Overcooked Or Simply Raw....

Jimmy Carter in his homebase Nashville.

It happens every few years ... successful recording artists get fed up with the industry music factory studio and build a home studio.

Always trying to find the secret sauce ... the magic ingredient for hit music. Dylan and The Band did it ... so did McCartney. Almost all the giants -- and Nashville is no different. Good luck to anyone who is trying to break the mold.

From publicity to music, Music City is overexposure city these days. Blanket publicity of a project or silence. No sweet spot. Everything ... then nothing.

Who really is that interesting to do all that radio, TV and print? You don't hear from someone for a year or more, then boom! Every magazine, every radio prep service, all the TV shows. From what they do or don't eat to their marriage ... any and everything. OD!

That is the nature of the beast. It sure is hard to endure, though. Maybe there is no other way, but you get almost sick of that act by the time the project is out a week or so. Somehow Hollywood gets the blanket publicity, but rarely makes you sick from the overexposure.

I've been part of the publicity machine for movies since 1980. Interviewed everyone in Hollywood for 30 years. They somehow know how to build and release just right. Of course they make mistake,s but more often than not when it is a screw-up, they are trying to float a lead balloon/a bad product. And you can't make a dead cat fly...

The publicity machine is a strange beast anyway. Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood just got #1 Billboard CDs. The marketing awareness was fantastic. It worked, I guess. Publicity rarely gets credit but it is deserved in these cases.

The publicity machine for Taylor Swift is currently giving us a badly needed rest. Carrie needs to give us a rest, too.

The radio business is evolving and revolving very quickly. The digital world has turned all of electronic media on its head. Radio is trying to carve out a place after cutting back so much. Many chain stations have become automated outposts.

Adding content back and getting the listeners re-engaged is very high on the list. But very hard.

TV is very involved with music again. Radio seems to be following TV's lead. "Idol," "Apprentice," late-night and morningsare grabbing millions of viewers, but TV SHOWS are the water cooler talk. Radio must partner with the music business to create must-have appeal. Make the artists more interesting. Everyone is interesting.

Great hearing and seeing Wynonna and The Mavericks on stage. Grammy block party. Both have so much to still give!

You keep hearing about age bias and other format discriminations. The radio Godfathers are obsessed with music for 20-30 -year-olds. Dwight Yoakum is coming back. I could list a dozen acts missing format play. I don't know how you mix Taylor/Carrie with George Strait and Alan Jackson, but someone needs to learn.

And why is it so hard for a young female singer to break out? Complicated times, indeed.