Country Gives Back: Walker, McBride, and Azar

• Clay Walker will host his fourth annual benefit concert for MS, Chords Of Hope, on Oct. 30 at Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon. Presented by 98 WSIX and produced by Walker’s charity, Band Against MS, the show will help raise money and awareness for MS research. Walker was diagnosed with the disease in 1996 and founded BAMS in 2003. To date the charity has raised over two million dollars for research and educational programs for those living with the disease.
Greg Bates is the first artist announced to join Walker on the Oct. 30 show. Tickets for the event are available through Ticketmaster and at the Wildhorse Saloon box office, and doors open at 6 p.m. For more information on the charity, go to bandagainstms.org.

• Steve Azar held his 2^nd Annual Delta Soul Celebrity Golf & Charity Event earlier this summer in Greenville, Miss. to help support his St. Cecilia Foundation, a charity he founded to support art programs throughout the Delta region. Azar was joined at the three-day event by celebs like actors Chris Rich, Richard Karn, and Grant Show, baseball’s Reggie Smith, and Denver Broncos coach John Fox.
The weekend’s Delta Soul concert included Branford Marsalis, Dan Tyminski, and Mark Bryan and Dean Felber from Hootie and The Blowfish, among others. Presented by the Skin Institute, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi and the Hartness Foundation, the event raised over $170,000 to support local arts in the region.

• Martina McBride’s devoted band of volunteers from around the country, Team Martina, set their sights on raising $20,000 to help build a new playground in Atlanta, the Chastain Play Conservancy Playground. In less than four weeks, the group raised $27,000 to help build the project for local kids.
Team Martina’s Sound Check for Kids partnered with Crowdrise.com, an online fundraising site, for the campaign, which culminated with a Sept. 28 performance at the Chastain Park Amphitheatre by Martina. The first 50 fans who raised a minimum of $200 were treated to an exclusive party at Martina’s sound check prior to the concert. Team Martina has raised more than $100,000 for various causes since 2011. The group recently raised over $40,000 for Nashville’s Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center.