Her HRC is an initiative of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that seeks to engage women in the mission of the organization through a nationwide programming drive. The organization’s stated goal is for the program to “gather women to both celebrate and build a greater sense of community while learning about the importance of engaging in the LGBT civil rights movement. This program expands and diversifies HRC’s membership through events hosted across the country towards the beginning of each calendar year.”

According to HRC Nashville Chair of Pride and Membership Outreach Blake Brockway, “Her HRC originated in Nashville in 2007 and has quickly spread throughout the country as a national program. The event kinda tapered off in after a couple of strong years but had a rebirth in 2014 as a yearly concert series featuring local and national singer-songwriters.”

This year, events will be held in conjunction with this program across the country, with programs including everything from “live performances to comedy to film screenings to everything in between” and local programs are tailored to local markets. Thus it comes as little surprise that HRC Nashville’s program would be a concert!

This years program features some of Music City’s, and Tennessee’s, most amazingly talented female singer-songwriters, including Garrison Starr, Meghan Linsey, Jamie Floyd, Maggie Rose, Sinclair, Steff Mahan, and Kimberly Quinn.

Starr, a Memphis “native” from suburb Hernando, Mississippi, has developed a respected name in music, since her 1997 hit album Eighteen Over Me. With over ten albums and EPs released, it’s clear that she’s worked steadily ever since. He recent EP, The Forgotten Street, received a rave review in Curve Magazine: “[‘Halfway Whole’] is so stunning that everything that follows has to struggle out of its shadow, but the other four cuts step up to meet the challenge.”

Linsey is an amazing and well-known local talent. The New Orleans native began developing a career in her mid-teens, when she was already opening shows for the likes of Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton. While studying music at Belmont in Nashville, she continued to perform until she found wider fame as a contestant on the 2015 season of The Voice.

Jamie Floyd is another young artist who came to Nashville for Belmont. Floyd has been actively writing songs and performing since her pre-teens, and when she found herself unable to afford to continue at Belmont, she dove headfirst into a music scene already well known to her. Having written songs recorded by artists from Ronnie Dunn and Brian McKnight to Kelly Pickler, Floyd is currently working on an EP of her own work entitled Sunshine and Rainbows.

Given that this year’s event, like so many others, celebrates the accomplishments of last year and gathers support for the coming fight to secure LGBT rights, Floyd views events like this as very important. With Tennessee and so many other states facing efforts to obstruct LGBT rights, she said, “I believe the last thing we should be doing as a community is standing in opposition to love. In a world so full of hatred and darkness, my personal mission is to celebrate and empower any and all people who have found love with each other. I feel like I am doing that by supporting HRC and being a part of this incredible night of music!”

Steff Mahan is a Nashville-based artist with five albums to her credit in a style described as an “Americana mix of rock, roots, folk and country.” Mahan is an extraordinarily busy performer, playing around 200 dates a year, but she is especially excited for the Her Nashville event. “What I love about this event,” she said, “is that it empowers women. It makes us one for a common good. Oh, plus it's kick ass fun!”

“We are so excited this year to have so many amazing artists,” said Brockway. “We have a wide variety of genres represented, including country, pop, indie rock and soul. We couldn't be more thrilled about the support of the community for this program—VIP tickets sold out in one week and hopefully the remaining general admission tickets will sell out as well, as in previous years.”

For information and to purchase tickets, visit HRC.org/herhrcnashville. Tickets will be $15 in advance or $18 at door, and all tickets include an annual membership to HRC. The event will be held at 3rd & Lindsley on January 22, 2016: the doors open at 6:00 p.m., and the show starts at 7:00 p.m.