Chapter 350

Loretta Lynn Tribute, Carrie Underwood Concert, Capitol Street Fest

Fear not, gentle readers, your party boy has been on the job all week long. Longer than a week, actually. The fun began last weekend.

Miss Mary’s South Carolinian cousins Chuck & Mary Connors always go to the Opry when they come to town. Always. Over dinner at Sole Mio (10/8), I told them, “You’ve come during a really good weekend. Dolly Parton is on the show. So is Taylor Swift.”

What I didn’t tell them was that it was the Grand Ole Opry’s 85th birthday (10/9). Trace Adkins, Roy Clark and more were there to wheel out the giant cake and celebrate. I’d filled the cousins in with what had been going on since May’s flood, and, sure enough, Taylor spoke of the recovery efforts at the Opry House when she took the stage.

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Next up was a return to the “old” Opry home, The Ryman Auditorium (10/12). The occasion was the “Grammy Salute to Country Music Honoring Loretta Lynn.”

Recording Academy folks were on the ground floor. Fans were in the balcony. When Garth Brooks escorted Loretta to their seats downstairs, applause broke out up above. In no time, the whole place was on its feet in a standing ovation. And the show hadn’t even started yet.

“I don’t know anybody who is more loved in the history of music and the history of this town than you,” said Vince Gill via video. He was last year’s honoree, but was unable to attend the gala.

Reba McEntire and The Timejumpers kicked things off with her splendid, western-swing reworking of Loretta’s 1967 hit “If You’re Not Gone Too Long.”

Current NARAS national board of trustees chair George Flanigan reminded everyone of all the good things that the Academy does, then re-introduced Reba as the evening’s host.

“The whole world knows and loves the coal miner’s daughter from Butcher Hollow, KY,” said Reba. “Country music has never had a more truthful and fearless artist….She stood up for all of us women. Loretta did it all. She wrote ‘em. She sang ‘em. She played ‘em.”

Gretchen Wilson performed a sprightly “Don’t Come Home a-Drinkin.’” Kid Rock transformed 1970’s “I Know How” into a frat-house rocker. He and Gretchen teamed up for a ragged-but-right “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly.” Lee Ann Womack sang “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” with her daughter Aubrey on backup vocals. Martina McBride chose 1966’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough” and 1973’s “Love Is the Foundation.”

“It’s been a pretty extraordinary night so far, wouldn’t you say?” said Recording Academy president/CEO Neil Portnow. He pointed out that Loretta’s debut at the Ryman and on the Opry was almost exactly 50 years ago, three days hence (10/15/60).

Neil introduced Jack White. Jack recalled meeting Loretta and eating chicken and dumplings at her home in Hurricane Mills. She told him she was planning a record. “If you need a producer for that, I could stop mowing lawns for the summer,” he replied. The result was Van Lear Rose, Loretta’s stunning 2004 comeback CD. Recorded in 10 days on eight-track tape, it won the Grammy for Country Album of the Year. “I think she’s the greatest female singer-songwriter of the 20th century, and you can’t talk me out of it,” Jack concluded.

Neil and Jack presented Loretta with both the President’s Merit Award and her Grammy Lifetime Achievement honor. “You’re the Queen!” shouted a voice in the balcony, and a long, long standing ovation ensued.

Loretta and Garth concluded the program with the duet “After the Fire Is Gone.” From the opening note, Loretta’s astonishing purity of tone owned the number. Garth harmonized weakly, moving further and further away from the mic, as if he was afraid to try and match her.

“She kicked my butt,” he told reporter Jimmy Carter backstage.

“This has been a wonderful night, and this is what this town is all about,” said Reba. “It’s more important than ever to celebrate country music. REAL country music.” She brought Loretta back out for yet another s.o.

The after-party was in a white tent erected next to the Ryman. This was a real gab fest. Almost everyone remarked about the brevity of the show. Apparently, it was designed so that each performer could say something to or about Loretta, but evidently that message was never delivered to the singers. Hence, the shortness. “If only the real Grammy Awards were that short,” I said.

Terry Hemmings, Terry Bumgarner, Victoria Shaw, Shawn Camp, Mark Moffatt, Matthew Miller, Fletcher Foster, Bruce Bouton, Ben Fowler, Becky Hobbs, Benita Hill, Dan Hill, Doug Howard, Darrell Brown, Allen Brown, Alan Mayor and Alison Jones mingled with power couples Steve Buchanan & Ree Guyer Buchanan, Steve Fishell & Tracy Gershon and Frank & Julie Boehm.

We snacked on mini sausage & cheese biscuits, puffed spinach canapés, stuffed zuccinni slices and lotsa shrimp cocktails. Yacking into the night were Eddie DeGarmo, Ed Morris, Rod Essig, Robert Deaton, John Huie, Jimmy Murphy, Pete Fisher, Pat McMakin, Paul Barnabee, Andrew Parks, Clint Higham, Crystal Gayle, Karen Clark, Gary Overton, Lisa Harless and Shelby Kennedy.

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Carrie Underwood brought her “Play On” tour to Bridgestone Arena the next night (10/14). Pre-show dining in the Merchant’s Bar is highly recommended. I tried the fish tacos and Miss Mary sampled the Not-Your-Mother’s chicken salad. Both received rave reviews.

Heading into the arena, industry fabulons spotted in the crowd included Rob Simbeck, Scott Borchetta, Jeff Walker, Nancy Brooks, George Achaves, D.J. Hayden (truly working the room: she has a part-time job there), Rick Murray, Tom Roland, Rosemary Young, Margie Holland and Charlie Monk.

