Like many of us, Peterborough musical brothers Ryan and Sam Weber will be spending Christmas Day with family and friends, but in their case they’ll be making the long trek to their original hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.
Just two days prior, the duo will be in Berkeley Springs in West Virginia at the Historic Star Theatre, gifting their talent in the form of “A Weber Brothers Christmas,” their annual musical celebration of the season.
So, yes (West) Virginia, there are a pair of musical Santas coming your way, but fret not Peterborough — the brothers haven’t forgotten their many friends and supporters here at home, and are hosting a similar festive-themed event on Friday, December 15th at Erben at 379 George Street North in downtown Peterborough.
A fundraiser for One City Peterborough, the $45 ticket cost includes not only the full Weber Brothers Band doing its thing but also dinner, with a portion of proceeds destined for the organization that promotes housing, safety and community inclusion by responding to immediate needs, all while advocating for systemic change.
Tickets are available online at www.erbenptbo.com and at the pub. General admission tickets for the show only are also available for $25. Doors open at 6 p.m. with dinner starting at 6:45 p.m. and the band will performing two sets beginning at 7:30 p.m.
While Ryan won’t divulge the set list — “I use the line from Napoleon Dynamite: If you come to this concert, all your wildest dreams will come true” — it’s a safe bet that selections from the 2015 album A Weber Brothers Christmas, including the city reference-laden “When Christmas Falls On Peterborough,” will be in the mix.
VIDEO: “When Christmas Falls on Peterborough” (2017) – The Weber Brothers
“That album started with just a song or two,” recalls Ryan. “We put them out as singles and then we thought ‘Well, let’s do this every year.’ After doing that for five or six years, we had enough for a full album. Next was ‘Let’s do a Christmas play.’ So we did a play that had the songs from the album interspersed through it. Then we made the movie When Christmas Falls On Peterborough.”
In December 2017, Ryan and Sam, joined by Emily Burgess, Marcus Browne, and Rico Browne, released a video for the “When Christmas Falls On Peterborough” that was filmed in the shadow of the Peterborough population sign on Highway 115.
“That was real snow falling (in the video), right in the middle of summer (when it was shot) … just for those 10 minutes,” cracks Ryan, suggesting a pre-Christmas miracle of sorts occurred.
In December 2020, with the pandemic lockdown in full effect, Ryan and Sam couldn’t make their annual visit to Fresh Radio to perform the song live on Pete Dalliday’s morning show. Instead, again with Burgess and Marcus Brown, they recorded a slowed-down acapella version of the song at home that was then posted on the radio station’s website.
That Christmas spirit continues at the Erben fundraiser, and Ryan says the choice of One City as the event’s beneficiary reflects the importance of the work the agency does.
“While there’s debate about what to do about the (homelessness) situation, I don’t think there’s any debate of the fact that it gets really cold up here and there’s going to be, right here in this town, quite a few people spending Christmas in tents,” he says. “One City is doing great work that we were really drawn to when we found out more about them. Any way we can help, we’ll jump at it.”
VIDEO: “When Christmas Falls on Peterborough” (2020) – The Weber Brothers
The timing of the brothers’ philanthropic choice couldn’t be better. Just this past week, One City Peterborough opened the doors of the Trinity Community Centre located at the former Trinity United Church at 360 Reid Street.
Until the end of March, it’s providing overnight winter sleeping accommodation for 45 people from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. In addition, a daily daytime drop-in space is provided from 1 to 5 p.m.
Christian Harvey, co-executive director of One City, says “grassroots fundraising” is key to his organization for two reasons.
“One, we have whole programs that receive no government funding and are totally funded through grants and donations, so we rely heavily on community support to provide them,” Harvey explains.
“The second thing is it matters a lot to have people partner with our mission. When The Weber Brothers do a concert like this, it helps us with funding but, even more importantly, it’s a partnership in working toward our vision, which is Everyone Belongs, Together We Flourish.”
Harvey says he and his One City colleagues “really value” any community effort that brings attention and dollars their way.
“Sometimes we don’t even know about a fundraiser (for One City) until after when someone comes by and says they did this event or that event,” he says, adding “For the Weber brothers to think of us, it lets us know that people are with us.”
“We are not going to end homelessness through the non-profit sector alone,” Harvey notes. “It needs a partnership involving the whole community. These (events) provide little glimpses of what that could look like.”
Meanwhile, the new programs at Trinity Community Centre are “operating well” so far, says Harvey.
“We’re getting good feedback from those using the programs. That’s more important than anything to us. We want people to feel it’s meeting their needs. We know we’re going to be constantly tweaking and adjusting, but staff seem excited and those using the program seem excited. We think this is a pretty great time and look forward to how it all plays out.”
“The staff team at One City has done so much to make this a reality. I’m really grateful to them but there has also been so many community members who have come in and volunteered to make it come together as quickly as it has.”
