By: Chris Talbott
© 2015 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
Country Music fans, artists, and Nashville schoolchildren got to see charity in action the morning of March 4 when the Country Music Association announced the Nightly Concerts at LP Field lineup for the 2015 CMA Music Festival as the Nashville Children’s Theatre debuted a production funded by ticket sales from the 2014 Festival.
Country star Thomas Rhett helped the Children’s Theatre kick off the run of “Jack’s Tale: A Mythic Mountain Musical,” which was partially written and produced with funds raised by the CMA Foundation each June. Artists donate their time and half the money fans spend on each ticket to the Nightly Concerts at LP Field goes to the Foundation’s education efforts. More than $11 million has been donated to music education initiatives across the country since 2006.
“That’s probably the coolest part,” said Rhett, who will be making his second appearance on the big stage at LP Field. “Somebody asked me if I knew half the proceeds go to organizations like this, and I didn’t until last year when I first played. Last year was my first time on the big stage, to be back this year is really exciting, but to actually be here at the theater and getting to hang out with some of the kids and meet some of the people who work here and who actually wrote ‘Jack’s Tale’ is pretty cool. So it’s really cool to know that what you do on a Saturday or Sunday night at LP Field goes to support kids coming to see art like this and plays like this and hopefully encourages them to get involved as well and kind of learn about music and learn about art.”
CMA Fest will be held June 11-14 this year. Fans learned that the LP lineup will include superstars Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Brett Eldredge, Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, Alan Jackson, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, Neal McCoy, Oak Ridge Boys, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Thomas Rhett, Darius Rucker, Cole Swindell, The Band Perry, Keith Urban, Wynonna & The Big Noise, and Zac Brown Band. Tickets to the Nightly Concerts at LP Field sold out in November, meaning another round of grants.
“Jack’s Tale” was produced with a $10,000 grant from the CMA Foundation drawn from proceeds for the 2014 CMA Music Festival. The musical includes a band playing live on stage and was written by Scot Copeland and Paul Carrol Binkley of the Children’s Theatre. Rhett introduced the play, based on old-time tales and music from Appalachia, to school kids ages 7-12. He told them about the importance of music education, noting he played Ebenezer Scrooge in his third-grade production of “A Christmas Carol.”
“I was in pretty much every play my school did and talent shows and all that good stuff in high school and even in college,” Rhett said afterward. “I think it kind of prepped me to know what it’s like to be in front of a crowd and at least know how to entertain in the best way I can. More so than anything it’s gotten me out of my box a little bit. You get to meet other people and kind of like goof off and find out what it feels like to be an environment like that. I definitely feel like it was a big stepping stone for me.