This past Saturday, a big benefit concert took place at the historic Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. The efforts were to raise funds for the Haiti relief efforts through Compassion International, an organization that has already been ministering in Haiti for over 4 decades.

OK… those are the facts. Now, let me kick my shoes off and tell you what it was like to experience this event first-hand. In a word… Amazing! It was one of the coolest concert experiences I’ve had in my life.

Any concert in the Ryman is special, but this was a sold-out concert featuring some of my favorite artists (many of which I regularly play on Under The Radar) including Brandon Heath, Needtobreathe, Jon Foreman, Matt Wertz, Dave Barnes, Mat Kearney – among others – and featured a rare 2010 performance from Alison Krauss & Union Station. It was first time hearing AKUS live, and they knocked my socks off – 5 songs that were virtually without a single flaw.

Compassion artist Shaun Groves organized the entire event, and did an unbelievable job. Nearly every piece of the event – from artists to production to catering – was donated, so that 100% of the net revenue from the event (and 100% of all online donations) could go directly to Compassion’s disaster relief fund for Haiti.

“The talent side has all donated their time,” said Groves in an interview I had with him backstage before the concert began. “The Ryman Auditorium is owned by Gaylord Entertainment, and they’ve been able to underwrite our show so that we don’t have the big expense of a venue. We got LiveStream and Eleven2 hosting and have donated all their services – literally a half-million dollars in services just to make the live stream happen.”

Shaun was able to announce during the concert that on top of the donating the use of the Ryman, Gaylord Entertainment contributed an additional $25,000 to Compassion’s Haiti relief efforts.

Jars of Clay had one of the more humorous moments of the night. They were having some obvious technical issues in getting their set started. Guitarist Steve Mason finally gave up on getting any audio out of his electric guitar and switched to his acoustic. He quick-wittedly grabbed the mic and said, “How appropriate at the Ryman that the electric stuff doesn’t work.” CLICK HERE to see a video of this memorable moment.

I got a chance to talk to Jars backstage, and asked them why they wanted to be a part of the concert. “We’ve been looking for something to do for Haiti,” said lead singer Dan Haseltine. The obvious response is to text to donate and things of that nature. But as a band we tried to figure out a way to leverage some of our own music and creativity to benefit the story that’s going on there and help relief efforts. This was really just a perfect fit. It was a good way to get on stage and show our support and use our voices to make a difference.”

Readers, viewers, & attendees have the chance to donate $10 onto your phone bill by texting the word “Disaster” to 90999.

“All these people stepped up together and gave,” shared event organizer Shaun Groves. “It’s just been phenomenal to see the body of Christ come together and say, “What do you need; we’re here. “We want to help you guys help Haiti.” It’s been really encouraging and really neat to see.”

Look for exclusive Help Haiti Live concert photos, videos, & interview audio coming soon to this site and to Facebook.com/radarradio.