Lots of People Can Afford To Quit!

Jimmy Carter in his homebase Nashville.

Recovering from the final Brooks & Dunn show ... The Last Rodeo is over. They were a class act for the entire 20 years. They had a crew that was first-class. The songs hold up because they were built well. They made history and they made millions in the process ...

B&D learned from others that branding was potentially a huge enterprise. How many steer head things did they sell? Historic brand! The commercial tie-ins ... they did them as well as anyone. Toyota was smart to book them

WSM just played "Brand New Man" after my radio report this morning ... I listened to the song on my iPad WSM app. The song and the app sounded great. A feel-good classic now 20 years old!

These guys knew when to leave while still doing a great show that could stand up next to ANYONE! I will miss them .

1991 ... "Brand New Man" was a hit in the Fall of that year when there was still a TNN/The Nashville Network ... gas was $1.14 per gallon ... The Houston Oilers were still the Houston Oilers.

Speaking of leaving, Gerry House is leaving WSIX December 15th. Maybe he was inspired by his friends B&D. Gerry has made a boatload of money and like B&D, can quit the "get up early" grind. He is a legend in Nashville radio and was paid accordingly. He, too, will be missed. The other stations probably have to go to the store to get diapers, they are so excited....

So much has changed, but one thing that hasn't. Controversy about who is in and who is out with voters of The Country Music Association.

A bit of historical background ... a few artists used to think the CMA was biased to singers based in Music City -- the establishment, if you will. They left out the Merles and Buc's and the ACMs, which was created to compete. Those awards show now are six months apart; the ACM's a little edgier and the awards and nominations a little ahead of the curve.

The CMAs are still the oldest and the gold standard. There will always be favorites (no one is worse in that flaw than the Grammys), but the "who is in and who is out" sure seems to be moving faster these days.

The Taylor backlash, if there is one, is stupid. She is such a talent and asset to this business. Go watch the fan interaction sometime if you are a non-believer. Garth got a backlash, too ... so did Rascal Flatts and Shania Twain. She is in good company!

The Carrie Underwood thing is maybe more odd.. What more could you do in a year? Cover of everything, Super Bowl Anthem, #1 singles ... good sales, CD and concert. And not in the top five ... outrageous!

Taylor Swift wins last year ... plays to more people this year and not in. Outrageous to simply suicidal on one scale.

No Jason Aldean? He is future stadium-act material. Equally outrageous.

Politics, but what kind in play here? Not Old School, but what is it? Taylor was over-played ... Carrie was maybe a little overexposed on radio, for sure. Aldean, underexposed!

Six million for the CMA Musicfest show. The first hour was strong ... I grew weary around the hour-twenty point. Not sure why. Kid Rock on a Wednesday night may not be the best musical programming. The show needs to be LIVE! Or at least based live on a weak viewers' Saturday night in Summer, where there is some degree of NOW! Canned concert from three months ago is boring on its face. Always has been ... Live on Thursday night from the event it self ... NOW it would be exciting ... 100 reasons not to do it that way but anyway ... Six million eyeballs is still a lot of eyeballs.

NY State Fair posting guarantees for concerts this year ... Aerosmith got a million. Tim McGraw $500,000 ... Rascal Flatts $602,500 ... They got a deal for Lady A: $75,000!

Gulf Shores got slammed by oil crisis this year. They did have a few days of yuk and months of bad-news hype. BP put out some money for tourism. Gave it to the state and the state to the city. They had Buffett and now Bon Jovi and Brad Paisley. FREEEEEEE ... website is www.concertsforthe coast.com.

Back to the awards show, since the nominations do make many people crazy ... There are only five names per slot. The TV gives only a few decent exposure. All the nominees are worthy and the Country talent pool is very deep right now.

STILL.....Go to a show folks...Darius, Jason, Taylor and Carrie have killer shows. Taylor and Carrie SHOULD be in that top 5. Makes the business look weird from the outside.

Better, figure out a way to make the Junior and Senior-class acts relevant while staying cool with the Freshman class ... Freshman DON'T get Senior class honors. They have not EARNED them...