Renee Grant-Williams
American TV audiences can’t seem to get enough of the phenomenally successful show known as American Idol, but noted vocal coach Renee Grant-Williams could do with a little less of the show’s over-the-top vocal performances, which she describes as “painfully loud and meaningless over-singing.” Grant-Williams, one of the nation’s leading voice experts and coach to some of the music industry’s biggest stars, points to this week’s duet by a former guest judge and partner as a prime example.
“By shamelessly over-singing, Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas managed to destroy what might otherwise have been a perfectly decent song,” Grant-Williams says. “Their performance was over-loud, over-ornamented, mutually over-competitive and ultimately banal. The lyrics to “Make a Wave,” written by Scott Krippayne and Jeffrey D. Peabody, are very positive and send a very powerful message. However, these two singers obscured the words so badly by over-singing, that I had to look up the lyrics to see what they were actually saying. The very essence of a song is to touch the listener by conveying a message of some kind. That’s difficult to do when no one can get a grip on the melody or understand what’s being said.”
Grant-Williams feels these non-verbal squiggles should be there for one reason only – to emphasize the powerful emotion of the song. “When a singer ornaments, it should be because, at that moment, the singer’s emotions are running so high that words will not suffice; the singer is only capable of a visceral response too powerful to put into mere words.”
She also feels that singers she encounters are increasingly belting out songs to the point where words don’t matter. “We seem to be caught up in an epidemic of loud,” she says. “Singing should be more subtle than just slinging a lot of voice around. If you sing with a thundering voice, you sacrifice the honesty, intimacy, and integrity of music. Yet, this style is presented to millions of TV viewers as desirable.”
“You just don’t hear the level of ear-splitting over-singing in Australia and other places like you do here in America,” says Grant-Williams, who recently returned from a sold-out teaching-tour of Australia. Observations she made during tours in Europe and South America confirm that this phenomenon is especially prevalent in the United States. “I’m convinced it’s due in part to the tremendous influence in the US of talent shows where over-singing is rewarded. I still think America has the best singers on the planet. They just need to bring down the volume and focus on the words and the emotions. I’m determined to do what I can to curb these phenomenon before they get out of hand.”
Grant-Williams has as few simple suggestions to help singers get back to the basics of good singing:
1. A song is a one-way conversation, a singer must be very intimate with the words.
2. Singing should be like speaking with the audience, there’s no need to yell.
3. Use consonants and silence to indicate the most important words of the song.
4. Use inflection sparingly as you would use spices, too much will ruin the song.
Grant-Williams coaches aspiring performers as well as celebrities including Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Miley Cyrus, Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, Christina Aguilera, Linda Ronstadt, Randy Travis, and Huey Lewis. She is a former instructor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well as the former director of the Division of Vocal Music at the University of California, Berkeley. For more information visit www.myvoicecoach.com.
St. Jude Road Race Comes to CMA Fest
/by contributorJo Dee Messina
St. Jude Music Fest Road Race participants can become St. Jude Heroes and raise additional funds for St. Jude by collecting donations from friends and family as they train for the race. St. Jude Heroes receive helpful resources including fundraising tips, free online training at Active.com and a personalized fundraising Web page.
St. Jude Heroes who raise $250 will receive two tickets to the CMA Music Festival Saturday night concert. Those who raise $500 will be invited to an exclusive brunch with Jo Dee Messina. All funds collected from race registration and raised by St. Jude Heroes benefit St. Jude, one of the world’s premier pediatric cancer research centers. To learn more about the St. Jude Heroes program, click here.
Artist News: Walker Cares, Daniels Rings, Wilson Rocks and More
/by contributorThis is only the fourth time an individual has received this honor in the organization’s history. He was on hand during the conference to help field questions about multiple sclerosis as well as caring for loved ones with the disease. Walker was featured on the cover of the magazine’s October 2009 Rural Caregiver issue, as well as in a full, four-page spread about his family, his battle with MS and his involvement with BAMS.
• • •
GAC President Ed Hardy and Alan Jackson
Urban and Jackson Visit GAC
Superstars Keith Urban and Alan Jackson are both featured on GAC’s Top 20 Countdown in the coming week. The artists stopped by GAC’s Music Row studios for a chat with show host Nan Kelley. Urban talked about his ACM Entertainer of the Year nomination as well as life on the road and with his family. Jackson shared info about Freight Train, his soon to be released 18th album and his excitement at getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame later next month. The show will air on Friday, March 26 at 7:00 p.m. CT.
