SITUN'on the Eddy, Dr

uwPFyIs& NSRVFUE NOTJUST WERE NASHVILLE'S ROCK SKYLINE (Continued from page MN -1)

gon, Grand Funk Railroad, Arlo Guthrie, Bill Haley, Jimi Hen- drix, Buddy Holly, Billy Joel, Little Richard, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the Byrds, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Duane SITUN'ON THE Eddy, Dr. Hook, Fats Domino, Donovan, the Charlie Daniels Band, Elvis Costello, Joe South, R.E.M., Leon Russell, Roy Orbison, the Monkees, Neil Young, and Gene Vincent. Those, as they say in Music City, are just for starters. The leaders of Nashville's redhot rock recording, writing, and performing scene predict many more names will be added to the golden roster of the future. Some are already DOCK OF THE BAY. known, such as John Hiatt, a former Nashville talent who has moved back to town with an international reputation; Ja- Call us for in new Memphis songs. son & the Scorchers; Steve Earle; Steve Forbert; and Tom the best Kimmel, who has already hit the charts. They're joined by R &B, Rock, Blues, and more. such sterling new talents as the Questionnaires, the Royal Court of China, Webb Wilder, the Stand, Susan Marshall, the Grinning Plowman, Dessau, Pat McLaughlin, Stealin Horses and Paradise Lost. "There's been a great deal of change in the last four years 901/276-8520 as we've expanded our horizons," says Lynn Gillespie, exec- utive director of the Nashville Entertainment Assn. The NEA's breakthroughs in spotlighting Nashville as a total en- tertaiment community at the New Music Seminar, MIDEM, and at the Nashville Music Extravaganza have been particu- larly important, Gillespie believes. When we meet people in other cities who think we're only a country town, we tell 11411 them that we're proud of country but that we also have jazz, rap, punk, heavy metal, rock'n'roll, and other forms of music, too." MEMPHI A major shift in attitudes about Nashville music making has taken place within the last few years. Back in 1980 when he was one of the founders of the NEA (then named Mll Nashville Music Assn.), Jimmy Bowen, now head of MCA PRODUCTION Records /Nashville, predicted Nashville would become "the PUBLISHING & entertainment growth center of the '80s." Bowen, who had 1503 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104 produced such acts as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. before moving to Nashville from Los Ange- les, turned out to be highly prophetic when he told Billboard in 1980, "While country music is the base of this music center, the other forms of music will quickly grow and within three years, Nashville will be turning out major pop, jazz, and R &B hits." Nashville has had its share of visionaries. Men like Owen SELECT-O-HITS Bradley who constructed a quonset hut in 1955 for the first studio on what was to become Music Row. Patsy Cline cut RECORD DISTRIBUTORS there; so did Bob Dylan. Marty Robbins cut there; so did Si- mon & Garfunkel. George Jones cut there; and so did some- one who was working as a janitor when Dylan was cutting- 605 CHELSEA Kris Kristofferson. MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE 38107 There was Bob Beckham drawing creative writers to Com- bine Music like moths to a flame. The songs that came from 901 -523 -1190 the hearts and souls of his writers, ranging from Kristoffer- son to Tony Joe White, scored on about every musical chart known to man, and helped identify Nashville as a total music community. Likewise Buddy Killen, Jack Stapp, and Donna Serving The South Hilley at Tree, building that operation into Nashville's largest independent publisher, with its writers supplying songs for all genres of music. Wesley Rose, who ironically once tried to stem the Elvis Presley tide because he felt it would ruin For "29" Years country music, oversaw the Acuff -Rose publishing complex (founded by his dad Fred and Roy Acuff) that at one time was as hot on the rock side as it was on the country catalog. And that quiet guitar picker from east Tennessee, Chet OVERNITE SERVICE TO: Atkins, who joined RCA in 1957, directing it through those critical early years, and stressing the quality of Nashville musicians through his own professionalism. Mark Knopfler TENN., MISS., ARK., LA., of Dire Straits is just one of thousands of musicians that At- kins has influenced. Buzz Cason with his Creative Workshop ALA., KY., AND ALSO Studio provided an early haven for Nashville's growing non - country scene in the late '60s /early '70s. Cason, who had SERVING POINTS IN GA., enjoyed a pop hit as Garry Miles in 1960, helped discover Jimmy Buffett and served as a creative catalyst for such tal- MO., TEX., FLA., IND., AND ents as Mac Gayden, Bobby Russell, and Travis Turk. Nobody has done more for the emergence of Nashville as MORE! a pop and rock center than producer and studio owner Nor- bert Putnam. His Quadrafonic Studio became the mecca for those wanting the best pop session in Nashville. A list of Quad clients reads like a Who's Who of Entertainment - names such as Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, Buffy Sainte -Ma- rie, Dan Fogelberg, Jimmy Buffett ... More than anyone Fill, He "For Service And else, Putnam fought the Nashville country-only stigma. won the battle, but he almost lost the war. Burned out, he had to leave town for a while, but now he's back in full swing No One Else Comes Close" doing the same thing at his new state -of-the -pop -art studio Digital Recorders. Credit David Briggs and Gene Eichel-

MN-14 BILLBOARD SEPTEMBER 10, 1988 www.americanradiohistory.com