Knoxville Habitat for Humanity and the Charlie and Moll Anderson Family Foundation are teaming up with America’s talented musical artists to build a ‘Music Row’ in Knoxville. Only this ‘Music Row’ serves to provide local families with simple, decent and affordable housing.

Today, Brooks & Dunn’s Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn participated in the dedication of the ‘Brooks & Dunn’ house, the first of the ‘Music Row’ houses made possible by the Charlie and Moll Anderson Family Foundation. The home is located at 1717 LeFlore, formerly Bonny Ave., in Knoxville.

“The work of Habitat for Humanity is extraordinary and inspiring. It is an honor to be part of this project and have our names on one of Knoxville’s new ‘Music Row’ homes,” said Brooks & Dunn.
‘Music Row’ will be a collection of numerous houses built by Knoxville Habitat for Humanity on LeFlore Ave. in the Lonsdale community. The houses, each of which will be built during the next 10 years, are underwritten by the Charlie and Moll Anderson Family Foundation from an annual benefit concert featuring a country music act. Brooks & Dunn performed at the first event in 2008 and the first house is built in their honor. Next year, a home will be built in honor of recording artist Martina McBride, who performed at the 2009 benefit.

Even though the homes are underwritten by the foundation, the homes are not given away. In lieu of a down payment, all Knoxville Habitat for Humanity homeowners are required to complete 500 hours of sweat equity, mostly in the form of budgeting and homeowner classes. In addition, the family pays a mortgage on the home that is at zero-percent over 25 to 30 years.

Besides a visit from country duo Brooks & Dunn, the dedication included remarks from Knoxville Habitat for Humanity’s president and CEO, Kelle Shultz and Charlie and Moll Anderson of the Charlie and Moll Anderson Family Foundation.

“Today we’re celebrating new homeowner Stephanie Davis, thanks to the generosity of the Charlie and Moll Anderson Family Foundation,” said Shultz. “When Brooks & Dunn hand Stephanie the keys to her new house it will unlock her dream of home ownership.”

“Home ownership has an incredible generational impact on families,” said Charlie Anderson. “According to a 2001 Harvard University study, children whose families own a home have better home environments, higher cognitive test scores and fewer behavioral problems than do children of renters. The positive affect that a steady, grounded home environment can have on a child is amazing.”

“We are thrilled to be a part of the ‘Music Row’ here in Knoxville,” said Moll Anderson. “One of our Foundation’s key philosophies is to provide basic human needs, and shelter fits into that category. Working with Knoxville Habitat for Humanity is a perfect way for us to focus on something that’s so important for all humans – a safe and healthy home.”

MusicRow is proud to announce its nominees for the 22nd Annual MusicRow Awards. Ballots for the reader-voted categories will be emailed to subscribers May 19. The deadline for voting is May 24th. The winners, along with the Top Ten Album All Star Musicians will be announced at our awards ceremony on June 24. (The eligibility period was from May 1, 2009 through April 30, 2010.)

Breakthrough Artist of the Year

To honor an artist who achieved significant career progress for the first time.

1. Gloriana (Warner Bros. Nashville)
2. Randy Houser (Show Dog-Universal)
3. Justin Moore (Valory Music Co.)
4. Chris Young (Sony Music Entertainment—RCA)
5. Zac Brown Band (Atlantic)

Producer of the Year

To honor a producer’s work on albums active during the awards time period. Can include, but is not limited to single chart performance and album sales.

1. Mark Bright (Carrie Underwood, Danny Gokey, Emily West)
2. Dann Huff (Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride, Steel Magnolia)
3. Frank Liddell/Mike Wrucke (Miranda Lambert, David Nail)
4. Keith Stegall (Alan Jackson, Zac Brown Band, Clay Walker)
5. Paul Worley (Lady Antebellum, James Otto)

Song of the Year

To honor Writers and Publishers on the Craft of Songwriting, not necessarily Chart Positions (song, artist, writer, publishers)

1. “Need You Now”—Lady Antebellum; writers Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott; publishers EMI Foray Music, Darth Buddha, Dwhaywood Music, Hillary Dawn Publishing, Radiobullets Publishing, Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp., Year Of The Dog Music

2. “Welcome To The Future”—Brad Paisley; writers Chris DuBois, Brad Paisley, publisher SeaGayle

3. “The Climb”—Miley Cyrus; writers Jessi Alexander, Jon Mabe; publishers Disney Music Publishing, Hopeless Rose Music, Mabe It Big Music, Stage Three Music

4. “The House That Built Me”—Miranda Lambert; writers Tom Douglas, Allen Shamblin; publishers Sony/ATV, Tomdouglasmusic, Built On Rock Music, Evergreen, ICG Alliance Music

5. “A Little More Country Than That”—Easton Corbin; writers Wynn Varble, Rory Lee Feek, Don Poythress; publishers S1 Songs and Universal Music Publishing, Warner/Chappell, Don Poythress Songs, FSMGI, A Sling And A Prayer Music, State One Music America, Warner Tamerlane Publishing, Precious Flour Music

Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year

To honor a Nashville songwriter who for the first time wrote or co-wrote a Top 10 song.

