Submitted photo

Country music acts Love and Theft (pictured) and Canaan Smith will perform a benefit concert at Portsmouth West High School Football Stadium on July 21. Tickets are $25 each and are available at the school.

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Ryan Scott Ottney

PDT Staff Writer

National county music recording artists Love and Theft, and Canaan Smith will be performing a benefit concert at Portsmouth West High School Football Stadium on July 21 to help raise money for new technologies at Washington-Nile Schools.

“We’re looking at white boards for the rooms, new iPads, laptops,” said Washington-Nile Superintendent Jeff Stricklett. “Right now our middle school is equipped with white boards and we have brought in a lot of computers in here through an organization, but we’re in need of a lot of new technology. It’s for all three buildings.”

Featuring Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson, Love and Theft is a country music act with two albums. Their debut album, “World Wide Open” in 2009, featured hits such as “Runaway” and “Dancing in Circles.” Their followup self-titled album in 2012 included tracks such as “Running Out of Air,” “If You Ever Get Lonely,” and “Angel Eyes” which reached No. 1 on the U.S. Country Music Charts and helped carry the album to gold. The band was nominated for “Best New Artist of the Year” and “Best Vocal Duo of the Year” in the 2012 Country Music Association Awards; and “Top New Vocal Duo Group” and “Top Vocal Duo Group” in the 2013 Academy of Country Music Awards. They also are nominated for “Duo Video of the Year” for the 2013 County Music Television Music Awards on June 5.

Love and Theft is available online at www.loveandtheft.com.

Canaan Smith is also a country music singer and a former contestant on “The Amazing Race” television series. His 2012 single “We Got Us” broke the Top 50 U.S. Country Music Charts, and he co-wrote the song “Runaway” with Love and Theft. Smith will be opening for Love and Theft at the Portsmouth West concert.

Smith is available online at www.canaansmith.com.

Stricklett said he developed contacts with the music promoters while he was working at Manchester Local School and helped put on a show with Trace Adkins, Josh Gracin and Blake Shelton.

“We worked on this for about two months before we signed with Love and Theft,” Stricklett said. “It’s good for the community, and our students are excited about it. It’s a win-win. We can bring in this for our community, but also hopefully raise some money to buy new technology for our students as well.”

General admission tickets cost $25 each and are limited to 6,000. They are available at the Washington-Nile Schools district office or at any of the school buildings. The concert is July 21 at the Portsmouth West High School Football Stadium; doors open at 4:30 p.m. and the concert begins with Canaan Smith on stage at 6:30 p.m.

For more information about the concert, visit the Washington-Nile School District website at www.west.k12.oh.us/concert.

Ryan Scott Ottney may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 287, or rottney@civitasmedia.com. For breaking news, follow Ryan on Twitter @PDTwriter.