Also airing on GAC several times over the coming week is Alan Jackson: Aquapalooza, the singer’s live lakeside concert special.
• • •
Download Daniels
Charlie Daniels fans can now download a free ringtone of the music heard in the venerable country star’s recent GEICO commercial here or at www.charliedaniels.com. The ringtone features the fiddle solo Daniels plays in the restaurant during the commercial. The ad is one of four spots currently airing as part of GEICO’s “Rhetorical Questions” campaign.
• • •
Rascal Flatts Visit Ellen
ACM Vocal Group of The Year nominee Rascal Flatts will travel to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida this weekend to tape an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, set to air on April 2. The trio will perform their rapidly rising hit single, “Unstoppable,” which is currently #12 and climbing on Billboard.
The band, who recently wrapped up its Rascal Flatts American Living Unstoppable Tour, is currently in the studio working on a new album and will soon announce a new summer tour.
• • •
Another Gold Cert For Keith
Toby Keith is already two hits into his new album American Ride, but one of the biggest hits from his last album is still making noise. “God Love Her,” Keith’s multi-week No. 1 from That Don’t Make Me A Bad Guy has achieved RIAA Gold certification for sales of more than 500,000 copies. Meanwhile, Keith’s upcoming American Ride Tour is expected to pack venues
this summer. The new tour will echo last year’s America’s Toughest Tour with the inclusion of his new labelmate Trace Adkins.
• • •
The party was on once again this past Thursday (3/25) at Mt. Richmore, John Rich’s hilltop monument in the middle of Nashville. Rich himself hosted the bash dedicated to now-indie artist Gretchen Wilson. The crowd enjoyed drinks from the fully stocked bar and cigars from Rich’s own humidor as Wilson rocked the house with songs from her new release, I Got Your Country Right Here, along with selections from Led Zeppelin, Foreigner and Patsy Cline.
CEO Group Spotlights Music City Publishing Mechanics
/by adminJosh Kear (with mic) addresses a meeting of CEOs from the World Presidents' Organization about songwriting and publishing in Nashville. Also in attendance at the on March 4, Los Angeles gathering were Kear's Big Yellow Dog publishers Carla Wallace (L) and Kerry O'Neil (R).
“World Presidents’ Organization (http://www.WPO.org) is composed of CEOs,” says Big Yellow Dog co-owner Kerry O’Neil. “About one third of them are entrepreneurs, a third run significant family businesses and the others have become CEOs or key executives through large corporations. The group’s recent March 4 meeting was in Los Angeles at the house of Chris Gorog, who, until recently, headed the new Napster.”
WPO hosts seminars about a variety of subjects. Gorog had become aware of the unique environment in which Nashville’s publishing community operates through his Music City visits and had asked O’Neil to address the group.
“Generally this group is interested in the mechanics of business,” says O’Neil. “In this case they were fascinated with the orientation of publishing houses where the writers are a central part of the process, similar in a way to the old Tin Pan Alley concepts. I’ve started two of these companies already and therefore came prepared to talk about where the money is made, how you capitalize the business and how long it takes before you can make any money. But I told Chris, ‘If I can bring our writer Josh Kear and he tells people about what writing a song is like and they can ask him about the songwriting process, then you won’t hear many questions addressed to me.’ Chris had followed Josh’s career and loved the idea. So we played the “Before He Cheats” video and Josh talked about the writing of the song and how it was first pitched to Gretchen Wilson who turned it down. Next it went to Carrie Underwood and soon became both a lightning rod for her career and a game changer for Josh. Sure enough, I was right about Josh getting the bulk of the attention.”
But O’Neil did focus on a few macro level ideas such as the changes in mechanical revenue that in many cases have impacted people adversely. “If you have catalogs of significant size and age then you’ve probably begun to experience a dramatic drop in mechanicals,” ONeil related. “Also the shrinking mechanical earnings are even more skewed because a larger portion of them are now derived from singles which really weren’t a significant source of mechanicals 8-10 years ago. Singles are also the source of most performance income, so more than ever it’s a winner take all process. The single is all-important.”
BMG Rights Mgt. Acquires Cherry Lane
/by contributorThe acquisition gives BMG Rights Management a major presence in the U.S., where it launched last December with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville, following the July 2009 acquisition of Crosstown Songs America.
