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26 The Nashville Musician October-December 2006 Trottin’ about the music scene Dolly Parton to be honored. Local 257 member Dolly Parton is the country pick this year for the Kennedy Center (KC) For the Performing Arts’ annual honors in Washington, D.C. “I am thrilled and humbled to be receiving the (KC) honors this year. When I look at the list of past recipients, it is hard for me to believe that a poor, country girl from the hills of Tennessee could be included in such distinguished company,” she said in a prepared statement. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will help pay their respects to Dolly and fellow honorees Andrew Lloyd Webber, Zubin Mehta, Smokey Robinson and Steven Spielberg for this career achievement recognition, Dec. 3 Bits & Pieces: The Hollywood pair who scored with the award-winning “Hustle & Flow,” director Craig Brewer and actor Terrence Howard, are reteaming for a planned film bio on Country Music Hall of Famer Charley Pride. Oscar-nominated Howard (who portrayed a pimp in “Hustle & Flow”) would play Mississippi-born Pride, who placed 29 #1 hits on Billboard, the trade weekly. Among these are “Is Anybody Goin’ To San Antone,” “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’,” and “Mountain of Love” . . . Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group agreed Sept. 6 to pay $2.09 billion to buy BMG Music Publishing Group from the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, making it the largest music publisher in the world. The French company (Vivendi ) will now own the rights to international song hits by such artists as Coldplay, Barry Manilow, Nelly, and the Beach Boys, as well as country successes recorded by the likes of Rascal Flatts, Trace Adkins, and Martina McBride . . . The latter country singer has recorded a “duet” with Dean Martin, “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” thanks to the wonders of electronics. Of course, “Dino’s” original track was cut in Hollywood’s Capitol Records studio in 1959 (he died Christmas day 1995). The Martina-Dean Martin coupling appears on a 16-track CD “Christmas With Dino” in time for yule holiday sales. Waxing enthusiasm, McBride says, “It’s an honor to be able to be a part of this. Dean had such a great voice and to be able to sing with him all these years later is a thrill.” She’ll include the song on her Buddy Killen fourth annual 16-city Christmas tour starting Nov. 24 . . . RCA’s legendary 1950s’ act The Browns - Maxine, Bonnie and Jim Ed - reunited for a Sept. 10 performance in Russelville, Ark., their first home-state appearance in 40 years. It was a fund-raiser for a proposed $6 million hospice center there. The family trio’s best known for their #1 pop-country crossover hit “The Three Bells” in 1959. Big sister Maxine bared all in a provocative bio titled “Looking Back To See,” after their first hit she co-wrote in 1954 (the University of Arkansas Press published her book in 2005) . . . KZLA-FM-Los Angeles, the city's only country station, has changed its format to adult contemporary music. So now there are no country stations in L.A., San Francisco or New York City hubs. Legal File: A Sept. 25 order by the Supreme Court of Tennessee disclosed upholding the Jan. 20 ruling by the Middle Tennessee Court of Appeals denying PolyGram Records’ and Legacy Entertainment Group’s petition for ownership of Hank Williams’ performance tapes of the WSM Mother’s Best radio program, most of which were broadcast in 1952. This marks another victory for Williams’ heirs - Hank Jr. and Jett Williams - who brought a joint lawsuit claiming ownership of their dad’s works. Many songs he performed on the radio show were covers of other artists’ hits, among them “On Top Of Old Smoky” (The Weavers) and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” (Roy Acuff). More News Items: Tim McGraw is the latest superstar to start up his own record label, StyleSonic Records, this in partnership with longtime producer Byron Gallimore. Reportedly, StyleSonic will work in liaison with Tim’s current major label Curb Records (to which he owes several more albums). The indie’s first release? The movie soundtrack to the McGraw starrer “Flicka,” with a CD streetdate of Oct. 17. McGraw, also executive producer on the film, stated, “I am so excited to officially announce the new label. We also have several new artists that we are in the studio working on.” By the way, Tim and wife Faith Hill’s Soul2Soul II current concert tour has been labeled the highest-grossing North American country tour ever by Billboard, taking in some $89 million ($27 million more than pal Kenny Chesney’s previous high). Soul2Soul II also ranks as the top-selling show among all genres. Other country acts currently ranking in the all-genre Top 10 for ’06 are Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flatts, each scoring over a million tickets sold to fans across the nation . . . Meanwhile, “Time Marches On” hitmaker Tracy Lawrence is another star launching his own label - Rocky Comfort Records - in a partnership with brother Laney Lawrence. Laney is president, while Tracy’s A&R chief. Lawrence’s first single “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” is out, while the first album’s due by early ’07 . . . A Dixie Chicks documentary titled “Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing” was screened to favorable reviews at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary deals with the trio’s career ups and downs since lead vocalist Natalie Maines blasted President George Bush during a concert appearance in Great Britain in 2003. It’ll be unspooled next at the London Film Festival. Honors: Singer Emmylou Harris received Leadership Music’s Dale Franklin Award, during a filmed tribute in the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Sept. 19, hailing her contributions to music. She was praised by exbandsman Rodney Crowell as an “arbiter of integrity,” and by yet another former sideman Tony Brown as having “her handprint all over Nashville.” British star Elvis Costello, acting as emcee, described Harris’ voice as “a wonder of both the air and the earth.” Leadership Music is a Nashville-based charitable organization dedicated to promoting educational projects . . . Ronnie Milsap is this year’s Lifetime Achievement artist recipient durng the International Entertainment Buyers Association awards banquet, Oct. 17, in the Nashville Hilton Hotel downtown. Earning the 2006 In- Patricia Presley snaps The Cherryholmes family band at the recent IBMA Festival in Nashville. - Photo by Patricia Presley At the proposed Nashville Walkway of Stars - note sample sidewalk plaque - are (from left) Sam Bush, Pam Tillis, Earl Scruggs, Steve Cropper, Megan Mullins and Gunnar Nelson, singing son of Ricky Nelson. dustry Achievement award is manager-guitarist Narvel Blackstock, husband of singer-actress Reba MeEntire . . . ASCAP will honor veteran songwriter Jimmy Webb with its prestigious Voice of Music Award at the 44th annual ASCAP Country Music Awards, Oct. 23, in the historic Ryman Auditorium. Webb wrote such winners as “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” “MacArthur Park,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Honey, Come Back” and “Didn’t We.” The Grammy-winning writer from Oklahoma is only the sixth to receive the Voice of Music honor, joining previous recipients Garth Brooks, George Strait, Diane Warren, Amy Grant and Kenny Chesney . . . Incidentally, ASCAP recently revealed it will award some $2.68 million to writer-members during 2006- 2007, as part of the performing rights organization’s ASCAP-Plus program, which seeks to reward composers whose works possess a unique prestige value for which adequate compensation would not otherwise be received. ASCAP boasts over eight million copyrighted works among more than 250,000 members. Star Bright: Gibson Music, the Country Music Foundation and the City of Nashville combined forces to announce a new Walkway of Stars slated for Music City USA, come November 2006. Mayor Bill Purcell was on hand Aug. 10 to give the city’s official endorsement of the pending walkway (which will stretch from near the Country Music Hall of Fame up close to Music Row), along with such celebrities as Hall of Famer Earl Scruggs, singers Joe Cocker, Pam Tillis and Gunnar Nelson, son of late rockabilly legend Ricky Nelson, and various other music VIPs . . . Steel Guitar Hall of Famer Don Helms will be showcased in the next quarterly program of The Nashville Cats series, sponsored by the the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11. Helms’ career retrospective, conducted in the hall’s Ford Theater, will be hosted by curator Bill Lloyd. Helms, one of Hank Williams’ Drifting Cowboys, can be heard on such classic MGM Hank Sr. cuts as “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love With You),” “Kaw-Liga” and “Cold Cold Heart.” Don also played steel for other legendary singers like Lefty Frizzell, Ferlin Husky, Ray Price and Patsy Cline. The program covers an instrumentalist’s career, highlighted by Lloyd’s interview with the spotlighted artist, augmented by audio-visual elements, such as recordings, rare pictures, film clips and sometimes playing by the artist. The audience is invited to ask questions. Previous honorees: Lloyd Green, Charlie McCoy and Harold Bradley. For details, call (615) 416-2001. Get Well Wishes: To Local 257 Lifetime Member W. D. (Buddy) Killen, bassist-producer-publisher, who’s been suffering from pancreatic and liver ailments. Killen, of course, is the fellow who helped build Tree Music into one of the world’s major publishing houses (sold to Sony in 1989), and produced acts like Joe Tex, Exile and Ronnie McDowell. Killen also wrote the pop hit “Forever” and recorded with singer Bonnie (“Dark Moon”) Guitar on such duets as “A Truer Love You’ll Never Find.” Final Curtain: