The date for the 13th Annual “Evening for the Expo” presented by Lawrence Hall – Abilene has been set! This unique Expo Center fundraiser, known as the original Nashville songwriter show, will be held on February 11, 2023.Please join us for the 13th anniversary show featuring some of Nashville’s most prestigious songwriters.
Chris DeStefano
A native of Mt Laurel, New Jersey, Chris Destefano is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. In early 2012 Chris charted his first country single with Jana Kramer’s “Why You Wanna” which peaked at #3 on the Billboard chart followed by Country chart topper “Good Girl” recorded by Carrie Underwood. Chris has followed with a streak of #1 songs recorded by superstars such as Billy Currington (“Hey Girl”), Luke Bryan (“That’s My Kind of Night”), Miranda Lambert (“Somethin’ Bad”), and Rascal Flatts (“Rewind”). He scored another #1 with Carrie Underwood's "Something in The Water".
Matt Jenkins
Matt Jenkins is an accomplished songwriter that has penned numerous No. 1 singles throughout his career, including the Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani Platinum-certified track “Happy Anywhere,” as well as the Platinum smash hit “Buy Dirt”, recorded by Luke Bryan, which recently won Song of the Year at the 2022 CMA Awards. A native Texan, Jenkins received a CMA Triple Play Award in 2017 for penning three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period: “Confession” by Florida Georgia Line, “Setting the World on Fire” by Kenny Chesney and Pink, and “Song For Another Time” by Old Dominion.
Allen Shamblin
A past favorite at the Evening for the Expo, Allen Shamblin was born in Tennessee and grew up in Huffman, Texas. In 1989, it was Randy Travis’ #1 version of “He Walked on Water”, which brought Allen to the forefront of the songwriting community. This began a string of award-winning songs for superstars such as Collin Raye (“In This Life”), David Ball (“Thinkin’ Problem”), John Michael Montgomery (“Life’s A Dance”), Toby Keith (“We Were in Love”), and Keith Urban (“Where The Blacktop Ends”).“I Can’t Make You Love Me”, recorded by Bonnie Raitt, was nominated for a Grammy Award and voted the #8 song of “The 100 Greatest Songs Of All Time”.
We are excited to welcome you to this wonderful evening of entertainment in the newly remodeled Taylor County Coliseum. Hosting the dinner and show on the floor of the Coliseum will provide plenty of room to move about and a spectacular venue for our artists to perform.
The funds raised for this event will continue to be used for the ongoing maintenance of the Expo Center.Your previous support is greatly appreciated, and we sincerely hope you will join us again for this fantastic evening of great music and stories.