The Grammy Award

Every day on Facebook I post (usually my first post of the day) a post of gratitude and thankfulness. It just seems like a good way to start the day. Today's post was...

Joyce Rizer is very thankful for our Christmas gift from Dave & Jen... even though we won't officially meet our present until late summer!

So the answers to the FAQ are...

1. Since December 18th! Hardest secret to keep, ever. We were the first to know outside of the doctor's office. But then it became this little treasure that we had all to ourselves, and once we got permission to tell (they wanted to wait to get through the first trimester) I kind of didn't want to give it up!

2. They gave us a family gift for Christmas... a webcam... a card that said "Our family is growing by two feet"... and a pair of baby socks. I knew as soon as I saw the webcam.

3. They don't know... and say they don't want to find out in advance. Way more willpower than I have.

4. August 1st. Which, if you're doing the math, puts me at 38.

5. I can't decide. Gary is going to be "Gramps" ~ which is what I called him when we were dating. I was leaning towards "Grams" (one syllable, easy to say) but I think Granny J. has a ring to it, and there's part of me that thinks Grammie is just adorable.

I intend to be the coolest, hippest, funnest G-something around.

Lady A Day ~ Tuesday

Programming announcement -- we're celebrating "Lady A Day" on Tuesday... a track an hour all day long from the new CD, featuring some commentary from the band on the new music. Then they'll spend an hour hanging with Storme Warren, chatting about everything else they have going on -- touring with Tim, Grammy Awards, etc. etc. etc. Be there! Sirius 60 / XM 16 / DISH 6060 / DirecTV 814.

Actually -- can someone with DirecTV confirm we're still on? I've heard that's going away, although I'm not sure when.

Need a Research Assistant!

Anyone got time between now and Wednesday afternoon to do a little online research for me? Need some interview prep done....

Leave a message! Thanks!

Dinner with Martina

I've gotten some requests for details on my dinner with Martina. I'm too lazy (after all, it IS my day off!) to dig up the audio and provide quotes, so here's just an overview.

We were in a private room at a really nice restaurant on West End Avenue that I'd never been to before. There were 10 of us from national radio, John & Martina, and a handful of her "people" - publicist, a couple of marketing folks, a couple of label folks. We were all around this big square table, which made it really nice. Lorianne Crook was there, but otherwise it wasn't names you'd know -- it was Lon Helton's producer, Bob Kingsley's producer, several radio prep site producers, etc.

Before we sat down though it was more cocktail hour... Martina came around the room and socialized. She's rockin' a Pat Benatar style haircut these days. Conversation was more about kids (her Delaney just got her learner's permit)and hair and shopping than it was anything business related.

Dinner was really good... although somehow at dinner the conversation turned to these "cleanse" diets that her marketing person was on. Martina does a similar one, and they wound up telling us a bunch of things about that - as we stuffed ourselves with red meat and ravioli and plenty of wine.

After dinner her label guy set up a microphone and we did a little "round robin" at the dinner table. You'll be hearing audio from that in upcoming editions of The Nashville Flash as well as our new countdown show - The Highway Hot 30 LiVE!

I almost didn't go because Wednesday nights I'm usually up at church, but I'm glad I went. It was a four hour extravaganza -- plenty of wine, good conversation, good company.

I Wanna Talk About Trace

So. Rewind - Wednesday. It was a crazy busy morning... my weekly deadlines were all out of wack because I was producing a Friday show on a Wednesday, and it's a holiday weekend to boot. So tempted as I was to completely blow off the Toby Keith press conference... I really wanted the audio for our awesome little news features - The Nashville Flash.

So Storme and I raced out of the studio, over to BMI. Now last time I was at BMI for a joint media event, my microphone was set up on the right, and Keith Urban sat on the left. This time I asked the publicist which side Toby was sitting on. ;-)

Toby and Mark Wright come in and talk about their new joint venture between Show Dog and Universal South. Quite honestly, it's not very exciting. Much more business related... Toby rants about the Music Row politics some, but mostly, it's going to be a lot of editing to get 10 seconds of audio the fans are gonna want to hear.

Look at that, I got "wanna" and "gonna" in the same blog. You'd never know I was born north of the Mason Dixon line.

I will say though, HUGE press turnout. The most I've ever seen at a BMI event. TV, Radio, Internet, Print and a whole bunch of people I'd never seen before. Apparently if you could spell Toby's name, you were in.

