Save The Music and SongFarm.org‘s second annual Hometown To Hometown event took place virtually on May 11th. This year, we honored eight-time GRAMMY® nominee, CMA Award-winning, singer, songwriter and musician, Brandy Clark along with CMA+ ACM Award winning and GRAMMY® nominated Nashville-based songwriter, producer & publisher Jimmy Robbins as 2021 Champions of The Year for their dedication to music education.
Hosted by Leslie Fram, Senior Vice President of Music Strategy for CMT and Music Industry Advisory Board Co-Chair for Save The Music, the show kicked off with opening remarks from Save The Music Executive Director, Henry Donahue and SongFarm.org Executive Director, Rachel Smith. Rachel then introduced Jimmy who sang his hit, “The Bones,” which he wrote and is performed by Maren Morris. He was then joined by Maddie & Tae who talked about the importance of music education and together sang “Everywhere I’m Goin.'”
Maddie & Tae then introduced Hailey Whitters who talked about what it was like growing up in Iowa and performed “Ten Year Town.”
Hailey then brought Brandy Clark to the stage who talked about how her mother helped instill her love of music and performed “Hold My Hand.”
Brandy then threw it to Lori McKenna who delivered an emotional speech about how people are first exposed to music when they’re young but still carry it with them when they’re older. She played her song, “Humble and Kind.”
Lori then brought in Jon Nite who shared how music helped him fulfill his American dream and then performed the smash hit, “I Hope,” written by Nite and performed by Gabby Barrett. Afterwards, Jimmy played “Sure Be Cool If You Did,” which Blake Shelton took all the way to number one. Brandy then went back on stage and performed “Who You Thought I Was.” She introduced 2020 Hometown To Hometown Champions, Ross Copperman and Nicolle Galyon. After being honored, they had the opportunity to check in with last year’s grant recipients, John Overton High School in Nashville, TN, William Fleming High School in Roanoke, VA, and Sterling High School in Sterling, KS. Using the tools and equipment from the Music Tech Grant they received, students remixed Ross and Nicolle’s co-written song, “If We Were Rich” performed by Runaway June. The segment ended with a sweet testimonial from the grantees about the impact of the program.
Leslie came back on stage to chat with Tiera who talked about her experience virtually meeting with Save The Music students. She shared how her music teacher influenced her and together with Leslie, encouraged viewers to donate.
Leslie then introduced Mark Brown who delivered a wonderful speech about Jimmy and presented him with his award. While accepting the honor, Jimmy talked about how music saved him especially in his teenage years,
Jessie Jo Dillion then presented Brandy with her award, closing out a spectacular evening.
Thank you to everyone that joined us especially our sponsors, CMT, IOMAXIS, Gibson Gives, ViacomCBS, Victrola, and Nat and Sara Zilkha. We look forward to seeing you in Nashville next year!