Tonight, Country Music Hall of Fame members Vince Gill and Emmylou Harris, along with Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce took the stage at All for the Hall New York, a benefit for the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum’s education programs.

The All for the Hall concert is modeled after a Nashville tradition known as a “guitar pull,” a casual affair in which songwriters take turns performing while their fellow artists listen or add accompaniment. This one-of-a-kind evening at New York’s Irving Plaza unfolded with Gill, Harris, McBryde and Pearce swapping stories and music.

In addition to the guitar pull, the evening also showcased the museum’s flagship education program, Words & Music. The program pairs students with professional songwriters to help them develop language arts skills as they learn how to write songs. The song “When Hearts Come to Life,” written by first-grade students from PS32 in Brooklyn who participated in Words & Music with Songwriters Hall of Fame member Liz Rose and Phil Barton, was also featured during the All for the Hall event via video.

Peytan Porter kicked off All for the Hall New York festivities with a special performance at a patron party on Monday, Sept. 11, at the home of Jamie Tisch.

The All for the Hall campaign began in 2005 when Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill suggested country music artists contribute the proceeds of one annual performance to benefit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Launched in 2007 in New York, the series has alternated between New York and Los Angeles in succeeding years, with Gill and fellow Country Music Hall of Fame member Emmylou Harris as hosts. With Keith Urban, Gill also co-hosts a recurring All for the Hall concert in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena. In September 2021, the museum hosted the first ever All for the Hall benefit in Dallas, which is set to return to the city in 2024. All for the Hall concerts have raised nearly $6 million in support of the museum’s educational initiatives, which directly serve more than 130,000 people annually.

Initially designed for grades 3-12, Words & Music allows students to tell their stories by writing original song lyrics, while developing language-arts skills. The program embraces and showcases country music’s legacy of songwriting and passes it down to the next generation of writers and thinkers. Through Words & Music, students interact with a professional songwriter, paired with their class, in an engaging performance workshop that transforms students’ lyrics into finished songs. More than 160,000 students have participated in the Words & Music program since its inception in 1979. More information on Words & Music can be found on the museum’s website.