TONIC EXCLUSIVE: Jo Dee Messina Gives Harvest Hands a Helping Hand

With nine #1 singles to her name, country superstar Jo Dee Messina has the ability to raise lots of money and awareness for the biggest of charities — and she has, from St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital to the Special Olympics. But this Dec. 5, she's opening her heart and lending her talent to something smaller: Messina is throwing a concert in Nashville to aid a tiny church organization called Harvest Hands, a Community Development Corporation that's focused on improving the inner-city neighborhood of South Nashville in country music's capital.

"This concert is for the little guy!" Messina tells Tonic. "It's like the independent charity vs. the major-label charity," she adds with her big hearty laugh.

It's also a big Holiday-season "thank you" to her fans: Admission to the concert at the Brentwood United Methodist Church is free, and the entire concert will be streamed live on her website and at Ustream.com.

"Whoever wants to come, hopefully they'll make a donation once they get there," says Messina. "My merchandise company is gonna donate T-shirts, so when we sell the shirts all the proceeds go to Harvest Hands. My sound company is providing sound equipment. A video company in town is fixing us up with video stuff. It's the whole community coming together."

Why would Messina focus her big talents on a small organization? Simple: It's the one-on-one connection she's made with Harvest Hands' director, Rev. Brian Hicks — and seeing the promising results of the work with her own eyes.

"This is not something where they go in from 9 to 5 and then go back to their house in the hills," Messina notes. "He and his wife live there, in the inner city. They went into this community and said, 'What do you need from us?"

"The first thing they did was go in and knock down a crack house. The church bought it, went in, knocked it down and made a playground out of it," Messina says. "This is not people throwing money at a problem; they're living in the midst of it and helping with their time and their love and understanding."

Messina was moved by the organization's efforts to teach values to children, and practical lessons to adults — like the time they brought in a banker to teach a course on the ins and outs of mortgages, so that residents could find a way to buy homes and stop renting from "slumlords."

"These people have committed to at least a 15-year plan to live there," Messina says of the organization, "and they're hoping that the generation they're taking care of now will grow up and reinvest in their own community in that area. It's real dedication."

Messina herself makes regular trips down to South Nashville to work with children through Harvest Hands, lending her voice to help them learn how to sing — in more ways than one.

"Ever since I was a kid, I used to steal cookies [from home] to give to the neighborhood kids. I was always very much a giver," says Messina, who gave birth to her first child this year, and recently completed work on another baby: her new album, due in early 2010. "My voice is very much a gift from God," she adds, "so why not give it back?"

Messina catches herself and laughs that hearty laugh of hers again. "I don't mean that in an arrogant way, like, 'I am just the bomb!'" she says. "Not at all! But I have a wonderful life and have been able to do what I love and love what I do, and this concert is just a way for me to give back."

She also sees it as a fitting way to kick off the holiday season. "Record's done. Baby's done. We just came off a huge run [of tour dates overseas, and recording], now we're home for the holidays. It's the baby's first Thanksgiving ... It's a really magical time," says Messina.

Thinking about all of the attention she'll be able to bring to Harvest Hands in this moment, she says, "I mean ... Life is pretty great."

Photos courtesy of Jeremy Cowert.