Just Plain Folks

[JPF Home] [Networking] [Mentors] [Member Pages] [Resources] [JPNotes] [Chapters] [RoadTrips] [Music Awards] [About Us]

Ever wonder what it is really like to be at a major awards show, and to go up on stage at the pinnacle of the evenings awards and share the stage and well deserved spotlight with the most popular female band in the history of Country Music? Well.. you don't have to wonder any longer. This year two of the songs nominated for Single of the Year had ties to Just Plain Folks. "Amazed" written by Marv Green and performed by JPF Members LoneStar, as well as "Wide Open Spaces" written by our own Susan Gibson for the Dixie Chicks. As she did a few months ago during her Grammy trip, (see Just Plain Notes V1.25, V1.26 in the back issues section of our web site) Susan shares her first hand experience at this years CMA awards, where she offered to leg wrestle Marv before the awards for Single of the Year honors! I am not kidding! Enjoy!

Well...well...well...it looks like I am having a second shot at a once in a lifetime opportunity!! Another awards show!! This time it is the CMA's instead of the Grammy's and I am going at it from a different angle....three days before the awards, I go shopping!!! I went to a store here in Amarillo owned by a friend of mine and I got "outfitted" for my trip to Nashville ...complete with evening bag & earrings!! I wadded up all my new clothes, packed them in my 1984 Ford Good Times Estate (it's a two-tone brown conversion van....swank), stop by Midas for an oil change and head to Austin where I will meet up with our band manager, Michael Devers, to fly out to Nashville.... arrive in Austin at 4:30 am and have to leave for the airport at 7am .....so this is how the professionals do it, huh?

I think I slept all the way on the plane...even during our stopover in Houston, but we got into Nashville this afternoon and because I brought my trusty manager with me, I will actually be doing stuff to further my career...heh heh heh..... the first stop is with Debra Evens Pierce who does an article in Billboard called "They're Playing My Song"....and talked with her for about a half an hour...she was really friendly which makes the interviewing go better .....I prefer the "conversational interview" to the "question & answer" type as I like to ramble on & on & on .....well, you see how I am.... tonight we are going to the BMI Awards dinner, which I learn for the first time is different from the actual CMA awards and is also a black tie event!!! Whoops! I only bought one dress for this whole time in Nashville, but I only have to freak out for a minute or two when I realize that I got "outfitted" instead of just buying a dress, I am suitably dressed in a matter of minutes!!

The party is at the BMI building...just 100 yards from our hotel...so we opted to walk instead of the conventional limo. We get to the awards and immediately notice other women in black pants so I am not out of line....Mike Devers is next to me in his tuxedo...HA!!....sucker! We register with the front door folks one of whom is Patsy Bradley, daughter of Owen Bradley, who has been instrumental in the Groobees setting up our BMI affiliation....she welcomes me by putting a medal around my neck....they were honoring all of their top songwriters at this dinner.... I bit through it to make sure that it was real (ha!) and then walked into the cocktail party where I would get to meet other songwriters (Tia Sillers, Mark Selby...writers of "There's Your Trouble", Jim Lauderdale & many others)....as well as some of the publishers that approached us right after the Dixie Chicks released WOS.... the dinner and awards ceremony was on top of the BMI building in their parking garage which was beautifully decorated.....lots of silverware, lots of crystal....it was gorgeous! We were seated at tables of about 15 people & there were over 100 tables, so there were many more people that I didn't get to meet, but during dinner, Francis Preston presented awards to all of the songwriters that were there...I am not sure how many awards were given, but it was amazing cuz on some of the songs, there would be 3 or 4 writers, and at least that many publishing companies up there....15 people up there accepting an award for one song....Francis even mentioned that she wasn't sure if they had a lens wide enough to fit all the people....it was a rather remarkable thing when she called out "Wide Open Spaces...written by Susan Gibson, published by Pie-Eyed Groobee Music" and just Mike and I walked up there to have our picture taken with Francis Preston & Roger Sovine (you can see this picture in the BMI magazine...I have plenty of them in my bathroom, I imagine this issue will stay on top of the stack!)....after the awards, we went back downstairs for coffee & chatting some more...I got to shake Randy Scruggs' hand (he received a CMA for Musician of the Year) and talked with a couple more of the BMI folks that I had not met yet, and ended the night in the bar of the hotel, watching some guy play covers of Brooks & Dunn (saw them at dinner) and Collin Raye (saw him at dinner).... it was weird that just half a block away, all those stars & songwriters were over at the BMI building and while all that flim flam was going on, over at the Quality Inn here was this guy with his karaoke machine trying to entertain a handful of folks with the same songs....what can I say? WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE & then WRITE SOME MORE!!!

