Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

On the eve of The Shelia Jackson and Friends Christmas Concert, Sheila gave paused to give though to just how many years the concert has ushered in the Christmas Season here in Pike County.

“I’m not sure; I really don’t’ know,” Jackson said, and added, laughing, that neither does she know how many more years, Shelia and Friends will celebrate the coming of Christmas with the concert.

Not doing the concert?  Right now, she’s not thinking in that direction.

“For me and for a lot of people,” the concert is a part of our Christmas tradition,” Jackson said. “It’s a time for the community to come together for a time of friendship, music and songs.

“For me, and my ‘friends,’ we start rehearsing in October or early November so it’s a labor of love for each other, for our friends and for our community. It would be hard to stop doing something that you love.”

Many of Jackson’s friends are more than Friends.

“Some of us have been doing the Christmas concert for, I don’t know how many years,” Jackson said. “We’ve never gotten tired of being together or doing the concert. We do something a little different each Christmas concert, including the Troy University Dancers and, hopefully, they are here to stay.”

The Christmas Concert offers opportunities for families to perform on the same stage and that is very special, Jackson said. “The Christmas Concert. How much longer? As long as it remains special to me, to my friends and to our community.

The Sheila Jackson Friends Christmas Concert is at 7 p.m. tonight. Doors open at 6 p.m. Admission is $20.