January 15, 2025
Saturday night's Light of Day Winterfest "Main Event" - aka "Bob's Birthday Bash," saluting Light of Day founder Bob Benjamin - will mark a quarter-century of Light of Day concerts, raising funds to fight Parkinson's disease, ALS, and PSP. What started as a single Light of Day concert at The Stone Pony on Benjamin's birthday (November 3, 2000) has since grown into a multi-day festival of musical events in the New Jersey region each January, accompanied by a yearlong calendar of Light of Day events at other locations in the U.S., as well as abroad.
To help our readers and us in gearing up for Winterfest 2025, we at Letters To You were pleased and honored to speak yesterday with two of the musicians who, along with Bruce Springsteen and others, performed at that very first Light of Day concert back in 2000 and have remained strong Light of Day supporters since then: the great rockers and songwriters Joe Grushecky and Willie Nile. Grushecky and Nile shared with us their memories of and reflections on their involvement with Light of Day through the past quarter century, as well as this year's Winterfest and their plans to continue their involvement until the day that the battle against Parkinson's disease, ALS, and PSP is won at last. In the course of the conversation, they each discussed experiences and insights that were interesting, moving, funny, inspiring, heartbreaking, and ultimately filled with hope for the day when the horrible effects of these neurological diseases will be no more.
Below are embedded links for our conversation with Joe Grushecky and Willie Nile, which is available on our SoundCloud and YouTube platforms:
And just in case you haven't yet finalized your Light of Day Winterfest 2025 plans, click here for a complete guide and ticket-links for all Winterfest 2025 events, including tonight's first official Winterfest 2025 event at City Winery New York City, featuring Willie Nile. (If you can't attend any of the events, you still can click here to donate whatever you can to Light of Day.)
Finally, stay tuned for more coverage of Light of Day Winterfest 2025 from Letters To You in the days to come.