Reba Heyman Tribute Concert & Livestream Set for March 19

Fourteen artists/acts will help celebrate the life and legacy of Reba Heyman, a stalwart supporter of the folk music community who was widely viewed as a ‘folk angel’ or ‘folk mom,’ on Saturday, March 19, 2022. Co-sponsored by Focus Music, Uptown Concerts, World Folk Music Association (WFMA), Songwriters’ Association of Washington (SAW), and Institute of Musical Traditions, the concert takes place at the Olney Theatre in Olney, Maryland and will also be livestreamed.

Slated to showcase their talents during the concert that is set for 7 p.m. EST are Stephanie Corby, Ronny Cox, Terry Gonda and Kirsti Reeve, Lara Herscovitch, The Kennedys, Kate McDonnell, Dan Navarro, Tom Prasada-Rao, Jenny Reynolds, SONiA disappear fear, LisaBeth Weber, Annie Wenz, and Jack Williams. Also performing will be My One and Only, an Americana duo recently selected as the inaugural recipient of an annual Rising Artist Award established by Focus Music in honor of Reba and Vic Heyman. Several artists who could not be in Maryland for the tribute concert –- including Michael Bowers & Siobhan Quinn, Christine Lavin and John McCutcheon — will participate via pre-recorded videos.

Tickets for the tribute concert are $25 in advance ($25 at the door for members of the sponsoring organizations, $35 at the door for non-members and for virtual tickets) and include a video of the event that can be viewed live (for those who are not comfortable attending an in-person show) or online afterwards. “we felt the livestream was important since we know there are many outside of the DC area who felt the love Vic and Reba shared,” noted Shelley Caplan, Focus Music’s board secretary. “Also, in these times of COVID uncertainty, we wanted to provide an option for those not ready to attend an in-person show.” To order tickets and for more information on the concert and the performers, visit FocusMusic.org. Proceeds from the event will be used to fund future Rising Artist Awards.

Reba Heyman, who passed away on June 17, 2021 at age 84, grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland and lived in Rockville, MD for decades. She was an integral part of the folk music community in Maryland, South Florida and nationally for many years. She and her late husband, Vic, were known for decades for their generous financial backing for folk festivals and artists, and formerly ran a concert series in Rockville known as Vic’s Music Corner. They also launched and ran Heyman Mailing Service for many years (a godsend for artists in the pre-Internet days), served on the boards of several music festivals, and established a scholarship fund for performing artists. In recent years, Reba Heyman had spent considerable time in Florida and co-presented the South Florida Folk Festival Singer-Songwriter Competition, whose winners received the Vic Heyman Songwriting Award – including a cash prize and the opportunity to perform at the festival.

Artists Share Their Reflections on Reba Heyman

In a Facebook post last June reflecting on Reba Heyman’s passing, Maura Kennedy of the folk-rock duo The Kennedys noted of her and Vic: “They were like parents to us and to so many, and they were always in our audience, right in the front row. Vic passed away several years ago [2009], but we still saw Reba every year when we played in Florida, often staying with her.”

Singer-Songwriter Dan Navarro, recalls having first met Reba Heyman at a Folk Alliance conference in Cleveland, Ohio in 2000. “We had not met before, but wound up sitting together at the Club Lounge breakfast every morning. We joked about ‘having breakfast together’ every day, and by conference’s end, had gotten to know and like one another,” said Navarro, a former Folk Alliance International board president who co-wrote “We Belong,” a big hit for Pat Benatar. “I didn’t really know who she [Heyman] was in the community, nor did she know me or my work, so everything was immediate and taken at face value. We became instant pals.”

Navarro told AcousticMusicScene.com that over the years, he saw the Heymans at music festivals and conferences and was struck by Reba’s easy charm, her savvy wit, and the depth of her connection with Vic. “Usually dressed alike, they were the ubiquitous folk community parent/grandparent figures, and we all loved them,” he said.

Navarro reflected on having played a memorial concert for Vic Heyman, also at the Olney Theatre, along with the late David Glaser. “”We coincidentally arrived wearing the exact same Scully “Nighthawk” western shirt, with no fallback wardrobe to keep us from looking like a Holiday Inn band in matching outfits. What to do, what to do? ‘I know,’ David said. ‘Let’s say we’re dressed as Vic and Reba!’ We did, and it worked.”

Navarro acknowledged, as others in the folk community know, how the loss of her husband did not slow Heyman down one bit. “She traveled to the same festivals and conferences, lived a rich life split between Maryland and Florida, and was a fixture at my shows in the mid-Atlantic,” he said. “She loved reminding people, ‘we met at breakfast.’ Navarro noted that she even came on his Greek cruise in 2019, along with her daughter Judy, and charmed everyone she met “She was a gem, a delight, a charmer’s charmer, and I will miss her always,” he said.

“Reba leaves a huge, heart-shaped hole in so many of our lives,” said Lara Herscovitch, a Connecticut-based singer-songwriter. “Reba and Vic believed in me before I believed in myself; they welcomed me in, showing me that I belong in this big folk music community and family. Any time spent with Reba was home-away-from-home – whether visiting her in Florida, Maryland, at Falcon Ridge, Kerrville, any of many Folk Alliance conferences, or on the phone,” she continued. “She brought such a deep interest in and care for the world, a great sense of adventure and humor, and a determined strength alongside profound warmth and care,” the former Connecticut State Troubadour noted. Expressing gratitude for “all the gifts of connection, spirit and love that she brought to the world,” Herscovitch told AcousticMusicScene.com: “She will remain an angel on my shoulder – and thousands of others – as we all carry the lessons of her and Vic’s legacy forward.”