“I’ll meet you at the WNC,” Warren Haynes ad-libbed during the Grateful Dead‘s “Sugaree” six hours into the 33rd annual Christmas Jam. Mom always said nothing good happens after midnight, but Mom’s never been to Christmas Jam.
Saturday marked the return of the Asheville native Allman Brothers Band/Gov’t Mule/The Dead guitarist’s annual benefit concert at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena. From simple beginnings nearly 40 years ago, a few blocks away at local downtown bars that have changed names and owners many times since, Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam has grown into an all-night party and focal point of the Southeast music calendar.
A benefit for Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and BeLoved Asheville, this marked the first Xmas Jam since Hurricane Helene devastated the region last September, claiming 43 lives in Asheville’s Buncombe County and causing nearly $50 billion in damages across North Carolina. Around this time last year, the downtown arena was still being used as a distribution site for relief materials. Instead of the Jam, Haynes teamed up with Dave Matthews Band to host the star-studded SOULSHINE benefit at Madison Square Garden, raising over $4.5 million to aid hurricane victims in North Carolina and Florida.
But a little over a year later, at the long-awaited 2025 return of the Christmas Jam, there weren’t many overt references to the hurricane and its aftermath. Whether you lived here or trucked in from elsewhere (thank you to those who did), you still saw and felt the remnants.
Instead, this year’s Christmas Jam focused on the gifts we did have.
The seven-hour concert was a celebration of Western North Carolina from the very beginning, starting with a brief set from local folk trio Songbird Holler. The old-timey banjo and acoustic guitar music was a grounded opening to the long evening, and it was only a matter of minutes before Warren Haynes was out for his first of many sit-ins (collaborating with nearly every artist in some way or another).
Alongside him was Grahame Lesh, there to help helm a tribute to his late father, though that was still many hours away. To bring the performance full circle and fire Christmas Jam’s starting gun, Warren and Grahame grabbed acoustic instruments and joined Songbird Holler on “Cold Rain & Snow”, the Dead-covered traditional folk song that Songbird Holler singer Donna Ray Norton says one of her great, great relatives from neighboring Madison County taught to Jerry Garcia. Western North Carolina folk, Grateful Dead, and Warren Haynes, all united onstage in that moment.
Songbird Holler, Warren Haynes, Grahame Lesh — “Cold Rain & Snow” (Traditional) — 12/13/25
[Video: conrad sullivan]
From that opening overture followed Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country. While it’s not quite the Asheville Sessions, the psychedelic twang carries some of the same spirit of that 1925 studio effort that sought to catalog Appalachian folk music, planting AVL’s musical legacy for a century to come. Out of that opening marriage of folk, the Grateful Dead, and Warren Haynes came the offspring of Daniel Donato and his Cosmic Country.
While Donato may be a son of the soil in a literary sense, indie slacker-rock it-kid MJ Lenderman is the region’s progeny in a literal sense. Born and raised in Asheville (attending many Xmas Jams but never playing one until Saturday), Lenderman rose to prominence with local indie-rock outfit Wednesday before exploding into the national consciousness with his 2024 sophomore solo album, Manning Fireworks. If you’re an aging jam band diehard who hasn’t checked in on the indie scene since every band began with a “The” in the early 2000s, take it from Phish’s Trey Anastasio: “I heard this mind-blowingly good MJ Lenderman album [Manning Fireworks]… It’s so good.”
Donning Santa hats, Lenderman and his band, the Wind, delivered on their promise of Christmas songs, though they were more in his listless Prozac alt-country style than that of Bing Crosby. His decision to cover a song about taking LSD on Christmas Eve (“Christmas Steve” by Advance Base) was a much more fitting choice than any of the usual sleighbell shit. Between macrodoses of holiday cheer, Lenderman and the Wind leaned into a style that was like a light beer version of Crazy Horse‘s hard liquor. The second song, “Toontown”, was too folk for doom, too doom for folk, and just enough of everything to win over this previously skeptical writer. 100% sold.
MJ Lenderman & The Wind — “Joker Lips” — 12/13/25
[Video: conrad sullivan]
After a Stone Temple Pilots set that—for brevity’s sake, did not win me over—Warren and MJ joined together on the adjoining side stage. They performed just one song, Vic Chesnutt‘s “Gravity of the Situation”, with Lenderman handling chords and the haunted vocals while Haynes reeled off distant slide guitar. The scene was fit for a Christmas card, and visually personified the past and present of Asheville’s musical identity (both Warren) greeting its future. While Christmas Jam is known for bringing some of the nation’s top talent to our mountain town, much of this year’s haul was locally sourced.
