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, September 28, 2016—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.

The All for the Hall series, produced by Museum board members Rod Essig, Ken Levitan, Gary Overton and Jody Williams, began in New York in 2007 and repeated there in 2008. The series has alternated between New York and Los Angeles in succeeding years, with Gill as its host. Along with Keith Urban, Gill also co-hosts a regular All for the Hall concert in Nashville. The series has gained a reputation for one-of-a-kind concerts.

A sampling of past performers includes Jason Aldean, Gregg Allman, Zac Brown, Sheryl Crow, Rodney Crowell, Melissa Etheridge, Emmylou Harris, Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, Levon Helm, Kris Kristofferson, Jason Mraz, Brad Paisley, Lionel Richie, Paul Simon, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Dwight Yoakam, and many others.

The All for the Hall Los Angeles concert illustrated how intertwined country music is with other forms of popular music. Exploring those connections and the cultural and historical importance of American music across regions and generations is part of the mission of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and a story the Museum tells every day in its exhibits, publications and educational programs.

For a full account of the show, visit www.countrymusichalloffame.org./afthla. 

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The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum collects, preserves, and interprets country music and its history for the education and entertainment of diverse audiences. In exhibits, publications, and educational programs, the museum explores the cultural importance and enduring beauty of the art form. The museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, and in 2015 welcomed over one million patrons, placing it among the ten most-visited history museums in the U.S. The Country Music Foundation operates Historic RCA Studio B™, Hatch Show Print® poster shop, CMF Records, the Frist Library and Archive, and CMF Press. Museum programs are supported by the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and the Tennessee Arts Commission.

All for the Hall Los Angeles is made possible with generous support from: