HEALTH ALLIANCE FOR AUSTIN MUSICIANS' 3RD CORPORATE BATTLE OF THE BANDS A WIN-WIN FOR ALL
More Than $20,000 Raised; 3 Bands Take Home Exceptional Prizes
published April 27, 2010
Austin, TX - Three bands in Tuesday night's Health Alliance for Austin Musicians 3rd Annual Corporate Battle of the Bands fundraising contest and concert won all the prizes, but it's the organization's member-musicians that will reap the long-term benefits of the more than $20,000 raised by band sponsorships, audience tickets, donations and raffle - money that will go to further expanding the healthcare services HAAM provides.
It was The Rejected Takeoffs, made up of employees of and sponsored by Austin Digital Inc., that was named Grand Prize Winner by the panel of celebrity judges: pop singer Johnny Goudie, booking agent Matt Hickey, music journalist Andy Langer and former member of The Go-Gos Kathy Valentine. Its prize package includes a day of recording with an engineer at Austin's Bismeaux Studio and passes to this fall's Austin City Limits Music Festival.
Go Action Team, sponsored by GSD&M Idea City, won Best Original Band and gift certificates to Strait Music.
!The Deuce! from Cirrus Logic won both Best Cover Band and Fan Favorite, the latter determined by the most donations to HAAM stuffed into its tip jar by audience members at Antone's for the Showdown. It won Strait Music gift certificates and a gig at Stubb's Bar-BBQ. Its performance took Fan Favorite honors for the second year in a row.
This year, eight bands were sponsored by six of Austin's best-known business citizens - also including H-E-B, George & Brothers LLP, and AMD - and $21,620 was raised.
Health Alliance for Austin Musicians has spent five years throwing a lifeline to low-income, uninsured working musicians who help make Austin such an enviable place to live and work and often saving careers and lives. HAAM's nearly 2,000 member-musicians enjoy access to affordable medical, dental and mental healthcare services provided by Seton Family of Hospitals, St. David's Foundation and The SIMS Foundation, with services expanding to also include audiological and vision care. All those services are funded by events such as HAAM's annual Corporate Battle of the Bands contest and concert and the organization's other signature event, HAAM Benefit Day (this year slated for Tuesday, September 21) - uniting music, business and the community behind a great cause: to keep music in Austin alive and well.
For more information or to make a donation, visit www.healthallianceforaustinmusicians.org or myhaam.org.
Contacts:
Jill McGuckin, 512.217.9404; jill@mcguckinpr.com
Carolyn Schwarz, HAAM executive director, 512.324.3414; cschwarz@healthallianceforaustinmusicians.org