Harlan Howard (right) with Travis Tritt

One single from Evans’ album did crack By the Top 40 country charts, but almost five months after the album’s release, it has yet John MerOn e! to get airplay in major radio markets-the critical factor in the success of a record. Having sold slightly more than 20,000 copies, she is still a long-. way from the ara Evans is hoping three is a charm. For the third time in her 26 80,000 industry experts say is necessary to break even in today’s business. years, this Missouri farm girl has come here chasing her dream: to But Evans remains doggedly opti- mistic. “God put me on this earth to be a become a country music star. Evans is one of thousands seek- singer. It’s what I love to do more than anything, and I’m going to make it.” She ing just part of a business worth more than $2.5 billion a year, and and her six brothers and sisters grew up on a farm outside New Franklin, Mis- her struggle to make it as a singer of traditional country music-a distinc- souri, where the family raised corn, beans, tobacco, and livestock for a living. tive sound rich with lyrics about love and romance, loss and hurt-tells a “We were a very poor farm family.” From an early age, Evans’ grandfather taught story about the state of the music itself, and the town that has been its her all about Nashville’s “Grand Ole Opry,” the longest-running live musical home since the mid- 1920s. radio program in the world, and the leg- ends who decorated its stage. In this era when Garth Brooks has be- Evans has in fact come a long way to- By the time she was four, Evans and come the most successful solo artist in ward her dream. In late 1996, she landed her brothers would travel on weekends history, many on Music Row-the few a deal with RCA Records-the prestigious and during the summers as the Evans blocks of bungalows and low-slung of- label that was once a launching pad and Family Band, performing gospel and fices that a.re home to Nashville’s music home for country giants such as Eddy bluegrass music at festivals and church publishing companies, recording studios, Arnold, Jim Reeves, Willie Nelson, and revivals. Renamed the Sara Evans Show and record labels-seem to be grappling Dolly Parton-and her debut album, once the talent of its youngest member like never before with the question that Three Chords and the Truth, was released became evident, they were eventually has vexed this industry for years: how to to critical acclaim last fall. pulling in $50 per performer each night. broaden the market for country music Newsweek called her a “new Patsy This augmented a rural family income without abandoning its classic style. It Cline”with a “distinctivesassiness.” Enter- so paltry that Evans’ mother once traded seems as though the answer to this ques- tainment Weekly ranked her in the same firewood for Levi’s so her children would tion will determine both the success of league with Loretta Lynn and Patty Love- have Christmas presents. artists such as Sara Evans, as well as the less. Billboard called her a “considerable Evans first traveled to Nashville when larger issue of what role Nashville plays country talent” who “invites favorable she was 11. Her father accompanied her in the entertainment industry. comparisons to the best country divas.” so she could record a single, “What Does