Rocky Morales, 65, tenor sax man best known for his work with Doug Sahm, died Aug. 2 of lung cancer. He was a member of the West Side Horns, with fellow sax player Louis Busto and trumpeter Charlie McBurney. They toured and recorded with Sahm and the Grammy winning Texas Tornados . . . Mississippi-born singer-songwriter Jumpin’ Gene Simmons, 73, died Aug. 29. He’s best remembered for his Halloweenstyle pop hit “Haunted House” (#11, 1964). The rockabilly artist once recorded for the historic Sun Records (with little success) and also opened shows for fellow Tupelo-born Elvis Presley. Another of Simmons' songs is the novelty hit “Indian Outlaw” (co-written with John D. Loudermilk and Tommy Barnes), which launched the career of Tim McGraw in 1994 . . . Nashville author and photo-journalist Jerry W. Langley, 71, died Aug. 17, following a lengthy illness. He cowrote the 2005 books “Number One Country Hits: 1944-2004” and “Many Tears Ago: The Life & Times of Jenny Lou Carson” (both with Arnold Rogers), published by Nova Books. Mr. Langley once worked with Nashville’s WSMV-TV Channel 4, an NBC affiliate . . . Charles Derrington, 51, a master mandolin maker with Gibson Music, died Aug. 2, after his motorcycle was hit head-on by an illegal immigrant Julio Villasana. Witnesses stated Villasana was driving the wrong way on Briley Parkway in Nashville when his car collided with Derrington’s 2005 Yamaha, knocking the victim into the median strip. The car’s driver attempted to flee on foot, but police arrived in time to apprehend Villasana, allegedly driving under the influence. He was being held on immigration-hold until authorities could ascertain his situation. Derrington built and repaired instruments for many artists, most memorably restoring Bill Monroe’s celebrated 1923 Gibson F-5 - now valued at more than $1 million - after an intruder had smashed it into pieces . . . Norman (Gene) Clark, 66, of Chattanooga, Tenn., died Aug. 10. In 1962, he relocated to Nashville, where he became a WMAK personality, who helped raise over 100,000 toys to benefit the Marine Corps’ Toys For Tots’ fundraiser. Clark was also founder of Spotland Productions in Nashville, producing numerous commercials, while also training potential ad producers during his tenure. In turn, Clark received many Addy, Clio and Silver Mic awards. He moved back to the Chattanooga area in 1997. Among his urvivors are daughter Vikki Shumake; son Jay G. Clark; and grandchildren Jacob Hamby, Zachary Hamby, Rebecca Hamby and Meagan Stone. - WT
October-December 2006 The Nashville Musician 27 Heartland: ‘I Loved Her First’ By WALT TROTT No more playing for free, as Heartland's all over the music map these days. This Alabama-based band played for Jerry’s Kids, the annual Labor Day fundraiser by comic Jerry Lewis to benefit Muscular Dystrophy victims; they’re opening shows for the likes of Gretchen Wilson; and their debut single “I Loved Her First” is inching its way into Billboard’s Top 10 singles chart. As we write this, it’s already at #7 on iTunes’ country download list, its hot video is #9 on CMT’s Country Chart USA, and it’s fast becoming a wedding favorite, all of which makes Heartland the new flagship act of the Lofton Creek label. What other differences have occurred careerwise for Heartland, since signing with Mike Borchetta’s indie record company? “Well, we’re sitting in the William Morris (Talent) Agency, aren’t we? We’ve visited with CMT, WSM and other great folks here in Nashville and we’re talking to you!,” exclaims lead vocalist Jason Albert. “And opening shows for Brad Paisley is a far cry from playing a bar with chicken-wire (to protect the band from bottles thrown by unruly patrons).” Besides Albert, boys in the band are Mike (Mikey) Myerson, lead guitar; Craig Anderson, rhythm guitar; Keith (“Wild”) West, bassist; Charles (Chuck) Crawford, fiddle; and Todd Anderson, drums. These musicians are fun-filled, but focused. Do they expect to be victimized by Brad Paisley’s penchant for practical jokes? “No, but we’ve heard it’s coming,” says Todd. “We play our first date with him in Lake Tahoe, and then in Atlanta and Birmingham. We cut up quite a bit, so he better watch out.” Hard to believe Heartland only signed with Lofton Creek on May 3, put their first single out in time for Father’s Day, and saw it hit #12, after only 10 weeks’ charting. “You can attribute that to a couple of things,” says Craig. “One being the strength of the song itself, it’s a legitimately good song, and second to the people at Lofton Creek, who are really working hard to get it out. I hope that we can match their work ethic. If we can do as a band what they’ve done as a label, then we’ll do well.” The new signees’ introductory song was co-written by Elliott Park, an illustrator from Texas, collaborating with veteran Walt Aldridge, a native of Muscle Shoals, Ala., whose prior penned hits include Ronnie Milsap’s “No Getting Over Me,” Reba McEntire’s “The Fear of Being Alone” and