So they're talking about artist roster (unchanged at this point, no one's been cut) and synergies, and Toby getting his own masters back (which, clearly was the motivating factor behind going back to Universal after trashing them.) And then in a "oh yeah by the way" moment after his publicist whispers in his ear, he announces he's signed his first artist.

"We've signed" Mark corrects him.

We've signed to Show Dog Records... Toby continues.

"Show Dog-Universal" Mark corrects him.

I feel your pain Toby. I still slip and it's been a year and a half. Carry on.

So he talks about his new signing, and truly, I'm zoning out. I'm sitting next to Lorianne Crook wishing her hair was bigger so it would hide me taking a nap. Great, just what we need.. some new artist we've never heard of. And there's a rustle behind me, and Trace Adkins walks around the table.

And I kid you not, the first 10 seconds, I thought it was a joke. Ha! Funny! But it turns out, people in Nashville can keep secrets after all. This one came out of left field!

I don't have my audio with me to share quotes, but Trace was very gracious in thanking Capitol for 15 years together. A few other notes from memory:

- Trace saw how happy Toby was when they toured together, and he "longed" for that.
- Trace called Toby up to pitch the idea
- Toby has heard some of Trace's new music, but says he's just going to let him do his thing... he doesn't micromanage his artists.
- Great Buck Owens story... if the quotes aren't floating around out there on the net I'll dig 'em out for you. Remind me.
- The deal was signed just an hour before the press conference.

It was Trace's birthday, so they brought out a cake and sang to him. At that point, it was 15 minutes to Storme's live show so we bolted back to the studio, and I produced a story that ran all day today in the Nashville Flash, using audio from both Toby and Trace. Fun! Wow - did I just use fun and work all in the same paragraph? Why yes I did. Work's gotten fun again. Shhh... let's just keep that our little secret, ok?

I'm headed out to my annual girl's scrapbooking weekend at Henry Horton State Park tomorrow... if I don't get to check back in here, have a great weekend!

Wednesday Madness

*Whew!* What a day on Wednesday! A lot to chat about, starting with a Toby Keith press conference that got completely interrupted (in a good way) by a Trace Adkins birthday party, and ending with a four hour dinner with Martina McBride.

Consider this a placeholder for things to come. I also have a new story going up on The Boot sometime in the next day or two. Have a great day!

Lady A in the House!

Here's what I love about Lady Antebellum. With the exception of Hillary's haircolor... they're the same people we sat down and did Driver's Ed with a year and a half ago, despite having a whole bunch more statues on their mantles.

We're cookin' up something big for their release day. Need You Now comes out January 26th.) Stay tuned!

I also hit the Country Weekly 15th Anniversary Bash tonight, at the newly remodeled Hard Rock Cafe. Place was PACKED. There were artists there, ranging from Josh Turner to Duane Allen of the Oak Ridge Boys. But even better was seeing some Music Row peeps I haven't seen in forever!

SNEEK PEEK: My longtime readers know that there is one artist I just love Love LOVE to hear talk about himself. I'll get to hear him do just that, tomorrow!

Hanging with the Vocal Group of the Year!

Headed out to Country Weekly's 15th Anniversary Party at the newly remodeled Hard Rock Cafe. When I get home, hopefully I'll remember to give you ALL the scoop from our session with Lady Antebellum today - including pictures.

In the meantime, I've updated the Song of the Day to be one that I told my 12 year old she was NOT allowed to put on her MP3 player. :-D

The Week Ahead

Lots of adventures in Music City this week if I can get to them all! A press conference with my FAVORITE male artist of ALL TIME (ouch... tongue that severely in cheek HURTS!)... a 15th Anniversary Party... a #1 party for the Vocal Group of the Year and dinner with today's Song of the Day artist. Stay tuned!

How's the view?

A few weeks ago, I asked my listeners to send me pictures of the snow. If memory serves... I was making fun of Nashville's little pitiful dusting of snow. I got a bunch of absolutely gorgeous pictures, but this one was my favorite. It was sent from a listener in Colorado.

New Decade - New Blog Look

Hope your 2010 has gotten off to a good start so far! With the new year, new decade, I'm redecorating a bit around here... adding some new features... I've even changed the blog name, although I'm not sure this one's going to stick.