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Garth Brooks. Traditional country- characterized by fiddles, mandolins, and rhythm instruments like an acoustic gui- tar and bass-had begun to take a back seat to a more neutral, almost pop music sound that used rock-and-roll produc- tion elements. It had certainly come a long way from the early 1960s, when Willie Nelson was trying to break into the business as a songwriter. “If a song had more than three chords in it, there was a good chance it wouldn’t be called country, and there was no way you could make a record in Nashville that wasn’t called country at that time,” he once said. “I had problems with my song ‘Crazy’ because it had four or five chords in it. Not that ‘Crazy’ is real complicated; it just wasn’t your basic three-chord coun- try hillbilly song.” And the artists were changing, too. Mary-Chapin Carpenter seemed to repre- sent this new trend in progressive female country artists. The daughter of a pub- lishing executive, Carpenter was raised in Princeton, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., and sported an Ivy League educa- tion. Then there was k.d. lang, who also broke into the country scene during this period. lang was different. She became known as much for her duets with Roy Orbison, Loretta Lynn, and Kitty Wells as Sara Evans she did for denouncing meat-eating and publicly declaring herself a lesbian. These a Nice Girl Do in the Meantime?”and on musician from Oregon and now her women were definite departures from its flip side, “I’m Going to Be the Only husband. “He was a room service waiter, someone such as that “First Lady of Female Fiddle Player in Charlie Daniels’ in town with his brothers, trying to do Country Music,’’ Tammy Wynette, who Band.” It didn’t exactly crack the Bill- the same thing. We started dating, fell in before stardom in the late 1960s, had board charts. But her dream never died, love, and he asked me to go to Oregon worked as a cotton picker, hairdresser, and her next foray to town, after high with him and sing in his band.” and waitress. For many Americans, school and a short try at college, was part Evans spent the next three years with Wynette and her classics “Stand By Your of a more calculated plan to break into them in the Pacific Northwest, opening Man” and “D-I-V-0-R-C-E,”with conser- the business. “I skipped college, and had for the likes of Willie Nelson, Tim Mc- vative, anti-feminist themes, symbolized no other aspirations but to sing,” Evans Graw, and Clay Walker. But even though the material coming out of Nashville. By says. “So I came here with my older she was performing six nights a week, the time of Evans’ return in late 1995, brother, started waiting tables at the Hol- and making good money, Evans still felt more than the sound and the major play- iday Inn on Briley Parkway, and tried to she was a million miles away from the ers had changed. The business had also meet whomever I could.” only place her dream could happen. She become much more profitable. The person who made the most last- had matured, and longed to return to Country music had finally surpassed ing impression was Craig Schleske, a Nashville, determined to finally break both pop and urban contemporary for-

into the music business. mats as the number-one music choice m m Johri Meroney, whose great-uncle was the During Evans’ absence, Nashville had behind rock. Between 1994 and 1995,the 2 legendary bluegrass fiddler Chubby Wise, continued in its on-again, off-again Recording Industry Association of writes regularly on culture for The American transition from traditional country to America certified that close to 300 al- Enterprise. pop, accelerated by the 1990 debut of bums had sold enough copies to qualify

