Georgia On My Mind 2021 Streams on Dec. 7

Amy Ray and Brent Cobb host “Gretsch Presents Georgia On My Mind 2021.” (Photos by Jay Thomas)

Singer/songwriters Brent Cobb and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls host “Gretsch Presents Georgia On My Mind,” an online event featuring homegrown Americana, roots and blues artists to benefit the Georgia Music Foundation. The one-hour concert will be streamed on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021 at 8:00 PM/ET (7:00 PM/CT). Tickets are $10 and can be purchased HERE. All proceeds benefit the Georgia Music Foundation.

“Georgia On My Mind” is usually held at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, where Georgia natives The Peach Pickers (Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson and Ben Hayslip) founded the event in 2014. After seven years of hosting, the trio turned the reins over to fellow Georgians Cobb and Ray in 2020 but as COVID-19 began to spread, the charitable event was reimagined as an online affair with intimate living room and studio performances by more than 20 artists.

Jontavious Willis plays the blues at “Gretsch Presents Georgia On My Mind 2021.” (Photo by Jay Thomas)

Earlier in 2021, the Georgia Music Foundation cautiously re-entered live music by staging “Georgia On My Mind” lakeside at Five Arrow Farms in Social Circle, GA with performances by Cobb, Ray, Kevn Kinney of Drivin N Cryin, Jontavious Willis, Kalen & Aslyn, Trina Meade and Tomi Martin of Three5Human, and the Lola Gulley Band. The streamed concert on Dec. 7 will feature highlights from that intimate show.

Amy Ray and Brent Cobb team up again for “Gretsch Presents Georgia On My Mind 2021.” (Photo by Jay Thomas)

“Amy and I never would’ve guessed our first shot at hosting ‘Georgia On My Mind’ would be online, but we both loved the way the show turned out last year,” Cobb said. “While we eased back in this year playing with a small group of friends for a small audience, it was so much fun that we wanted to make that experience available online, too.”

“Being together and making music after COVID-imposed isolation was meaningful in so many ways,” added Ray. “Everyone was present for something special and you can hear it in the performances as we all come together on behalf of an organization that not only supports music education grants every year, but also provided grants to musicians and crew around the state last fall through a relief fund it organized.”

“Gretsch Presents Georgia On My Mind 2021” artists share the stage for the finale. (Photo by Jay Thomas)

“We’ve definitely felt the financial sting of not having our big benefit concert for two years in a row,” said Lisa Love, Director of the Georgia Music Foundation. “But the reach of streaming and the response of viewers from all of the country last year was a discovery worth its weight in gold, and we want to keep using this as a platform to connect.”

The Gretsch Company, led by CEO Fred Gretsch and SFO Dinah Gretsch, is a valued partner in the endeavor. For the fourth year, the global musical instrument company headquartered in Pooler, GA, just outside Savannah, serves as presenting sponsor. Atlanta-based filmmaker Craig Miller directed the online version of “Georgia On My Mind,” which will be streamed via SEER.LA. Ticket purchasers will receive a link and access code that will activate on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021 at 8:00 PM/ET (7:00 PM/CT).

Amy Ray performs at the 4th Annual Georgia On My Mind concert at the Ryman in 2017. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

AMY RAY: Back in high school in Atlanta, Amy Ray teamed up with friend Emily Saliers to form a duo that would become the Indigo Girls. Rooted in shared passions for harmony and justice, the pair has forged a career spanning more than 20 records, including their 2020 studio album Look Long, and combining artistry and activism to push against every boundary and box anyone tries to put them in. On her own, Ray has released nine solo studio albums and three live ones, from the political punk of 2001’s Stag to the feminist Americana of 2018’s Holler. Each effort seems to lean into her influences in different ways, whether it’s the Allman Brothers or the Carter Family. Ray continues to run Daemon Records, the non-for-profit label she formed in 1990 to support grassroots artists including Kristen Hall, the Rock-A-Teens, and more. With Daemon, as with everything she does, Ray aims to give something back to the community from which she has gotten so much.

Brent Cobb performs at the 6th Annual Gretsch Presents Georgia On My Mind in 2019 at the Ryman. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images)

BRENT COBB: From early tunes like “Richland” to the thoughtful 2020 album Keep ‘Em on They Toes, which was named among Rolling Stone’s 10 Best Country and American albums of the year, Georgia has figured prominently in the music of Brent Cobb. Born in Americus and raised in a musical family in nearby Ellaville, the singer/songwriter’s 2016 breakthrough major label debut, Shine On Rainy Day, was nominated for a Best Americana Album at the 60th Grammy Awards. That effort, as well as Providence Canyon, which earned praise from Rolling Stone, Fader and NPR Music, was recorded with his cousin, Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb. Brent Cobb is also widely respected as a songwriter with cuts by Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Kenny Chesney, and more. In 2019, he toured with Chris Stapleton, headlined his own “Sucker for a Good Time” tour and premiered “Come Home Soon,” a video series he called “a love letter to Georgia.” Cobb’s next project, a gospel album entitled And Now, Let’s Run to Page…, will be released on Jan. 28.

GEORGIA MUSIC FOUNDATION: The Georgia Music Foundation, a non-profit organization established in 1994, supports programs of music education, preservation and outreach through its annual Georgia Music Grant program. Learn more and donate at georgiamusicfoundation.org.