Musicians Web pages - Nashville Musicians Association

20 The Nashville Musician April-June 2007
CRS-38, a boon to radio & records
Meet attracts thousands, top talents, both familiar and new faces
Jason Meadows entertains confab’s lunchgoers. Chris Young, Nashville Star winner, plays at CRS.
(Continued from page 19)
seven radio stations in the same building, and
you get that edict from above that says your
focus should be (ages) 35-to-54, and all of a
sudden the research changes.”
Lewis likened positive secondary stations'
formats to the fact that they couldn’t afford
all that research.
Cook countered with, “God, I wish I knew
as much about the record business as these
guys know about the radio business.”
Dungan slyly added, “We don’t look at
research, we just listen.”
After Cook apparently joshed they might
not promote some new artists like Jack Ingram,
who feigned anger, banging his mic to the
floor, jumping up and moving menacingly
half-way towards Cook, before returning to
his seat, smiling. Of course, Ingram’s career
was launched in the Lone Star State thanks to
his strong link with Cumulus’ KPLX-Dallas,
broadcasting as “The Wolf.”
Kingsley interrupted the mock uproar, saying,
“If I could just for a second move in a
little different direction,” asking Clay Walker
for an opinion on changes in today’s radio?
“I miss payola!,” he exclaimed, drawing
laughter from the convention crowd of radio
and industry pros, then harked back to the time
when “You could take a guy out to the
ballgame, buy him sneakers and pay for his
Singer sparkles at seminar
By WALT TROTT
Budding vocalist Christie Lynn loves Patty
Loveless . . . and simply adores Porter, Dolly,
George and Dr. Ralph.
And with a little help from friends, Lynn’s
hoping this will be her breakthrough year in
country music. Having such talents as Loveless,
Wagoner, Parton, Jones and Stanley singing
on your product may not guarantee instant
success, but it makes a bold statement regarding
one’s talent.
We asked to meet this charmer at the Country
Radio Seminar, where she proudly presents
a copy of her brand new album, “Christie Lynn
Sings Country, Gospel & Bluegrass.”
Enroute home, we pop it into the car’s
player, and sure enough, Christie covers either
of the CD’s cited genres with equal ease.
Wagoner, who has become something of a
Nashville godfather for the songbird, produced
the dozen selections, with an able assist from
engineer Mark Moseley.
Adding further expertise to the tracks are
session smoothies Bryan Sutton, Mark Fain,
Ronnie Coury, Rob Ickes, Charlie Cushman,
Billy Linneman, James Alan Shelton, Scotty
Sanders, Andy Hall and David Talbot.
“I came here in 1995, I was little more than
a baby, and I went to watch the Grand Ole
Opry, which I had been hearing as a child
growing up. Then I began thinking, ‘I can sing
a bit,’ and so I came up for what I thought was
a talent contest.
“When I got here, I found it was put on by
people trying to get your money,” continues
Capitol Records headliner Trace Adkins entertains.
kid’s private school(ing) . . . ”
On a serious note, Clay recalled being a
fan of showcases, recalling how he played four
major markets in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago and
Las Vegas, when there were 124 country reporting
stations: “Most of the panel came. My
record debuted with the second highest add
ons for a new single in country music history,
with 118 adds . . . ”
As a result, Walker achieved 1993 Billboard
back-to-back debut chartings, “What Is
It To You” and “Live Until I Die,” both hitting
#1: “I called every single radio station before
the song(s) came out . . . My fear these days is
that when an artist goes to a radio station to
make what I call a commitment, it doesn’t really
mean anything.”
Christie. “That is, you had to pay money to
sing. Anyway, we wound up over there visiting
Opryland, where we met real pros from
the Opry, Charlie Collins and Brother Oswald
(members of Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain
Boys), who would introduce us to Porter.”
Before long, Wagoner produced Lynn’s
debut album, “Dixie Girl” (2001), giving the
wide-eyed wannabe a chance to meet and sing
with the great George Jones and her personal
singing hero Patty Loveless.
“She’s the greatest. Remember her ‘Mr.
Man in the Moon’ song (which appears on her
1993 platinum album ‘Only What I Feel’)?
That’s the first number I ever recorded. I just
love that song.”
When all was said and done, however,
Lynn’s camp chose not to release the album
through the usual channels.
“I treasure it though, because it gave me
an opportunity to sing with my idols,”explains
Lynn, who did sell copies at her shows. “A lot
of people have asked me about that, as there
are a lot of great singers on there.”
Wagoner also invited her to appear on the
Opry, and she started singing some of the great
Dolly & Porter duets with him such as “The
Last Thing On My Mind” or “The Right Combination.”
Christie did that a few years.
On the new acoustic album, being released
on Moe Lytle’s Gusto label, Dolly joins in on
her composition “Beneath the Sweet Magnolia
Tree,” while both Porter and Ralph Stanley
sing on the extended track “Model Church”
with Christie.
“That track with Ralph Stanley happened
in a weird way,” she recalls. “I was having surgery,
so when I got back, I did my part and
Porter had to blend it in with Dr. Ralph’s and
his. So it came out with Ralph singing lead.”
Christie, whose surname is now Anderson,
says a lot of folk ask if she’s related to Loretta,
“but I’m not,” though her idol Loveless is
Loretta’s distant cousin. “I’ve always used
Christie Lynn because it’s my real name.”
Her own mom (Barbara) and brother (Chad)
collaborated with her on writing the album’s
closing ballad “We’re Gonna Miss You.”
