I have never met Margo Smith, but I am thoroughly charmed by her new instructional package, Back in the Swing: Margo Smith Yodeling Project. It brings to mind country music at its purest and most basic. In the old days, the hallmark of country music was its portability—it demanded nothing more cumbersome or intricate than one human voice. If you happened to have a harmonica or a guitar, that was OK. But you didn’t need them to convey the real heart of the music, and you certainly didn’t need electricity and amplification systems. The melodies were simple. The lyrics were narrative-based and regularly rhymed for easy memorizing.
While yodeling can certainly be intricate, it is, at bottom, just voice music—something to enhance or replace words. In the wrong throat, the yodel is admittedly a terrifying weapon; but in the right one—such as Smith’s—it is liquid gold. Smith is not just a superb practitioner of this much maligned art, she is also a fine and patient teacher. And the title of the instruction booklet, So You Want to Learn to Yodel???, suggests a wry sense of humor as well. Buttressing the booklet are two cassettes—a step-by-step instruction tape and an album of 10 yodel-enriched songs, most of them composed by Smith and her coconspirator, Fran Powers.
I would not urge you to buy Smith’s instructions and straightaway share your vocal achievements with friends—particularly if I happen to be one of them. But if you want to become a complete musical package—performer, sound, and audience all in one—then this is the kit for you. Details await you at 1-888-TO-YODEL.
Currents
♦ Confidently picking 10 front-runners out of the throng of new country acts is always a dicey undertaking. But the folks who run the annual Country Radio Seminar have done it again. They’ve announced that their fabled New Faces show for 1997 will star Trace Adkins, James Bonamy, Paul Brandt, Deana Carter, Deryl Dodd, David Kersh, Mila Mason, Jo Dee Messina, LeAnn Rimes, and Kevin Sharp. Set for March 8 at the Opryland Hotel, the show will be the closing feature of the seminar, which starts March 5. Until the advent of music videos, the New Faces show was the first opportunity many radio programmers had to see breaking talent. But each of the 1997 crew has already had at least one music video out to establish his or her presence, and some have had up to three.
The most notable thing about the 1997 lineup is that it’s the first one since 1979 not to include a group or duo. After Alabama made its New Faces debut in 1980 and started an absolute craze for self-contained bands, the show has been rich with collective hopefuls, among them the Capitols, Tennessee Express, the Whites, the Younger Brothers, Atlanta, Bandana, Exile, Mason-Dixon, the Wright Brothers, the Forester Sisters, Restless Heart, the Maines Brothers Band, Girls Next Door, SKB, New Grass Revival, Ride the River, Baillie & the Boys, the Burch Sisters, Shenandoah, the Shooters, the Kentucky Headhunters, the Lonesome Strangers, Wild Rose, Pirates of the Mississippi, Little Texas, McBride & the Ride, Boy Howdy, Confederate Railroad, the Remingtons, Gibson/Miller Band, Western Flyer, Perfect Stranger, and Ricochet. That so few of these groups still exist illustrates how truly remarkable Alabama’s run has been.
♦ CMT: Country Music Television will unveil its countdown of the best videos of 1996, Dec. 27 at 9 p.m. The winning videos represent the categories of male, female, and group artist of the year; rising video star; video event of the year; independent video of the year; and video director of the year. In addition to these, the top 12 videos of the past year will be shown during the two-hour show.
♦ David McCormick, owner of the Ernest Tubb Record Shops, confirms that he will record an album under the company logo for the country group Brazilbilly, who have had a regular weekly gig at Robert’s Western Wear for the past couple years. McCormick says this will be his third ETRS record project. The earlier releases—both of which came out “several years ago”—were a gospel album and a Carl & Pearl Butler country collection. The latter album, he notes, is now available on Bear Family Records. Recording on the Brazilbilly effort begins this week; no date has been targeted for final release. McCormick says the album will be available in his stores and by direct mail only.
♦ Star tracks: Shelby Lynne will record a pop album for Magnatone Records that will be licensed through Mercury Records in New York. Lynne has not yet selected a producer, and no release date has been set for the album.
♦ Louise Mandrell will open her own self-named theater next fall in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., near Dollywood. Still to be constructed, the proposed 1,400-seat building is being financed by Entertainment Investors LLC. Mandrell intends to do 250 two-hour shows a year. In addition to music, the shows will include dancing, comedy, and magic tricks.
♦ Jim Foglesong, who earlier headed MCA’s and Capitol’s country divisions, has been named to the board of the Howard Hanson Memorial Institute for Music at his alma mater, the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. The institute is named for a former Eastman School director and is dedicated to supporting “new works of music by men or women born or resident in the Western Hemisphere.” The five-person board also includes two Pulitzer Prize-winning composers. Beginning Jan. 8, Foglesong will again offer his 15-week course on “The Business of Music” at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music. For details, call 322-7651.
♦ Hallway Entertainment has completed principal photography on its authorized documentary about the life and music of singer Engelbert Humperdinck. The material was shot in England, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Boston, and New York. The project, which will be used both for a television special and home video package, is due out this coming spring.
