Carrie Underwood and others honor Covenant School with 'Night of Joy' concert in Nashville

Halfway through performing “Wagon Wheel,” the signature hit of his band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Ketch Secor stopped to tell the audience at Nashville’s Belmont University about his fiddle.

It used to belong to country legend Roy Acuff, who scrawled his name on the backside with a pen knife.

“About two weeks ago, I took a pin out of my 9-year-old’s corkboard above their desk, and I scratched some new names on the back of my violin,” Secor said. “First, I put in the name ‘Evelyn,’ and then ‘Hallie’ and then ‘William,’ and then I put in the name ‘Cynthia,’ and ‘Mike’ and ‘Katherine.’”

They’re the names of the three 9-year-old students and three staff members who were killed during the March 27 shooting at The Covenant School. Secor was one of nearly two dozen performers, including country stars Carrie Underwood and Thomas Rhett, who took the stage Wednesday at Belmont’s Fisher Center for “A Night of Joy Celebrating the Covenant School.”

It was an evening that saw Nashville’s Christian and country music communities throwing their arms around the families, staff and first responders – just as they’ve done for the last two weeks. It was also a reminder that Music City remains a very small world, and sometimes in heartbreaking ways.

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“I have never felt so cared for as I have these last couple weeks,” said singer-songwriter Dave Barnes, whose three children all attend the Covenant School. He played his “God Gave Me You,” a song which “suddenly means something different in this context.”

Country songwriter Natalie Hemby – one of the night’s organizers – told the audience that one of the victims, teacher Cynthia Peak, was her childhood swim instructor.

“When we found out she was gone, I immediately felt sad,” she said. “But I also felt this incredible peace, because I know where that woman is.”

Faith was at the forefront of “A Night of Joy.” The whole room joined in on Chris Tomlin’s “Good Good Father,” Ellie Holcomb sang of “constellations falling from Your heart” which “tell me that I'm not alone,” and everyone leapt to its feet when The War and Treaty’s Tanya Trotter belted out the final line of “His Eye Is On the Sparrow.”

The only moments that earned an even larger ovation came when the artists or host Annie F. Downs turned their attention to the first responders, teachers and others. Some of the artists shared that sentiment in song: Tyler Hubbard premiered “Real Life Heroes,” which he wrote shortly before the Covenant shooting.

“I know there are a lot of people here tonight that I would consider a real life hero,” he said.

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One of those for the Covenant community, clearly, was Mary Craig Tortorice, the school’s Director of Advancement.

“My pastor said on Sunday that Jesus keeps our tears in a bottle, and the only way he’s able to do that is because he’s so near to us,” she said, adding that Jesus had been near through every sign in a yard, bow on a mailbox or plate of muffins sent.

“The veil between Heaven and Earth has never been as thin as it has been these past two weeks, and there’s something really beautiful about that.”

Tortorice then introduced Underwood, the night’s final guest.

“I had no idea what I was going to sing tonight,” she said. “But it is a night of joy, and I thought, ‘What’s the most joyful song I have?’ I think I landed on it. I hope I did. If you know it, sing along. If you don’t, sing something. Make a joyful noise.”

She landed on “Something In the Water,” a 2014 hit sung from the perspective of someone newly baptized.

“Trust in someone bigger than me,” Underwood belted. “Ever since the day that I believed/ I am changed/ And now I'm stronger/ There must be something in the water.”

All proceeds from Wednesday’s concert will go towards Covenant’s students, staff and families.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Carrie Underwood, others honor Covenant School with Nashville concert