Industry Veteran Mark Brown Revives The Music Row Build With Habitat for Humanity

Round Hill Music Nashville Sr. VP and GM Mark Brown has revived the Music Row Build with Habitat for Humanity, a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and Music Row companies to build homes from 2003 until 2012 for people in need.

“I needed to find an outlet that was very real, immediate, timely, and measurable. While I am concerned about inequities on a global scale, I thought the best place to start affecting positive change is in our own community. That’s when I thought about Habitat for Humanity,” Brown says.

Brown’s connection to Habitat comes through his good friend, 30-year Music Row veteran and long-time Habitat for Humanity Supervisor-on-Site Kurt Denny. Denny remembers his interest in helping Habitat for Humanity began years ago when he relocated to Nashville from Los Angeles in 1995 and was looking for a way to get involved in the local community. Since, Denny has become a Habitat for Humanity Supervisor-on-Site leading and teaching Habitat volunteers as they build homes.

Pictured (L-R): Trisha Yearwood, Elizabeth Denny, Kurt Denny, Garth Brooks at the Carter Work Project in 2019. Photo: Courtesy Habitat for Humanity

The funding goal of the 2020 Music Row Build is $31,500 to pay for construction materials for the home of future Habitat homeowner Italia Nance. Nance is the mother of three sons and lives in an apartment complex where there are frequent break-ins and gunshots. Italia is attending Habitat’s homeownership classes.

Brown’s goal is to not only revitalize the Music Row Build but to make it an annual event. In addition to raising money to purchase the construction materials for Nance’s home, Music Row Build will need volunteers to work alongside Nance to build her home.

“A stable home is the foundation for so much in life. It is empowering for the parents and stabilizing for the children to have a place to call home. That changes communities and better communities change the world,” Brown says.

Volunteer registration for the Music Row Build will be open soon. For more information or to get involved, go to www.habitatnashville.org/Music-Row. To donate, visit www.habitatnashville.org/music-row-donation.