BMG Rights Management was established October, 2008 by former BMG Music Publishing Germany CEO Hartwig Masuch shortly after Bertelsmann sold its 50% stake in the Sony BMG joint venture to Sony. Universal Music Group agreed to acquire BMG Music Publishing in 2006.
“Having already established itself once as a leader in the music publishing industry over several decades, BMG, via its partnership with KKR, has quickly begun to take on a leadership position again on a global basis,” says Peter Primont, Cherry Lane’s CEO and a major shareholder. “We are excited to be part of the team that will continue to grow the business at this important juncture in music publishing’s evolution.”
BMG’s Masuch added: “We chose to acquire Cherry Lane given its highly-regarded, service-oriented approach with its artist/songwriter clients, its extensive catalog of legendary songs, and its breadth of relationships within the music, television, and filmed entertainment communities.”
London’s Financial Times today cited a selling price of between $85 million and $100 million in a report today (3/26).
Warner Bros. Nashville Adds Sussman
/by contributorJensen Sussman
Warner Music Nashville has announced the addition of Jensen Sussman to the company’s publicity team as Associate Director, effective April 16. A former Associate Director, Media for Sony Music Nashville/Columbia Records Nashville, Sussman most recently headed her own publicity firm, Sweet Talk Publicity.
At Sony, Sussman handled publicity for artists including Gretchen Wilson, Jessica Simpson, Montgomery Gentry, Miranda Lambert, Keith Anderson and Caitlin & Will. Prior to that, she was Manager of Publicity at Equity Music Group (EMG), where she worked with artists including Little Big Town, Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Mark Wills. Sussman’s Sweet Talk clients included Allison Kaplan, Rink Entertainment, Susan G.Komen For The Cure Greater Nashville Affiliate, Women Rock For The Cure, Brandon Rhyder, Bucky Covington, Lee Brice and the Josh Abbott Band.
Tin Pan South Ready to Roll
/by contributor(clockwise from top left) Marc Broussard, Jim Peterik, Ides Of March, Steel Magnolia, Trace Adkins and Jeffrey Steele
The 18th Annual Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival is just around the corner, and if you haven’t yet signed up, now is the time. NSAI has announced a limited-time special offer through its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NSAIofficial. The promotion is available for two days only (9 a.m. CT Friday, March 26, through 9 a.m. CT Sunday, March 28).
Starting on Tuesday, March 30 and running through Saturday, April 3, the NSAI-produced festival is billed as “the world’s largest all-songwriter festival.” More than 300 songwriters from a variety of genres will perform over 70 shows at venues including The Bluebird Café, Douglas Corner, Edgehill Studios, the Hard Rock Café, the Listening Room, the Rutledge, the Station Inn and 3rd & Lindsley. Over 9,000 music fans attended the event last year. Among this year’s featured headliners are Louisiana’s Marc Broussard, ‘60s
hitmakers Ides Of March (“Vehicle”), country stars Trace Adkins and Steel Magnolia and Nashville favorite Jeffrey Steele.
Festival Fast Access Passes allow fans to attend any and all shows throughout the five-day event and are available here. Pass holders enter festival venues first, while single show attendees are required to wait for available space.
Shows begin at 6 PM and 9 PM Tuesday through Thursday; 6:30 PM and 9:30 PM Friday and Saturday. Click here to check out the full lineup. Schedule is subject to change. For up-to-the-minute news, follow www.twitter.com/NSAIofficial.
Grant-Williams Bemoans Over-Singing Epidemic
/by contributorRenee Grant-Williams
American TV audiences can’t seem to get enough of the phenomenally successful show known as American Idol, but noted vocal coach Renee Grant-Williams could do with a little less of the show’s over-the-top vocal performances, which she describes as “painfully loud and meaningless over-singing.” Grant-Williams, one of the nation’s leading voice experts and coach to some of the music industry’s biggest stars, points to this week’s duet by a former guest judge and partner as a prime example.
“By shamelessly over-singing, Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas managed to destroy what might otherwise have been a perfectly decent song,” Grant-Williams says. “Their performance was over-loud, over-ornamented, mutually over-competitive and ultimately banal. The lyrics to “Make a Wave,” written by Scott Krippayne and Jeffrey D. Peabody, are very positive and send a very powerful message. However, these two singers obscured the words so badly by over-singing, that I had to look up the lyrics to see what they were actually saying. The very essence of a song is to touch the listener by conveying a message of some kind. That’s difficult to do when no one can get a grip on the melody or understand what’s being said.”
