towns in the country. The amount of beautiful growth that place has had in the last 20, 30 years is just really off the charts unbelievable. It’s been so progressive, it’s been leading the way in a lot of respects. It’s a mindset and a real haven in North Carolina.

The evolution to me has been so intense. I’m not going to say it was a sleepy town, but when I started going out with Warren Hayes in 1989, it wasn’t a tourist-based town. Now people want to go there and spend a weekend. They want to get married there. It’s absolutely gorgeous.

There are so many small businesses from retail to restaurants. It’s a restaurant town. It’s microbrew city in the country. It’s a barbecue town. It’s got so much going on that did not even exist in 1989.

One of the beautiful things about Asheville is that it’s able to grow, and it’s been able to still maintain that charm that it has. The downtown has all this charm with these mom and pop retail stores.

In recent years, the River Arts District has been developed, and that’s where all the cool micro brews are. That’s where Warren’s brother owns a record store, Records in the RAD. It’s such a beautiful, amazing part of town and so creative. There’s so much going on there.  

Unfortunately, that part of town has been really devastated. We need that back and we need it back as soon as possible. I know that Warren’s family is rebuilding their record store right now, trying to get it open for Black Friday. It’s been hard to get supplies there and nobody has flood insurance, especially in the mountains.

The thing that breaks my heart is I know that Christmas Jam is a big weekend for all those retailers. We bring a lot of people from out of town, and we’re there for a few days having events. We do all this fun stuff, and it’s great for the local economy.

I wish we could be there this year but we’ll definitely be there for Christmas Jam next year. We’re also talking with our team, so that hopefully Warren and/or Mule, will be able to do something really cool and fun there ahead of next Christmas. We want to get ourselves back and be a part of what’s happening but you have to go when it’s the right time and it’s safe and all that. I don’t think the Civic Center’s even open for business for a little bit, but we’re pretty stoked to try to get back there as soon as possible.

Jumping back to NYC and Soulshine, what can you say about what folks can expect on a musical level?

I think there will be some special moments in terms of collaborative efforts. All those friends coming together like Derek, Susan, Warren, Trey and Dave, that doesn’t happen every day.  Everybody’s making a real effort to get to New York City and be a part of it.

We’re trying to make it a revolving show where there’s no dead time. So I think that in doing that, you’ll see some special never-before-done things.

This isn’t one of those shows that happens every year. This is people making the time to come in because they want to support this cause, be with their friends and play with their friends.