“Thank you for coming to Warren’s Christmas Jam in New York City,” Dave Matthews said from the Madison Square Garden stage on Sunday as Warren Haynes, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Goose, Trey Anastasio, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Trombone Shorty, Robert Randolph, and more took their bows after an all-hands take on The Beatles’ “Come Together” brought SOULSHINE: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief and Recovery to a close.
Dave Matthews Band w/ SOULSHINE Performers (All) – “Come Together” (The Beatles) – 11/24/24
[Video: Jude Perfect]
This summit of some of the biggest names in the jam band scene and beyond hadn’t quite been “Christmas Jam,” Haynes’ annual blowout in Asheville, NC, but it certainly channeled the ethos of the long-running benefit concert, from its eye-popping lineup to its focus on the power of community.
For three decades, Haynes, an Asheville native, has used his annual Christmas Jam to bring the best and brightest musicians to his hometown and raise money for those in his community who need help via organizations like Habitat For Humanity and BeLoved Asheville. But this year, in the wake of the devastating Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the Asheville community as a whole (and scores of other areas in the Southeast) were in unprecedented need of assistance.
Back in September, days before Haynes and his team were set to announce the 2025 edition of Christmas Jam, Helene hit Asheville, causing extensive damage to the city and its infrastructure. Countless people were left without access to food, water, electricity, and other necessities, and more than 100 lost their lives. Christmas Jam’s typical venue, ExploreAsheville.com Arena, canceled its remaining 2024 concerts and events and largely pivoted to disaster relief operations. As much as Asheville ached for its annual celebration of community in 2024, a 2024 Christmas Jam in Asheville was simply not in the cards. That ache only grew when Hurricane Milton brought a new wave of destruction to Florida’s Gulf Coast two weeks later.
Rather than accepting the loss of Christmas Jam 2024, however, Haynes got to work planning what would become Sunday’s SOULSHINE: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief and Recovery in New York City. Produced by Dayglo Presents in conjunction with Live Nation, the sold-out event raised funds for a variety of non-profits working on the ground in North Carolina and Florida to aid in the affected areas’ long roads to recovery.
Haynes’ big blowout at MSG may not have been a proper “Christmas Jam”—that’s a name reserved for Asheville, one that will hopefully make a triumphant return in ’25—but SOULSHINE never lost sight of the storied musical lineage of the event it emulated nor the region around which it rallied, making for a multitude of moving moments over more than four-and-a-half hours in the Big Apple.
Below, check out a rundown of some of our favorite moments from SOULSHINE: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief and Recovery. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to view a full setlist and revisit the complete concert livestream.
Dave Matthews & Warren Haynes Play “Soulshine”
Warren Haynes, SOULSHINE‘s auteur, and Dave Matthews, whose band served as its headlining act, got the evening started just after 7 p.m. with an acoustic rendition of the Haynes-penned Allman Brothers Band song that served as the event’s namesake, “Soulshine”, leading the sold-out Garden in a powerful sing-along.
[Video: Michael Weinbaum]
Goose Makes Garden Debut With Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph
Among the many notable subplots at SOULSHINE on Sunday was Connecticut-based quintet Goose‘s debut performance at the World’s Most Famous Arena, which came as the first full-band set of the night. After beginning with “Arcadia”, the band brought out a string of notable guests for original tunes “Give It Time” (with Robert Randolph on pedal steel) and “Hungersite” (with Derek Trucks on guitar) and covers “Baby Don’t You Do It” (Marvin Gaye, in the style of The Band; with Susan Tedeschi on vocals and Derek Trucks on guitar) and “The Way It Is” (Bruce Hornsby, with Dave Matthews on guitar and vocals).
View this post on Instagram
Warren Haynes Band Channels The Allmans, The Dead, & The Big Easy
For what wound up being one of the night’s most exciting sets, the Warren Haynes Band treated the Garden to a track from Warren’s 2011 album (“Man In Motion”, with help from Trombone Shorty); a tune from his newly released WHB album Million Voices Whisper (“This Life As We Know It”, featuring Robert Randolph); the Grateful Dead’s “Shakedown Street” (featuring Joe Russo double-drumming with Terence Higgins); new Derek Trucks collab track (“These Changes” with Trucks reprising his recorded part live); and a fiery, set-closing take on Allman Brothers Band staple “Whipping Post” (with both Trucks and Russo adding to the thundering mix).
