Giving: MusiCares

This weekend, the HOTY (a/k/a Husband of the Year for new readers) and I attended the MusiCares Person of the Year 
event in Los Angeles. Holy Moly. It was a major Silver Lining of the week.

The annual MusiCares Person of the Year tribute dinner and silent auction take place during Grammy Week two nights before the actual Grammy Awards. Proceeds from the event benefit MusiCares, whose mission is to provide:

a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need. MusiCares’ services and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies, and each case is treated with integrity and confidentiality. MusiCares also focuses the resources and attention of the music industry on human service issues that directly impact the health and welfare of the music community.

MusiCares is an incredible Silver Lining in the music industry because it provides a safety net of critical assistance for people in the industry in times of need. They are adept at channeling the resources and attention of the music industry on human service issues that directly impact the health and welfare of the music community.

Specifically, MusiCares’ services and resources cover a wide range of services, all with integrity and confidentiality:

• Emergency Financial Assistance
• Crisis Hotline Numbers
• Medical, Dental, Hearing Assistance
• Senior Healthcare Assistance
• Addiction Recovery
• Disaster Relief Assistance ie. Hurricane Sandy

Each year, the MusiCares Person of the Year dinner honors a recording artist who has made important contributions to the world of music and has demonstrated extraordinary humanitarian and philanthropic efforts. This year Bruce Springsteen was honored. Who better to honor? He is so incredibly philanthropic and seemingly is always the first celebrity to pop up and say, “Let’s help!”

The event was hosted by Jon Stewart. He’s so fab and seriously — seriously — funny! While many people preferred the teleprompter, he winged it and rocked it.

And speaking of rocking, check out this outrageous list of performers: Alabama Shakes, Zac Brown, Jackson Browne, Ken Casey, Kenny Chesney, Ben Harper, Emmylou Harris,  Faith Hill, Jim James, Elton John, Juanes, John Legend, Natalie Maines, Tim McGraw, Tom Morello, Mumford & Sons, Patti Smith, Mavis Staples, Sting, Eddie Vedder, and Neil Young.

There were two highlights of the evening. The first occurred when Bruce himself jumped up during the charity auction bidding and added a ride in the sidecar of his Harley, an hour-long guitar lesson, and some of his mother’s homemade lasagna to the original item (an autographed guitar).

My other personal favorite of the evening was Mumford and Sons’ performance of Bruce’s song, “I’m On Fire”. Bob Lefsetz described their performance perfectly when he said:

Mumford & Sons hit it so far out of the park I was reminded that when you do it right, music warms your heart and eviscerates loneliness, it enshrouds you in a flannel blanket and gives you the power and inspiration to march forward. Their performance was the highlight of the evening. With the lights turned low and acoustic instrumentation, we were reminded in an era dominated by tech, it’s humanity that triumphs.

It was a BEYOND belief goose bump event benefitting an amazing cause, which is always the Silver Lining.