Earl Thomas Conley’s “Holding Her and Loving You.” “We were soliciting material for demos to record to pitch to industry people, and heard that Walt was having a songwriter showcase and we went to listen and he played ‘I Loved Her First’ in his acoustic set,” explains Mikey. “I have a daughter myself and to hear him play that song, I just got chilled, it tore me up. “We introduced ourselves and said we were looking for material and he agreed to send us a CD of songs. Well, that happened to be on it and we couldn’t believe that nobody had recorded it yet. After we had signed with Mike we recorded the single . . and it was just a natural thing to have Walt produce it.” Aldridge, who’d worked with the likes of Tim McGraw, Lou Reed, Alabama and was once lead singer for The Shooters, passed the acid test. “When Walt speaks, everybody listens,” insists Craig. “You have to, whether you agree with what he’s saying or not, because he’s been there, he’s done it. He was in a group situation. He’s high on our list, a mentor. We’ve never turned down any of his advice. As far as that goes, he took a chance on us, too.” Aldridge put the finishing touches on their self-titled album, in time to hit the street on Oct. 1. Looking around at the assemblage, none of the bandsmen seem of an age to have a grown daughter, considering their song’s about a father’s acceptance of his grown little girl’s groom. “From the first breath she breathed/ When she first smiled at me/I knew the love of a father runs deep . . . And I prayed that she'd find you someday/But it's still hard to give her away . . . I loved her first.” “We understand,” continues Craig. “None of us obviously are old enough to have a child get married, but we never even thought about it like that. We just interpreted the song to tell the story. A good song is a good song, and we’re not pretentious enough to worry about whether someone thought us too young or too old to do it or whatnot. It’s just a great tune.” Mikey, who also has a son, says, “Between us we got four little girls ourselves, so we kind of related to that . . .” “It’s just one of the most moving songs I’ve ever heard,” notes Borchetta, who with wife Martha launched Lofton Creek three years ago. Incidentally, he was the suit who first signed Tim McGraw to Curb Records. (His son Scott Borchetta heads up a competing label, Big Machine Records.) “Mike wears Hawaiian shirts all the time,” chuckles Todd, “that inspires us, too.” Heartland’s not your typical country act. Among their number are college boys who hold varied degrees. “Todd, Craig (who are brothrs) and I met in fifth or sixth grade and went all the way through college together, and I think getting this band together stemmed from our mutual love of music,” recalls Jason. “Todd was playing since he was like 3 or 4 years old, and I’d been singing in my first band for awhile. Craig just started playing guitar like two or three years before we actually started the band. But we got together just talking and said, ‘What about starting a band?’ I had a little experience, so we felt let’s give it a shot. “Well we started and we were pretty terrible for a time. Then we ran an ad in the Huntsville newspaper and got Keith and Mikey. We all started jammin’ together, and a couple years later, after we put an ad on an internet site for a fiddler, Charles answered it and here we are.” The unnamed garage pickers entered a Battle of the Bands’ talent contest in Huntsville on the spur-of-the-moment, and when the host demanded a name to introduce them by, they became Runaway. They lost both the contest and the name. “We had heard that (#1) song ‘Heartland’ which George Strait had on his ‘Pure Country’ soundtrack, so we leaned towards that, but about a half-mile from where we practiced is a housing development called Heartland Sub-division. We decided that would be a really cool name - and it represented Huntsville - so we decided let’s go with that.” So who among Heartland handles the songwriting? “Everyone’s a writer, but we didn’t select any of our songs to go on the album this time around,” says Craig. “We were really impressed because being as new as we were, we didn’t expect that the writers would give us any of their best material. Yet when they came in there was one great song after another.” Mikey chimes in, “We actually had to cut out some really great songs because Heartland as captured by Patricia Presley at the William Morris Agency. there were too many. We simply wanted to put the best album out there possible, and since ours didn’t stand up to the ones we were getting from the songwriters here, we went with the ones they had.” Jason remembers the process they went through in making contact with Borchetta: “We cut some demos with Walt and went out there like always, hustling it and taking it to radio stations, doing anything we could do to get some attention. Then we ran up on a guy named Dan Hollander (WLLX- Lawrenceburg, Tenn.), a program director, who