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as either gold (500,000) or platinum help, Evans and the Van Meters were Owen Bradley’s Quonset Hut studio. (1,000,000) records, the highest num- confident enough. to approach RCA Although born in Kentucky, Howard, bers this town had ever seen. Revenues Records about Evans finally having her now 69, came to Nashville from Los An- had exceeded the $1 billion mark, up own career. Joe Galante, the president, geles, where he had been working in a from $724 million in 1990. made Evans an offer the same day she factory and driving a forklift. Writing in Sara Evans had always preferred the auditioned for him. his spare time, he mailed his songs to traditional country style, and in fact once Sara Evans was now officially part of Nashville. One afternoon Ray Price tele- said she had grown to “detest country what is a booming business, one that phoned him on the factory floor, request- pop” but was nevertheless encouraged by goes far beyond WSM Radio’s Saturday ing more. Howard sent him one inspired the changes in Nashville. She returned night “Grand Ole Opry” broadcast. As of by his Army experience. “From the time just when it seemed as though an artist December, 81 record labels, 289 music we got up until we went to bed, we were cut from the fabric of traditional country publishing companies, 174 recording always doing things numerically. So I music might again have a shot at taking studios, and 80 video production compa- thought about a song that used numbers. hold. “It was like, Oh! A country singer! nies were based here. And it isn’t home I started with ‘Heartache number one No one was used to that:’ says Evans. just to country, either. Nashville is be- was when you left’ and just continued Wasting no time, she sought out coming a music industry Mecca where all from there.” The tune-“Heartaches by entertainment lawyer Brenner Van Meter formats want a place at the table. Con- the Number”-became a gigantic hit for for advice. It just so happened that Van temporary Christian music is one of Mu- Price, and was later recorded by rock- Meter was considering leaving her legal sic Row’s most thriving enterprises. And and-roll’s Guy Mitchell. practice to manage talent. Recognizing Hollywood has also begun to tap into Nashville’s rewards were generous: Evans’ obvious abilities as both a singer Nashville. Steven Spielberg, David Gef- Howard got a royalty check for and songwriter, and sensing the appeal fen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg opened their $48,000-and three days later, another of an artist who had actually lived a Dreamworks Records label here last year, for $52,000. “I didn’t even have a bank gritty country existence and performed as did Disney through its Lyric Street account,” he says. “I went out and did the that sort of music, Van Meter arranged Records. The town is even headquarters typical hillbilly thing. I bought a brand- for Evans to meet her husband, an exec- for at least 40 national advertisement and new, white-on-white Cadillac Coupe utive at the Sony Tree Publishing Co. jingle makers, including the creator of DeVille. Country music was so much Through her introduction to John the Budweiser frogs TV spots. fun then. Then all of a sudden, we got Van Meter, Evans found work recording One who has witnessed the change rich and famous. The big bankers and songs that writers would then submit to from the days of Patsy Cline to Sara managers came to town. Look around. major artists as potential album cuts. In Evans is songwriter Harlan Howard, Record companies used to be in houses.” no time, she was in demand as estab- whom I interviewed at his office on posh Howard believes country music works lished songwriters sought her out to give Wedgewood Avenue. “I’m just sitting best when it sticks to songs about love. “I their material a test run. around here amazed at what’s happened want to write songs about the boy looking When the Van Meters heard that vet- to my beloved little Ernest Tubb-Lefty for the girl, or the boy missing the girl,” he eran songwriter Harlan Howard wanted Frizell country music business, for which says. And so he is encouraged by the style to pitch his 1964 classic, “I’ve Got a Tiger I’ve always had such a passion:’ says the and substance of what Sara Evans cap- By the Tail” (which he had written with man whose songs include “Why Not tured in her album. But he worries that Buck Owens, who subsequently recorded Me?” recorded by the Judds; the Patsy some executives are less than enthusiastic it) to a female star, they immediately Cline classic “I Fall to Pieces”; and about a future for this tradition. thought Evans’ voice and approach would “Busted:’ the Ray Charles hit. One recent example came when be precisely the style needed to convince a Howard came to town in 1960, the Johnny Cash and Ricky Scaggs wanted to major artist to record it; so they invited same era when other songwriters such as record albums with the kind of music on Howard to the recording session. Hank Cochran, Me1 Tillis, Roger Miller, which they built their careers. Music Row “I went in, sang the song, came out of and Willie Nelson arrived. They rented seemed unwilling to embrace such pro- the singing booth, and there’s Harlan rooms at “Mom” Upchurch‘s, an East jects and claimed that kind of music had Howard on the couch:’ remembers Nashville boarding house where rates limited appeal. So Cash signed with the Evans. “He said, ‘Are you that little girl in were stuck at Depression-era prices; Los Angeles-based American Record- there singing? You’re great. I’ve been lodged at Dunn’s Trailer Court, where ings-home to the Red Hot Chili Peppers loolung for you for years to sing my mu- rentals ran $25 per week; tried out new rock band-and Scaggs with Rounder m sic. I can’t believe how country you are.’ I material at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge on Music, a bluegrass label located in Cam- o\ 5 had never even thought about it before. Lower Broadway; and walked Music bridge, Massachusetts The response to ti so k Now it’s a big thing, Sara Evans is Row, pitching songs directly to top exec- their albums reveal that those in the exec- country and so traditional.” utives and listening to such stars as Jim utive suites of Music Row may need to ir 2 Enlisting Howard’s enthusiasm and Reeves and Ray Price record at producer double-check their market research: sales 54 THEAMERICAN ENTERPRISE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED

