Celebreality ChattaVegas Style

Last night was the annual, “A Song for the Children,” concert benefiting the Children’s Advocacy Center of Chattanooga. Last year, I blogged about it several times, but this year I wasn’t as involved. Essentially, I just designed the posters(yep, I designed that), attended a few meetings and then got to do the best volunteer job out there–hang out backstage with the talent.

Since the event had two locations–Bessie Smith Hall for the VIP dinner and the Tivoli for the show, the staff and volunteers had to split up. The Center needed a trustworthy volunteer to handle everything backstage during the dinner, so of course, Addy stepped up for that responsiblity.

Let’s say that I saw an interesting mix of egos. A quick Starbucks run taught me a lot about each star’s ego. Vince Gill and Amy Grant are very down to earth. Everyone else was very nice as well–Gretchen Peters (super sweet), Matraca Berg and Jeff Hanna. I achieved my goal of getting my pic with Amy Grant, so my evening was made early on.

The concert itself was fabulous. It was very low-key and intimate with only acousitic guitars. Each person took turns and gave the background on their songs. Amy sang, Breath of Heaven, which is my favorite Christmas song of all time, so I was psyched. However, the best part of the evening used some local talent.

Jennifer, the executive director of the CAC has a 15-year-old son named Dustin, who is a guitar prodigy. Backstage, they mentioned to Amy and Vince that Dustin had a VIP audition for Simon Cowell’s new show coming up. Amy was impressed and during the concert invited Dustin to play. So last night, a 15-year-old’s dreams were made when he got to jam with some of the most prolific songwriters in country music. I think it’s safe to say that the kid has a career ahead of him. Dustin is not only extremely talented, but very mature and down-to-earth. Not surprisingly, he stole the show.

This has been a crazy week and it doesn’t stop any time soon. After a late night, I had a fun 8 a.m. CVB breakfast for the press tour that’s in town. We just wrapped up giving a press tour of the Museum. Next we have a volunteer recognition banquet and tomorrow I’m up to Knoxville for a bit for Lore’s last shower. Sigh…don’t even get me started on next week and the week after (Ahhhgggg! Relay!!!!) No rest for the weary.