Hot Stove Cool Music Livestream Event Features Eddie Vedder, Yo-Yo Ma And More

Since 2000 in Boston and 2012 in Chicago, the Hot Stove Cool Music series of benefit concerts has sought to raise money for under-resourced youth. 

Merging with the Foundation To Be Named Later in 2004, the concerts have acted as the marquee events for the charitable organization co-founded by Major League Baseball executive Theo Epstein and his brother Paul. 

The Hot Stove events have helped to endow 200 Gammons scholars, college scholarships named after famed baseball writer and MLB Network personality Peter Gammons, who co-founded the event two decades ago. 

Forced to move online amidst pandemic last year, this year’s benefit concert follows suit, as live performance venues across the country look ahead toward the arduous task of safely reopening. 

For the Foundation To Be Named Later, moving the concert series online was born out of necessity, a way to maintain both tradition and awareness at a time when many nonprofits are struggling. 

“Obviously every nonprofit in the world had to quickly learn how to be adept and nimble and go online. I think we did a good job with it. Obviously, our main revenue stream is events. We weren’t able to do our signature events that are at music venues. But we’ve been able to pivot and do the online stuff,” said Paul Epstein. “The events are fun. It gives you a little bit more flexibility. You can pre-record segments. We’ve got a pinch hitter coming in this year – a player to be named later as my wife put it – joining the roster for this event. Eddie Vedder is going to pre-record an original number and let us play it. So it’s cool that we’ve been able to use the flexibility of the online platform in creative ways.”

Musical diversity has long been a hallmark of the Hot Stove concerts, events which have featured artists ranging anywhere from singer songwriter James Taylor to Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.  

In addition to Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, this year’s event, streaming tonight at 7 PM eastern, also features famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. 

“Most music fans have broad tastes. We all listen to all kinds of stuff. Musicians especially are sponges. So that eclecticism is a hallmark of the event. And it’s really cool,” said Bill Janovitz of Boston-based 90s alternative group Buffalo Tom, who’s been a part of the Hot Stove concerts since 2002 and will perform again during tonight’s livestream. “I’m sure there’s been a year where we’ve had local hip-hop kids next to some of the Dropkick Murphys with Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks playing. John Legend played one year. It’s all over the place and we strive for that. We don’t want to just appeal to the same crowd that comes every year. We also don’t want to alienate that crowd. But we want to broaden it – to reflect the whole community.” 

The Hot Stove concerts traditionally tie together the worlds of baseball and music. Gammons has handled guitar on Tom Petty covers and Theo Epstein has plugged in alongside Vedder on more than one occasion. 

But no combination better encapsulates that than a 2019 performance in Chicago which featured Gammons, legendary bluesman Buddy Guy and longtime New York Yankee Bernie Williams on guitar.

“When I was playing baseball, you could define success based on your numbers and stats: however many home runs you hit, your lifetime batting average, total doubles or triples. But there’s no such thing in music. There’s no points for good notes played. There’s no stats. So the way that I’ve defined my success in music has been in terms of the places that I got to play at and the people that I get to play with,” Williams explained. “So it’s obviously an understatement to say that having the opportunity to play on stage with Buddy Guy was a highlight of my career as a musician. This guy is an iconic musician and a blues guitar player that has sort of been defining the genre for generations. He has such a unique voice. Just to have the opportunity to play with him on stage and have the chance to hang out with him backstage and pick his brain, ask him about music – it was just a lifetime experience. I’ll always remember that very fondly.”

Long engrossed in the worlds of sports and music, Williams attended a performing arts high school before becoming a professional baseball player. Following his time on the diamond, he pursued an undergrad degree at the Manhattan School of Music. 

The Foundation To Be Named Later utilizes both baseball and music in its effort to reach kids and Williams is acutely aware of the positive impact both can have at an early age.

“My mom and my dad were trying to encourage my brother and I to have a well rounded education so we could be prepared for the future. Arts, music and sports were an integral part of that sort of upbringing. My mom was an educator and she knew the value a good education could have on kids. So I started playing guitar when I was 8 years old – around the same time I started playing baseball,” said Williams. “They kind of made it seem to us that it was a privilege to do it. And we had to keep our grades up if we wanted to enjoy those other extracurricular activities. Grades were first and foremost,” he continued. “What my parents didn’t know was that I was going to love sports and music so much that I was going to make them my livelihood – baseball first, having a career in professional sports, and then pursuing my other passion which has been music and anything related to music: music education, performance and doing all of these great things. Incorporating music into my charitable endeavors has sort of put me in a unique situation, where I’m the former Yankee player that also has an artistic dimension.” 

Some reports indicate that, amidst the quarantine of pandemic, as many as 3 million children in America may have never logged on for online learning. For Paul Epstein, who in addition to co-founding the Foundation To Be Named Later also serves as a social worker in Brookline, Massachusetts, this year’s Hot Stove Cool Music event takes on increased importance. As part of this year’s ticketed virtual event, Epstein, alongside FTBNL CEO Allyce Najimy will moderate a panel examining the impact of pandemic upon youth. 

“That’s a truly horrific and scary number. I think it’s a safe assumption that, if that’s a true number, those kids were probably already struggling to begin with. And now you take away more than a year of their academic careers, that’s tough. What kind of a picture does that paint?” said Epstein. “There’s going to be a tremendous need for all of the non profits that work with them. Whether they’re academic prep organizations or food insecurity organizations or housing or college readiness, they’re going to need to double down and work harder than ever to get them back on track.”

One element that makes the work of the Foundation To Be Named Later particularly unique is in the way it sees through the distribution of all funds raised. Every penny is accounted for and, in a non-pandemic year, visiting beneficiaries in both Boston and Chicago is amongst the most poignant and relevant moments during Hot Stove weekend.

“I think it’s important to have transparency,” said Epstein. “The other point is that these are long lasting relationships. There are actually beneficiary organizations that will get a check after the Hot Stove event, where it may be their 15th or 20th straight year of receiving funds. So we’ve seen our relationships grow, deepen over time and we just tremendously enjoy hearing the stories of impact.”

“That is one of the things that makes this event so special,” added Williams. “It’s not necessarily just to enjoy the night – the show and the music and all of that fun – it’s also about seeing the impact of the fundraising efforts. You see it firsthand in the smiles of the kids that you meet. Speaking to them on a panel that we have every year – telling our story and being accessible. And letting them know that by putting in the right amount of effort, anything is possible. So I think having the opportunity to relate to them in such a personal way makes it all worth it.”

“That’s one of the greatest parts of this event: going to see these places in action and meet the people,” said Janovitz. “For me, as a musician, I really just identify with that time of your life when you’re an adolescent and you’re really gravitating toward music. To see that is just really gratifying. It’s vital. It’s urgent. We can’t forget what this is about. And I never do.”