The Nashville Concert Across America to End Gun Violence will be at Exit/In Sunday night, September 25th.  Doors open at 6, music gets started around 7.  Admission is free.  This will be an 18+ show.  We will be registering voters throughout the night.

More Than 1,000 Artists Will Band Together For a Day of Music to Honor Gun Violence Victims and Make Gun Violence Prevention a Voting Issue in the November Elections

Performance Highlights Include Jackson Browne, Eddie Vedder, Rosanne Cash, Ryan Cabrera, Vy Higginsen’s Gospel Choir of Harlem, Sam Harris, Don Felder, the Gay Men’s Choir of Los Angeles and Many More

Concertacrossamerica.org | facebook.com/RememberSept25/ | #concertacrossamerica to #endgunviolence

September 20, 2016 (New York, NY): On September 25, the Concert Across America to End Gun Violence will feature 350 events across the country for a day of music to honor victims of gun violence and to make gun violence prevention a voting issue in the November elections. Hawaii, the state with the lowest gun death rate in the country, will initiate the concert series with a special sunrise Hawaiian Aloha chant performed by the Prince Dance Theatre at the Kahilu Theatre at 12:01AM HST/6:01am EST.

“As the state with the lowest rates of gun violence in the U.S., Hawaii is proud to kick off this day of music with a traditional aloha chant,” said Hawaii concert organizer Beth BornsteinDunnington. “We hope this will set the tone for the day as one filled with respect, peace, and productive dialogue.”

Following Hawaii, musical events will take place over the course of the day at places of faith, historical theaters and other venues across the country. The Concert Across America to End Gun Violence is a grassroots coalition of faith-based groups, nonprofit organizations, activists, and musicians who have banded together to plan a day of music on September 25, the day designated by Congress to remember victims of murder. The organization also hopes the nation-wide efforts will inspire presidential debate moderators to include a question for the candidates on gun violence for the September 26 debate and will mobilize voters to make gun violence a major voting issue in November.

Since officially announcing the event in early August, the Concert Across America to End Gun Violence has tripled to 350 events with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Marc Cohn, and Vy Higginsen’s Gospel Choir in Harlem performing the headliner event at the Beacon Theater in NYC. In Los Angeles, Entertainment Tonight host Kevin Frazier will emcee a concert featuring Don Felder (formerly of The Eagles), Ryan Cabrera, The Gay Men’s Chorus of L.A., and Sam Harris of the X Ambassadors, at The Rooftop at The Standard, Downtown LA. Also in the Los Angeles area, St Francis Center in Atwater Village will host a free community concert.

“More than 30,000 Americans die every year from gun violence, 12,000 of which are murders,” said John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence in Boston. “It’s time Congress does more than pray and designate a day of remembrance. We need to hold every candidate and elected official accountable to support national mandatory criminal background checks for all sales and keep guns out of the hands of criminals, terrorists, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill.”

Rosanne Cash is a longtime gun violence prevention activist and one of the first artists to sign on to the Concert Across America. Cash served on the board of PAX, a gun violence prevention organization, for a decade. She has also written articles for Rolling Stone and Billboard about the issue. After Columbine, Cash spoke at the Million Mom March. She participated in a protest lie-in in Times Square after Virginia Tech. Through her advocacy, Cash has met with dozens of mothers who have had their children ripped from their lives because of the easy access of guns to criminals and the mentally ill.

“The enormity of their loss is unbearable and all too easily forgotten,” Cash said. “On Sunday we will drown out the hateful rhetoric that has become the hallmark of the gun debate with music, and create a positive national moment of collective remembrance, supported by action and a commitment to change. I believe our country is good enough and strong enough to eliminate senseless gun violence and prevent the destruction of one more family.

Nashville event organizer Beth Joslin Roth, Policy Director for the Safe Tennessee Project, said of her local concert, “Tennessee is 9th in the country for women murdered by men and 9th in the nation for homicides. Every year, 600 Tennesseans use a gun to take their own life. We know we can do better. That is why we welcome the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the issue of gun violence in Tennessee with our participation in the Concert Across America to End Gun Violence- Nashville.”

Many of the artists participating in the Concert Across America on Sunday have been directly impacted by gun violence, including Eric Donnelly of The Alternate Routes, who will perform at The Acoustic in Bridgeport, CT. Donnelly’s parents were fatally shot in 2005.

Referring to the song he released on Father’s Day called “Somewhere in America,” Donnelly said: “It is not written for sympathy or remembrance. It is about empathy. It is inspired by the feelings of anger, sadness, hopelessness, and guilt I feel every time I hear of another life lost and family shattered by gun violence. My story is over a decade old, but new stories are occurring every single day.”

Gun violence survivors participating include Grammy winner Marc Cohn, who was shot in the head returning from a concert in 2005. Matthew Gross, formerly of the band the Bush Pilots, will perform at a concert in Peekskill, NY. Gross was shot in the head during a shooting rampage on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in 1998 that claimed the life of his best friend and bandmate Chris Burmeister.

Cohn said: “I have experienced first-hand the terror and pain that gun violence can cause. The work of the Concert Across America to bring people together to end gun violence is so important to the future of our country.”

One of the lead organizers of the Concert Across America to End Gun Violence is Donna Dees, the founder organizer of the Million Mom March on Mother’s Day 2000, the largest protest against gun violence in U.S. history with more than 750,000 participants marching on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Dees filed for the permit for the Mother’s Day March following a shooting at a day-camp in Granada Hills, CA.

“Just as mothers rose up in 2000 to take a stand against gun violence in Washington, D.C., musicians and citizens across the country will rise up and band together on Sunday to make their voices heard and demand that elected officials take serious strides to end gun violence,” said Dees, one of the lead organizer of the Concert Across America.

The artists and communities participating in the Concert Across America to End Gun Violence are a snapshot into the diversity of the movement. Gun violence impacts everyone, in every community. Bands range from the Police-Community Choir performing in Mesa, AZ, to Ozomatli playing in Santa Barbara at the Arlington Theatre. In Texas, venues range from churches to concert halls like Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton, Lola’s Trailer Park in Fort Worth, and Threadgills in Austin where legendary Jimmy Dale Gilmore will perform.

In Missouri, singer Katie McGrath has organized a community concert in St. Louis, and a singing newspaper columnist in Kansas City has organized a concert at the Jazz Museum. Kansas organizers against campus carry will put on concerts with a variety of musicians including a college faculty band.

Music genres for Sunday range from rap in San Francisco, classical in York, PA, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Danbury, CT, and rock and roll in New York City.

Many of the concerts are free including the concert at Chicago’s DuSable Museum of African American History. Organizers will accept donations for youth mentoring programs and funerals.

Artists with pre-existing commitments on Sunday can participate with social media shout-outs. So far, Chelsea Handler, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor are among those who have expressed support using the hashtags #ConcertAcrossAmerica (to) #EndGunViolence.

Visit http://www.ConcertAcrossAmerica.org for more information. #ConcertAcrossAmerica to #EndGunViolence.