NashvilleHype!

There are very, very few artists or songwriters that truly stop me in my tracks.  I mean, the kind of stop where your mind goes away to somewhere else and you simply get lost.  Buffy Lawson is that kind of artist.

I met Buffy as a result of holding the Supercell of Giving Benefit Concert.  It was my partner here at NashvilleHype!, Cathryn, who knew Buf and had ask her to play.  It was the only time during the entire show I actually got a chance to breathe. 

After I introduced Buffy I walked out to the front, and just sat down.  Lost in her talent.  I mean LOST!  I couldn’t take my eyes off of her lost.  It’s un-natural.  Her ability to write a song that has emotion is uncanny.  And her vocal - what can be said?  I’m serious when I say, they don’t encourage you to write songs with emotion here in Nashville, least, not any more. 

But maybe that’s changing.  Jamey Johnson, mister ‘Honky Tonk Badonkadonk’  himself has one of the best songs out right now - “In Color”.   What an amazing song. 

And someone I haven’t talked to in way too long, and another co-writer of ‘Honky Tonk Badonadonk’ , Randy Houser has also released a real song - “Anything Goes”- which is a monster song. 

Both of these songs, and the voices behind them, will literally stop you in your tracks.  They’re real.  They deal with life.  They’re country.  And the best news?  Both of these songs are gaining significant airplay.

Which just gives me hope.  Because Buffy Lawson, since leaving Bomshel in order to ‘find her own voice’, has just nailed it.  Again.  Follow that link and you’ll read me raving about “Sentimental Moment” - a song that’s no longer on her Myspace. 

But “Much of a Lady” is.  And you HAVE to go take a listen.  Unbelievable.   Her talent is as beautiful as she is.  That’s really saying something. 

I’m in love with Buffy Lawson.  Her music literally stops me in my tracks.

UPDATE:  “Sentimental Moment” is BACK on Buffy’s site!!  While it’s up, don’t hesitate, go LISTEN!

I thought it would be interesting for you to see the search terms on Google that lead back to NashvilleHype!  These are listed from the most hits, to the least.  NashvilleHype! has had over 45,000 this month alone.  If you were thinking of counting how many search words there are here  - 726 would be the right answer.

*Please note, this list doesn’t tell the whole story of which articles are more popular on site, this only tells what people are searching for.

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Companies to Jointly Develop ‘The Next GAC Star’ Winner

(ed. note:  This is really interesting not only because it’s two very large and successful companies teaming up, but it goes to show where a lot of the talent that’s being found is being found - reality shows.  There’s simply nothing that can beat a built in audience from being on television, good or bad, and it seems more and more this is where the ‘development’ is happening — right before our eyes.  Also interested is the sentence highlighted — I’ve tried to tell every aspiring artist to watch what they do, publicly and privately, and at all times, make sure you have complete control over what is seen — that includes anything from MySpace pictures, down to what your friends put out there as well.) 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – (July 28, 2008) - Television network Great American Country (GAC) and artist development company Music Nation, partners in The Next GAC Star national country music talent search, today announced a new agreement which extends the relationship between the two companies with a joint investment in the development of The Next GAC Star winner.  Already underway, The Next GAC Star offers independent country artists national television exposure and the chance to win a record deal with Music Nation’s development arm/label Original Signal Recordings.
 
The agreement marks Original Signal’s next step in its new model of artist development and its first move into country music as well as GAC’s foray into artist development, working as a powerful platform for breaking new artists with Original Signal.
 
The relationship will kick into high gear when the winner of The Next GAC Star is announced during a live televised finale on September 10 on GAC, providing a key, high-profile launch for the winning artist’s career. GAC will continue to directly support the artist through its TV, radio and website media platforms and events.
 
“Music Nation and Original Signal have built an excellent reputation among unsigned artists for their successful artist development initiatives,” says Ed Hardy, president of GAC. “We felt they were a great partner for GAC as we become more directly involved in this portion of the music business, which is an exciting step and a natural extension for a country music network that is know as ‘the leader in country music entertainment.’”
 