“I grew up in L.A. (lower Alabama), and
spent a lot of my formative years on my
granddad’s farm, where we had everything,
chickens, cows, horses, you name it. Some of
my favorite memories were eating tomato sandwiches
and the boiled peanuts.”
Christie’s birthday is Aug. 1, and she believes
her ailing grandfather willed himself to
live until Aug. 2, when he died in 2005, “because
he and I were really close, and he didn’t
want to die on my birthday.”
She said it was hard to sing “We’re Gonna
Miss You” when they finished writing it: “My
brother plays guitar, and I didn’t think we’d ever
get through that song when we started singing
it, but we did - and it means so much to me.”
When Lynn lit into “Bluegrass Boogie” or
“Moonshine Quiver” on the album, her recent
touring with Brave New South exhibits her
new-found feel for Southern rock.
“Yes, I’ve been out on the road with some
of the original members and ex-players with
the bands Molly Hatchet, Lynyrd Skynyrd and
Blackfoot. Those were great guys to learn from,
believe me. Now I want to do some edgier country
cuts.”
Is there someone special in her life right
now?
“All I have are my two longhaired
chihuahuas. They’re my kids and my main responsibility
right now.”
Sonny Burgess plays name game
Country singer Sonny Burgess has a Texassize
respect for both namesakes, his daddy “Big
Sonny” and a legendary Rockabilly Hall of
Famer, who’s not even related.
“Yeah, Sonny Burgess is a real legend who
was on Sun Records, and I got to meet him,”
says the younger Burgess, a Cleburne, Texas
native. “Someone said I was infringing on his
name, but I would never do that. I mean my
dad, whose name is John Burgess, Sr., is called
‘Big Sonny’ and because they said I look like
him, I’m also Sonny.”
Well, the singer not only met the rocker,
who told him not to worry about the name similarity,
but was even invited to open a show for
him and his legendary Pacers rockabilly band.
“He’s a great guy, who’s now 75 and is still
going strong. His name is Albert Burgess, but
they’ve always called him Sonny, too.”
Meanwhile, country’s Burgess was at CRS
to perform and promote a new CD “Stronger,”
produced by Jeff Teague.
“I’ve been doing CRS about five years now.
I was first here with Bob Heatherly (Nashville
promoter), who opened doors for me back then
and got some things going. I still live in Texas
because there’s more work for me down there
and in nearby states like Oklahoma.”
Although the album’s called “Stronger,” the
title tune’s “A Little Bit Stronger,” a key cut on
the set, which marks Sonny’s sophomore album:
“It’s a ballad. I love uptempo tunes, but
I’m really a ballad singer.”
Burgess, who bears a close resemblance to
the Marlboro Man, plays almost any stringed
instrument: “I play fiddle on our two-hour
show, which is pretty high-energy. I picked up
For Sonny Burgess, it’s a Texas thing.
on that after high school.”
As a boy, Sonny’s fascination with country
music was nurtured by family members:
“I grew up in a family of aunts and uncles
who played. My Uncle Leon played guitar
and my Uncle Truman played mandolin,
while Aunt Janell and I harmonized. I wanted
to be the best guitar player and I would get
right in there with them.”
Sonny was a quarterback on his school’s
football team, but his favorite sport was baseball,
which he started playing at age 8 in Little
League. Upon graduation from high school,
Burgess attended Baptist College one year.
Next, he accepted a baseball scholarship for
Trinity University.
“I played college ball while I was majoring
in coaching (physical education) at the
university in San Antonio, and my minor was
in biology. Later, I did do some substitute
teaching.”
“I married my high school sweetheart
(Donna Brown) and now we’ve got two beautiful
daughters, Rachel and Robin, and they’re
all very supportive of me and my dream.”
It was in his early 20s that Sonny spurned
baseball, deciding instead that music was
something more than just a weekend hobby,
and began honing his performing skills in earnest.
Testing the waters in Nashville, he connected
with a prominent publishing house
(API): “They didn’t put me on draw, but they
let me make all my song demos with them.”
One song he wrote, “A Little Bit of You
Goes a Long, Long Way,” was recorded by
young singer Jason McCoy, who took it to
#1 for six weeks on the Canadian charts.
“I think it’s a pretty cool song. I wrote it
originally for Joe Diffie and he was going to
cut it, but then they switched producers on
him. Jason I hear is now in the Road Hammers
band in Canada.”
Sonny’s first Nashville CD release was
“When in Texas,” produced by Ed Blount and
Kerry Kurt Phillips, featuring nine tunes cowritten
by Phillips: “He’s a terrific writer, but
more like a drill sergeant in the studio.”
By contrast, his current producer Jeff
Teague, an ex-Marine, is soft-spoken: “Jeff
was working on a project with Collin Raye
when my manager Karen Herbst told him he
should come down to Texas, where she had
an artist she wanted him to work with. That’s
how we connected. He had teamed up with
Tony Brown in production and did quite well.
Jeff produced Jessica Andrews and others. I
like working with him. He knows how to get
it outa me, and that felt real good.”
Among other standouts on their latest CD
are “What Else Could Go Right” (by Chris
Waters and George Teren), “Anytime I’m
Smiling” (from Mickey Cates and Paul
Overstreet) and “Jesus and Bartenders”
(penned by Larry Cordle and Leslie Satcher).
“Tom Law at Sony pitched us ‘Jesus and
Bartenders’ and before I heard anything but
the title, I thought, ‘Man, I grew up in the
Bible Belt and I’m a member of the Baptist
Church, so I don’t know . . .’ But when I heard
it, I thought you could play this even in Sunday
school. It’s real country, so I thought I
had to cut that one. I’m a big fan of Larry