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On her return to Omaha, singer Hannah McNeil made sure to stop by a place that was important to her family when she was a little girl.
The country singer hoped that her songs about empowerment might bring a ray of sunshine to the residents of the Stephen Center homeless shelter in south Omaha.
Her performance Monday was important for the shelter as well, said executive director Del Bomberger, because McNeil is the daughter of the shelter’s founders, Sharon and Dick McNeil, who started the Stephen Center in 1984.
“We’re trying to empower people, honestly,” Hannah McNeil said about her music, which touches on themes of spousal abuse (“I Gotta Leave You for Me”) and child abuse (“Walking Away a Winner”).
“People identify with that,” McNeil said of the latter song. “I had no idea how rampant things like that were.”
McNeil said she was hoping to reach “people ... who normally wouldn’t get to go to see a concert, who don’t have enough money to pay for a concert, or who deserve it and probably need to hear the messages that we’re trying to put out there.”
About 25 people gathered in the center’s kitchen to hear the show, which McNeil kicked off with her latest single, “What Am I Getting Up For.”
McNeil said that since she was a child, her parents’ message was: “You’re here to make a difference.”
“The gifts that you have, you’re here to share them,” she said. “And I think that’s probably the biggest reason that I do music, is to try to make a difference in people’s lives.”
“It’s not money, it’s not fame,” she said. “It’s nothing like that. It’s the chance that you actually can make an impact in people’s lives through music.”
Contact the writer:
444-1074, john.keenan@owh.com
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