The rest of the evening’s program was filled with a whole lotta Warren. He wrangled Donato, keyboardist Jason Crosby, and singer-songwriter Maggie Rose for John Prine‘s “Angel From Montgomery”, Maggie’s first of several electrifying sit-ins. He brought out Mule keyboardist Danny Louis and all of STP for a bitchin’ “Mississippi Queen” and Eddie Floyd‘s “Knock on Wood”, in honor of soul guitar legend and the song’s co-author, Steve Cropper, who passed away the previous week.
Warren Haynes, MJ Lenderman — “Gravity Of The Situation” (Vic Chesnutt) — 12/13/25
[Video: Gort’s Picks]
Warren Haynes, Daniel Donato, Maggie Rose, Jason Crosby — “Angel From Montgomery” (John Prine) — 12/13/25
[Video: conrad sullivan]
Related: Warren Haynes Remembers Guitarist Steve Cropper: “He Was The Right Guy!” [Tribute]
This all led to the evening’s main event: a pair of back-to-back Warren-led superjams. The first “& Friends” set got together 3/4 of the Gov’t Mule lineup (bassist Kevin Scott and keyboardist Danny Louis), drummers Duane Trucks (Widespread Panic) and Jeff Sipe (Aquarium Rescue Unit), and saxophonist Greg Osby (Warren Haynes Band), plus sit-ins from Rose and longtime Xmas Jam veterans Edwin McCain (vocals) and Mike Barnes (guitar).
Haynes front-loaded the hour-long set with originals “Spots on Time” (co-written with Phil), “Go Down Swinging”, and “River’s Gonna Rise” before digging in deep with a loaded latter-half of “Sco-Mule” and the Allman Brothers Band‘s “Dreams” > “Whipping Post”, all with Barnes. “Sco-Mule” may have been the jam of the night, but after four and a half hours of guitar music, it was Louis’ organ work and Osby’s sax that shone brightest. Still, Warren commanded centerstage with a few minutes of soulful soloing on “Dreams”.
Warren Haynes & Friends — Christmas Jam — Asheville, NC — 12/13/25 — Full Video
[Video: BruizerNet]
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For the penultimate performance of the night, Bob Dylan tribute bob. (featuring Al Schnier and Vinnie Amico of moe.) may have clinched the award for “Most Fun Had Onstage”. The group came together a year ago for a friend’s birthday party and loved it so much they decided to keep doing it. Schnier’s smile was indefatigable, even as he was told to wrap up the set while he was mid-story.
Finally, it was somewhere after midnight when Haynes, Grahame Lesh, John Molo, Jason Crosby, and Daniel Donato stepped onstage for the headlining tribute to Phil Lesh. The late Grateful Dead bassist last played Christmas Jam in 2022, taking the stage around this same time and pushing the show till 2:30 a.m. In his place stood his son Grahame, equipped with a six-string bass to properly honor his dad. Across the stage, Warren played his Doug Irwin replica of Jerry Garcia’s iconic Wolf guitar, using it to open the set on “China Cat Sunflower”.
The next 100 minutes were Deadhead euphoria (aided by just a touch of sleep deprivation). Grahame took lead on a gorgeous “Unbroken Chain”, Daniel Donato—called up to the show after Widespread Panic’s Jimmy Herring had to cancel a few weeks before—took his seat at the table on “Cumberland Blues”, and Maggie Rose stole the show with her fierce vocals on “Sugaree”. Just when it felt like maybe they were getting ready to call it a night, at 1:13 a.m. the opening notes of “Dark Star” came rumbling in, a perfect encapsulation of what has made Christmas Jam so special for the last 30-something years: the best musicians in the jam band world blowing way past curfew, all for a good cause.
A continuous steamroll through “Dark Star”, “Stella Blue”, and an “Other One” jam finally led to an inevitable Grahame-sung “Box of Rain”. And when you think you have Warren all figured out and assume it’s time for the show-closing “Soulshine”, they instead keep it Dead canon and close the whole thing out with “Touch of Grey”. One last nod to Phil, coming in just shy of 2 a.m.
Warren Haynes Tribute To Phil Lesh, Maggie Rose, Al Schnier — “Sugaree” — 12/13/25
[Video: conrad sullivan]
Warren Haynes Tribute To Phil Lesh — Christmas Jam — Asheville, NC — 12/13/25 — Full Video
[Video: BruizerNet]
Similar to the show’s post-pandemic return in 2022, this year’s Christmas Jam was about much more than just the lineup. For Asheville and Western North Carolina, it represented another step toward the “normal” we’ve been inching our way back to. Like the good Southern hosts we are, we got the place all decorated, put together a kickass playlist, and invited everyone over to spend the holiday. And with locals Warren Haynes and MJ Lenderman sharing the bill, it feels like the tradition will keep on going. Merry Christmas Jam.
Check out an array of media from Christmas Jam 2025, including photos from photographer Ashton Sikes.
Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country — Christmas Jam — Asheville, NC — 12/13/25 — Full Set
[Video: BruizerNet]
