Road Hazards

Are there too many country acts touring for the market to absorb? Is country music falling out of favor among people who regularly attend concerts? Are high ticket prices driving away the country’s core audience? The answer is probably a qualified “yes” to all these questions.

Certainly there’s something soft about the market when acts that normally headline decide instead to tour as part of a double or triple bill. Reports are that Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn will tour jointly. So will Tracy Byrd and Tracy Lawrence. There are rumors—which neither camp would deny nor confirm—that Tim McGraw and Shania Twain will pair up for concerts next year. This year, we’ve seen Pam Tillis, Lorrie Morgan, and Carlene Carter combine for the Kraft Country Tour, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill for the Spontaneous Combustion Tour, and Travis Tritt and Marty Stuart for the Double Trouble Tour. But even with their multiplied star power, these tours are hardly setting house records.

Garth Brooks, of course, has continued to rack up multiple sellouts wherever he goes—and he’s managed to keep his top ticket price under $20. Tickets are a lot more expensive, though, for most of today’s top country acts, particularly now that their lighting and staging have become so lavish. Even in a generally healthy economy, there’s a limit to the number of high-price tickets a fan will shell out for.

Concert promoters have been complaining about oversaturated markets since the country-music boom started in the early ’90s. Perhaps their complaints are finally being validated. Moreover, TNN, CMT, and regular network television are so effective at pumping out around-the-clock country performances that fans may have become a bit jaded.

One thing is obvious: Local scalpers—a leading economic indicator—aren’t advertising many country concert tickets these days. That’s something to worry about.

Currents

♦ Magnatone Records is putting a massive marketing push behind Kenny Rogers’ new Christmas album, The Gift. Selections from The Gift will be targeted for airplay on country, adult contemporary, and contemporary Christian radio stations. The stations involved will soon be sent a four-song sampler of new Christmas songs from the album to air through December. The project will also be tied into Rogers’ 40-date Christmas concert tour, and the album will be the basis of a worldwide syndicated radio special.

A focal point of the album is Rogers’ duet with Wynonna, “Mary, Did You Know?” Other guest acts are GLAD and the Katinas, a five-brother singing group from Samoa. Making up the album are eight full-length carols, plus a 16-minute “montage” that combines traditional carols with commentary. Details about the promotion and the creation of a charitable foundation named for the album will be announced at a press conference later this month. The Gift was produced by Brent Maher and Jim McKell.

♦ Don’t be surprised if the phrase “a five-dollar fine for whining” soon becomes as much a part of the national lexicon as “read my lips.” The phrase may even be powerful enough to get Chris LeDoux some airplay. The longtime country singer and former rodeo champ has never really caught on at radio. But his new Capitol Nashville single, “Five Dollar Fine,” has the kind of catchy, applicable, and memorable chorus that tends to banish sleep and hasten madness—in other words, it’s perfect radio material. Even if radio ignores the single, LeDoux’s new knock-’em-down video will get the message out, especially as word spreads about its surprise ending. Alex Harvey wrote the song and must bear the ultimate moral responsibility for its fallout.

♦ IFCO—the International Fan Club Organization—has published its first Signature Collection Country Music Cookbook. The publication features recipes, photos, autographs, and commentaries from 110 country artists. Details are available from 615-371-9596. IFCO’s annual Fan Fair show will be held June 15, 1997, at the Ryman Auditorium.

♦ John Prine has joined the lineup for The Concert for Manglerdesh, the Oct. 8 benefit at Ryman Auditorium for Phil “Road Mangler” Kaufman. Kaufman has prostate cancer and no health insurance. Also on the bill: Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Trisha Yearwood, Nanci Griffith, Rodney Crowell, and Marty Stuart. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

♦ Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, John Hiatt, Mark Collie, and Larry Carlton will perform at Daisy Hill Farm near Leipers Fork on Oct. 13 to raise money for Hillsboro School’s “Kids On Stage” program. Tickets for the combined show and dinner can be purchased by calling 790-9963.

♦ Curb Records’ Jo Dee Messina will vie for four honors at the 1996 Boston Music Awards Oct. 22. Messina grew up and performed in and around Boston before moving to Nashville. She is in the running for the top act, debut album (Jo Dee Messina), single (“Heads Carolina, Tails California”), and country act prizes.

♦ Bill Monroe did a workmanlike job of preparing the world for his exit from it. He taught and inspired so many extraordinary bluegrass pickers that his musical legacy is safe for generations to come. Thus, while we may grieve, it will not be for the health of bluegrass. That’s been taken care of. The real loss in Mr. Monroe’s death is the passing of his courtly and distinctively rural vision of life. While he adapted quite admirably to the world’s rude changes, his songs took no notice of them. In his lyrics, the fields were always alive with promise, seasons mattered more than fashions, love was transforming and eternal, bad times were taken for granted, and hard work was the measure of a man. Who’s left to carry on these thoughts?