Save The Music and SongFarm.org hosted our third annual Hometown To Hometown event on April 26, 2022 at the Musician’s Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne were honored as the Champions of the Year for their dedication to music education. Shane McAnally has established himself as one of the top songwriters in Nashville with over 40 No. 1 songs, three GRAMMY Awards and two Songwriter of the Year Awards from the Academy of Country Music, and Josh Osborne is a multi-platinum GRAMMY Award-winning songwriter who has notched 26 No. 1 songs on the Country charts.
Hosted by Cody Alan, the evening kicked off with speeches from Save The Music Executive Director, Henry Donahue and SongFarm.org Executive Director, Rachel Smith.
After their remarks, Shane and Josh went on stage to perform their first song, “Drinkin’ Problem,” which they co-wrote for Midland. They then introduced Walker Hayes who sang “AA.” Prior to singing, he talked about how his hit, “Fancy Like,” became viral particularly on TikTok.
Next, Carly Pearce performed, “29,” which she co-wrote with Shane and Josh. She shared a heartfelt story about the meaning of the song which is the age that she both got married and divorced.
The last guest performer was Brandy Clark, 2021 Hometown To Hometown Champion. She sang “Love Without You,” the idea for which she unexpectedly came up with while taking a quick break during one of Shane’s and her writing sessions.
Shane and Josh closed the performance portion of the evening with “Body Like a Back Road,” which they co-wrote for Sam Hunt. The audience then go to hear from students, teachers and administrators impacted by Save The Music and SongFarm.org’s programs: music teacher, Robert Rigby and student, Jayden Moyer from William Fleming High School in Roanoke, VA; Assistant Principal, Matthew Earls and student, Patrick Ramirez from Overton High School in Nashville; and music teachers, Allison Snyder and Chase Gay and student, Noah Rojas from Hunter’s Lane High School, in Nashville.
Then, Cody returned to the stage, this time with Kylie Morgan who spoke about how music education changed her life. The two made a call to action in the room to help raise the remaining $35,000 to be able to fund three schools with music technology grants.
Lastly, Shane and Josh presented each other with the 2022 Hometown To Hometown Champion Award. In their acceptance speeches, they talked about the importance of having music programs in school and how their lives were changed by having those opportunities available to them.
Thank you to everyone involved in the Hometown To Hometown event especially our sponsors CMT, Gibson Gives, MAXISIQ and Wrensong. Because of your support, we are able to fund three music tech grants at schools in the honorees’ hometowns (Mineral Wells High School in Texas and Shelby Valley High School in Kentucky) as well as Whites Creek High School in Nashville. We’ll see you all next year!