Bangs and Whimpers

It wasn’t quite the year we had hoped for in country music, was it? If we made the effort to gather specific examples, we’d probably conclude that 1996 brought us as many high-quality songs, records, and performances as we had any right to expect. But it didn’t bring us any figure of transcendent excitement. No artist rose up to sweep us away with vision, style, and subtlety, thus making us rearrange all our earlier musical preferences. The dozens of individual three-minute epiphanies we can call to mind from the past year are ample evidence of country music’s generally good artistic health; but, taken together, they do not create as much impact as the emergence of a single superstar.

Some observers continue to tout young LeAnn Rimes as country’s next big thing. If that should turn out to be so, then we’ll all ride her bandwagon. But I doubt that it will. While undeniably charming and talented, Rimes at this point seems to be more about media than music. With the inevitable and incessant clamor about her young age, it is difficult to concentrate solely on her artistry. No doubt she will continue to sell records, and she may well develop into the Tanya Tucker or Brenda Lee of her generation. But it’s unlikely that she will convert large new audiences to country music. (A recent Publishers Weekly, by the way, quotes Rimes’ publicist as saying that the youngster is negotiating for a major book deal and may, in fact, write two books.)

It is possible, I suppose, that country’s next sensation did surface in 1996 and none of us has yet noticed it. After all, it took three singles for Garth Brooks to vault out of Clint Black’s shadow and take country music to the masses.

All the dark mutterings to the contrary, the record companies can’t be faulted for failing to take chances—they took plenty. Asylum put a big push behind the angelic but rough-hewn Cox Family; the label also launched ultra-traditionalist Royal Wade Kimes. Imprint Records fought the good fight for songwriter Gretchen Peters. Decca gambled a fair amount of money on Roger Brown’s sweetly ecstatic swing music. Arista gave retro-rustics BR5-49 every opportunity to show their stuff. BNA extended carte blanche to K.T. Oslin to attempt her chart reentry. And so it went. You may not have heard a lot of new sounds on country radio—but it surely wasn’t because Nashville wasn’t making them.

I enjoyed fine new music in 1996 from Mark Luna (whose ready-to-be-released album was shelved when A&M folded its operation here), Asylum’s Thrasher & Shiver, Curb’s Keith Perry and Ruby Lovett, and Red Pony’s Sylvia Hutton. Pam Gadd, who used to record for Capitol as a member of Wild Rose, is now shopping one of the purest country collections I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing. Mindy McCready, Deana Carter, Trace Adkins, Deryl Dodd, James Bonamy, Paul Brandt, and Brady Seals also demonstrated that the quality of new country talent still runs high.

The singular disappointment of the year was that cowboy hats were not entirely obliterated from Music Row. Perhaps the CMA could establish an amnesty program to address this affliction.

Currents

♦ Primestar, the satellite TV company, will underwrite the “Four Star Blowout” tour, which will feature concerts by Clay Walker, Terri Clark, James Bonamy, and Emilio. In subsidizing the tour, the company aims to keep ticket prices at under $20 each. Set to start Jan. 17 in Amarillo, Texas, the Four Star Blowout will continue throughout the first half of 1997.

Details of country tours to be sponsored by Kraft and by Fruit of the Loom are due to be announced this week. The deluge of country talent on the road last year—much of it overpriced for the markets—has caused some worries within the industry. While sponsorships do not solve this problem, they do lessen the shock for artists, agents, talent buyers, and consumers alike.

♦ CMT’s Top 12 music videos of 1996 were (in descending order): “My Maria,” Brooks & Dunn; “Rebecca Lynn,” Bryan White; “(If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here,” Shania Twain; “Blue,” LeAnn Rimes; “You Win My Love,” Shania Twain; “The Road You Leave Behind,” David Lee Murphy; “It Matters to Me,” Faith Hill; “What I Meant to Say,” Wade Hayes; “I’m Not Supposed to Love You Anymore,” Bryan White; “No One Needs to Know,” Shania Twain; “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,” the Mavericks; and “Check Yes or No,” George Strait.

Special category award winners were Bryan White, male video artist of the year; Shania Twain, female video artist; Brooks & Dunn, video group or duo; Paul Brandt, male rising video star; LeAnn Rimes, female rising video star; Cledus T. Judd’s “If Shania Was Mine,” independent video of the year; and Steven Goldmann, video director of the year.