Original Signal will develop the winner through an artist-friendly joint venture deal via a new Nashville-based label dedicated to country artists.  Adopting Original Signal’s focus on developing artists as brands, the Nashville label will cultivate The Next GAC Star winner through digital and traditional marketing, radio promotion, and publicity, in addition to more non-traditional channels.  The artist will also benefit from Original Signal’s distribution through Sony/RED.  The new Nashville label will begin building its roster outside of The Next GAC Star in the coming months.  Original Signal is best known for its work with breakout indie pop songstress Ingrid Michaelson.
 
“Country music, with its passionate, dedicated fanbase, is an exciting new world for us and we see many opportunities on both the digital and traditional fronts,” said Daniel Klaus, CEO of Music Nation and Original Signal Recordings.  “GAC is committed to artists and has a proven track record of breaking young, unknown acts, making GAC the perfect partner for us in this new venture.”

—

About Great American Country
Great American Country is the leader in country music entertainment. GAC delivers to viewers the widest variety of country music, its artists and the lifestyles they influence. GAC broadcasts original country music programming, country music performance specials, live concerts, music videos, and is the exclusive television home of the Grand Ole Opry. GAC is available in more than 54 million households and online at http://www.GACTV.com.
 
About Music Nation
Engineered to navigate the changing landscape of the music business, Music Nation is a next generation music company designed to discover, develop, and build artist brands. The company employs both its expanding online music community, which acts as a digital A&R source, and traditional methods to sign artists to its label Original Signal Recordings. Through custom deals that are equitable, artist-friendly partnerships, the company is able to focus on developing new revenue streams around artists to create career sustainability.
 
Launched in 2006, the company is the brainchild of Daniel Klaus (CEO), Lucas Mann (Co-founder), Kevin P. Ryan (Chairman), and Peter Read (Managing Director, UK and Europe); their combined expertise crosses the e-commerce, digital media, and music industry divides.
 
About Original Signal Recordings
Original Signal Recordings merges the services of a traditional record label with a pioneering approach to long-term artist growth. By offering a new breed of equitable, joint venture deals that function on multiple platforms, Original Signal presents a unique value to new and established artists. Embracing technology rather than shying away from it, the company employs new media and other channels to generate sustainability for its artists. Their roster includes Ingrid Michaelson, David Ford, and The Modern Society, among others.

A term that’s come up often for the contestants on this years Nashville Star is “Damaged Goods”.  It implies that with the talent level of this show, or the way the producers of the show handled the talent, there’s no way that the contestants are going to leave unscathed. 

In some ways there is some truth to that.  Universally panned as being sub-par, this year’s Nashville Star could be considered (correctly) a cluster.  Every opportunity to showcase what some artist could do was all but sabotaged by the use of poor judgement by the producers - who chose the songs, the wardrobe, and most damaging, what America got to see.  In many cases, it was less than favorable to the contestants.  No more so than to two contestants in particular.

One thing that most of the general public doesn’t understand about television is the amount of footage it takes to get just 15 seconds of film.  The camera people are filming you all the time - hours at a time, and what America sees is a minute at the most.

An artist hits a bad note during practice, once on camera - and yet nails the practice 100 times in a row - guess what’s shown?  The busted note.  But only if that’s how the producers want to portray the act.  They could simply show the other 100 times the artist nailed it, but this being ‘reality’ - that’s what we (and again, the judges) see.

—

When the contestants were announced, we all got a one paragraph blurb about them.  This little blurb didn’t really tell us anything about who they were as people, what their experience was in the industry, or why they were chosen over the 45,000 others that tried out.  In fact, we don’t recall seeing a tryout - just 12 contestants standing on stage.  There they were in all their glory - and who were these people?  Who knows.

Take Laura Fedor as an example.

From the bio shipped out that everyone read, it seemed as if she’d only been singing since march, and her parents weren’t too happy about it either.  Welcome to ‘reality’ TV.

As it turns out, Laura is a pretty accomplished solo artist.  Before this show and the horrible treatment she received, her career was on the rise and interest was gaining.  Laura has been performing for years.  For large crowds at baseball games.  Crowds at hockey games.  Fairs and clubs and everything in between.  America’s Got Talent, the only other highly popular talent show besides American Idol offered her a solo slot.  But a choice had to be made, because as it turned out, she and Sophie were also offered Nashville Star.  Nashville - country music, CMT !! - Star.  Follow your heart to the place you belong and sing the music you love … Hindsight is 20/20.

