July Jam Newest Addition to Hamilton, NY 4th of July Festivities Features Chris Eves & Blaine Holcomb

315Music interviewed Chelsea Carhart Lehmann of Home Town Events and Allie Dunham of Heritage Barn who are collaborating on this brand new event at a gorgeous, world class venue in Hamilton, NY on July 1st. Tickets are available now.

315Music: What inspired this idea of a collaboration of musicians and a world class venue and incredible coordinator for this event? 

Allie: Ever since the idea of turning our family farm into an event venue, we knew we wanted it to be something that the community would enjoy in addition to private events. We were excited to jump into 2023 with plans for our first ever community event so we called up Chelsea with Home Town Events to get started planning! Our main goal for this event was to introduce our space in a fun way, feature local businesses and/or artists, and collaborate with others in the community.

The Dunham Homestead has been in our family since 1801 as a dairy and sheep farm for most of that time. Since the farm hasn’t been active in many years, we knew that we wanted to find a new use for the charming houses, barns, and property while sharing the beauty of Upstate New York with as many people as possible. We wanted to offer the full package of overnight accommodations, gorgeous lawns for ceremonies and activities, and a restored dairy barn for receptions and parties to bring guests from all around to experience a nice getaway in Hamilton. 

315Music: Chelsea, what is your favorite type of venue to work with and how do you share your vision with your clients and partners?

Chelsea: My favorite type of venue is one that is flexible and willing to adjust to the client. It’s nearly impossible to make every single person happy with a huge event but as long as the client is happy, my job is done.

315Music: What do y’all love about summer in Hamilton and live music?

Chelsea: The weather and the chill vibe around here. Honestly, it’s the quintessential all-American town here in the summer.  

Allie: The Fourth of July weekend holds a special place in my heart. I grew up in Ohio but with both sides of my family being from Hamilton, we came to visit for every 4th of July. That is partially what inspired us to host this event on that weekend. It’s a wonderful time for family and friend reunions, bbqs, concerts, swimming at the lake, farmer’s markets and everything in between… exactly what summer should be like. Our storybook town is the best place to be for the summer and we wanted to encompass as much of those details as possible for July Jam!

315Music: What can folks expect from this day of fun? How can people get tickets and will there be tickets day of? 

Chelsea: Tickets can be purchased here. We prefer people get tickets ahead of time because we have a max of 300 to sell. And when you buy a ticket, you get access to discounts from participating local businesses for the weekend! Obviously Blaine and Chris and his band will be playing, plus there will be delicious BBQ and a dessert collab by Maxwell’s and Flour & Salt.

Allie: We wanted to include as many local businesses in our celebration as possible so we are partnering with the Hamilton Business Alliance and created a local discount pass. Businesses have the opportunity to offer a special deal or discount and every July Jam ticket holder will receive a wristband at the event that they can show at participating businesses from July 2nd-5th to receive the special promo. At the event, we will have Ray Brother’s Barbeque food truck and cash bar and a Flour & Salt / Maxwell’s collab for dessert. And of course, two wonderful hometown musicians, Blaine Holcomb & Chris Eves and the New Normal! Tickets are mainly offered for pre-sale. They may be available on the day of the event if we have not yet sold out, however, we can’t guarantee that so we advise everyone who would like to attend, to purchase tickets ahead of time!

315Music: What do you each believe true success is in hosting an event? 

Allie:  In many ways, our event is already a success! We have connected with some great businesses, supported a couple of local musicians, and have started to see friends and family get excited for the 4th of July weekend this year! We just want to create an environment for friends and family to reconnect over the holiday weekend, support fellow small businesses and encourage others to do the same, and share our story and property to our fellow community members.

We are happy to dream up any event with potential clients so we don’t really put a number to how far we book. The majority of our clients book 1-1.5 years in advance for weddings but we can accommodate last minute events as well! 

315Music: Chelsea, what types of clients do you work with? 

Chelsea: My ideal clients are those who are looking to have a good time. I love to plan and organize, but my goal is always to have fun. 

315Music: Lastly: favorite food to manage stress planning or during an event?

Chelsea: Diet coke, and lots of it. But seriously, it’s not stressful to me because I love doing it. The build-up is more stressful than the day of!

Allie: Fortunately, I’ve gotten to the point in event planning/management where I’m not losing sleep the night before or stressing too much at all… but my go-to on a busy event day at the barn is to hit up Flour & Salt Cafe first thing for an iced latte, a TLT on an everything bagel, and a vegan hand pie for later! 

We also spoke to Chris Eves and Blaine Holcomb:

315Music: What do you enjoy about your hometown this time of year?

Chris: Fun on lake Moraine , 4th of July fireworks and parade, alumni soccer game, and my brother’s family visiting from Hawaii.

315Music: Where else can folks catch you coming up?

Chris: Ray Bros May 29th, Taste of Syracuse June 2nd (Noon on the Erie stage and at 7pm on Main Stage), and the Turning Stone June 8th.

315Music: Any new music/recording/fun mashups project in the works?

Chris: Yes, I have been releasing parts of a Metallica Mashup that will be completed soon. I am also working on a new album of original music at the moment. I’m always posting music videos on TikTok , YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

315Music: Blaine, what do you like about returning home for concerts? For this show you get to play with Chris. As a Hamilton native how do you feel about sharing the stage with him? Could you let us know about other area shows and new music you are working on?

Blaine: It’s always fun coming home to play shows. I usually only get to play hometown shows once or maybe twice a year so I always look forward to it. It’s great to see family and friends and have a good time with everyone. 

The July Jam with Chris Eves is going to be a blast! Chris is so talented and I always love getting to work with him. Also I think a lot of people from the Hamilton community are planning on attending so it should be awesome. I’m very thankful to the Dunham’s for inviting me to perform. 

Some of my most cherished and earliest memories of performing in Hamilton are playing at Nichols & Beal’s with Ed Vollmer. That’s kind of when I first started playing in front of an audience when I was about 12 years old. I also love playing at Ray Brothers and getting to open for some national acts. Headlining the Block Party in 2019 was also a highlight! 

In the future it would be amazing to headline a big country show at RBQ. That’s definitely a goal of mine. Hopefully we can make it happen one day. 

I just went back in the studio here in Nashville a couple days ago and began working on 4 new songs. I’m hoping to be able to start releasing some new music later this summer. 

Here’s where I’ll be playing around home this summer 

July 1st – Dunham’s 

July 3rd – Colgate Inn 

July 7th – Eaton Brook Terry’s bar 

July 8th – Huff Brau 1 Year Anniversary

July 22nd – RBQ opening for John Michael Montgomery