Johanna Pounds
Editorial Assistant
Northeast News

This holiday season, the Kansas City Streetcar is holding its second annual Holiday Jam. Streetcar service will have 10 performances, as well as one at Ruby Jean’s Juicery December 15th, 2018. Genre of music will range from Rock, to Classical, to Zydeco bands.

Donna Mandelbaum, communications director for the KC Streetcar, said that the best part of the KC Streetcar Holiday Jam is when riders “engage with the musicians in singing along with the music. When they say ‘we rode the Streetcar just for the music’ is MUSIC to my ears.”

Staff of the KC Streetcar said their goal is to create a personal relationship with the riders. In fact, that was one of the requirements when selecting musicians: making sure each musician had good chemistry and would be able to build friendships with passengers.

This year, the KC Streetcar is partnering with 90.9 FM The Bridge to host the Streetcar Jams, which helps them fuel their desire to continue to host this program for many years to come.

“That tells us that they find this to be a beneficial program for local musicians as well,” Mandelbaum said.

Holiday Jams always has a variety of music, but Mandelbaum said she finds herself most excited about Ernest James Zydeco band.

“We have not had Zydeco music as part of any of our Streetcar music programs and I am very interested to hear how it sounds and how the audience engages with them.”
To check out the Ernest James Zydeco band and several other amazing musicians, be sure to ride the streetcar this holiday season.

For more information, please visit www.kcstreetcar.org.