—

Laura was part of the duo “Laura and Sophie”.  It was evident from the beginning that there was a real bias from the producers when it came to these two girls.  The clips shown to America were always the worst clips you could possibly imagine.  A cracking voice.  An outbreak.  A fight.  Mis-statements. Crying.  Whatever could make them appear to be too young, too inexperienced, out of their league - America (and the judges) was going to see it. 

In truth, their performances together didn’t help. 

It also turned out that Laura wasn’t as young and immature as she was often portrayed.   For instance, the PR blurb noted she went on Nashville Star despite her parents wishes.  At 18, she was entitled as an adult to do that.  The problem came when producers decided to use the ‘protectiveness’ of the parents (who in the real world supported her with all their might) to show just how young she was.  Laura needed to fit into the demographic they were looking for but hadn’t yet found.  And so they showed clips of her in a way that they believed the demographic actually is.  That should insult everyone, not just those 18 and below.

—

By the last show, our enthusiasm for Laura had grown.  Because while it seemed drama was all around her, if you watch her closely, she completely kept her composure, remained professional, and kept mostly silent.    

As we watch the clips now, her expression tells the real story - ‘I shouldn’t be here… this is killing my career… I can’t believe I’m in this situation… this isn’t how it’s supposed to be… this is how I’m supposed to be remembered?”. 

During she and Sophie’s last performance together on the show, singing Taylor Swift’s “Picture to Burn“, Laura did something we thought was brilliant - while singing her verse she literally did the largest, most exagerated eye roll we’ve ever seen .  Brilliant because it seemed to us she was trying to send a message to the judges, and America - ”please understand, this is my career here and though I personally don’t approve of what happened or how it happened, it happened, it’s what teenagers sometimes do” - after all, though visibly taken aback by Jewel’s original comments the week before, she had even clapped along gracefully at what was said. 

Sadly, her theatrics during “Picture To Burn” went completely unnoticed.  After their performance came the infamous ‘eye roll’ confrontation where Jewel can clearly be heard to tell John Rich “you better rag on them!” to which JR replies, “ok“; before going on a completely unnecessary rant.  Laura, the picture of composure, professionality, and maturity, can clearly be heard whispering to Sophie “apologize!“.  Her career was on the line, and knowing that it wasn’t going to end with Nahville Star, she wanted to do the right thing.

America watched and commented as seemingly everyone threw her under the bus - not based on her talent, not based on her ability, often simply by association.  Something so out of control, she could only stand there and let it happen.  More 20/20.

—

Our enthusiam also grew for Laura because, despite what seemed to be the best efforts of the sound man to keep her voice burried, occasionally she would take a verse and you could actually hear her.  She has a really good voice - and not the ‘I just started singing’ kind you’d expect from someone with only a few months experience - but the ‘I’ve been on stage for years and I know how to work my vocals and stay on pitch’.  Had someone not really been paying attention, or simply heard the girls singing together, they would’ve never known this.  Laura Fedor can sing - and she has a really good voice!  Hard to believe given her portayal (or rather, betrayal, by the producers) and having to be part of a ’duo’.

IF this seasons Nashville Star artist are ”Damaged Goods” as some people say - Laura is a survivor.  In our opinion, the damage to her career by her appearing on this show (and in particular as part of a ‘duo’) isn’t irreversable.  Smart industry insiders know the process.  And they also know a good voice when they hear one.  Laura was thrown under the bus, but she still has a great solo career ahead of her.  We don’t know that the Nashville Star experience won’t follow her all the days of her life - but NashvilleHype! is going to help her as much as we can to move beyond the show, and back to doing what she does.  Though we’ve never met her or talked to her, we believe she has potential, a lot of potential.  And we believe she can be a great success.

—

Thankfully NashvilleHype! isn’t alone.  Some very smart and extremely successful people in Nashville have also recognized this about Laura.  You would think after this show and the way she was depicted she wouldn’t have any interest here in town, you’d be surprized.  Once this whole episode is completely behind her and all the contractual obligations to the show and NBC are fulfilled, expect to hear a lot more about Laura.  A lot more positive things. 

Being on this show wasn’t the end for Laura - it was only the beginning.  Admittedly it was a rough start.  But talent, despite the odds stacked against it, does rise to the top. 