Y'all know that through my job I get introduced to a bunch of hot new music, so I thought I'd add a little "Song of the Day" feature. See that box right there to the right? Press play and you'll hear a snippet of something that is catching my ear.

I started off with the song that Delaynie is wearing out these days... it's from the Platinum edition of Fearless and is also on the soundtrack to Valentine's Day. Check it out!

I've been going through some pictures in preparation for a scrapbooking girls' weekend next weekend... you never know what kind of little gems I'm going to find to share - like the Gary Allan video below.

Hot Video

Love him... love this song. This was at the Ryman in November. I have a zillion pictures of him and opening act Jack Ingram if you're interested.

Goodbye 2009!

Wasn’t it just a couple of weeks ago that I was making fun of people for stocking up on bottled water because they were panicking about Y2k? How can we possibly be at the end of this decade? I’m not ready for 2010 yet – I haven’t decided if I’m going to call it Twenty-Ten or Two-Thousand-Ten.

It’s crazy to think I’ve spent most of the past decade in the same job. The one constant while everything else around me changed. I’m the satellite radio cockroach ~ they can’t kill me and I refuse to die. Not bad considering when I took the job most of the people I knew didn’t think the company would be around this long. Although, I guess technically, you could say they were right.

The thing that comes to mind most over the past decade is the people. When it comes down to it, it’s not the building you walk into ~ a church, a home, a school, an office. It’s the people that are there to greet you at the door that make or break your day. I’ve found some amazing friends this decade. I’ve lost a few too. On the days that hurts a little less I realize that it’s their loss. Other days I'm still bitter that someone can just walk away like that. Not just from me, but from my daughter? Really? They've missed watching a pretty amazing kid grow into a pretty neat pre-teen. Yeah, their loss.

I know I’ve been a rotten blogger over the past few months. Don’t take it personally… my creative juices have just dried up. Writing is like a muscle you have to exercise. I don’t have shows to write at work anymore, I don’t blog, I haven’t even been writing for AOL lately.

I’d love to tell you that my New Year’s resolution is to be a better blogger, but I can’t make any promises. I tried Twitter, and honestly, I think the whole program is a bunch of junk. The only reason I signed up is to get some news scoop for the features I was writing – and that’s been useful. But all that RT’ing drives me BATTY. I feel like I’m eavesdropping all the time, on people I don’t know or don’t care to know. I have a whopping 20 followers I think, half of whom I don’t know, and one that blew me off years ago in real life. Facebook is my preferred medium, because it’s quick, easy, and brainless. But I had some issues in the fall and decided to put my FB page on lockdown. So now it’s pretty much only people that I know in real life. At some point I may open that up again, or make a second, more public account.

So what does 2010 hold for Producer J? No world tour, I’m guessing. I probably need to rename this blog. But I’m so glad I’ve had it all these years, because I really enjoy looking back and remembering the amazing things I’ve gotten to do… it really seems like a blur sometimes. For now, I’m plugging along. Delaynie’s doing great, she’s literally about half an inch shorter than me and wearing all my clothes. Gary’s training for a half marathon in April. Our new house still has a million things I want to do to it if I’d ever have time. Dave & Jen and Brad are all in Kentucky now and our family is in good health.

To recap the year… here are some memorable moments in absolutely no particular order in 2009 for me – personally and professionally. I’m sure there are many things I’m leaving out, so I reserve the right to modify! Here’s to many more in 2010.

~ Rizers Invade Kentucky: Between May and September Dave & Jen and Brad all moved to the Lexington area, putting them all within 3 ½ hours of us. What a blessing! Dave & Jen bought their first house, and hosted Thanksgiving. David’s church is doing really well, and they’re connecting with some great friends. They’re rubbing elbows with the stars too ~ he’s got an award winning country star going to his church!

~ Fearless Surprise: Taking Delaynie to see Taylor Swift’s Fearless Tour. September - Nashville. I kept it a surprise from her up until just a week or two before. If you saw this tour, you know that Taylor completely deserved that Entertainer of the Year.

~ Hey baby, let’s go to Vegas!: October. Had a Faith Hill song running through my head for a week when I got the invitation to out to Garth’s Vegas press conference and get a one-on-one interview. I didn’t wind up going, but I’ll always treasure getting the invitation, because I know plenty of people who didn’t..

