Locks of Love, Lots of Success

Benefit Show

Evidently five years is the charm for the Locks of Love Benefit Concert since this year’s event was the most successful to date. Local musicians Matt and Stephanie Briggs came up with the idea five years ago and the benefit has continued to grow with each passing year.

It was held at Billy’s Ice this year and that made a huge difference in attendance. It was inside in case of rain, there were ample restroom facilities and plenty of cold drinks. Shannon Canada and the folks at 36D Management as well as local chiropractor Calvin Plumb came onboard this year to lend a helping hand. The William Edge Salon was there with multiple stylists, cutting hair for all that came out to donate and area musicians came out to provide a full day of top notch music.

The music started about 3pm with Joey Rodriguez, and then was followed by a surprise acoustic set by Cody Canada and Kevin Welch. Each took turns performing their original tunes as well as adding harmony vocals and guitar when they weren’t singing lead. Next up was Possum & the B, and then Canada was back on stage for an acoustic set with Stephanie Briggs. Again each performed original tunes as well as carefully selected cover songs, such as Canada’s take of the country classic ‘Honky Tonk Downstairs.’ They also premiered some new tunes that will be on the upcoming Cross Canadian Ragweed album. I loved the Dead Rock Stars and their set chock full of classic rock oldies. It was very refreshing to hear a band doing Ozzy Osbourne tunes in a predominantly Americana town. The Los Garza Brothers traveled from Victoria to participate at last year’s concert and they made the trip again this year. It was good to see Jeremy Halliburton and his band. Halliburton not only performed, he donated his hair to the cause. Stephanie Briggs and her band the Oso took the stage about 8:45pm and did an hour set prior to the big surprise of the night, which was of course Reckless Kelly. The band agreed to show up and play a full band set, free of charge to benefit this worthy cause. They took the stage around 10:35 and rocked the house until midnight.

Not only did they perform, they donated a guitar and Calvin Plumb came onstage and did a live auction, getting over $800 for the guitar. Plumb acted as the MC during the day, bringing attention to the merchandise, raffle tickets and silent auction items. I spoke with event organizer Matt Briggs on Monday afternoon to get some info on how successful this year’s event was. “We had two more guitars in the silent auction and I think they both went for about $700 each,” recalled Briggs. “In years past we barely made over $1000, but this year I think it’s going to be over $4500 in cash. William Edge Salon had four stylist cutting at one time and they were only supposed to work from 3pm to 7pm but ended up staying until 8pm. They did over 27 haircuts and they were exhausted. There were still people wanting to get their haircut, so the stylist gave them their cards and said if you are donating your hair to Locks of Love, you can come by their salon and get a free haircut. This year was a huge success, so now the challenge is to do better next year.”

I took photos of the stylist while they were cutting hair and can attest to the great care and effort they put forth to not only collect the hair but to give the donor a professional high quality haircut. These folks are pros in every sense of the word. In addition to the hair collected by the stylist, musician Kevin Welch brought some of his hair that his children convinced him to donate. Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides wigs to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under the age of 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. The wigs made from the donated hair helps to restore their self-esteem, enabling them to face the world and their peers. See locksoflove.org for more info about this amazing organization.