Following the unexpected, last-minute cancellation of the annual VetsAid last year, the country and blues rock hootenanny is back and slated to be better than ever for its redo.
Joe Walsh’s nonprofit veterans’ organization will livestream its ninth annual festival next Saturday, Nov. 15, from Wichita, Kansas.
VetsAid 2025 will feature full sets from Vince Gill, Ryan Bingham and The Texas Gentlemen, and a superset from Walsh with Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks and Nathaniel Rateliff, along with more special guests.
The show will take place at 7 p.m. eastern time at the INTRUST Bank Arena in downtown Wichita.
Tickets to the live show are available for $50 at selectaseat.com/vetsaid, while the livestream will occur via Veeps.com, with passes available now for $14.99. Add-on merch bundles are also offered, with all proceeds going to VetsAid.
The organization also announced the grant recipients selected to benefit from this year’s VetsAid event and campaign.
Community Grant recipients include Wichita Police and Fire Foundation; Midwest Battle Buddies; The Wichita, Kansas Intertribal Warrior Society; Rosie’s Snuggle Bunnies Pet Therapy; Horses & Heroes Inc.; Community Resources Council Inc.; and KanVet United Foundation.
National Grant recipients include Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Foundation, Our Military Kids, Semper Fi America’s Fund, Travis Manion Foundation, Hire Heroes USA, and Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation.
“It’s been a long-term goal of mine since we began VetsAid nearly 10 years ago to bring it all home to my native Wichita to serve Kansan veterans and their families,” Walsh said in a statement. “It’s where my parents were both born and are buried, where I was born, and where I will always feel a deep connection and sense of heritage and responsibility.
“It is with great pride and gratitude that our traveling circus of love and community will make a stop in Wichita in 2025 and that I can share the experience with my dear friends who also happen to be some of the greatest American musicians I know,” he added.
Now in its ninth year, VetsAid hosted its inaugural show on Sept. 20, 2017, with a concert in Fairfax, Va., featuring performances by Walsh, Zac Brown Band, Keith Urban and Gary Clark Jr.
In 2018, VetsAid traveled to Tacoma, Washington, with a sellout event featuring Walsh, his Eagles bandmate Don Henley, James Taylor, Chris Stapleton, Haim, and special guest Ringo Starr.
Subsequent VetsAid fests have featured ZZ Top, The Doobie Brothers, Jason Isbell, The 400 Unit, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, The War on Drugs, The Flaming Lips and Lucius.
Even during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, nearly 40 artists took part, with intimate performances from Eddie Vedder, James Hetfield, Gwen Stefani and more.
Last year, despite the cancellation, VetsAid confirmed the distribution of $400,000 in grants.
As every year, all net proceeds from the concert will go directly to the veterans’ services charities selected through a rigorous vetting process.
To date, VetsAid has disbursed more than $4 million in grants. In 2025, organizers plan to disburse grants exclusively to organizations based in Kansas or with operations on the ground in Kansas.
Veterans and their well-being have always been important to Walsh, a Gold Star son himself.
His father was a flight instructor for the first U.S. operational jet-powered aircraft, the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, and died while stationed and on active duty on Okinawa when Walsh was 20 months old.
Through the establishment of VetsAid and the annual benefit concert, he aims to give back to those who have given so much in sacrifice for this country.
Vinyl of the Week
Keep an eye on this spot as each week we’ll be looking at new or soon-to-be-released vinyl from a variety of artists. It might be a repressing of a landmark recording, special edition, or new collection from a legendary act.
This week, it’s the final studio album from one of the greatest singers in music history.
Nina Simone: “A Single Woman, the Complete Elektra Recordings” (COURTESY OF OMNIVORE RECORDS)
Nina Simone: “A Single Woman, the Complete Elektra Recordings”
Come the mid-’80s, Nina Simone had stopped making new albums for the most part, certainly ones that were recorded in a proper studio.
The legendary jazz/soul singer had been going through her share of personal setbacks, from alcoholism to mental health issues.
However, as a new decade dawned, she was in a much better place and once again catching the eye of the powers that be, resulting the her final studio album, “A Single Woman,” which came out in 1993.
After a triumphant concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1992, Simone was approached by Elektra A&R executive Michael Alago, whose previous work at the label included Tracy Chapman and Metallica.
When asked if Nina was ready to record again, she replied, “Get me the money … then we can talk!”
Modeled around two of Simone’s favorites, Frank Sinatra’s “A Man Alone (The Words and Music of Rod McKuen)” and Billie Holiday’s “Lady in Satin,” with the common element that both were recorded with full orchestral accompaniment, the sessions began.
Backed by a 50-piece orchestra, she recorded the material that would ultimately make up “A Single Woman” with producer Andre Fischer, Natalie Cole’s then-husband and former drummer for the band Rufus.
The 10 tracks chosen from the sessions were revelatory, weaving songs about love in the style only Nina Simone could deliver.
She recorded more material during the sessions, including covers of Bob Dylan, Prince, The Beatles, and Bob Marley, pointing to a potential follow-up, but sadly, “A Single Woman would be her final studio album before her passing in 2003.”
“A Single Woman: The Complete Elektra Recordings,” out this Friday on CD and as a two-LP set, is the definitive version of Simone’s final studio album.
Back in 2006, the record was reissued, adding seven of those performances left behind. Now, four more previously unissued recordings from those sessions have been added, for a total of 21 tracks.
Newly remastered, the collection also contains new liner notes from the British Ambassador of Soul, David Nathan, outlining both the recording of the album, but also recounting his nearly three-decade relationship with Simone, beginning when he formed the UK Nina Simone Appreciation Society in 1965.
“A Single Woman: The Complete Elektra Recordings” can be found online and from all respectable brick-and-mortar retailers who carry vinyl.
To contact music columnist Michael Christopher, send an email to rockmusicmenu@gmail.com. Also, check out his website at thechroniclesofmc.com.
