Country Update
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Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS APRIL 13, 2020 | PAGE 1 OF 19 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Sam Hunt’s COVID-19 Complicates Nashville’s Southside Debuts >page 4 Fragile Studio Business John Prine Remembered If you’re looking for peace and quiet, the best place to find it globe. Overseas clients, nervous about contracting the novel >page 10 right now might be at a Nashville recording studio. coronavirus on airplane flights or in hotel rooms, had begun There are no pounding kick drums, no screeching guitar solos canceling sessions. and no singers belting out the high notes. The mics are turned At the Black River studios — which have held sessions for Mi- off, the rooms are empty, and the music is in hibernation, wait- randa Lambert, George Strait and Dan + Shay – numerous Russell Dickerson’s ing for the COVID-19 pan- players called nervously the Video Bonanza demic to pass over. morning after Music Row >page 10 Some of the city’s largest discovered that a prominent studios closed their doors manager had tested positive even before Nashville shut for COVID-19 after attend- down nonessential busi- ing a 15-minute meeting at Bellamys, nesses with a safer-at- Black River’s nonstudio Billy & Buds home order that took effect wing. In short order, the >page 11 March 23. And most are company canned a program likely to remain quiet until that allowed tourists to view June at the earliest, though live recording dates, and Makin’ Tracks: the lack of a concrete na- Black River sessions went Avenue Beat tional plan has left owners dormant on March 17. Arrives and studio managers in an Ocean Way — which has >page 16 uncomfortable limbo. counted Garth Brooks, “The worst part is not McBride (left) with a student from his Blackbird Academy, Dierks Bentley and 5 Sec- knowing,” says Black- which he also had to close amid the coronavirus pandemic. onds of Summer among its bird Studio owner John clients — held one final ses- Country Coda: McBride, whose facility has hosted sessions for the likes of sion on March 16, keeping the place open to accommodate a ‘Five Minutes’ Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Jon Pardi. “Obviously, two-and-a-half-hour commercial session for ad executives With Morgan it’s not in any of our control, and that’s frustrating, you know. who flew in from out of town. Bassist Mike Brignardello and >page 19 Normally, you feel like you have a little bit of control over what’s keyboardist Steve Nathan brought in sanitizer to safeguard going on in your life.” their work areas, director of operations Pat McMakin recalls. Blackbird locked its doors on March 12 or 13 as the virus’ The closure has been brutal. Built in a converted church, impact began to take over the public consciousness across the Ocean Way’s Studio A is a former sanctuary, ideal for orchestras, BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 13, 2020 | PAGE 2 OF 19 and April and May are key months for recording the soundtracks to video games that will be released in the fall. The studio lost weeks of business, and McMakin doesn’t believe those video-game sessions can be replaced. That said, the safety of musicians is a higher priority than revenue, and an orchestral session is ripe for the spread of germs. Maintaining safe conditions had already grown difficult before the closure. “We had one person whose full-time job was cleaning any surface that somebody would touch on their break,” says McMakin. “You might have 50 people in the room at the same time, and they all take a break. A coffee maker, a coffeepot, every door where there’s a push panel, every restroom — we just had people kind of constantly sanitizing to do our best to keep the environ- ment as clean as we could.” The closures quite possibly saved a few music industry lives. The corona- virus has claimed John Prine and Joe Diffie, and artists such as Kalie Shorr, Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson and former Lost Trailers vocalist Stokes Nielson have contracted it too. After initial reports that the coronavirus was likely to fall quickly to sur- faces, researchers are suggesting it can also be transmitted through breath- ing or speaking. The threat is compounded in studios by the deep breaths associated with singing. That makes microphones — particularly ones with foam windscreens — a real danger to the creative community, especially for Keith Urban (bottom) took part in a Country Radio Seminar CRS360 singers who prefer to get up close to the mic. webinar, Tone Down the Anxiety, Turn Up the Music: How to Cope With “Those things are nasty,” says Black River