Ryan Gee & The Bourbon Breakfast Club will present the second annual "Holiday Hootenanny" Friday at The Mission in Jefferson City.
"It was kind of a magical thing last year, and I'm looking forward to this year," organizer Ryan Grosvenor said.
Fourteen musicians from the area will perform, including artists Rose Ridge, Murphy's Ford, Ozark Underground, Down Side Up, Kitty & The Wolf, and First United Methodist Church.
All money raised from the event will be donated to the Jefferson City Public Schools orchestra program, as it was last year.
At the first Hootenanny, a bucket was passed around, and the donations and tips tossed in added up to $500-$600, Grosvenor said. This year, a $3 entry fee will go toward the fundraising.
"As far as I know, 100 percent of that admission goes to the program," Grosvenor said.
Patrons last year were generous. "People were even writing checks out if they didn't have the cash they wanted to put in the bucket."
He's hoping to do even better this year. "It was packed last year. And I don't want to take away from last year's success, but I'd like to double" the proceeds to more than $1,000, Grosvenor said.
There will be about 40 songs in the set list for the night.
Grosvenor said the set list will be a mix of traditional church songs and contemporary pop numbers, all in the Christmas spirit - "a healthy mix of everything to keep everyone happy."
Audience members will hear everything from Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run" and "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" to "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" and "The First Noel."
Many, if not all, of the songs will be in what he called "Missouricana" style - folksy, with elements of bluegrass, like Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard.
"We just gave them some more energy," Grosvenor said.
The evening will feature two different versions of "Silent Night." The first version will be up tempo, "sped up into a bluegrass style" with unchanged vocals to open the first set. After an intermission and the second set, the other version closes the night in a more traditional, a cappella rendition.
The history of the Holiday Hootenanny is appropriately similar to that of a rolling snowball - an event that grew as it picked up inertia from brainstorming to the final concert.
"The owner of The Mission offered me a gig for Dec. 16, and I took it in September," Grosvenor explained of the original booking last year. He got to thinking later, "This is close to Christmas, so maybe we should just play some Christmas songs," and maybe just have him on a guitar with an acoustic drummer - something simple.
In the Christmas spirit, Grosvenor and his band started brain-storming about decorations for their hour-long set. That led to another thought: "If we're going to go through all this work decorating to take the stage for 60 minutes, let's just do the whole night."
He reached out to friends to play with, thinking five or six would reply. Instead, all 14 said they were interested.
Once the larger group decided to play Christmas songs all night, in the holiday spirit, the question arose: "What can we do to make this into some sort of a fundraiser?"
Ideas rolled around, including doing something for the local food pantry - such as an entry fee in the form of a canned food item - but nothing really took shape.
Grosvenor got to recalling his membership in Jefferson City's marching band and drum line, so then thought about giving back to the city and music - which ultimately led to selecting orchestra program as the recipient of the event's fundraising.
No band is getting paid for their time at the Hootenanny. They played for free last year and will play for free again this year.
"This is musicians giving back to musicians and the next generation coming up," Grosvenor said.
Doors will open at 6 p.m., and the first part of the set list will begin at 8 p.m.
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