JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Industry Message Forum UK Songwriter Slams Nashville 'laziness'

Relationships is an interesting word and concept, in this context, and can mean different things to different people. Some view them with disdain, as mutual palm greasing and sweetheart deals. They can be that, sure, but certainly aren't always. And sure, if we do great work, maybe we feel some entitlement to go to the head of the class. But the reality is (as Marc has pointed out many times) that so many are doing great work, that those who ALSO have people skills will succeed on a more regular basis. It's just common sense.

There are very few tortured artist/isolated genius types in country music. It's an oxymoron. Wait..maybe Kostas Lazarides--Yoakam's writer, from Montana..but I digress.. All the isolated geniuses who write in a country vein are on alt country labels, like the Nashville group Lambchop, whose Kurt Wagner certainly qualifies as a kind of isolated genius, in my book. His songs are too quirky for the majors, but the quirkiness is part of what makes them special.

There's different rewards for different systems, too. The isolated genius types put out their own product and tour with it with very little overhead. Make a few friends, and develop a strong but relatively small core fan base, and it's all good; whereas the Nashville system is designed to handle big numbers, and the songs all exist somewhere between the poles of quirky and formulaic, so that they will naturally appeal to the most people.

I am not sure one needs to spend a thousand bucks to make recordings that would excite a Nashville Producer's ear, these days, though. I have a mostly desktop studio, and it's getting pretty hard to tell the difference between real instruments played by real people, and virtual instruments played by one real person. I lived and worked in Nashville in the mid-nineties, and I tried desperately to produce Nashville quality demos on an Akai Keyboard back then, and of course, the demos sucked to the degree that I tried emulating real instruments on each particular demo. But now, I don't know..these days..if you hook a producer with your intro and verse, that if they realize 2/3rds through the song that your steel guitar is a virtual instrument, because it sounded THAT close to the real thing, that they are THEN gonna do an about face and close their ears..

No..but..again..the difference is that a demo made THROUGH the Nashville system will simply have a head start on one that sounds exactly the same, made by a loner from North Dakota, because making that demo IN Nashville, with real Nashville musicians is just real good networking, and counts as "relationship building" too, and so will get one just that much closer to that Nashville producer who holds the keys to the magic kingdom--if getting one's song recorded by the majors is one's goal, that is.