Virginia Beer Co. teams with area musicians to host benefit concert for Hospice House
On Friday, October 4th, the Virginia Beer Co. will team with area musicians for Hops, Hope, & Hillbilly Jazz – a benefit concert for Hospice House.
Hospice House & Support Care of Williamsburg is a social-model hospice that provides physical, emotional, social and spiritual support to enhance the quality of living for individuals facing the last phases of life and the people who love them. It is located at 4445 Powhatan Parkway in Williamsburg, VA.
Even though Courtenay Motley, Assistant Taproom manager at The Virginia Company, was the one to help bring “Hops, Hope, & Hillbilly Jazz” to life, she says she can’t take all of the credit for the idea. “[Local musician] Paul Todd – a regular performer at Virginia Beer Co. – has been volunteering for Hospice House for a few years now. We regularly host Paul to perform at the brewery and VBC has been looking for a way to support Hospice House, so the idea came up as a genuinely natural fit for everyone involved.”
Friday’s event is free and open for all. Paul Todd will be hosting the show throughout the evening with a lineup of area musicians who have agreed to donate their earnings and tips from the event to Hospice House.
“When I found out that Hospice House operates almost exclusively off donations and without any federal funding, I decided that I could apply my skill set playing music in a different way: by helping to raise money for their cause,” explains Paul Todd. “I enlisted the help of fellow musicians, some of whom have had family members in the care of Hospice House, and so far we’ve already organized two charity gigs and have raised about $1,000.”
The idea to organize a concert featuring “hillbilly jazz” came about as a way to celebrate the up-tempo “jam session” theme of the evening’s musical lineup. “Hillbilly Jazz is just a way to label something that doesn’t really have a label. It started as kind of a slang term to describe my playing style,” laughed Paul. “I occasionally play jazz standards, but with a really country feel, and some wise person in a crowd at one of my early gigs called it hillbilly jazz – and the term stuck!”
Music will be performed from 5-9:30 pm on 10/4. Local musicians such as Wyatt Baldwin, Jonathan Smith, Billy Brockmann, Brandon Frazier, and DJ Kudlz will join Paul for solo and group performances throughout the evening. The Virginia Beer Company opens at Noon on Friday’s and will be donating $1 from every pint sold of any of their four Year Round beers to Hospice House on 10/4. There will also be a food truck serving all day and a raffle throughout the evening to raise additional funds for Hospice House.
“Our motto, Beer · People · Purpose, is something we take very seriously and one of the best things about working at VBC is having the opportunity to host events in support of wonderful local organizations like Hospice House. I felt that The Virginia Beer Company – where Paul has performed numerous times over the years – was the perfect place to give Paul a broader reach and a bigger stage to promote Hospice House,” notes Courtenay.
More information about Hospice House can be found at: https://williamsburghospice.org/
More information about Hops, Hope, & Hillbilly Jazz can be found at: https://www.virginiabeerco.com/