Susan & Dave Do John Prine
Tedeschi Trucks Band fans are well aware that Susan Tedeschi packs a powerful emotional punch with her covers of John Prine classic “Angel From Montgomery”. Following Warren Haynes Band’s set, she took the stage with Dave Matthews for a stirring duet that had the Garden crying happy tears and celebrating the fact that they “ain’t done nothin’ since they woke up today.”
[Video: Michael Weinbaum]
Nathaniel Rateliff & Mavis Staples Celebrate “Friendship”
In one of the evening’s most heartwarming moments, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats welcomed 85-year-0ld gospel-soul icon Mavis Staples to join the band on a rendition of “Friendship”, the classic song by Staples’ father, Pops Staples. The burly Rateliff and the small but powerful Staples sported 1,000-watt smiles as they sang together at center stage about the power of camaraderie. In the middle of the song, Rateliff and Staples began to slow dance in a charming show of affection, the younger singer even giving the living legend an endearing spin as she sang. The applause she received as she made her way offstage was among the loudest of the night.
[Video: Kate Wasilowski]
Dave Matthews & Warren Haynes Are In Carolina In Their Minds
In a moment that underscored SOULSHINE‘s layers of significance, Dave Matthews and Warren Haynes connected with two acoustic guitars and two microphones midway through the show for a take on James Taylor’s “Carolina In My Mind” as the Garden sang along. Whether they were thinking of Christmas Jam’s true home or the people of Carolina during their long road to recovery, the song’s “home sweet home” message rang true.
[Video: Michael Weinbaum]
Dave Matthews Wastes Some Time With Trey Anastasio, Shares The Weight With Tedeschi & Rateliff
Old friends and longtime collaborators Dave Matthews and Trey Anastasio (Phish) linked up late in the show for an acoustic duet on Trey’s Phish ballad “Waste”. Anastasio, himself a decorated MSG veteran, wound up sticking around and grabbing his Languedoc as the rest of Dave Matthews Band, Susan Tedeschi, and Nathaniel Rateliff joined in for an appropriate rendition of The Band classic “The Weight”. Later, during the full Dave Matthews Band set that followed, Anastasio returned to the mix for a beautiful, meditative solo on go-to DMB jam vehicle “Lie In Our Graves” that segued smoothly into a “Wonderful Tonight” (Eric Clapton) interlude and back again.
View this post on Instagram
A Sweet Song For Gregg Courtesy Of Dave Matthews, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, & Trey Anastasio
For the penultimate song of the night, Dave Matthews Band got some help from three of the most celebrated electric guitarists in the jam world, Trey Anastasio, Warren Haynes, and Derek Trucks. But rather than using this moment to unleash six-string mayhem, this high-powered ensemble opted for a mellower tribute: A sweet “Melissa”, the signature ballad by Trucks and Haynes’ late Allman Brothers Band cohort Gregg Allman.
View this post on Instagram
Net proceeds from the concert will benefit the SOULSHINE Concert Fund at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, supporting Habitat for Humanity’s 2024 Hurricane Recovery Fund. Among the beneficiaries of the fund are local charities Arts AVL, Habitat Fall Hurricane Fund, Manna Foodbank, Beloved Asheville, Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN, Always Asheville Fund, WNC Tip It Forward, and Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay. Donate directly to the concert fund here.
There’s still time to donate to the cause or purchase SOULSHINE event merchandise here. Revisit an official recap video of the event below. Scroll down to check out a gallery of photos from the all-star benefit show via Marc Millman and view the full setlist from the night via Reddit u/ItsLeoMan.
SOULSHINE: A Benefit For Hurricane Relief & Recovery – Recap Video [Pro-Shot]
Setlist [via Reddit u/ItsLeoMan]: Soulshine: A Benefit For Hurricane Relief and Recovery | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY | 11/24/24
