A country music superstar is coming home to Botetourt County for a special one-night concert and he's bringing his songwriting friends with him.
Matthew Ramsey, front man of Old Dominion, created the event several years ago as a way to make a difference in his hometown.
Buchanan is more than 450 miles away from Nashville, Tennessee, but one night a year the authors of more than 100 hit country songs combined spend the evening serenading the small town.
At Nashville Night 2018, Ramsey sat in the middle and to his left and right were men whose names most people might not know, but whose work is widely known among country music fans.
We sat down with Ramsey’s mom, Peggy, in her living room to talk about the event that started out as just an idea to help.
“Matthew called and asked what he could do. It was about 10 years ago and he was beginning to get a little notoriety,” she said. “He wanted to know what he could do to help the community.”
About a 100 people attended Nashville Night that first year in support of a local food pantry.
It has grown ever since and now some of the most successful songwriters in the business sit next to the homegrown talent.
Taking the stage with Ramsey this year will be bandmate Trevor Rosen, songwriters Matt Jenkins and Josh Osborne, and NBC's Songland judge Shane McAnally.
“The other song writers that come, I mean, they're huge successes. They tease him because when they come to this town they may be a bigger success and a bigger name than him, but when they're in this town, it's all Mathew,” Peggy said.
She says this community has been so supportive and that was evident when Old Dominion played the Berglund Center last fall.
Peggy says it was seeing her son's picture in Times Square for the first time that she realized he's made it.
“Whenever I go to one of Old Dominion's concerts, anytime. Sometimes it just hits me, I can't believe he's doing this.”
Out of all his successes - winning Grammys and group of the year - she's most proud of …
“The man that he is. For the father that he is. The husband, it's a hard life that they have with all the traveling with Old Dominion, but he tries very hard to give attention to his family,” Peggy said.
Nashville Night tickets will be on sale at the Buchanan library on Aug. 16th from noon- 7 p.m. and Aug. 17th 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If there are tickets left over, they will then be sold online.
All the money raised will go back into the local community.