Saturday Dec. 9 @ 7PM
WCS Nehemiah Center for the Performing Arts | 279 Linwood Ave., Whitinsville, MA
Tickets: $17
Purchase NowFrom WCS pep band to Nashville star. Stories, songs and a whole lot of Christmas cheer from a career musician, songwriter and ’99 WCS Alum Jay Bragg celebrates the release of his new Christmas album ‘Light It Up’ with a concert of songs and stories from his 20 year journey as a professional musician – a vocation that got its start at WCS under the tutelage of WCS music teachers Franz and Joanne Kuder. Starting with Suzuki violin and piano and moving on to percussion, Jay was active in the school’s music programs throughout all 12 years of his K-12 WCS education.
Since his days playing drums on “Hang On Sloopy” with the WCS pep band, Jay, who records and tours under the name Jay Bragg, continued his education at St. Michael’s College in Vermont studying music and journalism. After graduation, Jay moved to Portland, ME where he began a career in music – writing, recording and performing all over the country. In Maine, Jay recorded 9 studio albums and toured extensively as 1/2 of the country act North of Nashville who went on to play shows with major Nashville artists like Dierks Bentley, Gary Allen and Chris Stapleton. In 2015, North of Nashville won “Country Act Of The Year” at the New England Music Awards.
However successful, Jay had his heart set on a bigger things and 6 months after winning Country Act Of The Year, Jay was packing his bags for his next challenge – starting a solo career in the big leagues of Nashville, TN. Not long after moving to Nashville, Jay found a home at the Alan Jackson owned AJs’ Good Time Bar on Lower Broadway, performing a super charged cocktail of classic country and home spun original songs 3-4 times a week. The success of his live performances caught the attention of Alan Jackson himself who invited Jay to open up for him on his 2019 arena tour exposing his music to the biggest audience yet.
Since the launch of his solo project in Nashville, Jay has written and recorded 4 full-length albums, an EP and several singles and toured extensively from coast to coast.
In 2020, Jay launched a charity concert series called A Songwriter’s Christmas with the mission of celebrating the Nashville songwriter community’s original holiday music while raising resources for music education for children from low-income families.
In 2022, Jay founded a community service organization called Gift of Music Project to coordinate and fund music events for the purpose of public service for disadvantaged communities, specifically the musical inspiration and collaboration with children living in poverty and hospice patients – the latter of which Jay volunteers as a musical companion for patients with a diagnosis of 6 months or less of life remaining.
On November 1, 2023, Jay will release Light It Up – his much anticipated full length Christmas album which features 13 songs – 8 of which he wrote himself and 5 classics. Jay will be celebrating the release of Light It Up with performances in Nashville, New York City, Portland, ME, Boston and now, Whitinsville, MA.
The show will be a full circle moment for Jay and the WCS community and we hope you can join us for this very special concert.