for both releases have been very strong, and not only did both garner consider- able critical praise, but Cash‘s record was nominated for two Grammy Awards. Nevertheless, many here still assert that the business is moving in a different direc- tion and that traditional country cannot expand the music’s market. They insist the only way to broaden the country audience is with cutting-edge songs that bridge the gap between country and pop-and even with songs that take on controversial so- cial and political causes. Garth Brooks himself recently remarked that the song more palatable to consumers in metropol- great. It means something to me.” g themes characterizing his strain of coun- itan markets such as New York, Los Ange- And the music that means something $ try music will be “more stuff about hu- les, and Chicago. His objective is not only to Quigley-who admits he was influ- man rights, women’s rights, the HW virus, to stage events that generate media atten- enced by the type of ’60s culture scorned a pulling together, peace.. .. On [my] new tion and consumer interest (like the Cen- in Merle Haggard’s classic “Okie From album, we do the single-mother things.. . tral Park concert Brooks held last August Muskogee” (We don’t smoke marijuana like, ‘She’s Gonna Make It.”’ before releasing his Sevens album), but in Muskogee / We don’t take our trips on Patrick Quigley, president and CEO of also to move beyond the middle-class LSD / We don’t burn our draft cards down Capitol/Nashville, the record label that is conservatives who make up country’s core on Main Street / We like livin’ right, bein’ home to Brooks, also sees this as audience. “The traditional country fan is free)-is much different from what typi- Nashville’s future. A liberal Democrat in much more conservative than the average cally comes out of Music Row. In fact, an industry known for its unapologetic American. If we can make country more Nashville has never pushed controversial conservatism, Quigley sees his “core mar- progressive, there are millions and mil- social and political issues in its music the keting challenge” to make country music lions of people who’d say, This music is way Hollywood has in its movies and TV

by Bob McDiil

She’s been playing that room on the strip for ten years in Vegas He commutes to L.A., but he’s got a house in the Valley Every night she looks in the mirror but But the bills are piling up and the pop scene just ainZ on a rally She’s been readin’ ‘bout Nashville and all the records that every- And he says, ”Honey, I’m a serious composer, schooled in voice and body’s buying composition Says, “I’m a simple girl myself, grew up on land“ But with the crime and the smog these days, this ain’t no place for So she packs her bags to try her hand children Says this might be my last chance Lord, it sounds so easy, this shouldn’t take long Be back in the money in no time at all” She’s gone country, look at them boots She’s gone country, back to her roots He’s gone country, look at them boots She’s gone country, a new kind of suit He’s gone country, back to his roots She’s gone country, here she comes He’s gone country, a new kind of suit He’s gone country, here he comes Well, the folk scene’s dead, but he’s holding out in the Village He’s been writing songs, speaking out against wealth and privilege Yeah, he’s gone country, a new kind of walk He says, ”I don’t believe in money, but a man could make him a killin’ He’s gone country, a new kind of talk ‘Cause some of that stuff don’t sound much different than Dylan He’s gone country, look at them boots I hear down there it’s changed you see He’s gone country, oh back to his roots m They’re not as backward as they used to be” 2 He’s gone country He’s gone country, look at them boots He’s gone country He’s gone country, back to his roots Everybody’s gone country He’s gone country, a new kind of suit Yeah we’ve gone country He’s gone country, here he comes The whole world’s gone country LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG 55 ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED

