Mr. Nick is on a mission of love. The blues-soul-R&B singer and stand-up comedian is launching his third annual Blue For Beanie fundraising blues music festival. The proceeds will support Mr. Nick’s aunt Jeannine David who suffered a brain injury and other impairments in a car accident four years ago. Tragically, his Aunt Jeannie, a volunteer for many charities, was on her way to a radio station to give an interview about a charity when the accident occurred.
“It’s a benefit concert. This is the third year that we’ve been doing it,” Mr. Nick said. “Four years ago, my Aunt Jeannine David, was in a really terrible car accident. She suffered some pretty severe brain damage as a result of it. She was in the hospital for a year and incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt. They had to sell their home.”
Mr. Nick‘s Aunt Jeannine and Uncle Gary had no prior experience with being in need. Before the accident, both were hard workers and both contributed greatly to their community.
They’ve both been hard workers their whole lives. They’ve never asked anybody for anything,” Mr. Nick said. “On the other side of that, they gave back to their community unbelievably. They were involved with city council. They did a lot of charity work. They were involved with helping their elderly neighbors a lot.”
Mr. Nick said his Aunt Jeannine, aside from helping his uncle run their family business, always gravitated to meeting community needs. “She’s just a kind hearted person, man,” Mr. Nick exclaimed. “She got involved in it because she saw a need for someone to help out. She wanted to do that.”
They’re just two of the most incredible people that I know, and they got dealt a shitty hand,” Mr. Nick continued. “I’m just doing what I can to try and help them out. I don’t raise a ton of money. But anything that can help ease things up just a little bit or keep the dogs at bay for a little while, I’m willing to do. And this is what I can do. This is what I know. This is how I can help make it happen.”
Historically, Mr. Nick hasn’t seen a high turn out for his Blues For Beanie event. The first two festivals brought in a hundred and fifty to two hundred people. Mr. Nick has gotten some incredible acts. The first year the headliner was Roomful Of Blues. Last year, the headliner was The Soul Band. This year, the headliner is Jerry Portnoy, the one time harmonica player for Muddy Waters Band and also the Eric Clapton band. Portnoy played on Clapton’s From The Cradle album that brought blues music into the mainstream in the early 1990s.
Mr. Nick is excited about using the Kimball Jenkins Estate in Concord, New Hampshire. “I have a really cool place. It’s at the Kimbal Jenkins estate. It’s now an arts school. Out back, they have this really cool backyard. It has a hill back there that creates a natural amphitheater. It’s a place to sit on this hill and watch the show. There’s food and drinks there. All the money goes to a great cause.”
Also on the schedule to perform are Mr. Nick’s band The Dirty Tricks, The Fran Calo Band, and The Racky Thomas. As a list minute addition, Chris Vlitas will be appearing as a solo Delta blues artist. Area musicians are always willing to help out these causes.
I’ve got a lot of cool friends,” Mr. Nick said. “There’s a lot of good people in the music business, and a lot of people who are willing to do cool things. Most musicians I know are pretty cool people. The ones I surround myself with are cool people and they love to help out. I think in general, people are good and people want to help each other, and when the opportunity comes, if people can, they will.”
Mr. Nick, too, has participated in numerous fundraisers over the years. “If there’s some way I can help out in my means, I’m willing to help people out. Plus, I’m doing what I love to do already, which is play music.”
Racky Thomas, from Boston, has played with Mr. Nick before. Fran Calo, of Maine, too has worked with Mr. Nick over the years in northern New England. In fact, he’s lost count of how many festivals and benefits he’s worked on with her. “When I met her, I used to do a TV show featuring local blues acts and she was on it. It was called The Granite State Blues Bash on Concord cable television.”
Mr. Nick only needed to fill in his really cool friends on what he needed to do for his aunt, and they came back to him like he’s been seeing them every day. He just explained the situation to them and they signed up.
My aunt’s stuck in a wheelchair,” the blues man related. “She has limited use of her left arm, and everything else just barely works. Her legs don’t really work. They’re usable enough to just help get her out of a chair. Her ability to communicate is compromised. It’s just a bum deal. Yet, upstairs she’s totally together. Even though she’s suffered this terrible brain injury, she’s really with it. She knows who everybody is. She has all of her memories intact.”
Thankfully, his Aunt Jeannine can still remember the time she went to Memphis when Mr. Nick competed in the International Blues Competition. None of this trauma has broken her spirit. Her sense of humor is still there. The synapses that connect and make her body do things don’t work any more or don’t work well in a lot of situations.
She’s incredible,” Mr. Nick exclaimed. “She never complains. This is the card she’s been dealt, and she’s just the happy person that I’ve always known her as, really happy.”
One of Mr. Nick’s favorite memories of his aunt is from his youth. “Her and my uncle used to take me horseback riding all the time,” he said. “I never did any other time in my life. I hadn’t done it before then or since then. But I used to all the time with them. There’s a place near where they lived, and that was one of the coolest things ever.” Although Mr. Nick lived in Oregon for a while, he came back here every summer to hang out with his aunt and uncle.
When Mr. Nick’s Blues Mafia competed in the IBC in Memphis, his aunt and uncle flew down to Memphis with him. “The first PA that I had, which I still use parts of it, was given to me by my Aunt Jeannine. She was a singer. She had a band for years in the 70s and 80s. She’s part of the reason I’m a musician.”
Mr. Nick’s Blues For Beanie Blue Festival will take place Saturday August 25th. Doors open at 1 p.m. and the music starts at 2:00 p.m. at the Kimbal Jenkins Estate in Concord, New Hampshire. $25 admission for about five hours of music. Area blues music fans may see the posters designed by John Hoik of John Hoik Designs in Concord, New Hampshire. Also, Sarah Gray of Body Covers has made up t-shirts for the event.
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