Laura Fedor, is once again on the rise.

Laura Fedor Showing What She Can Really Do.

NashvilleHype! is proud to be among the others in the industry who have recognized Victoria Banks for her songwriting capabilities. Only with her latest being one of the best in my opinion! Along with Rachel Proctor and Jessica Simpson,  she has co-written “Come On Over”, which has made Billboard chart history by debuting at number 41 on Billboard’s Hot Country Song’s chart. Since June 4, 2008 it has climbed the charts at steadily to position itself at number 20 today climbing three spots from last week alone!

Says Ken Tucker of Billboard.com :

Sexy, flirtatious “Come On Over” is everything it needs to be—undeniably country and not forced.

Victoria spent her childhood growing up in Canada and studied classical voice and piano. One day while in calculus class she had a realization. In her own words,

“I was earning a Zoology degree in Toronto and the lyrics just started pouring out, right in the middle of a calculus exam,” she says. “It didn’t take long to figure out that songwriting was my calling - I couldn’t help but pursue it.”

She has become one of Nashville’s most in-demand songwriters. She performed for us at the Supercell Benefit for Tornado Victims benefitting the Red Cross relief effort - singing alongside her dear friend Mary Sue Englund .

We will keep wathcing her song climb! Way to go Victoria!

Ashlee Hewitt returned to her hometown this week to perform at a benefit concert for her former boss, who sadly, is suffering from a kidney disease.  Today, the Grand Forks Herald had an article on her homecoming:

LANCASTER, Minn. — Ashlee Hewitt still needs work on acting like a celebrity.

 

Instead of a limousine, she arrived at her welcome-home public appearance Wednesday in a wagon pulled by two Percheron draft horses. Instead of having handlers deal with autograph-seekers and protect her bare shoulders from a driving rain, she had only herself and her Mary Poppins-sized umbrella for protection.

And instead of the glim and glamour of network television, her performance came on a portable stage that was decorated with a cowboy-boot planter containing a wildflower that locals call “swamp grass.”

to read the rest, please follow this link (you will have to register).

Herald photo by Dustin Finkelstein

Nashville, TN – July 24, 2008 –Taylor Swift’s star continues to rise this week as she becomes the only artist this decade to hold down both the #1 and #2 positions atop Billboard’s Country CD Sales chart.

Beautiful Eyes, a Wal-Mart exclusive CD/ DVD combo, debuted this week at #1, with sales of 44,652. Taylor’s self-titled debut CD, released in the Fall of 2006, continues its amazing momentum, moving from the #1 to the #2 slot with sales this week of 34,622. To date, Taylor Swift has spent an incredible 24 weeks at #1 on the Country CD Sales Chart.

 
 
The 2-disc CD/DVD set Beautiful Eyes CD features two songs not previously available for purchase by the public – the title track, “Beautiful Eyes,” plus “I Heart ?”, and includes an alternate version of Taylor’s current hit “Should’ve Said No,” and an acoustic version of the cross-over hit “Teardrops on My Guitar.” 

The exclusive DVD includes music videos for each of Taylor’s five hit singles – including her live show-stopping performance of “Should’ve Said No” from the 2008 Academy of Country Music Awards - plus a brand new video for the song “Beautiful Eyes.”  The DVD also features Taylor’s GAC ACM Showcase interview, The Making of the “Picture to Burn” Video, and the music video for “I’m Only Me When I’m With You,” which features home video footage of Taylor edited by the superstar herself. The package was released to coincide with the launch of the l.e.i. jeans Back-to-School 2008 campaign, “This is l.e.i. Country.”

Taylor is the face of this year’s campaign, and the l.e.i. brand is sold exclusively at Wal-Mart.
Also this week, MTV and Us Weekly named Taylor as the “T” in their Summer 2008 “Us Weekly and MTV Presents Hot List A to Z”, their picks for what’s sizzling this summer. The list is featured in the August 4th issue of Us, on newsstands this weekend, and airs as an MTV special on July 26th. Taylor is the only country artist on the list.
 
To hear Taylor’s current Top 5 single, “Should’ve Said No,” log on to: www.taylorswift.com or www.myspace.com/taylorswift.