April Has Been Canceled … and Maybe May, Too

Putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t help. We are in a real pickle, and God bless musicians for being the ones that are helping every way they can in this dangerous, stressful time.

Dolly Parton giving a million dollars to Vanderbilt University Medical Center was amazing. Dolly seems to always come to the front in trying times.

The Academy of Country Music will showcase Country stars at home this weekend. CBS had the time slot, and the internet showed the old school how they should fill it. Can’t imagine all these stars would ever agree to anything like this during normal times. These are not normal times.

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood drew in over five million viewers to CBS-TV with the most basic, plain TV show maybe ever on national network television. A two shot and a few close ups, Garth with a guitar, and both wearing lavalier microphones on their shirts. Even in the black and white, low definition TV 1950s, did anyone do anything more basic than that? The internet has changed everything, all day, every day! Maybe a TV production doesn’t have to cost a million dollars.

Furloughs, layoffs -- however you want to dress it up -- have been ugly since St Patrick’s Day for radio. Advertising is in a freefall on the national and local scenes. Voice tracking from home is everywhere, live talk stations with hosts at home and maybe a tech at the station. In a matter of a few weeks so much has changed.

The CMA Fest going away for 2020 was a big kick in the gut for tourism in Nashville. Tourism was already hurting, and this was huge. As the summer tries to shape up, you wonder how June will be. The release of the “Top Gun” film has moved to Christmas. Pretty much all the big things are out from that month, too. As I write this, the first glimmer of normalcy might be the 4th of July. I pray things come back before that. Newspapers, radio, TV, Music Row all need to get back to work and, at the same time, be safe.

As for the Nashville 4th of July celebration, how are you going to put 100,000 plus people in the streets for that?

Heard a great new song from Jake Hoot, the recent “The Voice” winner. “Tennessee Strong” (there also a video) is about the killer tornado that hit Nashville and his town of Cookeville, TN. It’s posted on Facebook under his name. He’s a real talent! Hope he is able to get everyone’s attention.

The death of Joe Diffie hit home very hard for many of us. This week Joe’s people re-released his “As Long As There’s a Bar” single, which was originally sent to country radio last August. Heard it once and sang the hook the rest of the day. Even Rolling Stone magazine was on it. It’s every bit as good as his solid ’90s catalog. He was a dependable hitmaker in the early ’90s, and a nice guy. He died of complications from Covid-19. So frightening! This death woke up a lot of doubters.

It will be a challenge to keep everyone’s mood up in the coming weeks. Players need to play, and share, and do even more than you have done already. Jennifer Nettles cut a version of “Tomorrow” from “Annie.” What a positive message for all of us!