Country Stars Come Out to Support Devastated Oklahoma Communities

by Julian Spivey
Country music superstar and “The Voice” coach Blake Shelton quickly put together an hour-long, star-studded benefit concert for those devastated by the tornadoes in Oklahoma, especially the hard-hit town of Moore, last week.
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It’s almost become an entertainment and music industry cliché to have a benefit concert after some horrible tragedy these days. A quickly thrown together benefit show for New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy was aired on NBC last fall and a bigger, better organized benefit show was held over a month later. Recently it was also announced that there will be a benefit show for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing last month that will feature big Boston based acts like Aerosmith and James Taylor. While benefit concerts have become cliché it’s obviously great that artists give their time to these events to garner much needed monetary aide for the victims of the devastation.

As one could have guessed most of the performances from Wednesday (May 29) night’s “Healing in the Heartland” concert were slow and many somber-ish. Shelton kicked off his show with a performance from his 2011 number one single “God Gave Me You” and was followed by Darius Rucker with a similarly themed “True Believers,” from his most recent album of the same name.

One of the highlights of the night came when Shelton’s wife and award-winning country songstress Miranda Lambert took the stage to perform “The House That Built Me,” which she struggled to complete through tears, obviously shaken up at the thought of so many memories torn asunder by the powerful storms.

The best and certainly one of the most powerful, performances of the benefit show was Vince Gill’s touching “Threaten Me with Heaven,” which he dedicated to the 24 people who lost their lives during the Moore tornado. The song, which was released two years ago, honestly should’ve been a country music hit, but received almost non-existent airplay on country music radio, probably for being too country.

Other performances during the short concert included Rascal Flatt’s “Stand,” Reba McEntire’s “Everyday People,” OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder singing “Counting Stars” and Luke Bryan’s “Crash My Party,” which was the only song that truly seemed out of place during the concert.

The show ended with Shelton and his fellow “The Voice” coach Usher crooning “Home,” which Shelton covered from Michael Buble and had a country hit with in 2008. The performance fit the two well vocally and was one of the better showings of the night.

For those who would like to help out with the Oklahoma tornado recovery and aide efforts you can do so by texting “Rebuild” to 52000 to make a 1-time $10 donation.