Sons of Sylvia were on stage first. Their set started with an awful Led Zeppelin cover and also included an incompetent bluegrass instrumental. Formerly known as The Clark Brothers, the group lives in Bellevue, lead singer Ashley Clark informed us.

Two things I learned during Billy Currington’s set: (1) He is a much more nuanced vocalist than I thought he was and (2) His hit-saturated repertoire is already quite lengthy. He knew his time on stage was short, so he kept the patter to a minimum and gave the screaming, singing-along fans a set packed solid with music, music, music.

Until you hear them one after another, you don’t realize how many strong songs this guy has introduced. His set list included 2009’s “That’s How Country Boys Roll,” 2006’s “Why Why Why,” 2004’s “I Got a Feelin,’” 2010’s “Pretty Good at Drinkin’ Beer” and “Let Me Down Easy,” plus 2009’s “People Are Crazy,” 2005’s “Must Be Doin’ Something Right” and 2006’s “Good Directions.” Pretty impressive.

Carrie came out rocking with “Cowboy Casanova,” and never let up from that moment on. She has, suffice it to say, developed from a somewhat wooden stage personality into an actual entertainer.

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From there, it was up to the 3rd annual Capitol Records Street party. Demonbreun was closed off just east of the dancing Musica statues in Buddy Killen Circle, and despite a shower was full of merry makers.

“It’s always cool to play free shows,” said headliner Darius Rucker, “because I can remember when I couldn’t afford to go to shows.” His new Charleston, SC, 1966 album had dropped on Tuesday, so naturally he gave us its first hit, “Come Back Song.” Surprise guest Keith Urban hopped on stage with Darius shortly after 10 pm, to the crowd’s delight. The two stars did “Raining on Sunday” and “The Joker” together.

The free fun was booked to continue at the Tin Roof with Walker Hayes as the late-night music maker. Lady Antebellum had this slot two years ago, and look what happened to them.

The mood was perfectly summed up by Luke Bryan. “It’s like starting the weekend early,” he said. Exactly.

Multimedia superstar and 2010 CMA Female Vocalist of the Year nominee Reba will release her 34th studio album, All the Women I Am, on Tuesday, November 9th, which will be accompanied by a Limited Deluxe Edition. This edition will have exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the “Turn On the Radio” video and performances of several hit songs including her much buzzed-about performance of “If I Were a Boy” from CMT Unplugged. The Limited Deluxe version will also include a dance remix of “I Want a Cowboy” and an interview with Reba.

Both versions of the album are now available for pre-sale at www.REBA.com and on www.thevalorymusicco.com. All The Women I Am marks Reba’s first project with award-winning producer Dann Huff (Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts) and includes the smash “Turn On the Radio,” the break-out “Somebody’s Chelsea,” co-written by Reba, and the popular cover of Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy.”

This is her second album for The Valory Music Co., the sister label to Big Machine Records.

Like the music industry where a glut of new product miraculously arrives in time for the fourth quarter holiday season, a slew of new tech toys and applications are also coming to the party. First on the list is Verizon’s announcement that it will begin offering Apple’s iPad on Oct. 28. Verizon compatible technology will be absent from the iPad however, so the carrier will bundle it with it MiFi Mobile Hotspot. Verizon Wireless will offer three iPad Wi-Fi + MiFi bundles: the iPad Wi-Fi 16GB for $630, the iPad Wi-Fi 32GB for $730 and the iPad Wi-Fi 64GB for $830. Verizon will also introduce a special monthly access plan for iPad customers of up to 1GB of data for $20 a month or a 5GB plan for $60 per month. Earlier this week rumors grew loud that iPhone and Verizon would arrive at the 2011 prom as tech’s newest couple.

Google’s Android mobile operating system is now commands a substantial market share, so it is about time that Twitter app Tweetdeck has finally released a version for the little Android robot. Supported are Twitter plus Facebook, Foursquare and Google Buzz. Tweetdeck says new versions of its app for iPhone and iPad are also in the works and will employ all the new features in the just released Android version.

Another pairing of convenience is Skype and Facebook. Earlier this year the two began to interconnect, facilitating calls to Facebook friends using Skype, but now Skype Version 5.0 has brought slick new features and improvements. Features include up to 10-way calling plus many cosmetic and design improvements.

Years and months of debate, wounded pride, sagging financials, conflicting reports and more will collide next week as Citigroup and Terra Firma face off in a New York court to decide a lawsuit brought by Terra Firma’s Guy Hands alleging that he and his company were deceived during the auction process which resulted in the purchase of EMI Music. The case is made all the more personal because Hands and Citigroup’s dealmaker David Wormsley, had been friends and involved in numerous previous unrelated deals together.

According to the New York Times, “At the trial, Citigroup’s lawyers are expected to depict his lawsuit as a Hail Mary pass to try to salvage a failed investment and portray Mr. Hands as having a classic case of buyers’ remorse.” Mr. Hands says that Mr. Wormsley unfairly drove up the auction price by misrepresenting that there was another bidder for the company.”

The $6.7 billion purchase of EMI has not worked out well for Hands and Terra Firma. Despite attempts to lower costs and trim expenses, the private equity firm has had to inject about $150 million to keep the company doors open. Citigroup has not been able to hand off any of the $4.3 billion in loans it has on the deal and attempts between Hands and Citigroup to restructure the loans have been unsuccessful.

Terra Firma is hoping to recover $8 billion in damages plus punitive damages.