CITR MC Tom Gross; BMI VP Writer/Publisher Relations Paul Corbin; Dr. Hal Moses, Director Emeritus of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center; Frances Preston, President, T.J. Martell Foundation; Raymond DuBois, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center; Peter Quinn, CEO/National Executive Director for T.J. Martell

Musical highlights of the week included concerts by Steve Cropper, Clint Black, Little Big Town, John Corbett, Blue County, Hanna-McEuen, and many of Nashville's hottest songwriters including Matraca Berg, Jeff Hanna, Jessi Alexander, Jon Randall, Tim Rushlow, Chuck Cannon, Doug Johnson, Wayne Kirkpatrick and Chas Sanford.

Front row: Gary Chapman, Jennifer Chapman, Equity Music Group President Mike Kraski, Equity Chief Creative Officer Tim Wipperman, Kimberly Roads (LBT), Clint Black, Frances Preston, Karen Fairchild (LBT), Jimi Westbrook (LBT); Back Row: BMI's Paul Corbin, and Phillip Sweet (LBT)

"Country in the Rockies is a magical event filled with music, fun, friendships and most importantly, the mission of raising vital funds to support cutting-edge research for leukemia, cancer and AIDS through the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center," stated Laura Heatherly, Executive Director of the T.J. Martell Foundation.

Clint Black

The inaugural "Music for Life Concert & Auction" held at the Crested Butte Center for the Arts raised $65,000. The event was spearheaded by a committee of local citizens and presented by Redden Group Realty of Crested Butte. Performers included Blue County, Suzy Boggus, Dean Dillon, Aaron Barker, Hanna-McEuen and Gary Morris.

Clint Black and Little Big Town

Since 1993, the Martell Foundation has enabled physicians and scientists of the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at VICC to conduct cutting-edge research and quickly transition promising new findings from laboratory benches to patient bedsides. To date, the Nashville division has raised $14 million in support of the VICC's pilot projects. In turn, these contributions have been leveraged to obtain additional funding - totaling more than $100 million - from public and private sources to further advance ongoing efforts to alleviate suffering from cancer.

Jaime Hanna and Jonathan McEuen "busk" on the top of Mt. Crested Butte

The Frances Williams Preston Labs of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center are named in honor of former BMI President and CEO Frances Preston. Preston is the founder of Country in the Rockies and also serves as President of the Martell board and as a VICC board member.

Both Hanna and McEuen are accomplished guitarists and songwriters who have logged more time on the road than many artists twice their age. Jonathan was performing with his dad by the time he was seven. "There were 9,000 people who stood up and screamed and cheered after I sang," he recalls of performing at his dad's annual Rocky Mountain Opry at Colorado's famed Red Rocks amphitheater. "I was in tears because it was so emotional. When you are seven years old and people are sitting and then they are standing and screaming because of something you did, that's when I got the buzz. From then on I knew."

Like McEuen, music was part of Hanna's life early on. After high school, he moved to Nashville to pursue a music career and met Mavericks frontman Raul Malo. "His music affected me and it just totally changed my perspective of country music," says Hanna, who went on the road with the Mavericks, handling harmony, rhythm guitar and percussion. He later performed on Malo's solo dates and the two co-wrote together. "Being in Nashville got me interested in songwriting," he notes

McEuen had been offered a pop deal with Universal, but the seeds for Hanna-McEuen were planted when Jonathan and Jaime recorded "Lowlands" in 2001 for the Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. III . The song was so well received, it paved the way for their debut disc, which fuses Hanna's Nashville sensibilities with McEuen's West Coast vibe. "It's just the accumulation of influences over the years," says Hanna. "We have very similar tones in our vocals, but we also have very different styles, so I think when you marry the two, it comes out to be what it is."

"We're opening a new chapter," says Jonathan of the duo's musical legacy, "It's something that I just love so much. It's [been] totally worth the wait."

Pictured at BMI Nashville are Jaime Hanna, BMI's David Preston and Jonathan McEuen.

Photo by Caroline Davis