It’s a jungle out there, all right—just look at all those hungry faces peering through the foliage. According to the Country Music Association’s April list of country recording artists, there are 304 acts currently vying for a piece of the country-music pie. Some are vying harder than others, of course, depending upon how “major” their record labels are, how excited the labels are about promoting them, and how squarely their music fits the contemporary country music pattern.
If you consider only the major record companies (Capitol, MCA, Mercury, etc.) and other labels distributed by the majors, there are still 190 separate acts in the market. Of that total, 43 are female performers, 112 are male, and 35 are duos or larger groups. Not all of these, however, are actually competing for a spot on the radio playlists: Some are comedians and don’t release singles as such. Others, including Earl Scruggs at Columbia and Bill Monroe on MCA, are legendary—but largely inactive—members of their rosters. And some artists are no doubt close to separating from their labels and thus will not be issuing any music soon.
Respected independent labels, including bluegrass music powerhouses Rounder and Sugar Hill, account for 114 acts: 20 female, 55 male and 39 duos or larger groups. Intersound Records is now the home port for many of the major-label acts of the ’70s and ’80s, among them Baillie & the Boys, Moe Bandy, Janie Fricke, the Gatlin Brothers, Mickey Gilley, Crystal Gayle, Highway 101, Mel McDaniel, Johnny Rodriguez, Eddy Raven and Dan Seals.
Several prominent names are wholly missing in the CMA’s latest tally and are presumably either between labels or have made affiliations not yet announced. These include Ricky Van Shelton, Charlie Daniels, Terry McBride & the Ride, Clinton Gregory, Stacy Dean Campbell and Joy Lynn White.
Of the 190 major or major-related acts, only 50 remain who were on the country charts before the watershed year of 1989—which saw the breakthrough of Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt and Garth Brooks. But a few of these earlier-charting acts continue to be among today’s top-sellers, notably George Strait, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Dwight Yoakam, Lorrie Morgan, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Loveless and Alabama.
Currents
♦ The second Wal-Mart Country Music Across America Tour started May 4 at the Franklin, Tenn., Wal-Mart store, with performances by Mandy Barnett and Bobbie Cry-ner. This edition of the tour will run through July 1997, and will feature free parking-lot shows by Wade Hayes, Ricochet, Rich McCready, Joe Diffie, Stephanie Bentley, Phillip Claypool, M.C. Potts, James Bonamy, Bryan White, Smokin’ Armadillos, Thompson Brothers Band, Great Plains, Mark Wills and Rick Trevino. Cosponsoring the tour with Wal-Mart is Anderson Merchandisers.
♦ Music writer Patsi Bale Cox, novelist Cathie Pelletier and singer Jim Glaser have just completed A Country Music Christmas, a book that details particularly memorable Christmases of such stars as Garth Brooks, Tanya Tucker, Ronnie Milsap, Hal Ketchum and Barbara Mandrell. It will be released later this year by the Crown Publishing Group.
♦ Former Elektra/Warner Bros./MCA/ Universal/Capitol/Liberty/Patriot chief Jimmy Bowen is reportedly working on his autobiography. He should have plenty of material. In the late 1980s, when he was still at MCA, Bowen interviewed dozens of the acts and music executives with whom he had worked.
♦ Newest Grand Ole Opry member Steve Wariner has finished filming his first instructional video for guitarists. The still untitled project is on the Homespun Tapes label and will go on sale this summer.
♦ Eddie Rabbitt has signed to the Brokaw Co. for personal management and to the Bobby Roberts Co. for booking. The longtime country star is also planning to record his first album for children.
♦ Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas will be memorialized via an arts, crafts and music festival July 4-6 in Camden, Tenn., near the site of their fatal 1963 plane crash. The event is being jointly sponsored by the Benton County/Camden Chamber of Commerce, music promoter Lynn Pratt, and state Rep. James Peach. Peach, who now owns the land where the crash occurred, will erect and dedicate a monument to the three Grand Ole Opry stars and to Randy Hughes, who piloted the ill-fated plane. Among the acts who will perform or appear on the final day of the festival are Little Jimmie Dickens, Kitty Wells and Hawkins’ widow, Jean Shepard. Tickets are available by mail through the Camden Chamber of Commerce.
♦ Andrew Roblin—who used to write for Billboard and Music Row and used to perform around town in the punk guise of Andrew & the Upstarts—has been working for the past several years as a bluegrass artist out of Emmaus, Pa. As Andrew Roblin & the Pocono Mountain Men, he has just released a hard-driving new album, Perilous Pursuit.
♦ Lillian Ortega, who formerly worked in the publicity department at Liberty Records, has started True Blue Management. Her first client is Angela Hurt.
♦ After 15 years of separation, the members of the Amazing Rhythm Aces are back together again. The group has a new CD, Ride Again, and is currently touring the U.S. The Aces are doing their own booking, as well as working selected dates through such agencies as Variety Artists and Entertainment Artists. Publicist Martha Moore, who worked with the band during its glory days at ABC Records, is again handling publicity through her So Much Moore shop.
♦ Texas singer-songwriter Templeton Thompson has signed a joint publishing deal with MCA Music and Bizzy Music.
♦ Dates: Canadian Country Music Week is set for Sept. 6-9 in Calgary; ROPE, the Reunion of Retired Professional Entertainers, International, will hold its annual banquet and awards show Oct. 3 at the Vanderbilt Stadium Club.
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