Late Night Ramblings

Sorry for the lousy formatting on this post... Blogger is giving me FITS tonight and the spacing is all wacked. It looks fine on my editor, but once I publish it it goes nutty. Hope it's not too hard to read.

The temperature in Nashville is like... 20 degrees cooler this weekend than it was 2 weeks ago. We went from something like 15 days straight of triple digit temperatures, to fall. So, we did some yardwork today, and even though it's only September 9th, I got out my scarecrow. The mums will eventually go in the ground somewhere.

Then, I discovered something completely ridiculous. I went to Walmart... and they have their CHRISTMAS villages out.

Yuck! But then... to make matters worse... I actually walked down the aisle they were in... and discovered... not only do they have their new village pieces out, but you can BUY a SUPER WALMART for your cute, quaint little Christmas Village. Not even a small little old fashioned WalMart -- a SUPER WALMART. That's just. so. wrong.

All of which made me realize, I don't know where I'm going to put my Christmas village in the new house. I don't yet have furniture for the room with the fireplace, which is where, I presume, we'll put the Christmas tree.

Back to September, now though... we got the WILDEST... CRAZIEST... thing today. It was water. Falling out of the sky. Bunches of it, at one time. I didn't think they had that stuff in my new neighborhood. (Glad to discover that my roof didn't leak!) In fact, it was such an unusual occurance that it posessed my daughter to channel Gene Kelly. (And actually, I have video of her dancing WITH the scarecrow.)

This photo was attached to a press release I got last week. I literally looked at the photo and didn't recognize the artist. And then I was even more shocked to see that the press release describe this artist as the "Queen of Country Music." Now I've looked closely, and I have determined that the photo is NOT Loretta Lynn or Kitty Wells. Do you recognize who it IS?

A programming note -- Kenny Chesney's Release Day Rest Stop will air this Tuesday. Every hour, on the hour, Kenny shares a cut from the new CD, Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates. RDRS isn't on my normal producing duties, but because Kenny has consumed all of our lives lately, I wound up working on this one, (it was an all-hands-on-deck extravaganza!) and have heard the music, and his stories. Be listening for the duet with George Strait -- it's really good, and really a dream come true for Kenny.

You know... I forget until I spend time with him, just what a great guy Kenny is. Very down to earth, someone who's worked really, REALLY hard to get where he's at, but is still, at least whenever I've been around him, just very nice. He showed up to our recording session last week in a faded Spaghetti-O's t-shirt, Vols cap, khakis, and tennis shoes. And he was really relaxed and in a great mood, and I really enjoyed listening to him talk - about everything from songwriting to cd sales. I forget how cool he is sometimes when I get overcome with rage at his ridiculously hard to read press releases.

And by the way... I really, REALLY hope that Kenny - and Country Music - shows ol' Kanye West and 50 Cent just how to kick ass and take names at the cash register. If you're planning to buy Kenny's CD -- PLEASE go do it the first week. Because the media's eyes are on this week's releases, and we need to show them that COUNTRY is KING!

Ok, off my soapbox now. And by the way -- if you weren't planning to buy the CD, you know they'll have great first week sales prices, so pick up a few to give as stocking stuffers... coasters... whatever. And if your kids want the 50 Cent cd, by golly -- tell them they have to wait until NEXT week.

Now, on to what you REALLY want to hear about. The #1 party I went to Friday.

Just to recap...

MONDAY: Official word comes out that More Than A Memory is debuting at #1 on the Billboard/R&R Chart.

THURSDAY: Invitations go out for the #1 party

FRIDAY: #1 Party. Four days after the song goes #1. Could it be that they just couldn't resist the chance to throw the party on the SEVENTH?

I'm so flippin' excited at what this song has done -- not for Garth, because he really doesn't need the fame, and certainly not the fortune! But the guys and gals at Big Machine have worked their asses off, completely re-inventing the wheel and re-energizing country radio. Taking what couldn't be done, and doing it -- bigger and better. Scott Borchetta, John Zarling, and Jack Purcell are 3 of the best guys in the business - and 3 of the NICEST to boot. I know I'm gushing, but it's great to see good things happen to people who really work for it. Y'all have seen what they've been doing for Trisha, and how much better life is for her under their umbrella. Love them. I guarantee you, if this radio thing doesn't work out for me I'm going to be at their doorstep begging to just file papers or something.