IN 1974 I UNDERWENT A KIND OF MENTAL DIVORCE from the the end decided that it worked power structure on Music Row This happened after I went along, better with me alone No re- reluctantly, with the CBS bosses on John R Cash, which was their verb, no echo, no overdub- idea of an album to restore my sales potential They sent a producer bing, no mixing, just me play- down to Nashville with a bag full of songs they thought I should ing my guitar and singing I record, had me decide which ones I would record and what key I’d didn’t even use a pick, every sing them in, and shipped the producer and the song choices back guitar note on the album, to New York Then they recorded the instrumental tracks with their which we called Amencan musicians and arrangements, sent the whole package back to Recordmgs, came from my Nashville, and had me record my vocals onto the tracks I wasn’t thumb We got the honest, pleased with either the process or the results, and I decided I unadulterated Johnny Cash wouldn’t do that kind of thing ever again The reaction was posi- Rick Rubin showed up in my life in 1993 I thought it all pretty tive I don’t think I lost any of unlikely He was the ultimate hippie, bald top but with hair down over my old fans, and I might have his shoulders His record label was all young, urban music the Red gained a few new ones I won a Grammy for “Contemporary Folk Song Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys I asked him how he’d go about Album,” and out on the road it started feeling like 1955 again I discov- recording me What would he do differently from what everyone else ered all over again how it felt to play for a crowd of people with no had tried? chairs or tables, standing on their feet, jammed together, energizing “1 won’t do anything,” he told me “You’ll do it You’ll come to each other The new generation wanted to hear the songs I’d recorded my house, sit down in my living room, and start singing I’m not very at Sun Records in the ’50%and it was a real pleasure to oblige I could familiar with a lot of the music you love, but I want to hear it all Some- bring it all down to lust myself on a stool, with my black D28 Martin and where in there we’ll find a trigger song that will tell us we’re heading in two mikes, singing for the folks It was also deeply rewarding to find

the right direction ‘I that young people were eager, even hungry, for the spiritual songs I’ve Now he really had my attention For years I’d wanted to do a always loved I’d always prayed that might happen collection of favorite songs recorded very inhately with just my At the Glastonbury Festival in England I sat on my stool and voice and guitar as if it were midnight and you and I were in a room played my songs for an audience of a hundred thousand people who together all by ourselves I’d suggested it to CBS twice, and also Mer- really listened, and I realized I’d come full , back to the bare cury They thought it was a bad idea bones of my music, pre-stardom, pre-electric, pre-Memphis I could I saw problems though “I don’t want to record on your label have been back in Dyess, singing with just Momma to hear me on the and be marketed on the alternative music scene or to the rock ’n’ roll front porch under the clear night sky of Arkansas in the 1940s with the crowd,” I told Rick “1 have no illusions about who I am, how old I am, panthers screaming in the bush, and it seemed the audience enjoyed and what a stretch it might be to relate to these young people I won’t that feeling almost as much as I did

record with a lot of rock ‘n’ roll musicians ” Now Rick and I are talking about mapping out a selection of He assured me that nothing of the kind was on his agenda I spiritual songs-not old songs but contemporary music I’ve went to Rick‘s house, and for three nights he and I sat in his living room found and written that speaks of the spirit-and then recording and I sang my songs into his microphone It was a great experience I them in a cathedral Rick has scouted out a location that might took my music all the way back to its roots, back to the heart, and work I can’t wait recorded about a hundred songs Then we listened to them all, marked out the ones that had the feeling we were looking for, and went to work --This is adapted from the new book Cash: The Autobiography, getting them right We experimentedwith added instrumentation, but in by Johnny Cash with Patrick Car<

programs. And that fact has only stoked the title of the song. The song eventually ’Cause the last time I saw my 01’ man Quigley’s enthusiasm for a song that reveals that the boy made an error on was a photograph in our garbage can Capitol plans for release later this spring, the note that tells more about him than He never gave a damn so tell me why I one he is ambitiously touting as “the he intended. should, most dramatic song I’ve heard, maybe in And you don’t know the half of all the my whole life.” She said, “I don’t think you want to do demons that I battle” It is the story of a young man who, this while attempting to rob a convenience Sounds to me like there’s more to it.” The message of the song, to be per- store, gives the clerk a note that says, He said, “Spare your views on my abu- formed by Suzy Bogguss, an artist with “Nobody Love, Nobody Gets Hurt,” also sive childhood roots in folk and country-rock, seems