Grant-Williams feels these non-verbal squiggles should be there for one reason only – to emphasize the powerful emotion of the song. “When a singer ornaments, it should be because, at that moment, the singer’s emotions are running so high that words will not suffice; the singer is only capable of a visceral response too powerful to put into mere words.”
She also feels that singers she encounters are increasingly belting out songs to the point where words don’t matter. “We seem to be caught up in an epidemic of loud,” she says. “Singing should be more subtle than just slinging a lot of voice around. If you sing with a thundering voice, you sacrifice the honesty, intimacy, and integrity of music. Yet, this style is presented to millions of TV viewers as desirable.”
“You just don’t hear the level of ear-splitting over-singing in Australia and other places like you do here in America,” says Grant-Williams, who recently returned from a sold-out teaching-tour of Australia. Observations she made during tours in Europe and South America confirm that this phenomenon is especially prevalent in the United States. “I’m convinced it’s due in part to the tremendous influence in the US of talent shows where over-singing is rewarded. I still think America has the best singers on the planet. They just need to bring down the volume and focus on the words and the emotions. I’m determined to do what I can to curb these phenomenon before they get out of hand.”
Grant-Williams has as few simple suggestions to help singers get back to the basics of good singing:
1. A song is a one-way conversation, a singer must be very intimate with the words.
2. Singing should be like speaking with the audience, there’s no need to yell.
3. Use consonants and silence to indicate the most important words of the song.
4. Use inflection sparingly as you would use spices, too much will ruin the song.
Grant-Williams coaches aspiring performers as well as celebrities including Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Miley Cyrus, Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, Christina Aguilera, Linda Ronstadt, Randy Travis, and Huey Lewis. She is a former instructor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well as the former director of the Division of Vocal Music at the University of California, Berkeley. For more information visit www.myvoicecoach.com.
Dierks Bentley Sings For Clean Water
/by contributorThe largest worldwide water initiative on record to help combat the global water crisis, the Dow Live Earth Run for Water is a series of 6km run/walks (the average distance many women and children walk every day to get water), culminating with water education villages and live musical performances.
On April 18, the events will take place in 100 cities across 50 countries around the world to raise awareness and funds. Rob Thomas, Melissa Etheridge, Pete Wentz, Angelique Kidjo, environmental advocate Alexandra Cousteau, track stars Carl Lewis and Kara Goucher and tri-athlete Jenny Fletcher are among the celebrities who will support the events. Additional artist announcements for events taking place in Chicago and New York are coming soon.
Funds raised from the events will benefit Global Water Challenge, a coalition of non profit organizations working to bring clean, safe drinking water to millions of people worldwide. This includes innovative projects that provide clean drinking water to communities in Haiti, Central America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia.
“The money raised from these events will help thousands of people in the developing world get access to clean drinking water. We look forward to investing these funds and impacting lives.” said Paul Faeth, President of Global Water Challenge.
You can find more information about the Dow Live Earth Run for Water here.
Mark Weiss Joins Ten Ten
/by contributorMark Weiss
Ten Ten Music Group has announced the appointment of Mark Weiss as the company’s Director of Business Affairs. A graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, Weiss’ previous industry experience includes stints at 615 Music, Scarlet Moon Music, Harlan Howard Songs, and the RCA Label Group.
“Mark’s wide range of experience in Nashville, International Publishing, and the Film & TV industry makes him a great addition to maximize business with our very active catalog,” says Ten Ten Music Co-President Barry Coburn.
“I’m so glad we now have the opportunity of having Mark’s expertise at Ten Ten,” added Jewel Coburn, Ten Ten Music Co-President.
“Country Boys” Donate a Blessing
/by contributor“We are proud to host the kick-off of this concert series,” says Kendall Wall, General Manager of the Florence Civic Center. The generosity of these country artists donating their time and talent for such a worthy cause is inspirational. We are looking forward to a great night of country music.”
The Country Boys include John Michael Montgomery, Bucky Covington, Flynnville Train, Dustin Wilkes and additional artists at various cities.
“We are encouraging other recording artists to join in our effort,” says Thomas Hammond Sr., founder of The Donate a Blessing Foundation. “We feel passionate about raising as much money for this relief effort as possible and have an electric concert series, too.”
People can support the cause by attending the live shows or by texting BLESS to 85944 to give a $5 donation which is automatically billed to the cell phone bill.