Doing Your Homework

Are you keeping up with the ever-changing lineup changes in the music business? Just this week an executive change at UMG Nashville.

Mike Dungan has been one of the greatest label leaders in Music Row history. Successor Cindy Mabe is more than ready for the big office.

The new artist roster in Nashville Country and Pop nationwide is extensive. The established artists are flooding the Ticketmaster computers this year, and the new artists are climbing that ladder right behind.

It’s a good yearly exercise to see how many Grammy nominees you recognize. An upper-level grade exercise would be: Tell me a little something about each act coming to Bonnaroo and Coachella. The names might be alien, for example, Diarrhea Planet, a six-piece garage punk band from Nashville. It truly is Music City USA, not just Country Music City USA.

Know about Molly Tuttle? First thing you see is about her is, “among the most brilliant guitarists in this new generation.” Not coming to Country radio, but who knows … she might … probably as a guest of some smart, mainstream Country act.

Always told my college students, “Get out of that narrow arts world that you live in. Discover people like the recently passed Jeff Beck. Go on YouTube and watch the making of Steely Dan’s ‘Aja.’ Look beyond your comfort zone.”

As we roar into a new year you see the momentum of some acts. When you’re hot you’re hot, and you know the rest. Lainey Wilson just keeps getting good press. This week it was about how she wanted to be different and dressed in bell bottoms. It worked. Now she even has a cool style with her excellent music. It’s the package, and that includes the wrapper.

Eric Church is adding his name to the tour list for the year. From George Strait stadium shows, to the festivals and rodeos and all of it, ticket prices are crazy high.

Ticketmaster is an easy target, but everything costs more. Had a meal for less than 15 dollars lately? Almost 10 bucks to eat at McDonalds.

Inflation/recession are just words, but will they have more meaning as the year goes along?

See the lineup for RodeoHouston? Missing the Garths/Straits/Swifts etc. Good lineup, but no Elvis that this rodeo booked once upon a time. Still, a multi-million dollar buy for Country music acts.

Jessica Chastain just got a SAG nomination for the Showtime series, “George & Tammy.”

The story of the week might just be booze sales on Nashville’s lower Broadway. Wonder why so many folks are opening bars there? One bar (no name listed) served over one million single pours of Tito’s Vodka and 709,000 Michelob Ultra beers. One bar, one year, and that’s just those brands!

Millions. Just look at the trash that area creates. They do trash pickups multiple times a day in some cases.

Nashville is bursting at the seams. That’s the good and bad news. Arnold’s Country Kitchen is now gone. Meat and threes are almost extinct in Middle Tennessee. That’s the saddest song of all.