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Last week I traveled to Nashville for the Country Radio
Seminar. Over two thousand radio and music people attended
this fabulous three day event. The CRS…as it is called…is
always educational (great panels) and entertaining (great
artists doing their thing). There is also a friendship that
ninety per cent of those attending have with others. The
other ten percent…..well, that is another story…. about
egos, anger, and frustration. (I am not going there in this
column!!).
There are great musicians in Nashville that can play ANY AND
ALL categories of music…not just country. The average
citizen of the US does not know that. The average citizen
has Nashville music incorrectly associated with ONLY
country…or as some citizens who live in the musical past
call it “country and western”. Nashville musicians are
versatile and incredible!!! They can play classical or
polkas!!!
The great composers….songwriters….in Nashville are able to
team up with the aforementioned musicians to produce some
wonderful songs and arrangements!!!
For example, I attended a session which included five of the
great composers of today. These composers have so much
hardware at their homes they have added an extra den or two
to display it…an exaggeration…but you get the point. This
particular session was called CRS LIVE!!! And it was
LIVELY!!! A fabulous hour and a half witnessed by a sold out
audience. This session was emceed by Bob DiPiero. This was a
great emcee choice because Bob’s songs have earned him a
king of composers reputation….I have forgotten how many
years he has at least one number one hit song…but it is for
more than a decade. Joining him were Miranda Lambert, Craig
Morgan, Tim Nichols and Jon Randall….all outstanding
composers with a lot of big country hits. Standing ovations
happened. So did more than one foot keeping time with the
music. So did the audience singing along with these great
writers. There were tears and there were smiles…just the
emotions you would expect to be created from magnificent
composers. Frankly, I was exhausted from their greatness
after an hour and a half. What a treat!!!
After the session my brother-in-law, Ed “Bubba” Tomlinson
from Dallas arranged dinner for Bob DiPiero and his lovely
lady Leslie Tomasino (do I hear wedding bells???). We had
two booths at the Palm, for my wife Pat and me, and others
who came by …they included a very close friend Kenneth
Dotson, who is the Chief Marketing Officer for TicktsNow.com
and one of his associates, Jennifer Swanson. A few others
invited included Lyric Street Record’s Sarah Buxton (whose
picture is in the Lyric Street ad…as in Disney… in the
February 17th publication of Radio And Records…page 45) who
can S-I-N-G and write!! I am guessing her first CD will be
released this year. And Brandon Kinney whose Capitol release
might also be released this year (he reminds me of a Ray
Stevens and Roger Miller type of composer), and he sings to
make you laugh…and you will!!!! We talked radio, music,
family and concert tickets that night…and I guess we didn’t
get enough of the conversation…because we all gathered at
Morton’s the next night following early cocktails at Bubba’s
19th floor condo in downtown Nashville. At Morton’s Mike
Clute joined us (production credits include Diamond Rio, and
the aforementioned Brandon Kinney and other fine artists).
For certain, we didn’t solve any of the world’s problems,
but we sure had a great time!!!! I know, because I WAS
THERE.
What we did not discuss were items that the panelists at CRS
did discuss!!! They covered it all, and you have already
read a lot of press coverage about those subjects.
I had a chance to say hello to friend Ed Salamon, who is the
director of the CRB/CRS event…and congratulated him
reference the seminar. I told him I for certain will be back
next year to shake hands with some friends… I do not get to
see them very often. The CRS was a great experience!!! Make
your plans for next year!!! See you there!!!!
e-mail Kent
kent@kentburkhart.com
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