So - first up Friday morning was a Round Robin with Garth and the 3 writers -- Lee Brice, Billy Montana, and Kyle Jacobs. I will tell you - I groaned when I heard this. Because at Garth's last #1 party - for Good Ride Cowboy - we all had our one microphone set up on a table, and all 17 writers on the song (kidding!) were at the end of a table, and Garth was standing in the back. And the audio was horrible -- no one I talked to was able to even use it. Which was a shame, because Bryan was completely hysterical, and we had Bob Doyle on the record, which was a rare treat.

But I digress. I can do that in late night ramblings. It's late - that gives me an excuse.

So they take us into the Ford Theatre -- we were told the Round Robin would be done in the Green Room, which is small. And much to our delight, there were four comfy chairs across the stage, and microphones on mic stands. Every one was mic'd and running through a mixer, and most importantly - the four of them were comfortable. Yet another example of the Big Machine rockin'!

Prior to the guys coming out I chatted for a few minutes with Bob, and once again put in my vote for Midnight Sun to be a single. He gave me a not completely convincing "it's in there..." It all came up actually, because I asked him my question of "now what?" Are they coming with a second single - has this one peaked?

The answer was, not yet times 2.

He said - and Garth later said - that they fully expect this one to fall drastically, but they hope it's going to work it's way back up. I loved what Garth said -- that songs have to EARN the right. He also said that "Borchetta said it when he picked it - this will be a song they'll be playing for the next 20 years." And Garth said he hoped they will. My favorite quote of the day: "Wherever it lands, there begins it's journey." So don't y'all be stressing out if it falls hard. Just help it climb back up!

When the four of them came out for the Round Robin -- which, not surprisingly, was very well attended - the first question was put to the writers to comment on Garth's recording of it. Garth got up and left (he likes doing that at press events I've noticed -- he did that when they played the single the first time for us at GRS.)

A few thing **I** learned and found interesting from the session:

Lee Brice sang the demo for the song, and in fact, has played it on the Grand Ole Opry! It was Lee who came up with the line "Dialing 6 numbers just to hang up the phone..."

Garth made some lyrical adjustments to the song. He does that a lot, you may recall, but once again, didn't take a songwriter credit. He told us when he turns on the radio, he likes to know where in the song he's at -- so he tweaks things in the choruses to make them different. He said his favorite line was "You know she'll be there in your dreams...." and then later in the song he changed it to be "You know she's waiting in your dreams."

Which leads me to the next, absolutely astonishing thing that was said (at the party) that I almost don't quite believe, but I haven't had a chance to look it up...

Of his TWENTY SEVEN number one songs -- Garth's writer credits total... ZERO. He's not had a writer's credit on ANY of his number ones? Seriously - someone look that up.

He also talked about how you hear the song once and can't get it out of your head (he sang a little for us here!) and how the girls heard it the first time and were singing it.

Garth also said the "stupid thing" was that this was the first song he'd gotten pitched over the computer.

And you know how all of us have said the song reminds us of a Chris Gaines song... or "When You Come Back to Me Again," or "To Make You Feel My Love." ?? Garth hears remnants of Shameless in it. And he says that's the other song of his that he likes the songwriter version better than his.

The party itself was held in the Rotunda of the Hall of Fame. A gazillion people there, and a gazillion plaques handed out. Lots and lots of cameras. The Party was put together so quickly that ASCAP couldn't get their plaques done in time. But the plaques that Big Machine handed out look very similar to the online trade ads they've been running - and they LIST all the early believers -- including XM Nashville! and XM Highway 16. Very cool to be part of the history of that song.

On tomorrow's calendar I've got a Big & Rich #1 party (although I swear they've already done one of these!) for "Lost in this Moment." (Leelee, I'm going to make every effort to hug Keith!) There's also a Faith Hill Round Robin and a premiere party for a new GAC show that I probably, quite honestly, won't make it to. I'm doing my best to not be gone so much at night in 5th grade. Although I swear, I tried that in 4th grade and it didn't seem to work out.

Here's my question for Faith: Does it piss you off as much as it does me that you and Tim didn't get an Entertainer of the Year nomination?

Off to bed I go!