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right out of ’60s sociology: criminals country fans she hopes to attract. She Milsap, and “You Never Miss a Real aren’t responsible for their crimes- opted instead for a more tasteful ap- Good Thing,” by Crystal Gayle, songs society is. proach, and shot her debut video on that sound more like pop than country. Quigley, who intends to put the full rural locations in nearby Dickson. Singers as diverse as Perry Como, Ray force of Capitol/Nashville behind it, be- Charles, Jerry Garcia, and Chubby lieves this sort of material will strike a ome point to a recent decline in Checker have recorded McDill’s work. chord in major cities, not only because it Scountry radio ratings and argue that He says those who point to the Grand depicts crime but because it cuts to the Nashville needs to do something drastic Ole Opry as the route Nashville ought to heart of the angst and isolation from like the Stone proposal to win back lis- follow are confused about the music which twentysomethings are said to be teners. But studies by country stations business. “The Grand Ole Opry is suffering. Simply put, he says, “It deals show that as country blurs into pop tourism. Music Row is where the music with America.” But on further examina- music, listeners are most likely to switch takes place.” tion, Quigley’s “America” appears more to the real thing: stations that are purely Despite that opinion, McDill agrees curious than the one known by most Top 40, soft rock, and alternative rock. with purists on one issue: Nashville has people. “I’ve lived my whole life in Man- Describing the “mainstream country become dull. “People with opinions have hattan,” he says. “The country for us was music” generated by artists such as been replaced with new kids in hats who always the Hamptons.” Brooks, Shania Twain, and LeAnn are singing something some committee The city of Nashville isn’t the only Rimes, critic Nicholas Dawidoff says says will get radio airplay.” McDill’s frus- thing new to Quigley. He has spent his that characterizing this as “country” is trations over the bland artists featured so career in marketing products other “a misnomer. [It’s] really pop rock mu- prominently on Top 40 country radio is than records and is known for his suc- sic for a prospering, mostly conserva- shared by long-time Country Music mag- cess with such products as Rolling Rock tive white middle class. It’s kempt, com- azine columnist Hazel Smith, who only beer, Swatch watches, and Lange ski fortable music.” half-jokingly told me that before new equipment (an industry in which he is Long-time music insider Dick Clark, artists sign with major labels they should recognized for creating a rechargeable who started his career 50 years ago as a have had the experience of “spending a device that heats ski boots and recom- country disc jockey, agrees. “Brooks is night in jail and going through a di- mending the company change the color still labeled a country artist because he vorce” in order to develop the mettle to of its boots from orange to yellow). wears a hat. If you look at his stage pre- sing honestly about the grit that so often Garth Brooks himself lobbied for sentations and everything else, it’s popu- is a theme of country lyrics. Quigley’s installation as head of Capi- lar music.” Clark now watches the indus- At the tiny Bluebird Cafe music club tol/Nashville, hoping Quigley would be try from his vantage point as executive out on Hillsboro Road, the spot to able to bring the same expertise to mu- producer of ‘s watch dreamers who are trying to break sic. Brooks told Billboard last Novem- “Prime Time Country,” a weeknight pro- into the business, it’s a crapshoot to ber, “Quigley has the vision.” But while gram modeled after “The Tonight Show.” find someone who breaks the milque- that vision may be venerated in Man- “This whole new generation of country toast mold of so many of Nashville’s hattan and Hollywood, it has typically performers was brought up by some old- current artists. One thing is certain: any been rejected by Nashville. time rock-and-rollers. They’ve amalga- newcomer will have to look back at For example, when actress Sharon mated, combined, and homogenized least a generation to find more than a Stone wanted to begin a second career as and that’s disturbing to some purists,” few stars with the authentic, sharp- a director, she decided to start with mu- Clark told TAE. edged sound that once defined the mu- sic videos. Seeking a new artist, Stone Those purists think artists with Sara sic of this town. approached Sara Evans, and proposed a Evans’ style now have a chance to swing “Nashville’s waiting for a Messiah,” flamboyant, tawdry production, worthy the pendulum back in the other direc- Harlan Howard says. “In a country with of Sunset Boulevard or Madison Av- tion. This will be hard work, though, 240 million people, you know there’s got enue. She proposed scenes on L.A.’s ec- since the homogenizing “trend” has been to be someone that great out there.” He centric Venice Beach where Evans, hold- happening for decades. One key player imagines something akin to the feel ing a cat, would be seen riding a skate- who has for years been moving Nashville when Johnny Cash hit town in the ’50s. board and writhing suggestively against away from its “Twang Town” reputation For now, Howard’s resigned to writ- graffiti walls, sporting an Elizabeth Tay- is songwriter Bob McDill. A peculiar ing. “I want to do a song about that cou- lor Cut on a Hot Tin Roof-type hairstyle. Music Row veteran who quotes Truman ple down in Birmingham who’s broke No doubt such a provocative approach Capote and Marshall McLuhan in con- and can’t figure out if they still love each for acountry artist would generate at- versation, enjoys duck hunting, and says other. I swear, 1 think that’s what the 2 tention, but Evans rejected Stone’s idea, he subscribes to the Limbaugh Letter, public wants from us.” c! realizing that it might have backfired McDill has had hits such as “Nobody .5 z and alienated her from the traditional Likes Sad Songs,” recorded by Ronnie s?t, Y 3

