By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Eric Miller puts in a lot of time and effort organizing concerts that feature the likes of Val Emmich, The Young Dubliners and Carsie Blanton.
Concert promoter is not Mr. Miller’s trade, though.
The concerts are held in Mr. Miller’s Hopewell Township living room to honor his late wife, Carolina, who died last year of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). Mrs. Miller was just 25 when she died.
He said the house concerts are held to raise awareness about the disease and to generate funding for research, treatment and, hopefully one day, a cure.
The very first concerts were held last March, and led to the creation of Candlelight Concerts for Epilepsy Awareness. The first show raised about $5,000.
Mr. Miller has several upcoming shows planned for his living room, which, he said, can hold up to 40 people.
”It’ll be mostly singer-songwriters. There will be some duos and trios. What’s paid for the tickets goes to the performers. For the charity piece, I’m using stageit.com. You can stream the show live that way. You have to create an account to buy a ticket and you make a donation. A dime is the minimum.
”It’s not so much about raising the funds as it as about getting the message out. My focus is not just on my wife’s story, but on getting the message out about epilepsy and SUDEP,” he said.
Mr. Miller’s late wife, Carolina Barcelos Carneiro de Oliveira Miller, died last August. She was from Brazil.
”She’s resting there now,” Mr. Miller said. Carolina was diagnosed with epilepsy in her teenage years. She took medication daily, but managed to keep her disease private.
To purchase tickets or make a donation and find out more, go to www.canlelightconcerts.org.
The next three shows in Mr. Miller’s living room are:
—Sept. 8 — Rock singer/songwriter Val Emmich, who took up the guitar after he was diagnosed with Lyme disease at the age of 15 and was forced to curtail his physical activities. Soon, he was writing his own songs.
— Sept. 23 — Young Dubliners — With eight albums and an average of 200 shows per year since the early 1990s under the belt, the hard-rocking Irish band, the Young Dubliners owe everything to their fans. “They keep us honest, expecting good music both on the road and on the albums,” said frontman Keith Roberts. “From their humble beginnings, the band evolved through various personnel changes into a pugnacious, crazy but coolly irresistible force of nature.”
— Sept. 29 — Carsie Blanton — In her brief time as a performing songwriter, she has toured throughout the United States as a headliner, and as tour support for Paul Simon, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Hornsby, Joan Osborne, The Weepies, Loudon Wainwright III, John Oates, The Wood Brothers and others. In 2011, she performed a live set on the nationally syndicated NPR program, “Mountain Stage,” returned to Europe for her second time as a performing songwriter, and joined Paul Simon to open several dates on his “So Beautiful or So What” tour.