Nashville Not Just a Country Music Town

By MICHELLE WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
June 12, 1991, Wednesday, AM cycle

Copyright 1991 The Associated Press

There's more to this guitar town than tear-in-my-beer songs. In fact, Nashville is steadily earning the reputation as a town where music other than country is flourishing. "The new blood in the recording industry ... see Nashville as a town with a lot of non-country talent," said Steve West, owner of Go-West Productions and 328 Performance Hall, a Nashville rock club. "There's New York, Los Angeles and then Nashville."

Called Music City U.S.A. because of its healthy country-music industry, Nashville has also become known for its blues, gospel and alternative music. The city's music clubs are filled nightly with hopeful musicians looking for a break. Some play for years before it happens; others get impatient leave before the time comes.

Then there are cases such as Marshall Chapman and Tom Kimmel, who have not had national success as performers but make a hefty profit songwriting. Chapman has played rhythm and blues in Nashville clubs for more than a decade, but is best known for creating hit songs for Jimmy Buffett, Sawyer Brown, Tanya Tucker and Joe Cocker. Kimmel, a husky-voiced guitarist, had a hit with "That's Freedom" in 1987, but staked his claim with recordings by Southern Pacific, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

"The biggest problem Nashville has is that the general public views it as country, but people in the industry see beyond that," West said. Tom Cordin, a spokesman for MCA Records in New York, agrees. "Country music may overshadow the rock scene in Nashville, but that doesn't mean talent there is going unnoticed," said Cordin. He says Nashville is one of the top cities his label watches for possible recording acts. "Many bands in New York and L.A. are manufactured. They're looking for a deal and they go with a certain image and sound. To get away from that, you have to go to other cities, like Austin and Nashville and Athens, Ga."

A few months ago MCA signed local rock act Chagall Guevera, and within the last year picked up vocalist Jill Souble and the rock band Guilt. Folk-pop artist Ashley Cleveland and metal-rock band 15 Strings also recently garnered contracts with Atlantic Records. "In Nashville, you find people who have been playing together for two or three years. That band will be a tighter and more creative unit than a band found in L.A. or New York," said Kurt Denny, director of artist and repertoire for MCA records.

"People there get in bands to get deals instead for the love of playing music. That's not the case in Nashville and I think that's why labels are now looking here," said Denny, a Nashville native and the former director of writer and publisher relations for BMI, which licenses music performances and distributes royalties to writers and publishers.

Lynn Nichols, a guitarist for Chagall Guevera, said members of the group met while in Los Angeles pursuing individual careers. Once they formed the group, they decided to go to Nashville. "We wanted a place to develop without the influence of the New York and L.A. music business," said Nichols. "You're too close to the marketing aspects of the industry." Denny said other areas of the rock industry also have moved here over the past few years - studios, engineers, producers, label representatives - starting a new generation in the business.

Denny said Nashville's reputation as a rock town took off in the mid-1980s. He and West both attribute part of that to Jason and the Scorchers, a raw, explosive rock group that drew rave reviews and attracted sell-out crowds from Austria to Australia until their demise in 1989. "That was really the turning point," said West. "The Scorchers brought Nashville a lot of recognition and people started coming here to look for new talent."

Jason and the Scorchers (EMI), Steve Earle (MCA), Royal Court of China (A&M), Webb Wilder (Island) and The Questionnaires (EMI) were all launched during the early '80s, and bands from surrounding states, such as the B52s, R.E.M. and the Georgia Satellites, played the Nashville clubs for more regional exposure. "Nashville was hot then and people thought (the rock industry) would really take off. It has continued to grow, just differently than people had hoped," Denny said.

West said the next step would be for a Nashville band to really hit big. "People like Amy Grant and John Hiatt are big, but Nashville really hasn't had a rock act to hit big yet. The Scorchers have probably been the biggest ... although, Judson Spence's first album did well," West said.

Because Nashville is filled with musicians, the city offers several festivals throughout the year to showcase local talent, some leading to recording contracts. Each summer, the week before the county music fan fair, the city sponsors Summer Lights, a festival featuring more than 200 bands over four days. It is a mix between established artists and just-starting-out bands and offers a variety of country, rock, pop, jazz, gospel and blues.

Each winter, the Nashville Entertainment Association holds the NEA Extravaganza, a rock 'n' roll marathon of around 30 unsigned bands in the Southeast. A panel of judges selects the bands which then play to an audience of major label negotiators and fans.

West, the founder and organizer of the Extravaganza, said last year almost 100 record label executives from New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis attended. Roughly 20 percent of the bands who have played the Extravaganza since it began six years ago have landed national contracts, some as a direct result of the showcase. Chagall Guevera was one such group.

While live music may gain most of the rock attention in Nashville, the city continues to boast a bustling recording industry aside from country artists. There are more than 25 recording studios that are being used more and more by non-country artists. Ziggy Marley recently finished an album here and over the past few years such artists as Mark Knopfler, Elvis Costello, ZZ Top and Neil Young have come to Nashville to record.

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