Many North Texans have toured the famed Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville over the years. Outside of Tennesseans, after all, Texans comprise the biggest group of visitors to the Museum. To directly support its various educational programs, the Museum has presented a special concert series called All for the Hall every year since 2007. Those concerts, which have netted more than $4.3 million so far, have been held in alternating years in New York and Los Angeles — until now, that is. Next April, the Hall of Fame and Museum is bringing All for the Hall to Dallas for the first time, with two nights of events.
On Tuesday April 28, 2020, an “acoustic evening” with a to-be-named Nashville star will be presented during a VIP patron party in Anne and Steve Stodghill‘s Preston Hollow backyard. It will be followed on Wednesday, April 29 with a full-band concert by Brooks and Dunn, members-elect of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, at the Statler Dallas hotel for fewer than 400 guests. All for the Hall Dallas is being co-chaired by Anne and Steve, Katy and Lawrence Bock, Terri and Kurt Johnson, Jonika and Corky Nix and Sunie and Steve Solomon.
All these details were unveiled tonight at a party at the Stodghills’ place. In town to help make the announcement were two officials of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum: Lisa Purcell, vice president of development, education and community outreach, and Jody Williams, a longtime trustee. This evening’s gathering, which was attended by 100 guests, also featured performances by Jeff Hanna and Matraca Berg, who are husband and wife. Jeff is co-founder of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, while Matraca, a songwriter, has had more than 50 of her songs cut. Among them: “Strawberry Wine” by Deana Carter, which was a CMA Song of the Year.
Last year, nearly 100,000 visitors took part in more than 1,200 hands-on educational programs at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. One of the Museum’s educational programs that will directly impact North Texas students this coming year is called Words & Music. For All for the Hall Dallas, local students in grades 3-12 will help write an original song with Grammy award-winning songwriter and Dallas native Liz Rose, who co-wrote Little Big Town’s smash hit, “Girl Crush.” Then students, who will work on the original song remotely, will debut it with Liz during the April 29 Brooks and Dunn concert.
Information about tickets for All for the Hall Dallas, including pricing and on-sale dates, will be announced in January. Sponsorships are available by contacting one of the co-chairs.
* Photo credit: Tamytha Cameron