The Daily Oklahoman (Feb. 10th 2010)
Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert to sing for Tishomingo neighbors
When Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert harmonize about longing for "Home" on his hit, the small town of Tishomingo is where their hearts are.
For the second year, the country music sweethearts will celebrate Valentine's Day by playing a charity show for their community.
Their intimate acoustic concert will cap an event including silent and live auctions, dinner and a VIP reception Thursday at Murray State College. The benefit will raise funds for the Texoma Animal Improved Living Society (TAILS) as well as local veterans causes.
"I love playing the show right there in Tishomingo because it's people that we know in the audience," Shelton said by phone from the road in Nashville, Tenn. "People in Tishomingo have accepted us as neighbors, and even though they're interested, they've kind of left the music part of what Miranda and I do alone. They've been very respectful of our privacy, and this is a way for us once a year to look out at our neighbors and our friends out in the audience and play music for them.
"It's all for a good cause, is the best thing."
Lambert started the benefit last year after she visited the Tishomingo animal shelter and was appalled at the dismal conditions. She and her mother, Bev Lambert, president of the country star's nonprofit MuttNation Foundation, partnered with TAILS to raise money for a new shelter.
"It'll be a really nice facility," TAILS President Ray Lokey said. "At the time, we didn't have an animal shelter. We had a pound, and basically it was horrible."
Last year's event earned $70,000 to build a new shelter in Tishomingo that will serve Johnston County. Construction is under way.
With her mother's help, Lambert puts on a similar animal welfare benefit show in Tyler, Texas, near her hometown of Lindale.
"(She's) always been an animal lover," Bev Lambert said in a phone interview from Lindale. "Her heart always pattered after animal rights, taking care of abused, abandoned and neglected animals. ... She's still one of those kids who brings home strays."
Miranda Lambert keeps a veritable menagerie of formerly unwanted animals on her Tishomingo farm, which is near Shelton's spread.
"It's really a paradise for me to go home to the animals because they don't really care who Miranda Lambert is. They just care that I'm the lady with the treats that takes care of 'em," she said in a 2008 interview with The Oklahoman.
TAILS will use funds from this year's event for staffing and operations costs for the new shelter, Lokey said. But the occasion also will benefit local veterans groups. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4869 is working on a veterans activities center, while the Johnston County veterans memorial and American Legion Post 164 plan to use the funds for facility upkeep and improvements.
"Every bit of it will go back into the community," said Shelton, who was born in nearby Ada. "It means everything to me to be able to give back and do something for a good cause."