Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum fundraiser features performance by sixth-grade students from Los Angeles’ Dorris Place Elementary School to highlight the Museum’s Words & Music educational program.
LOS ANGELES — The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum hosted its ninth All for the Hall benefit concert on the road on September 27 at The Novo by Microsoft® theater. An all-star lineup, extending across genres and generations, including Vince Gill, Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton, James Taylor and Joe Walsh, drew repeated standing ovations from a standing-room-only crowd. In 2016 alone, All for the Hall events in Nashville and Los Angeles have netted over $900,000 for the Museum’s educational programs.
The two-hour program presented five wholly individual talents and proved that from-the-heart lyrics, matched with memorable melodies, can erase the lines between styles of music.
Gill has hosted or co-hosted every All for the Hall concert since he came up with the concept, when he began asking artists to contribute a performance to benefit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “These shows are a gift to me because I get to invite artists I’m crazy about to come and play and sing music,” Gill said at the outset. “This night is one of the best we’ve been able to accomplish, because every one of these artists has had a huge impact on my life. It’s not just people who have come before you who have an impact on you. It’s also people who come after you and impact your life, too. These great artists do that for me.”
The concert was modeled on the Nashville institution of a “guitar pull,” a casual affair in which songwriters take turns presenting works while other artists look on, sometimes adding harmony or instrumental accompaniment, while waiting to take their turn.
While many songs drew standing ovations from a crowd expressing, the first came for a group of students making their stage debut. The evening started with a large collection of sixth graders from Dorris Place Elementary School, located in Los Angeles, performing “Far and Wide,” while strumming ukuleles. The students wrote the lyrics and set them to music with help from Grammy-winning songwriter Liz Rose (“Girl Crush,” “You Belong with Me”) and songwriter-guitarist Phil Barton.
The song provided a vibrant example of the inspiring work done by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Words & Music program, which pairs songwriters with students from schools across the United States. The program gives students a chance to express themselves while learning and participating in the creative process of songwriting. With fellow non-profit Education Through Music Los Angeles, a foundation that promotes the integration of music into the curricula of inner city schools, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s education department will continue to work with other students throughout the country for the 2016–2017 school year.
The proceeds from the All for the Hall Los Angeles concert will be earmarked for the museum’s education department, which interacted with more than 185,000 people in 2015.
For a full account of the show, visit www.countrymusichalloffame.