New Danny Tate article

Facebook: How it can work to bring people together for a cause
Tracy Lucas
May 14-20, 2010
Westviewonline.com
http://www.westviewonline.com/Westview.Pdf?IssueId=275
Years ago, Richard Kidd might have made a few phone calls, talked to his neighbors over the backyard fence, written a letter to the editor or called a community meeting to help a friend.

But when he learned through the Internet that musician and friend Danny Tate was in trouble, he and another friend, Nashville musician Kevin Montgomery, turned to the online world for a solution.

“This is the only charge I’ve led on Facebook, and if it’s the only one I ever lead that would be fine,” says Kidd, a former sound technician and roadie for Tate, who along with Montgomery launched the “Friends of Danny Tate’s Defense” site.

“If I believe in something I’ll stand for it, and my beliefs run deep,” he adds.

Tate, whose successes include theme music for Entertainment Tonight and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, a Top 10 single for 80s rocker/actor Rick Springfield (Affair of the Heart), and tracks for Billy Ray Cyrus, Lynyrd Skynyrd and others, had his finances placed in conservatorship in 2007 at the request of his brother David after it was argued that Danny’s drug and alcohol dependency rendered him incompetent.

Friends have rallied to Tate’s cause, as have many others who see the case as an overreach by the court. Tate case will be heard May 24 in Davidson County Probate Court.

The Facebook site, http://tinyurl.com/DannyTate, with more than 3,200 members, features updates on Tate’s legal fight, as well as events scheduled to show support and raise money. An “Awareness Concert/Flood Relief Concert” is scheduled for May 23 at 12th & Porter.

Tracy Lucas is a freelance writer in Dickson, TN.