~ Cowboy Boot Shopping in Texas: Love my boots. Loved that weekend. Not so fond of the giant beach balls hitting us in the head. When’s our next roadtrip? :-)

~ Christmas 2009: Lots of family, lots of snow, and the best gift ever. Great way to end the year.

Wishing you nothing but wonderful memories in 2010!

The 2009 World Tour T-Shirt

Illinois
Indiana
Kentucky
Ohio
Tennessee
Texas

Seriously... is this the lamest travel year ever? Did I forget somewhere?

Clearly No Parrotheads Work at CMT

Just got back from a CMT Crossroads Taping with Jimmy Buffett and Zac Brown Band. Small venue, about 500 people there. Both bands on stage together. TV Tapings are always a little odd, but this one had a couple of really odd moments.

- No Hawaiian Shirts allowed. Really?
- We were to dress in warm colors, no brights. At the risk of repeating myself... Really?
- There was a bar in the lobby (serving Margaritaville margaritas, of course) but they told us we couldn't take cups in. So no drinking. We get packed into our sardine seats, and guess what? There's a bar in the back. Serving the same drinks in the exact same cups they were serving in the lobby.

Even Jimmy wasn't allowed to wear bright colors, apparently. He wore the long sleeved (Really?) "Life Is Good" shirt I've been looking for for Gary. Olive green. Jeans - no shoes.

4 States... 1156 Miles... 6 Days

Been running around the country, but I wanted to check in and wish everyone good luck with their speed dialing tomorrow! Let me know how it goes!

Happy Thursday!

Hope it's as good a day for you as everyone is hoping it will be! :-)

Today's Word Is...

Had to go to dictionary.com to check this word out. Yep... it meant what I thought it meant. Dang.

em⋅bar⋅go 
 /ɛmˈbɑrgoʊ/ [em-bahr-goh] noun, plural -goes, verb, -goed, -go⋅ing.

–noun
1. an order of a government prohibiting the movement of merchant ships into or out of its ports.
2. an injunction from a government commerce agency to refuse freight for shipment, as in case of congestion or insufficient facilities.
3. any restriction imposed upon commerce by edict.
4. a restraint or hindrance; prohibition.
5. a word that steals the joy from the media.

Stickin' Out Like A Sore Thumb

I did something I'd never done before in my life today. I walked into a Harley dealership. First thing I realized once I'd found it was that I was clearly not dressed appropriately. I had a minimal amount of black on, and absolutely no orange. To say I felt a little out of place was an understatement. In hindsight, a bandana would have been a big help in the wind.

It was all for a good cause though. Dierks' Bentley's 4th annual Miles & Music for Kids event. My role there was simple -- quick interview with Dierks to gather soundbites for The Highway's "Nashville Flash" news minute. Mission accomplished. The concert lineup for the event was pretty good, but surprisingly, very few of the artists were doing the ride part of it. (Darius told us a couple of weeks ago "If Dierks thinks I'm riding a motorcycle he's on crack.") Troy Gentry showed up to ride, but Wynonna was the only performer who was also riding. I did not see so much as a whisp of her red hair during the 2 hours I was there.

By the way, let the record reflect that IF indeed I ever MIGHT have had a SLIGHT crush on Troy Gentry... it's over. Still love the MG music, but Troy has gotten a little too glam rock for me. I miss the rough and rowdy redneck who came to town with a little scruff and a pair of cowboy boots. Where did that guy go? And who is this guy wearing eyeliner looking like a drag queen waiting to come out? Even his motorcycle was over the top. (Even Dierks mentioned it.) At any rate, that was the topic of conversation amongst the media while we were waiting for Dierks to come around.

When he did come around he talked about the event, what his daughter will be for Halloween (Yoda), his touring plans for next year (taking the spring off) and his next two cds (one of which will be Bluegrass.) Dierks is a good guy, I love his music and I love that his heart is in the right place when it comes to his career. However, a year into fatherhood honey, you have to stop referring to your daughter as "my kid." Or worse yet, describing Vanderbilt as "my wife had her kid there." Try something a little warmer like "our child." When Evie gets old enough to read your interviews, she'll thank you.

Trick or Treat !

I love the Opry Pumpkin Patch -- check it out in the foyer of the Grand Ole Opry house now through Halloween!