Canaan Smith—“Runaway” by Love & Theft
Chart info: broke top 10 on 10/24/09 (spent 35 weeks on the charts); writers Canaan Smith, Rob Blackledge, Stephen Barker Liles; Lyric Street Records

Jessi Alexander—“The Climb” by Miley Cyrus
Chart info: broke top 10 on 05/23/09 (spent 15 weeks @#1 and 51 weeks total on the charts); writers Jessi Alexander, Jon Mabe; Walt Disney Records

Kevin Denney—“Bonfire” by Craig Morgan
Chart info: broke top 10 on 11/21/09 (spent 31 weeks on the charts); writers Kevin Denney, Tom Botkin, Mike Rogers, Craig Morgan; BNA

Patrick Davis—“Where I’m From” by Jason Michael Carroll
chart info: broke top 10 on 6/6/09; writers Patrick Davis, Joe Leathers; Arista

Chris Young—“Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song)” by Chris Young
chart info: hit No. 1 on 9/19/09; writers Cory Batten, Kent Blazy, Chris Young; RCA

Troy Olsen—“I’ll Just Hold On” by Blake Shelton
chart info: broke Top 10 8/3/09; writers Troy Olsen, Ben Hayslip, Brian Simpson; Warner Bros.

Music Rising, the campaign launched in 2005 to aid the musicians of the Gulf Coast Region after the hurricane disasters of Katrina and Rita, has pledged support to the city of Nashville and its musicians affected by the recent floods. Co-founded by U2’s the Edge, legendary producer Bob Ezrin and Gibson Guitar CEO and Chairman Henry Juszkiewicz, Music Rising announced its partnership with MusiCares® in cooperation with the Gibson Foundation to administer the Music Rising Nashville Flood Relief efforts that will aid musicians with the repair and replacement of instruments damaged or destroyed in the recent Tennessee floods.

Effective immediately, Music Rising will donate $250,000 to MusiCares to be used specifically for Music Rising/Nashville Flood Relief. These funds will be earmarked to help musicians in the Nashville area repair or replace instruments that fell victim to the flood waters. Hundreds of musicians  who call Nashville home have lost instruments and equipment. In the aftermath of the floods, as the entire city is trying to grasp the enormity of the loss, the musicians are hoping they will have the instruments they need to perform. Anyone interested in donating to Music Rising’s Nashville Flood Relief effort and increasing the initial $250,000 donation can do so by going to  www.gibsonfoundation.org and clicking on Flood Relief donations. Contributions should be noted by the donor with the request to go directly to Music Rising Nashville.

“When we created Music Rising in 2005, our mission was to help rebuild and preserve the musical culture of the Central Gulf Region,” says co-founder Ezrin. “We started by replacing musicians’ instruments that were lost or destroyed by the hurricanes, and we continue to expand our efforts to benefit the region’s musical heritage. Now, it’s our responsibility to help Nashville’s music community recover from these historic floods, and Music Rising will do just that.”

“As a co-founding partner, Gibson Guitar will continue to support Music Rising,” says Juszkiewicz. “As we have done in the Gulf Region, we plan on staying the course until the Nashville music community has recovered. It continues to be a great honor to work aside the Edge of U2 and producer Bob Ezrin in every effort of Music Rising. We will see Nashville rise again and it will be better than ever.”

“MusiCares is very proud to be partnering with the Gibson Foundation on another Music Rising program — this time to put instruments back into the hands of musicians in Nashville,” says Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy® and MusiCares. “It is especially poignant to be providing this assistance to music people in the home to Gibson’s headquarters, given its longtime philanthropic support of the global music community.”

“Nashville is a treasure chest of Southern heritage and American musical tradition and is indisputably the world’s Country Music capital,” says the Edge. “But it’s more than that. It is also home to one of the greatest concentrations of musical talent on earth. The news of the floods brought back terrible memories of Katrina and when Anderson Cooper of CNN titled his new coverage Nashville Rising it became obvious what we had to do.”

In order to be considered for assistance, musicians must complete the confidential application process. Each applicant must be able to demonstrate that they have a damaged or destroyed instrument. MusiCares will be handling the verification. Beginning Monday, May 17, the MusiCares (www.musicares.com), Music Rising (www.musicrising.org) and Gibson Foundation (www.gibsonfoundation.org) sites will have applications, contact numbers and information for musicians who would like to apply. Music Rising/Nashville Flood Relief, is administered by MusiCares in partnership with Gibson Foundation.