Courtesy of Nugs.tv

Courtesy of Nugs.tvSteely Dan‘s Donald Fagen, Toto‘s Steve Lukather and Ringo Starr are among the celebrities who will make remote guest appearances on a virtual holiday charity event hosted by This Is Spinal Tap star Harry Shearer and his wife, singer/songwriter Judith Owen, that will stream live on Nugs.tv on December 11.

The couple’s 15th annual Christmas Without Tears event, which is going virtual this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will raise funds for several U.S. and U.K. charities that support members of the music communities of those countries affected by the global health crisis.

“The show started as a party in our home to try to comfort Judith, a Welsh woman prone to melancholia, who could not stand that the fact that Christmas in Southern California was about 78 degrees and sunny,” Shearer explains about Christmas Without Tears.

Over the years, the show has featured a wide array of musicians, comedians and other performers, and has benefited various charities. This year’s lineup includes Fagen, Lukather joined by Starr, Squeeze‘s Chris Difford, Paul Shaffer, John Goodman, Jeff Goldblum, British singer Julia Fordham, lauded U.K. folk-rock veteran Richard Thompson, famed session bassist Leland Sklar and many others.

The Christmas Without Tears webcast will premiere at Nugs.tv on Friday, December 11, at 2 p.m. PT, with tickets available for a $9.99 donation. That entitles you to watch the show an unlimited number of times through Sunday, December 13, at midnight PT.

Additional donations can be made at GoFundMe.com/CWT2020. The beneficiaries of this year’s fundraiser are NIVA, a.k.a. National Independent Venues Association, The New Orleans Musicians Clinic and the U.K.’s Help Musicians and Music Venue Trust organizations.

Visit ChristmasWithoutTears.com for more information.

By Matt Friedlander
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