The Christmas4Kids benefit consists of two separate fund raising events. This year the first event took place at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville, TN on Monday, November 20, 2006 as a fund raising concert. The following Country Artists participated: Daryle Singletary, Craig Morgan, Joe Nichols, The Charlie Daniels Band, Phil Vassar and Sawyer Brown. These caring and generous individuals donated their time and talent to participate in this event to raise funds for children from low income families.
The second part of the event consists of access to various artists' tour bus' to the public for a small monetary donation. All proceeds going to the Christmas4kids fund. The tour bus event is scheduled for December 18, 2006 at the Hendersonville Wal-mart 5 - 9 pm.
On December 19, 2006, the children receiving the benefits from the fund will be picked up in the tour buses from their schools and transported to the First Baptist Church in Hendersonville for lunch provided by Garth Brooks. After lunch, each child will be assigned a chaperon, given $150 and transported to the Hendersonville Wal-mart for a personal shopping spree.
We (Ashley & Marilyn) arrived at the Ryman's Auditorium at 5:30 pm on November 20th for the Christmas4kids concert. We received our media passes & were shown around backstage of the Ryman, seeing the artist dressing rooms & the media green room.
Daryle Singletary opened the show with "An Amen Kind of Love," "I Let Her Lie" and "Too Much Fun." This was the first time I (Ashley) had seen Mr. Singletary perform and only recognized "Too Much Fun." But I enjoyed his performance.
Meanwhile backstage, I (Marilyn) had a wonderful opportunity to met Craig Morgan & ask a couple questions. Mr. Morgan is very friendly and offered to pose with me for a photo but I respectfully declined because I was working. My answer gained me a smile from Craig & a wink from his beautiful wife. I asked Mr. Morgan how he had become associated with the Christmas4kids event. He answered that he had been personally invited by Charlie Daniels. Apparently, Mr. Daniels had invited Morgan each year for the past couple years, but Morgan's management had declined without his knowledge. Morgan only learned of the situation when Daniels knocked on his tour bus window to personally invite him again saying he hoped he wouldn't decline again. Craig also shared this story on stage during his performance.
Craig Morgan opened with "What I Love About Sundays," which starts out with a refrain from "Amazing Grace." Next, Morgan performed "A Little Bit of Life," announcing that this was his newest single and that he's sure Wal-mart has plenty of couples in stock for stocking stuffers. Then, he introduced what is a possible single of the new album A Little Bit of Life called "Tough." Next, Craig performed "Redneck Yacht Club," closing with a Christmas song he wrote with his friend in June while in California called "Merry Country Christmas."
Joe Nichols performed next starting his set with "Brokenheartsville." Mr. Nichols was relaxed and laid back on stage as he joked about not knowing what song to perform next and he guesses he'll do another Blake song as he sang "Size Matters." Mr. Nichols introduced his next song "That Would Be Her" telling the audience it was one of his older songs but hoped at least some folks would recognized it. You could hear a pin drop during Mr. Nichols performance and the applause at the end of the song proved more than a few folks enjoyed this song. Next he sang "Old Toy Trains," a Roger Miller country music classic, laughing that he better sing a Christmas song even though it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Mr. Nichols closed with his number 1 hit "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off" at the request of the audience.
After a brief intermission The Charlie Daniels Band took the stage launching into "The South's Going To Do It Again." Mr. Daniels had the audience singing & clapping along during his set. He continued to wow the crowd with "Jesus Is the Light Of The World," "The Christmas Song" and "Rocky Top." Mr. Daniels' awesome fiddle performance during his closing "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" gained him a standing ovation for the nearly sold out Ryman audience.
Phil Vassar took the stage next starting his set with "The Hot Tub Song (Take That As A Yes.)" and "Last Day Of My Life." Mr. Vassar added humorous comments throughout his show even joking about his mother coming on stage to sing. The audience cheered for her to come on stage but Phil added she can do anything except for sing. Then he played "My Next Thirty Years" and "Another Day In Paradise" Mr. Vassar closed with the audience request "Six Pack Summer," chuckling he thought the audience would have like him to perform a Christmas song.
The closing performer was the always energetic and upbeat Sawyer Brown. Their set included "Six Days On The Road," "Winner Loses All," "Mission Temple Fireworks Stand," and "The Dirt Road." Mark Miller, dancing and jumping around the stage, ignited audience participation in his songs like "I'll Go Anywhere" and "Thank God For You." They closed with. "Some Girls Do." Their outstanding performance also gained them a standing ovation.