We are up & at 'em today at about 10am and are going to do some Nashville rat killin'....we're gonna meet David Preston (writer/publisher relations @ BMI) for lunch today down on music row...apparently, the music business takes a field trip to the EMI parking lot on the day of the CMA's for a hot dog cookout (see? there are such things as a free lunch! haha) where everybody takes a break from their offices & meets for lunch...blowing off steam & stuff... I got to meet Marv Green, who wrote "Amazed" by LoneStar.. (By the way, they are ALSO Just Plain Folks Members!) they were also up for single of the year, and I offered to just settle it the Texas way by indian leg wrestling for the title out on the sidewalk...you know, not bothering with the whole "..and the nominees are..." thing, but he declined....it was probably wise, cuz I had about 6 inches, and 65 pounds on the poor guy, although he looked pretty scrappy....=)

We left lunch, and had to go by Bug to talk over some business, and then back to the hotel to get ready for the awards. I am decked out in a sparkly evening gown, control top pantyhose, high-heeled shoes, makeup...the whole bit and we leave to go to the awards at about 430, because I think they shut the doors at 6:30...We get to the Grand Ol' Opry at about 5:30 and stand around drinking bud light waiting for the doors to open....we find our seats...no balcony this time...we're on the floor about 11 rows back all the way stage left..I am on the aisle...that is a good sign...Mike and I are placing bets as to the winners of the awards so far....I am not fairing too well.... "male vocalist"......"video of the year"...."Faith Hill"...all of these things were really cool to get to see all these folks...I freaked out when Dolly Parton was inducted into the Hall of Fame....I came from the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers era of country music so seeing her play alone was worth the ticket price....but we all know that that was not the reason I was attending the 1999 Country Music Awards.....No sir! I was there for the coveted "Single Of the Year" award, and it's coming up after this message from our sponsor..

Let me go back a few hours...I am in the bathroom at the Grand Ol' Opry on the payphone to my mom....making sure she has the right channel & telling her that I am there & how she might not see me, but she would see the commotion of the security guards around me, because my plan was to rush the stage when the Dixie Chicks won the award....I was going to say something completely charming like..."to my dad, thanks for the great advice....to my mom, thanks for sending me the lyrics to this song after I forgot them on your kitchen table, to Lloyd Maines for all of your gifts to music & a great gene pool & our connection to these Dixie Chicks....& to my band, the Groobees, who are probably at a taco bell somewhere between Amarillo and Austin, (new album due out October 5th..heehee)" It was going to be a beautiful speech...I would be stunning....

Fast forward now to MARY CHAPIN-CARPENTER walking out on the stage to announce the nominees for the 1999 Single of the Year Award.....my ears perk up....I sniff the air...see, I learned to play guitar by listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter....she is talking....I am on the edge of my seat and I think I cut loose a little early cuz I started hollering when she announced that the Dixie Chicks were nominated...but when she says "and the 1999 Single Of the Year Award goes to.....(breaks the seal on the envelope...) "WIDE OPEN SPACES!!!" I jump up out of my seat and am screaming as the folks sitting in my section are clapping and turning around to see this lady jumping up and down (in a not so lady-like manner) and the first thing Martie says is..."is Susan Gibson here?" and I jump out of my seat and shout "here I am!!!" and my whole section claps and breathes a secret sigh of relief that I am not just a radical Dixie Chick fan... and she asks me to "come on up here" and all of that bravado that I had on the payphone just a few hours earlier has left me and my singular, focused thought is....."please don't let me fall down....please don't let me fall down"....I said it in my head, chanted it really as I walked down the aisle, up the stairs....."please don't let me fall down".....ahh...there is Emily, sweet angel.....step over the TV cable, one more short flight of stairs..."please don't let me fall down".....Emily is within reach..."GRAB ON TO HER!!" I think to myself.....I am hanging onto Emily as she...."please don't let me fall down".... takes me over to the podium and I grab Natalie and under the guise of a hug, I grab her and hang on to her.....I swear when I got home and watched the video tape that is what it looked like and what it felt like....anyway....I try to speak..."thank you"....Natalie passes me to Blake Chancey (producer of WOS) who hands me off to Mary Chapin-Carpenter and my eyes get huge in my head and I ....."please don't let me fall down"....grab her and tell her I have always wanted to meet her....and we are all ushered off the stage....

