Chicago music luminaries Robbie Fulks, Califone, Sally Timms, the Waco Brothers and others are playing “A Big Brain Benefit” at 7 p.m. Sunday, November 9 at the School of the Art Institute Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan. The concert will benefit Diane Izzo, a singer-songwriter who recently had a $100,000 operation to remove a crippling brain tumor. Tickets are $20.

You can buy tickets through TicketWeb. If you want to donate, go to www.dianeizzo.com and use the PayPal link to donate funds directly to Diane and Marco. More info after the jump.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

It started with a grand mal seizure. Izzo told her partner, Marco Zas, she was dying. Then she collapsed and passed out. Cell phones don’t work in San Cristobal, N.M., where they live. So her partner dragged Izzo into his truck and he sped 20 miles to a hospital to Taos.

Late last month, Izzo had surgery to remove the growth, the size of which had grown 10 percent in a single day. The procedure is expected to allow her to return to her former life writing and recording music, and touring to promote her albums. The experience, of course, comes with another burden: Izzo estimates the cost of the surgery will total $100,000. Plus, since her collapse in August, anti-seizure medicine costs $300 each month.