LOS ANGELES (Urban Ent.
Institute PR) - Burbank: With their "Tonight Show" debut - 20 years in the making - Mark Miller and the men of
Sawyer Brown are taking the appearance serious!!. Not only is sacred steel sensation Robert Randolph coming in from the road for the late night talk show, but the band is enlisting the acclaimed South Central Los Angeles' Urban Entertainment Institute's choir to help blow up the already explosive "Mission Temple Fireworks Stand."
"There are so many great choirs out there," Miller says of their search for the right choir to back-up the call-and-response chorus, "and we wanted to find one that really got in the spirit of inspiring young people to reach for their dreams. The Urban Entertainment Institute not only encourages performing, but knowing the business... and my word! the things they've got their young people doing: whether it's making a record with Jackson Browne or appearing on Ray Charles' duets project with Gladys Knight, we're probably just lucky they'd work with us!"
A non-profit afterschool program, founder/mentor Fred Martin makes a variety of experiences available to the teens and young adults for free. A longtime member of the LA County School System, Martin recognized that reaching beyond the traditional structure can heighten his ability to connect and elevate kids who're at risk -- and inspire them to greatness they might not have ever considered.
"It's amazing the impact one adult can have on a child," says the man who's written "The Walk," "Step That Step," "The Dirt Road," "Hard To Say" and "Some Girls Do" among others. "When I was growing up, my basketball coach at UCF really showed our entire team as much about what it means to be men as it what it takes to be a great athlete. Kids need role models to inspire them, to teach them, to even challenge them to become everything they're capable of - and it's one of the greatest gifts we have in our lives. And that's what Fred Martin is doing with his Urban Entertainment Institute, so it's really cool they can be a part of this experience with us."
"Mission Temple Fireworks Stand" is already making its mark. Having slipped out and onto the airwaves in front of its "official" Jan. 10 street date, the single charted at #55 on Billboard without anyone realizing what had happened - and during a Dec 4th Grand Ole Opry performance, no less than Grammy-stacking icon Ricky Skaggs popped out to play mandolin on the Paul Thorn/Billy Maddox song about a man who jettisons a big church for a life where "the cherry bombs are 2-for-1, but the salvation's free."
"There's just something about this song...," says the frontman who has more moves than anyone this side of Mick Jagger. "People hear it, and they want to hear it again. Musicians want to play. Normal looking people want to exhort and dance. And honestly, it's just a lot of great big blowed up fun!"
Indeed, it is. See for yourself, as Sawyer Brown, Robert Randolph and Southern California's own Urban Entertainment Institute light the fuse and blow it up Thursday - Dec 16th - on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