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IN GOSPEL MUSIC THESE DAYS, the cross-overs run in both direc- now owned by major Secular companies like EMI, Arista, and Warner tions: Pop diva Barbra Streisand, country sensation LeAnn Rimes, Brothers. More than 2,000 radio stations broadcast gospel to a com- and rap singer M. C. Hammer have all crossed over from main- bined listenership of 20 million per week, making it the fourth most stream music to inspirational material, while acts like Jars of Clay, popular radio format. Michael W. Smith, Kirk Franklin, and can boast of gold GMA president Frank Breeden notes with a smile that even In- records and TV videos that have moved the other way, from the terscope Records-criticized for its gangster rap by Bill Bennett and Christian subculture to mainstream media. C. Delores Tucker-has just had 100 of its employees join the Both types of cross-overs are posting impressive numbers: Gospel MusiCAssociationbecause the company has started distrib- Streisand's latest album, made up entirely of inspirational material uting groups like God's Property. Other surprising inroads include both Jewish and Christian, made it to Billboard's top five. LeAnn the Sunday gospel brunch at the hot L.A. club House of Blues. Rimes' new album Inspirational Songs has sold a quarter-million One of the first strongholds of the Christian music business was copies in a single week. From the other side of the divide, dc Talk Southern California, but over the last decade most of the industry has and Michael W. Smith have seen albums debut in Billboard's top 20. relocated to Nashville, lured by the city's ample creativity, religiosity, (In Smith's case, that put him ahead of Michael Jackson's HIStory) and family-friendliness. The music's audience has widened at the The debut album by Jars of Clay sold over two million copies, in both same time. Representatives from over 40 foreign countries are attend- Christian and secular markets. ing the 1998 GMA convention, and groups like Petra now play in places The has grown explosively since it like Bogota, Colombia. Kenny Marks performs in Seoul, South Korea. first began to be noticed in the 1980s. From record sales of $83 mil- Has mainstream success meant a watering-down of the lion in 1985, the genre reached $538 million in 1996, the latest year gospel message? Breeden, a graduate of Nashville's Free Will Bap- for which figures are available. In the last half-decade, annual tist Bible College, insists it has not. He notes that when one very suc- growth has averaged 22 percent, and Bil/board speculates that cessful gospel artist, a winner of five Dove Awards (the gospel black gospel albums alone have the potential to top $1 billion in equivalent of a Grammy), became publicly embroiled in an adulter- sales. And then there is the money earned from concert tickets, ous affair with one of his backup singers, his record label (the Christ- which probably amounts to another half-billion dollars annually. ian subsidiary of Warner Brothers) pulled his hugely popular records Gospel recordings-defined as any music that contains from distribution. A costly decision made on principle. lyrics of Christian faith-now outsell jazz, classical, and New Age, Breeden is proud that Kirk Franklin's explicitly Christian song . and the industry's explosive growth has come as other genres have "Stomp" recently went into the video rotation on MTV'S "The Grind," seen their sales remain flat. The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir can now while Jars of Clay opens concerts for Sting. "Gospel music has been sell out Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden, while let out of its box," he explains, "and our message to the world is that Steven Curtis Chapman and Amy Grant have done the same at the it's not just for Sundays anymore. That's the problem: we've been Hollywood Bowl. compartmentalizing our faith, living artificial lives Monday through The Gospel Music Association (GMA),based in Nashville, brags Saturday. Your faith can go with you everywhere." that no other musical genre There are good rea- boasts as many styles or as sons, Breeden notes, for much diversity. The category gospel music to "stretch the includes not only traditional envelope. Jesus chose in His and pop material but also ministry to hang out with tax Christian rap, reggae, ska, collectors, prostitutes, adul- and alternative rock. There terers, and the disenfran- are "no ethnic, economic, or chised, because they were stylistic boundaries in gospel the ones who needed Him. It music," GMA insists, and "you was the organized religious won't find any other genre people who didn't know they that is created by, and ap- needed Him." peals to, a wider audience." Dottie Peoples, a black Gospel (sometimes singer best known for her tra-