studios general manager Nick Stress and Uncertainty, on April 7. He was joined by Onsite CEO Miles Autry, adding that in current conditions, metal windscreens are preferable: Adcox (top left) and Country Radio Broadcasters executive director R.J. “We have several of those, and they’re easy. You can just take a Clorox cloth Curtis. or a Lysol wipe and you can wipe them down when you’re done, and they don’t hold the moisture or whatever comes out of people’s mouth.” The shutdown came at an already uneasy time for studios. With the spread of cheaper technology, most producers, artists and musicians have the ability to record at home, particularly for vocal work or overdub sessions that only require one or two players. In recent months, two studios that had long held a spot on Music Row closed: the Warner Bros. studio (where Lady Antebellum cut “Need You Now”) and The Tracking Room (U2, Willie Nelson). The other large Nashville recording sites, such as RCA Studio A and Starstruck, are likely to pick up extra bookings because of it, but losing those two created additional concern about the future of the studio business, which is key to Nashville’s growth as a music capital. “I’m not nervous about large studios going away,” says Autry of the shut- tering of the Warner Bros. studio and The Tracking Room. “I think we’re fi- nally finding the balance of home studio versus commercial studio. But it’s hard for me to even talk about it, to be honest with you. It makes me emotional because I’ve made friends with these people for a dozen years and then they don’t have a job anymore. And I’m not going to have The Tracking Room to run down and get a cable, or help him if he needs something. For years, I’ve been trading here with these people.” Producer-songwriter Brandon Hood (Tim Dugger, Hannah Dasher) The economic toll of the coronavirus-induced shutdown is large. McBride and producer Dann Huff (Kane Brown, Riley Green) formed an artist was filling out applications for the federal government’s small-business bail- development company in tandem with Warner Chappell Nashville. out program when he talked to Billboard, hoping to keep all the employees In a photo taken prior to stay-at-home orders are (standing, from left) for Blackbird and its adjunct educational program, Blackbird Academy, on a Warner Chappell Nashville president/CEO Ben Vaughn, Huff and payroll that exceeds $1.5 million annually. Warner Chappell Nashville director of A&R Will Overton. Seated: Hood. The Black River studios have only two full-time employees, and though Autry is attempting to find extra work for some of the freelance engineers he uses, plenty of artists have put a hold on overdubs or mixing sessions since their own incomes are up in the air. By the time studios unlock their doors, the recording business could be bus- tling, since postponed sessions from April, May and possibly June will have to be sandwiched into the regular run of bookings. Ocean Way, owned by Bel- mont University, expects some additional bills when it reopens; the increased traffic will come with heightened expectations of cleanliness. “We’re dealing in this unknown as far as when to reopen, and then when we do reopen, when is it safe to have 50 people in the room?” asks McMakin rhetorically. “So I’m looking at air-duct cleaning, I’m looking at UV sanitizing [devices], I’m looking at any option I can find to sort of sterilize the room on a regular basis to give people a sense of comfort when they do return. Because I think when we start returning, all of us are going to be a little freaked out.” For now, the studios are unusually peaceful, but it’s a quiet engulfed by the un- certainty of the COVID-19 era. How does the expensive studio business, already Charlie Worsham convened Nashville musicians for a spirited at-home under siege from cheap technology, navigate the temporary sound of silence? cover of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends.” Top row “Do you look at a three-month window or do you look at a six-month win- (from left): Fancy Hagood, Worsham and Lucie Silva. Bottom row: dow?” says McBride. “Those are two different things.” Jillian Jacqueline, Stephen Wilson Jr. and Leigh Bird Nash. BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 13, 2020 | PAGE 4 OF 19 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Sam Hunt’s Southside Rules Top Country Albums; Brett Young ‘Catch’-es Fifth Airplay Leader; Travis Denning Makes History Sam Hunt’s second studio full-length, and first in over five years, Southside sales (up 21%) in the tracking week. On Country Airplay, it hops 18-15 (11.9 mil- (MCA Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville), debuts at No.