Bass guitarist, singer and songwriter Jett Beres, a former master’s in architecture student, loves the structure of a beautiful building almost as much as he enjoys the foundation of a great pop song.
So he’s looking forward to his band Sister Hazel’s Sept. 2 free concert, one expected to be in front of maybe 7,000 people at Mill Race Park in downtown Columbus, a bit more than some dates on the group’s 90-performance schedule for 2023.
Sister Hazel bassist Jett Beres, an Indianapolis native who recalls summers of his youth spent in Columbus, is shown in concert.
Photo provided
“I spent several (childhood) summers with friends in Columbus,” said the Indianapolis native, speaking by phone in Meridian, Mississippi, where the band was about to play on a recent night.
He’s familiar with the celebrated Modernist work of the Saarinens, I.M. Pei and others here. He’s just never viewed the buildings in person.
“But I’d love to,” he said. “I normally try to get out a little bit (in each city).”
The group, best known for its top 1997 hit, “All For You,” will headline the 37th Annual Our Hospice of South Central Indiana Labor Day Weekend Concert. The annual gathering regularly raises more than $150,000 for the nonprofit hospice’s work with patients needing end-of-life care. Funds come from everything from raffle ticket sales to T-shirt sales to corporate donations.
Sister Hazel, named for a Christian missionary, is tuned into such compassion. Just five months ago, the six-member group performed with country star Darius Rucker and raised more than $675,000 in its birthplace of Gainesville, Florida, for its charity known as Lyrics For Life Camp Hazelnut and Florida Cancer Specialists Foundation, as well as Stop Children’s Cancer.
The event is held annually.
“It’s always a very powerful night,” Beres said. “People in Gainesville have proven they have big hearts — and big, generous checkbooks.”
Hospice staff say the same about their supporters in Bartholomew and other counties.
The 52-year-old Beres expects the band to perform about a 17-song, 90-plus-minutes set. However, he added that the song list usually is not decided until the day of the show. Group members alternate on who makes the selections.
When prodded a bit, he mentioned that newer, softer ballads from the album “Before the Amplifiers 2,” such as the 2021 sweet, tear-jerker “When Love Takes Hold,” which he wrote, and the slow and tender “In the Moment” could definitely be in the mix. YouTube comments from listeners to such tunes are somewhat understandable for a band that has remained under the radar much of the time.
“They’ve still got it after all these years,” one listener wrote.
Another, a newcomer to the ensemble’s music, said that he couldn’t believe that Sister Hazel wasn’t better known and played more often.
But Beres and his mates are fine with their station in life, on and off the stage.
“We’re actually doing exactly just as many dates as we want to be doing right now,” Beres said. “We’re out on the road about 100 days per year, which makes a nice balance, because we’re all family men.”
Beres is such a family guy that his voice grows especially excited when he talks of daughter Jordan, a college student preparing herself for the music festival business, or high schooler son Kai, already a bassist and songwriter like Dad in a group known as DNA.
And the group boasts more than family unity. The band’s five original members — Ken Block (acoustic guitar, lead vocals); Andrew Copeland (acoustic guitar); Ryan Newell (rhythm and slide guitar); and Mark Trojanowski (drums) have remained together since their inception in 1993. That is a rarity for a classic rock group. Keyboard and sax player Dave Lagrande was added years ago.
In fact, that extent of band loyalty is fairly certain a first for local hospice concert groups that usually have been limited to one to three original members.
“I agree that that’s very unique,” Beres said. “But there’s no magic formula for that. Some of it is just luck when it comes to the way that we’ve been able to navigate through life’s storms. … I know, though, that we’ve really learned to trust each other.”
About the concert
Who: Pop-rock group Sister Hazel headlining the annual Our Hospice of South Central Indiana Labor Day Weekend Concert. Opening act is country singer Levi Riggs.
When: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 2.
Where: Mill Race Park, 50 Carl Miske Drive in downtown Columbus.
Admission: Free.
Bring: Lawn chairs for seating.
Information: care.ourhospice.org/concert
