It was 2 years ago this month that I started NashvilleHype! I started it for two reasons: 1. I wanted to start writing professionally again. and 2. I firmly believe that the best way to help yourself lies in helping others.
Back then I really didn’t write too much about a band or an artist - I just sort of told where they were going to play, which was kindof our ‘endorsement’. Lady Antebellum was the first, Jesse Lee was another, Rissi Palmer was there, so was a few exclusive interviews with people like Glenn Sweitzer, Bart Allmand, and John Jarvis. It was a good time.
From day one, some miraculous way, NashvilleHype! was popular. Not that we didn’t have to grow, but from the minute the site went live, enough people knew about it that we had an audience. I had talked to everyone I knew about it in the industry - and I didn’t know too many - but it helped. Soon I was receiving emails from label VP’s and the like.
I also started getting invites to various functions - functions I couldn’t attend because I still lived in Florida at that point. Yeah, for those who weren’t around in the beginning, I lived in Florida at the time. That made it really difficult to go have lunch with someone when they asked. And yet, NashvilleHype! hobbled along.
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When I first began the site I took on anyone and everyone. If an artist wanted press, they got it, so much as my time would allow. But as time went on, and more industry people began reading the site, and the more people would write asking me to listen and/or critique them, the more I realized I wasn’t doing some artist a bit of good.
Honesty is tough to hear, but it’s even tougher to tell. There came a time (just over a month after launch) with one artist in particular. I really had to fight myself over placing them on site. The artist was eager and honest, but I knew that Nashville wouldn’t give them a first look, much less a second. I regretted placing that artist on NashvilleHype! knowing that all of the sudden, with every artist, it mattered to the reputation of the site, and to my own reputation as someone who knew what Nashville was really looking for. It also didn’t help that I felt terrible about encouraging someone who I shouldn’t really be encouraging, in the sense that NashvilleHype!, even at that time, lended a certain amount of credibility to that artist - after all, it’s press. It was a dis-service to the artist, and the site. Hype simply for the benefit of the world, to get fans interested - that’s one thing, and it’s important - but the reason for the hype still has to be real. You can’t hype crap and expect people to keep coming back to see what you’re hyping. It takes genuine talent and successes along the way.
Eventually I changed the NashvilleHype! policy, and gradually I also changed the way I would work with artist behind the scenes.
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By the time that incident happened and the change took place, I had met a fair amount of people, and I knew just the name NashvilleHype! would open some doors that “can’t” be opened. A number of NashvilleHype! featured artist, like those mentioned above started to be seriously looked at. Lady Antebellum, Jesse Lee, Ashley Gearing- and though Rissi was already signed, there wasn’t many people who knew who she was - or how awesome she is.
I decided that if NashvilleHype! was going to be serious, and others in the industry were taking ‘us’ seriously, then I needed to be too - and I needed to do more than write about artist to help them along. I wanted to help artist as much as I possibly could. I mean really help. Not just offering them free press. Help.
It all starts with letting the world know about them on site - but behind the scenes is where the real work is. I started finding artist I really believed in - sometimes simply by raw talent, sometimes more polished, sometimes solely on the power of their songs. So many reasons - but each having a common thread - Nashville would like them if they knew about them - and something about their talent set them apart from all the others in a special way. I wanted to work with them to make sure the industry knew them, had heard about them, were listening to them, coming to see them, and eventually, would think about signing them.
And not only, many artist don’t really know what to do, or how to do it. They don’t know a good deal from a bad deal - and they don’t know if the person who contacted them is legitimate or is a shark of some kind. I wanted to be a sounding board, offering the best advice I could possibly give, un-colored by having something personally at stake (more on that in a minute).
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Since the time I changed the policy regarding coverage on NashvilleHype!, Rachel Farley, Kelly Ray Davis, Kelsey Skaggs, The Hewitt Sisters (Ashlee and Katrice), Cloudchase, and most recently, Laura Fedor were all featured on NashvilleHype! Every single last one of them are progressing in their careers, and every single one of them hold the promise of a great future. Many of them are household and industry names already. Every one of them have industry interest at the highest levels - and several have been signed in one way or another. It’s simply amazing what has happened - belief goes a long way.
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I’m asked often what I/NashvilleHype! gets out of an artist having success. The complete truth, as I’ve stated on NashvilleHype!before is - zip, zero, nada, ziltch. Nothing. No money ever trades hands. I’m not paid. I don’t ask to manage. I don’t ask for publishing. I don’t ask for anything but a little co-operation from the artist (or in many cases, their parents, who, as it turns out, I talk to way more than the artist themselves). I’ve written songs with Grammy winners, Dove award winners, several #1 writers; I’ve produced and engineered and played guitar in sessions and for labels - I don’t ask NashvilleHype! artist to let me do any of those things. If they choose, I’m more than happy to, after all, I need to eat also - but I am very blessed regardless, and I’ve not missed a meal.
Otherwise what I get is the satisfaction of knowing that we’ve helped in some small way to further their career. And honestly, there’s a great amount of pride in seeing an artist we’ve featured on site doing well. As Cathryn says, we love, love, LOVE our artist. Most of them are like family, only closer.
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Speaking of Cathryn, one of the best thing that’s happened over the course of the last two years is finding my partner here at NashvilleHype! God bless Cathryn! She’s kept this site alive and running, and she’s believed in it from the minute we began talking about her coming on board. Seriously, if it weren’t for Cathryn, there’d be no NashvilleHype! I would’ve packed it in a long, long time ago. Should the time ever come when I completely get out of the ‘artist discovery/help business’, and should Cathryn want to carry on, I’m glad to know I’ll be to turning it over to someone who I have so much respect for.
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Last, I was at a friends house today. A beautiful and talented friend. Anyone who reads NashvilleHype! on a regular basis would know this person. We were talking about our path here in Nashville. How we got to where we were, what happened along the way. It got me to thinking, we all have a road to travel. We all have a history. Some travel at great speeds. Some start and stop and sputter along. Some coast. Some are given everything easily. Some struggle for years. In my years here (and I was born and raised here) I’ve had the high of writing with tremendously talented people, and the low of losing a great friend - the high of hearing a song being placed on hold and the low of losing a love. There’s a lot of things that can come against you here, as in life, but one thing that really stuck out to me as I spoke with my friend today, it’s the survivors, those that stick to it and have that persistence and drive - those that genuinely have talent, that make it. Don’t give up - even if some know it all jerk from NashvilleHype! tells you you can’t be on his website. Just work that much harder and prove that jerk wrong.
Thanks again for reading NashvilleHype! — here’s to another year - new artist, new success stories.
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