...when I get back to my seat, my section gives me more applause and I must just have this "what-in-the-world-just-happened-there?" look on my face....there were many congratulations and "oh, that's why she has been acting that way" murmur through the crowd....I was so proud...I had my little blue card (with all the nominees that they read on TV) in my hand & people asked to see it and we kind of passed it around, and then I had to go use the phone & call my mom and of course her phone was busy.....=) on my way outside to smoke, this guy says, "so you are from Amarillo", and we start talking to him, and it turns out he was too, and I took a promopack to him (about 2 years ago) and when he was in Amarillo on a business trip (I think he's a buyer for a record chain).... he was not too thrilled with us then, but a little more interested in what we were doing now....(15 minutes after the award was announced and I can hear some of the doors opening or at least deadbolts being turned...=)

After the awards, we go to the after party over at the GOO hotel....now that is a nice place!! Huge....there was a swing band playing and I got about 1000 congratulations and about 3 conversations, met some really nice folks....I think I got photographed by the Iowa paparazzi outside of the hotel....it was fun...I was like Cinderella at the ball, only not as good of a dancer....we stayed there for about 45 minutes and then went to search for our car...."a three hour tour".....now, any of you who read my Grammy account know that I don't have very good luck with award show shoes....tonight was no exception....I can hardly remember what kind of car that we rented let alone which parking lot it is in....but 3 new blisters later, we are pulling out of the parking lot, headed to the Sony party that was downtown at the Havana Club......

I am thinking "we're not on the list...we're not on the list." I am prepared to whip out my "nominee's card" and wave it in the bouncer's face when here comes Emily again.... saved twice in one night by Emily, banjo Goddess, and we are in the door....she and her new husband, however are out the door....they don't get to see each other much....we go in the door and find Martie sitting in a corner talking to one of the girls from the Sony office (I think) and we hug and she tells me that she was soooo excited for me and that anytime in an interview when someone asked which award they wanted to win, she always said that she hoped for the single of the year cuz she knew I would freak out!! well, she was right! I think she is so sweet, so thoughtful...I mean I just can't imagine how many things are going through her head and she always thinks of the sweetest things to say to make me feel like I belong right there...anyway, we talk about what they have coming up, and they are taking some time off, and she wants to get together and do some writing....that rocks!!! I get to talk to Bruce Robison (Texas singer/songwriter, check out his album Wrapped ) about what a trip it is and how we hope that everyone gets to feel what this feels like, no matter what they do...writing or teaching or delivering newspapers..whatever, just getting that sunburst in yer gut feeling....it's priceless....

I watch the dancers and alternate between beer and amaretto sours, Ty Herndon gets up and sings Stormy Monday with the band....I talk to the costume designer of the Dixie Chicks opening number (with the running girls)...everyone is congratulating everyone else....I congratulate the bartender, and run into Natalie...she is heading out, and we hug and thank each other....a guy comes up and asks me to take a picture of him with Natalie....I ask him to take a picture of me and Natalie (but forget that it is on his camera...oops...my one picture of the CMA's and I don't even know whose camera it is on).... it is time to go home and think about tonight.....I mean, time to go home and call every single person I can remember their phone number...all signals are busy.....I guess it will be reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show" and off to dream about my own life! =)

Sorry about the long-windedness, but that's the beauty of working with Brian! Thanks Brian, for giving me a chance to say my acceptance speech since I couldn't get it out the first time!!