Singer/Songwriter Kevin Montgomery Launches his 50 States in 50 Days Tour and Partners with Orange Duffel Bag Foundation to Help Teens Aging Out of Foster Care and Homeless Youth

For Immediate Release

Nashville, Tennessee – Singer/songwriter Kevin Montgomery announced his 50 States in 50 Days Tour kicking off on October 29, 2010, in Alaska and ending on December 17, 2010, in Hawaii. In partnership with Every Child USA, an awareness and fundraising campaign focusing on education and healthcare for children in poverty, and the Orange Duffel Bag Foundation, a nonprofit offering leadership and life skills training and community connections for at-risk youth, Montgomery’s mission is to play a show in a different state every night for 50 nights in a row and bring light to the epidemic of teens aging out of foster care and becoming the “invisible homeless.” Along the way, Montgomery will blog and videologue stories of those who have aged out of foster care, been homeless as teens or overcame that background. He plans to create a documentary based on the question: “Who was the one person who influenced your life in a positive way?”

Montgomery, who has 15,000 followers on Twitter, 5,000 Facebook friends and 3,500 fans on Facebook, is booking the entire tour using those two social networks. He has also set up a special blog for the tour and its mission as well as a Facebook Group called I Support Kevin Montgomery’s 50 States in 50 Days Tour. Montgomery will be live streaming concerts throughout the tour at certain locations via his channel on Ustream.tv (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kevin-montgomery-s-50-states-in-50-days). Followers of the tour can track his journey via GPS in real time. The indie artist has built a highly interactive relationship with his loyal fan base by utilizing all the latest tools social media offers.

Montgomery’s father sang and wrote songs with Buddy Holly. His mom sang on Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds” and Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline.”
At 23 Montgomery landed a recording contract in Los Angeles with A&M Records and toured with Sheryl Crow, David Crosby and Peter Himmelman. He eventually moved back to Nashville. He sang on Lee Ann Womack’s I Hope You Dance CD. He also wrote “I Won’t Close My Eyes” featured on Martina McBride’s triple platinum Evolution CD. In April 2000, he packed his bags. He now tours the UK, Europe and Australia extensively. He still hasn’t unpacked those bags, and this marks his third annual 50 States in 50 Days Tour.

Reviewers describe his music as Americana in the Jackson Browne tradition. His most recent album “True,” featured a remake of his father Bob Montgomery’s Patsy Cline classic “Back in Baby’s Arms.” He is recording a new album prior to the tour.

Montgomery will be joined on the tour in Atlanta by Arrested Development and Orange Duffel Bag Foundation Spokesperson Speech, a two-time Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter and co-founder of Arrested Development (www.speechmusic.com ). Speech, who divided his time as a child between a Milwaukee ghetto and suburbia, learned how to give voice to the plight of his people and turned his anger over racism into messages of hope and change. Known for his groundbreaking work on 3 years, 5 months and 2 days in the life of and the international hit Tennessee, Speech has toured with everyone from Vice President Al Gore and Hillary Clinton to Hootie & the Blowfish, Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, Youssou N/dour, James Brown, Jason Mraz and The Roots. A devoted family man, Speech recently wrote a book called What is Success?: How to be Successful God’s Way.

Montgomery’s sister Echo Garrett (www.echogarrett.com) is president and co-founder of Orange Duffel Bag Foundation, which provides training based on a book she co-authored called My Orange Duffel Bag with Sam Bracken, who grew up in Las Vegas surrounded by mobsters and motorcycle gang members. His mom abandoned him at age 15, and he kept his homelessness secret from his high school. When he flew from Las Vegas to Atlanta after winning a full-ride football scholarship at the Georgia Institute of Technology, everything he owned fit in an orange duffel bag. The graphic mini-memoir/self help book has an unusual format intended to appeal to all learning styles. It features more than 60 original images by internationally award-winning photographer Kevin Garrett (www.kevingarrett.com) and a free DVD with audio book, the book trailer and 7 videos of Bracken, now a successful executive with FranklinCovey, discussing how he transformed his life. Bracken’s story and efforts through the Foundation have recently been featured on CNN in a segment called Mission Possible, on NBC-affiliate 11 Alive and in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Bracken and Garrett will be joining Montgomery on some tour dates.

