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Show doesn't go on, but fundraiser does
Chip Greene photo.jpg
Pictured are performers at the last Chip Greene & Friends concert at the Park Theater in 2019. Former McMinnville residents Lucy Haston and Griffon Winton are seen at left, while Greene is in the middle.

For the past five years, McMinnville native singer-songwriter Chip Greene has been delighting Park Theatre audiences with his annual Chip Greene & Friends concert. 

All money from ticket sales have gone to benefit the Warren County Emergency Food Bank.

This year would have been the sixth annual performance, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed things. 

“I chose not to do a show,” says Greene, who considered putting on an online concert but ultimately decided against that too. At that point, Greene says, “I really wasn’t sure I was going to do anything this year.”

Then an idea hit him. He made a “middle-of-the-night, insomniac decision” to put together an online fundraiser to benefit the Food Bank. No music, no concert, simply raising money for a good cause.

The fundraising goal is $3,000, roughly the amount last year’s Chip Greene & Friends show raised for the Food Bank. Greene reports the response to the online fundraiser has been phenomenal. As of Tuesday, donations were $2,981 and 100% of the money raised will go to the Food Bank.

Greene, a rock ’n roll musician, grew up in McMinnville, where his family owned Womack Printing Company. Although he ended up leaving town to attend the Baylor School in Chattanooga and then to pursue his music dreams in Nashville, he still visits McMinnville often. His mother Suzi Greene still resides in the area.

Greene, whose music has been featured in advertisements for Eddie Bauer, Sprite, and Delta Airlines and who wrote the well-known song “Everything about You,” says he has wanted his annual McMinnville shows to be like concerts a person would experience at Nashville venues like Basement East or The 5 Spot, and featuring a commensurate level of talent. He hopes to be able to bring his annual concert back to live audiences at the Park Theatre in November 2021.

This year, though, he hopes Warren countians will contribute to his online fundraiser benefitting the Warren County Food Bank, which serves food-insecure individuals in the area.

The fundraiser will be live through Dec. 18 and can be found by going to Facebook.com/ChipGreene.

Greene adds, “I hope we knock it out of the park and well-exceed the goal.”