Concert Adds to Fund Set Up to Help Country Music Workers

A small crowd at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth did something good to help those in the country music industry who are struggling as the pandemic goes on.

Singer Scotty McCreery played a limited capacity show last Saturday night, and fans may not have realized it, but a dollar of their ticket price went to the ACM Lifting Lives COVID Response Fund.

It added up to $2,100 to help country music workers facing hard times.

“We were thrilled at the opportunity to work with Scotty McCreery and partner with such an incredible and important organization again,” Billy Bob’s Texas General Manager Marty Travis said in a news release.

“I love having an opportunity to help a great cause like ACM Lifting Lives, and doing it while performing at a legendary venue like Billy Bob’s Texas is an added bonus,” McCreery said.

The philanthropic arm of the Academy of Country Music created the fund last March when the pandemic shut down live music and continues to write checks today.

"We're hearing from our colleagues, the bus drivers, songwriters, lighting techs saying, 'I'm still out of work'," said the nonprofit's executive director Lyndsay Cruz, "I think we reached about 200 people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, to date, and our grants are small, $1,000 to $1,500, $2,000. So really, any amount helps."

Cruz says $3.5 million has been raised, so far, and checks sent to members of the industry in 345 cities.

"We thought this might help keep people going a couple of weeks, a couple of months. We had no idea the pandemic would last this long," Cruz said. "We had no idea the live music industry would be shut down this long."

ACM Lifting Lives continues to accept donations. The link is here.