took an interest. He called Mike and said he heard these guys from Alabama who had been at it a long time and suggested he hear us . . . That was on Friday and Mike called us on Monday and said, ‘Let’s talk about some stuff,’ and it kind of grew from that.” Before the big break, the boys had recorded an earlier album in 1996, which Todd says, “We thought it was going to be the next big thing ever . . . now it’s locked away in a safe place.” Collectively their main music heroes and influences include Alabama and Hank Williams, Jr. “We are huge Hank Jr. fans,” says Chuck. “Absolutely, when we do a live show, we’ll close with some of his stuff because we enjoy his music so much.” Jason continues, “A lot of our inspiration came from the group Alabama. They’re like our heroes. We got to play their last June Jam (1997) and that’s one of the coolest things we’ve done. That was awesome!” Since playing their share of honky tonks in the Southeast, they’ve built up a big fan following, acknowledges a grateful Todd: “The folks back home have always been very supportive, but I can remember when we first started out and did shows where we literally played for the door (cover charge) and only four people showed up, our mom and dad and Jason’s mom and dad. The last few years we’ve got a throng of people who come out and give us a really good fan base.” “Yes, it’s been blood, sweat and tears for over a decade now,” agrees Jason. “But we’re guys who genuinely care for each other. There’s never been anything that’s been that much of a crisis between us that we couldn’t sit down together and within 30 minutes we’re done with it.” Craig emphasizes, “We have a philosophy that we can agree to disagree, but you have to make compromises like anybody does.” Hey girls, two bandmembers are still unmarried. At least Todd is a single parent. Bachelor Chuck joshes that maybe the reason they’re still available is no one wants them. As opening act, what sort of songs do they perform? “We do mostly original stuff from our new album,” explains Craig. “But we also do an Alabama medley that includes their songs, you know like ‘My Home’s in Alabama,’ ‘Tennessee River,’ and it goes over well. We’ve been doing that for years.” What’s a Heartland concert like? “We try to have a good time,” says Mikey. “We’re like a country version of Motley Crue on stage. It’s an ’80s rock and roll-meets-country thing. We like to run around a lot . . . ” Craig picks up on this, “We’ve all got wired systems and we can jump around. Even when we couldn’t afford it, we always had pyrotechnics and stuff like that at some club shows, like smoke machines and lights. We have a big vision of us being on the grand stage with stuff blowing up here and there, with elevators and all kinds of neat things. That’s what we’re about.” Jason emphasizes, “The album’s gonna reflect that, too. There’s some that’s really rockin’ country music, AC/DC influence, Muscle Shoals blues, that sort of thing. We enjoy the ballads though, and there’s another like ‘I Loved Her First,’ so we feel it’s a pretty good representation of Heartland.” Mikey says “Play Hurt” may be their next single, “It’s almost a testament of what we’ve been doing, it’s about persevering . . and continuing with what we’re doing.” Does each get a moment in the spotlight? Keith, dubbed “The Quiet Man” since he wasn’t as forthcoming, finally answers a question: “If we prefer to, we do. But I guess speaking for myself, I feel more comfortable when I’m interacting with all these other guys on stage. I think I shine when I’m up there doing my thing. If I get up there next to Todd - he’s the drummer - and I’m playing bass and we’re each working to do our own thing, we’re gonna put on a show that means more to the people out there than if I’m playing the funk on my instrument. People don’t care about how fast you can play your guitar, they’re gonna like that (ensemble) bit better.” Drummer Todd grins and adds, “I think the day of the 10-minute drum solo is gone. We’re definitely a band, and we orient ourselves around a good song.” Mikey says, “We’re not a put-together band by a record label in Nashville. We’ve been struggling along together for years and had we not made the album here, we’d probably still be back practicing in Huntsville for a showbar somewhere in Birmingham.” Craig continues, “We just want to come across as who we are, just downhome regular guys who enjoy music and want to get together and play our own music, which we feel is unique. We don’t sound like anybody else and we actually got to play about 80 per cent of the instrumentation on our album - and that’s rare in Nashville for the most part. So that works out well for us.” What unusual experiences stand out? “I actually came off the stage two years in a row at the same venue,” reflects Jason. “Actually, it rained one year after the Big Spring Jam and they lowered the lights to (Continued on page 35)
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