Atlanta musicians play all weekend to benefit Georgia Music Hall of Fame

The ultimate location of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame may be an open question at the moment, but some Atlanta musicians plan to help ensure that there will be a future for the Macon attraction.

On Saturday and Sunday, 22 acts will perform in a benefit at Eddie's Attic for the hall and the Georgia Music magazine it publishes.

The state of Georgia, which has funded its operation since opening the hall of fame in 1996, seeks a new entity to run it. That may result in a move from its Macon home. In the meantime, the hall's state allocation is $386,000 this year, down $200,000 from last year, and fund-raisers across the state are helping keep the doors open.

"Musicians get asked to do 800 million benefits a year, so I hesitated to call everybody and say, ‘Hey, you want to do yet another one?'" said long-time Atlanta musician Dede Vogt, who organized what's being billed as the Georgia Music Heritage Benefit Concert. "But everybody I called was very anxious to be a part of it, even the people I called who had prior engagements."

Vogt secured a varied slate of performers who will each play half-hour sets over the two days, beginning at 3 p.m. and going until 11. Admission is $15 regardless of how many consecutive sets a concertgoer checks out.

Notable acts include Vogt, the former Cowboy Envy leader (3 p.m. Saturday), pop-rockers Herman Put Down the Gun (10 p.m. Saturday), folk singer Caroline Herring (4:30 p.m. Sunday), the alt-country band Jackson Country Line (6:45 p.m. Sunday) and bluesy Caroline Aiken (9:45 p.m. Sunday).

The 57-year-old Vogt, who moved to Atlanta from south Georgia to play music at age 23, says she's long respected the role of the hall in promoting and connecting the state's varied musical scene and traditions.

"Yes, [as a musician] you had to take your stuff to New York and yes, you had to go to L.A," Vogt said. "But for the [artists] that are from here, there's always been a great sense of community, and I think the hall has displayed that through the years."

Five communities have expressed interest in taking over the attraction -- Athens, Dunwoody, Dahlonega, Macon and Woodstock -- with bids due Dec. 10. Fulton County, where commissioner Robb Pitts said the state's request for proposal arrived past its own deadline, is not being allowed into the process belatedly, according to the governing Georgia Music Hall of Fame Authority.

Vogt votes to keep the hall in Macon: "I think it's great for Macon and great for Middle Georgia. I don't think everything needs to be in the Atlanta metro area. But wherever it's at, I'll support it. The whole point here is to make sure that it keeps going."

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Georgia Music Heritage Benefit Concert