A Summer Wake Up Call

I heard there was a lifeguard shortage, a summer camp counselor shortage, and United Airlines says seats are filling up faster than expected. There’s also a semi-conductor shortage for boat motors, F-150 trucks and everything else.

Summer is sputtering to open, but the floodgates are wide open for the Nashville booked and based live concert business.

The Faster Horses festival in Michigan is back in July Dierks Bentley’s Seven Peaks festival is back for Labor Day weekend in Colorado. I hope the fans have been saving their money, because tours will be thick in September and most of the fall. Garth Brooks said this week he may end up doing more stadium shows this year than in the past.

I can’t imagine the crazy world of Nashville’s Lower Broadway this weekend. It’s been smoking hot for a month already. Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa club/restaurant had a soft opening with karaoke featuring Miranda and her husband singing the “Grease” song, “Summer Nights.” It will open to the public very soon.

My youngest daughter tore up a tire on a downtown pothole this week. It’s happening all over town, so drive pothole aware. Tires are expensive!

I’m sure you have seen or heard the ratings for the NBC “Billboard Music Awards” on May 23rd. No Monday morning quarterbacking other than to say the American people are OVER award shows right now. From Hollywood to Nashville, the new stars are too available on social media. Why watch?

CMT is pushing the Pop side of Country, bringing in Pop acts to sing with Pop-sounding Country acts on the June 9th “CMT Music Awards.”

It’s one way to go.

Does anyone else keep hearing about Country stations slipping in some ’90s Country and having great reaction? You might wake up the sleeping, passive audience with that experiment, or even nighttime ’90s salute hours. The pandemic changed all kinds of listener and viewing habits, maybe forever.

What is a full concert crowd going to feel like? It will sound like MONEY, but will the crews feel a bit uneasy? The summer of 2021, what will it bring?

For starters, a new amphitheatre for Middle Tennessee in Franklin, near the intersection of I-65 South and I-840. If you ever knew about Nashville’s Starwood Amphitheatre, you miss it. That closure never made any sense. The vacant land remains.

Summer tours, summer love, the beach, the shortages, the cicadas … here we go! Fasten your seat belts. Keep your masks on while in the airport. Get everyone around you the shot. Do not fight or back talk your flight crew. Hold on!