Since more than 100 recording acts made the first cut in the Country Music Association’s 1996 awards poll, it is idle to speculate on who the finalists and ultimate winners will be. Still, you can draw some sound conclusions about the shifting of country music’s tectonic plates by noting who’s suffered a decline in nominations since last year and who hasn’t been nominated at all.
Last year, for example, Alison Krauss pretty much stole the show with multiple wins, an achievement made all the more remarkable by the fact that she’s on an independent label. This year, however, Krauss has only one preliminary nomination—for female vocalist of the year. Since she’s up against such formidable major-label competitors as Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Wynonna, Pam Tillis, and Patty Loveless, it’s conceivable Krauss might be canceled out altogether this time around. Former top female vocalists Mary Chapin Carpenter and Kathy Mattea snagged only one first-round nod each, Carpenter in the entertainer of the year corral and Mattea in the female vocalist slot. Randy Travis, who practically carried the country-music industry on his back throughout the late ’80s, barely has his foot in the door this year. His lone appearance is with 31 other contenders for the top male vocalist prize.
Tanya Tucker, CMA’s top female vocalist for 1991, isn’t nominated in any category, and such promising newcomers as Bobbie Cryner, The Tractors, Kenny Chesney, James Bonamy, Keith Gattis, and Ken Mellons are similarly out of this year’s running. Russ Taff, who enlivened the 1995 awards show with his ditty about the difficulty of getting exposure, documented that fact this year by also failing to make the first cut.
Although Almo Sounds and Imprint Records made significant debuts in the country market in 1996 with Paul Jefferson and Gretchen Peters, respectively, neither artist showed up on the list. Dozens of new acts are represented, though, including Trace Adkins, for whom Capitol is making a big push, and Rich McCready, Magnatone’s current standard bearer.
If the sheer number of first-round nominations could predict final triumphs, Bryan White, George Strait, Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Shania Twain, Collin Raye, and Martina McBride would be the big winners when the awards are finally bestowed Oct. 2. But expect emphases to shift as the field continues to narrow.
Currents
♦ Barbara Orbison, widow of rock great Roy Orbison, has established Barbara Orbison Productions in Nashville at 1625 Broadway. The firm embraces four publishing catalogs—Still Working for the Man, Still Working for the Woman, Still Working for All, and Roy Orbison Music—plus two record labels: Orbi Records and Orbison Records. Roy Orbison Music and Orbison Records will be devoted exclusively to the songs and recordings of Roy Orbison, while the remaining companies will work with new and developing songwriters and artists.
Terry D. Choate is Orbison’s new vice president of music publishing, and Tanja Crouch is vice president of marketing. Until joining Orbison’s company, Choate was president of Crosswind publishing and production. Next January, Crosswind songwriters Mark Johnson, Rock Killough, and Dennis W. Wilson will join the Still Working roster, which now includes Matt Barnes, Jann Browne, Mark Germino, Eric Heatherly, Barbara Kelton, Tommy Lee James, and Wil Nance. Other Still Working staffers include Shirley Hutchins, publishing coordinator; Leticia Alvarez, copyright manager; and Noah Dewey, tape copyist and songplugger.
♦ Make Your Move, Steve Haggard’s fourth project for Wild Oats Records, is one of the year’s best country albums. Besides being a fine singer, Haggard wrote all but two of the 11 songs on the collection. His writing is intelligent without being annoyingly clever, and he has a classic country feel for strong images and clear narratives. The production is first-rate, and the pickers convey the kind of back-porch enthusiasm that lifts a song out of the grooves and into the memory.
♦ Western swing just ain’t my thing, but I’ve damn near been converted by Roger Brown & Swing City’s self-titled five-song collection on Decca. All the cuts are keepers, but “Adobe Walls” is astoundingly cool, sweet, romantic, and just plain pretty. Get this band on the CMA Awards show and let the folks out there hear another side of Nashville.
♦ Minneapolis-based Zataway Music has signed Nashville songwriter and producer Anthony Little to its roster. The company is represented in Nashville by songplugger Janie West and in Los Angeles by Bob Schatzley. Little has had songs recorded by Reba McEntire and Engelbert Humperdinck, among others.
♦ Intersound Records has several country albums and one video collection scheduled during the next few months. Among the upcoming titles: The Bellamy Brothers’ The Dance Mixes and The Latest & Greatest Video Collection (both July 23), Baillie & the Boys’ Loving Every Minute (Aug. 20), Joe Nichols’ Joe Nichols (Aug. 27), and Jack Jezzro & the Nashville Players’ self-titled album (due sometime in September). Fall albums include the Bellamy Brothers’ A Tropical Christmas, Crystal Gayle’s A Crystal Christmas, Moe Bandy’s Country Favorites, and T.G. Sheppard’s Live at Pigeon Forge.
♦ Arista Records/Nashville president Tim DuBois has been inducted into the Oklahoma State University Alumni Association Hall of Fame. He holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in accounting from OSU and once taught there.
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