Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Wow Jeremy Lister and Gabe Dixon Coax Folks to Nashville With Safe Jams
Posted by D Patrick Rodgers on Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 12:48 PM
So I was doing some of my Google combing when I came across this link via a German website reporting from Burbank, Calif., about the Nashville Convention and Visitor's Bureau. Guess the demographic they're shooting for is the expatriate-Californian-in-Germany-with-a-soft-spot-for-Tennessee crowd. Anyhow, Jeremy Lister and the Gabe Dixon Band recorded a commercial--ahem, I mean song--called "Music Calls Us Home" that is apparently intended to lure folks to Nashville. White folks.
Stay tuned through the whole video for a shout-out to the East Side's 3 Crow, a jamtacular explosion that puts the "psych" in "psychedelic freakout," a somewhat soulless rendition of "Let the Circle Be Unbroken" and, at the very end, a cameo from suave baller extraordinaire Michael McDonald.
Comments (12)
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mmmm.... clean, smooth, safe, sterile... just like Nashville.
The visitor's bureau used this song as part of a video contest last year in which i participated and won a runner up prize (which included this CD).
While both the song and the video make me a bit queasy, I actually am thrilled by both.
Having a decent job and making a good living matters a hell of a lot more than being cool and maintaining artistic/critical integrity. Given the current economic state and the steady decline in tourism, which is a huge part of our economy, anything that draws more tourists with money to spend is great. I, too, wish music like The Tits or Jensen Sportag brought in tourists with deep pockets, but that isn't the case here nor is it in most other cities.
Plus, it is nice to see someone other than country artists broadly representing the music scene here. I imagine that anyone drawn to Nashville by "Music Calls Us Home" is probably cooler than the crowd here for the Gretchen Wilson Fan Club Party.
making that money... good for them. it still has to be an improvement over just catering to the typical cliche country/gospel folks. i'm glad the convention and visitors bureau is at least thinking outside the box here... and yes, that's jaci velasquez....
Here's the thing:
I certainly wouldn't expect the Visitor's Bureau to select some prog or gutterpunk or metal group—nor would such a group likely be interested—to create a song intended to market Nashville to outsiders. That's just the way the game goes. If you want a product (in this case a city) to appeal to the masses, you've got to use a package that people are comfortable with; something non-threatening.
But what concerns me is that people might assume folks like Lister and Dixon are what the local rock scene is all about. Yes, the dudes are talented...bless their hearts...but Nashville really does offer some unique, challenging, interesting rock and pop music that even layfolks might find interesting. The Features or Glossary or someone could've probably written a kick-ass pop song about Nashville for this thing. Then again, they probably wouldn't.
A three minute video with two minutes and 80 names worth of production credits.
Yeah, I'd say they captured the spirit of Nashville.
I worked at the NCVB when they came up with "Music Calls Us Home" motto, I think as a response to the decline in tourism in the wake of September 11th, 2001. All I can say for sure is that the majority of the people involved there, or at least those that were there two years ago, genuinely believe in Nashville and the music it makes, of all stripes (Case in point, Apollo Up was invited to play at the Country Music Marathon three years in a row.)
But they also believe in filling hotel rooms and convention halls, and I don't think a video featuring The Fork Hunts or Cavalcade of Cock is going to pull that off.
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