Losing your job can be traumatic, but losing your record deal is a truly seismic disturbance—especially if you don’t see the breakup coming. New artists, who are just getting used to being pampered, and veteran acts, who have grown rather too accustomed to it, are particularly vulnerable to post-label stress. Still, music industry insiders maintain that there are always early warning signs to alert artists to the impending calamity. Here are some common indications that your recording career is headed south:
1. If the marketing department alludes to your upcoming album as The Kevorkian Sessions.
2. If your publicist tells you she’s trying to get you the cover of the Thrifty Nickel.
3. If the bar code on your album cover is followed by the words “or best offer.”
4. If your new music video turns out to be your last music video with a new soundtrack.
5. If you suspect that your manager isn’t stealing from you.
Currents
♦ Diamond Rio kicked off its 1996 touring season last Thursday, Feb. 22, with a press conference, an album release party and a concert at the Ryman Auditorium. The activities also spotlighted the release of the group’s new album, IV. Diamond Rio is again sponsoring a Winston Cup Car, but this year they’re doing it in conjunction with the Hanes apparel company, which is also sponsoring the group’s “Fast, Fast, Fast ’96 Tour.” To continue their support of Big Brother/Big Sister International, Diamond Rio has negotiated for Hanes to contribute matching dollars to the organization for each Diamond Rio racing T-shirt, cap or pair of boxer shorts sold this year. In addition, the group will be giving away tickets and backstage passes to Big Brother/Big Sister participants all along the tour.
♦ Billy and Terry Smith are completing a tribute album to bluegrass music founder Bill Monroe for K-tel Records. Monroe sings and plays on four cuts. In April, K-tel will release Long Live the Dead, the Smiths’ acoustic tribute album to the Grateful Dead and its bluegrass-loving frontman, Jerry Garcia.
♦ Friends of singer Gus Hardin will hold a memorial service for her 2 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, at the Belmont Church. Hardin, who released country records on RCA between 1983 and 1986, was killed recently in a traffic accident near her hometown of Tulsa. A choir that includes Becky Hobbs, Betsy Smittle, Lee Roy Parnell and Earl Thomas Conley will perform two of Hardin’s favorite songs at the service. Hardin’s biggest hit was “All Tangled Up in Love,” a 1984 duet with Conley. Instead of sending flowers, Hardin’s friends and associates are asked to donate to the Gus Hardin Fund, c/o the Bank of Oklahoma, P.O. Box 2300, Tulsa, OK 74192. The money will be used to pay for the cost of Hardin’s funeral.
♦ Buddy Killen’s 16th annual Easter Seal Benefit Dinner, Show & Celebrity Auction raised more than $135,000 for the Easter Seal Society of Tennessee. Among the celebrities on hand who donated items for the auction were Tanya Tucker, Poison lead singer Bret Michaels, and actor Charlie Sheen. Tucker, Michaels, the Ellis Brothers, Sam Moore, Daryle Singletary, Ronnie and Tyler Dean McDowell, Merle Kilgore, and Ray Petersen performed. To date, the event has raised more than $890,000.
♦ Tim McGraw, Shania Twain and Tracy Byrd are the top nominees for the third annual Country Dance Music Awards Show. Sponsored by Nashville’s Country Club Enterprizes, the awards ceremony will be held April 10 at the Wildhorse Saloon. Tim Rushlow of Little Texas will host. More than 1,000 country dance instructors and disc jockeys were polled to secure the nominations. Here are the award categories and contenders:
Favorite Dance Song: “I Like It, I Love It,” Tim McGraw; “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under,” Shania Twain; “Old Enough to Know Better,” Wade Hayes; “Sold,” John Michael Montgomery; “Should’ve Asked Her Faster,” Ty England; and “Trouble,” Mark Chesnutt.
Favorite Dance Album: All I Want, Tim McGraw; The Woman in Me, Twain; Love Lessons, Tracy Byrd; John Michael Montgomery; Old Enough to Know Better, Wade Hayes; and Music for All Occasions, The Mavericks.
Favorite Extended Country Dance Remix: “Anyway the Wind Blows,” Brother Phelps; “Bubba Hyde,” Diamond Rio; “Don’t Ask Me No Questions/What’s Your Name,” Travis Tritt/Steve Earle; “I Like It, I Love It,” Tim McGraw; “Rodeo Rock,” Jimmy Collings; and “Walkin’ to Jerusalem,” Tracy Byrd.
Favorite New Dance Step: Baby Once I Get You (Scooter Lee’s “Baby Once I Get You”); Cotton County Queen (Ron Wallace’s “Cotton County Queen”); Fever (Jeff Moore’s “Fever”); “The Honk” (Dallas County Line’s “The Honk”); J-Walk (Byrd’s “Walkin’ to Jerusalem”); and West Side Shuffle (Twain’s “If You’re Not in It for the Love, I’m Outta Here”).
♦ Here’s an update on Michael Barham, the young singer-songwriter from Tulsa who was first profiled in this column last November and whose fortunes I’ll chronicle as he pursues country stardom. Barham is signed as a writer to Warner/Chappell music and has already cut several tracks with producer Andy Byrd to present to prospective record labels. Now he’s on the road with a new band, touring the A-list of country nightclubs, including Denver’s Grizzly Rose and Phoenix’s Toolie’s Country. He’s also scheduled for four weeks in various clubs in Las Vegas. May 16-20, he’ll perform at Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon; during this run, Warner/Chappell and Artists Concepts, Barham’s management company, will bring in representatives from the major labels to see how the singer measures up as a live performer.
Barham’s advisers recently urged the singer to dismiss his longtime backup band, Fire Mountain, because the group lacked the right image and sound. Barham found a more suitable replacement, the Real McCoys, a few weeks ago in Little Rock. They’re now booked as Michael Barham & Boone County.
Comments (0)