My Orange Duffel Bag has been named the November 2010 Book Selection by the Pulpwood Queens, the largest book club in the world with more than 3,000 members and 325 chapters across the U.S. and in 10 countries. The Pulpwood Queens/Timber Guys are actively supporting Montgomery’s tour and his mission, and Pulpwood Queen founder Kathy Louise Patrick calls it the “must-read book of the year – The Blind Side-meets-Same Kind of Different as Me.” Patrick, who owns the only beauty salon and bookstore in the nation and runs two popular book blogs, pledged to her social network that she would dye her hair to match the book’s orange cover if 1,000 books sold in the month of June. Patrick, the authors and several other supporters, now all sport orange hair as a result of making that goal.

“We’re starting a movement,” says Mike Daly, chairman of the Orange Duffel Bag Foundation. “We want the orange duffel bag to become a symbol of hope for at-risk youth everywhere.”

To support the cause by attending or hosting a concert in your home state, visit the Road Map at http://the50statesin50daystour.com/the-roadmap/. Get involved by joining I Support Kevin Montgomery’s 50 States in 50 Days Tour on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=124130884288402&ref=ts

Media inquiries or Tour Sponsorships:
Kevin@kevinmontgomery.com
or
Echo Garrett echo@seelevelstudios.com 770-977-7509 or c. 404-538-4983
or
Mike Daly MDALY1111@aol.com 770-331-7605

Photos available upon request.

To learn more about Kevin Montgomery’s 50 States in 50 Days Tour, visit http://the50statesin50daystour.com/

I received an inquiry from a college student for research participants and offered to post a note for him.  Please read his short request and contact him directly if you can help.

Hello,

My name is Samuel Brooks. I’m presently a doctoral student at Walden University. The focus of my research study is on fathers 18 years and older who spent time in foster care as children and are now actively involved with their children. Of particular interest are the potential influences which may have affected their parental involvement. These influences could include: foster fathers, foster mothers, biological parents, relatives, mentors and others.

Research participants would complete a brief survey questionnaire which can be accessed online.  Participants would not be required to answer any questions considered as too personal or inappropriate. Participants are also eligible to receive a $10.00 gift card as compensation. All  participants are protected by the ethical and confidentiality requirements as specified by Walden University.

Interested parties may contact:

Samuel L. Brooks

sbroo001@waldenu.edu

708-283-8123

Thank you.

Jennifer Flamini

I received a wonderful  letter from a foster dad.  The letter offers both words of encouragement as well as a demonstration of   human kindness that I am honored to witness and share with you.  Thank you Bishop Hodges for your message of hope, love and faith in us.

My dear sister,

my name is Bishop H.L.Hodges, my wife and I have been foster parents for years. We first started in Los Angeles, Ca and upon moving back home, to Pensacola, Fl we cont. to do the same. My heart as always been for the children of the world, they struggle with life and it’s problems, while just looking for someone to tell them, “YOU CAN MAKE IT”! I was moved by your own personal story, and decide to write you about mine. Although i grew up in a home surrounded by two brothers and a sister, a mom that worked 16 hr. a day,  I still did not have the much needed father figure, but l learned to become a man from a woman that showed me how to be one.

My wife and I have been married for 36 yr. although we never had any kids of our own, we “Adopted 6 kids that we use to foster”. they are all grown now, and have their own families,  I still fuss, and I still LOVE THEM, just as much as I have always done. That the job of a “Father” not a dad, for any man can be a dad, but, there are few that can be counted and “Father’s”. If there was any one that I wished could have been my daughter, my wife and I wish it could have been you. I hope that all your efforts to help other’s, will be rewarded, for I can feel in my heart that you have a passion for what you are doing to help those that struggle, just as you have struggled!!!!!!

My wife and I are not as young as we use to be, L.O.L. I learned how to write that from my youngest girl, but, if we can encourge your group, and please tell them this one thing for us please, “NEVER, EVER, GIVE UP ON THEIR DREAMS”.

Thank you for letting a old man talk to you.

Bishop H.L.Hodges
Life Changing Ministries AFH Church
non-denomonational