Nashville, TN (www.littlebigtown.com ) - When it comes to raising money for charity,
Little Big Town will do whatever it takes to fill the coffers, as evidenced by this week's fund raising event at Country in the Rockies, held annually in Crested Butte, CO. The group participated in the Celebrity Bartender Event and the closing night concert. Both events raised funds for the T. J. Martell Foundation.
The Celeb Bartender event took place January 30th, and LBT headlined the club Cowboy's. Three other clubs also had celebrity bartenders and competed amongst themselves to see who could raise the most money in one night. The year before, Big and Rich had headlined Cowboys and raised $75,000 for the night. As far as Little Big Town was concerned, game on.
With Doug Johnson acting as emcee, Little Big Town was joined by songwriters Dean Dillon, Chas Sanford and LBT's co-producer/co-writer Wayne Kirkpatrick, as well as roving celebrity bartender Clint Black. Some of the highlights of the evening included Dillon auctioning the guitar he wrote more than 200 songs on for $10,000. One fan offered Black and Little Big Town $6500 to sing Black's hit 'Killin' Time' and the classic 'Seven Bridges Road.'
In one of the most poignant moments of the evening, one woman, who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, donated $25,000 to the T. J. Martell Foundation and invited LBT to come back to Crested Butte in June to perform an acoustic show at her 50th birthday. The band readily agreed to be on hand to help the woman celebrate.
Near the end of the evening, the band realized they were still $1600 shy of Big and Rich's $75,000 raised in 2005. All bets were off. Once again, band members Jimi Westbrook and Phillip Sweet were auctioned off, in a manner of speaking. One woman paid $300 to dance with Sweet on a tabletop. Then band member Karen Fairchild decided to auction off the shirts on her male band mates' backs. That somehow deteriorated into both men dancing on the tabletops, sans shirts. With women stuffing money into shoes, socks and pants, the men raised $1600 more, beating last year's amount.
'All I can say is, it's amazing what raising money for a good cause will make you do,' said Westbrook, notorious for his modesty and lack of any table top dancing experience. 'I guess even I can be convinced to sell the shirt off my back if it will help the T.J. Martell Foundation.'
The following evening, LBT helped raise even more for the Foundation when Margie Geddes of the Red Stripe Beer Family offered to donate $40,000 to the organization if LBT would agree to another acoustic performance, this one in her hometown of Clewiston, Florida. Again, the group quickly agreed. Geddes plans to use the performance as a fundraiser for the T. J. Martell Foundation
'This has been one of the most satisfying things we've done in years,' noted LBT member Kimberly Roads. 'To be able to help raise money for such a good cause is something we are extremely grateful and thankful to be able to do. This is what makes all the hard work worthwhile to us as a band.'
Little Big Town just released their second single, 'Bring It On Home' from their hit CD, The Road To Here. Please visit littlebigtown.com for tour dates and additional information on the Equity Music Group band.