' also called "contemporary ditional gospel songs, isn't Christian music") now has its worried either: "There's noth- own 24-hour ing wrong with crossing over, network, Z Music Television, as long as you take 'The m 2 and has become so prof- Cross' with you." + itable that all of the major B -Scoff Walter 5 Christian record labels are 3 2

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- oday, .the most forward-looking school reformers are the advo-

cates of a return to an old-fashioned “core curriculum.” Building be derided as an elitist. He supports.him- on the findings of researchers like E. D. Hirsch (author of self running a bathroom tiling business. Indeed, just moments after his talk he Cultural Literacy) the backers of a core curriculum argue that hopped into his cluttered yellow van and headed to his first job of the day. helping children master a basic body of common facts, great books, and There are hundreds of Nashvillians like Philip with fresh, practical views on historical knowledge is the most important task of schooling. Traditional the subject of education. Many of Nashville’s schools themselves-includ- knowledge-based education, they argue, is far more useful (especiallyto ing 14 private colleges and universities, four public universities, the public underprivileged children) than more modern methods that emphasize schools that have the core curriculum, and 44 private schools-stand apart from “skills” over content, and student feel- porter of the decision, argues that the conventional approaches. The liberal ings over objective accuracy. teachers’ unions and other opponents of platitudes and assumptions that drench Of all the charges leveled against ad- the curriculum were the real reactionar- educational debate in much of the U.S. vocates of core curricula, perhaps the ies: too set in their ways to make long- often don’t describe the reality in this city. most trite is that they’re too wedded to overdue reforms. For instance: Fisk University, Nash- the status quo and haven’t kept up with “Don’t look to people who’ve always ville’s renowned black institution, has no changing times. Recently, Nashville be- done things the same way and expect use for the Afrocentrism and racial came the second major city in the nation them to do things differently,” Philip bravado that now prevail on most cam- warned a group of retired businessmen puses. And in a far cry from their liberal W to institute an E.D. Hirsch-style core cur- E riculum district wide, and they did it at gathered at a Shoney’s restaurant for their counterparts at most schools of educa- 2 the behest of Democrat and Mayor Phil weekly breakfast meeting. Though Mur- tion, professors at Vanderbilt’s Peabody 3 Bredesen. Nashville Board of Education ray’s speech was backed with references to College actually decry teacher unions. At 9 member Murray Philip, a leading sup- various education theorists, he can’t easily Belmont, a Baptist school with an at- 3

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