Country Update
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Country Update BILLBOARD.COM/NEWSLETTERS NOVEMBER 12, 2018 | PAGE 1 OF 19 INSIDE BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE [email protected] Pistol Annies’ Interstate Gospel CMA Entertainers In The Stadium Era: Speeds To Debut >page 4 How Big Venues Changed The Music ‘Heaven’ Ascends When the Country Music Association delivers its 52nd Brooks delivered the first concert at Notre Dame Stadium on At SESAC Awards annual awards on Nov. 14, the ceremony will take place at Oct. 20 and plans to play 10-12 stadiums annually for the next >page 9 the Bridgestone Arena, a venue that can accommodate about three years. 18,000 people for a typical concert. The volume of stadium-level acts is a sign of country’s vitality, But the key to the CMA’s biggest trophy — entertainer of but it’s also an indicator of what nags in the minds of some the year — lies traditionalists. Trisha, T-Rhett eight-tenths of Venues have a Take CMA Roles a mile away at distinct influence >page 10 Nissan Stadium, a on set lists and song venue that held a choices, and as the reported 55,000- genre increasingly plus to experience focuses on Craig Campbell Kenny Chesney Tracks ‘Time’ a constructing concert in August. cavernous, echo- >page 10 Chesney and filled structures, fellow entertainer it naturally leads nominees L u ke musicmakers to Makin’ Tracks: Bryan a n d favor songs that Luke Bryan On Jason Aldean all work in those headlined stadiums buildings. ‘Country’ Cred CHESNEY ALDEAN BROOKS >page 14 in 2018. Ke i t h “You need those Urban — referred real big anthems to by a contestant on NBC’s The Voice as “the epitome of a when you do that,” says Ronnie Dunn, emphasizing the point stadium country/rock star” — co-headlined the 34,000-seat by imitating the boom-boom-clap percussion of Queen’s “We Country Coda: New Zealand venue Westpac Stadium with Carrie Underwood Will Rock You.” Holly Dunn’s ‘Really’ in December 2016. And Chris Stapleton, the fifth entertainer Naturally, adding anthems to a performance means Big Moment nominee, opened for Guns N’ Roses at the Nissan Stadium in changing, or eliminating, other songs or instruments that don’t >page 19 2016 and again for the Eagles this June at AT&T Stadium in fit the perameters. A single strand of steel guitar, for example, Arlington, Texas. may not cut through in a stadium as well as a fiery slide guitar. If that’s not enough, reigning entertainer of the year Garth A fiddle solo is less likely to match the magnetism of a distorted MOBLEY MILLER ALDEAN: ANN; ALLISTER CHESNEY: BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE NOVEMBER 12, 2018 | PAGE 2 OF 19 rock’n’roll guitar. And a nuanced, unfamiliar story-song will hardly ever get played in that environment. “You can’t, because they can’t understand you,” says former CMA entertainer of the year Reba McEntire. “It’s not as intimate, and the sound’s not so good that you can understand every word.” Adapting instruments or delivery for a specific type of venue isn’t new. Ethel Merman-style belting was common in theaters in the early 20th century when microphones were not yet in regular use. Ernest Tubb became a country innovator by employing an electric guitar to rise above the noise at rowdy honky-tonks in the 1940s and ’50s. And as a reverse example, both Alison Krauss and Little Big Town have been known to sing quiet ballads a cappella without microphones at the 2,200-seat Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, just because the room’s acoustics allow it. But artists have to be strategic with ballads in large venues — particularly Chris Stapleton’s audience included WKHK Richmond, Va., PD Garret stadiums, as Thomas Rhett discovered with “Beer With Jesus.” Doll when he played Charlottesville on Nov. 3. From left: Universal Music “It is one of the coolest, most bone-chilling songs that I get to play, because Group Nashville vp promotion David Friedman, Stapleton and Doll. I’m in love with the lyrics of that song,” says Rhett. “But when you look out on the crowd, it’s like everybody’s got their phones up — now is the time they need to text their girlfriend or go refresh their beer. Not to say that it’s discouraging, but I’m trying to put together a show that when you get into that place and you get into your seat, you can’t help but to just be glued to the stage.” That doesn’t mean that ballads can’t work in a stadium or arena. But they fit best when they’re familiar enough that people can sing along — as they do with Bryan’s “Drink a Beer.” It doesn’t matter if the words are muddy and swirling around, since the audience knows the song and is participating in the moment. “All that swirling around, making it all the way to a back row of an arena, it probably accounts for why a lot of acts hit you with a big one, a big one, a big one, fast in tempo, a big one, big one, then they get everything down to one slow song,” says Bryan’s producer, Jeff Stevens. “One song that may have a Syndicated iHeartMedia personality Bobby Bones (left) and dance message and then — bam! — they’re back at it again.” partner Sharna Burgess delivered a Viennese waltz as Chris Janson But what happens in stadiums doesn’t stay in stadiums. When Jake Owen performed “Can’t Help Falling in Love” on ABC’s Dancing With the toured minor league baseball parks this summer, it coincided with his hit “I Stars on Nov. 5. Was Jack (You Were Diane),” a reworked tribute to the John Mellencamp rock anthem “Jack & Diane.” It demonstrates how the needs of the live venue influence decisions in the recording studio and, in turn, what ends up being marketed to the public. “Getting out there in a concert, I selfishly enjoy playing song after song after song after song that just make people feel good,” says Owen. “Those tend to be the songs that I resort to recording, which end up being the ones that are on the radio.” There’s an irony in the whole development. George Strait launched the first successful country tour of stadiums 20 years ago with a set dominated by ballads and midtempos. About two decades before that, Kenny Rogers became one of the first country artists to consistently work arenas, filling the rafters with love songs such as “She Believes in Me” and story-songs “The Gambler” and “Lucille.” “It’s not so much of a listening fest anymore, as it’s a selfie fest sometimes,” Tenille Arts stopped in at the Academy of Country Music’s headquarters says Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Byron Hill (“Fool Hearted during a recent swing through Los Angeles. From left: ACM CEO Pete Memory,” “Nothing On but the Radio”) in comparison. “It’s more about the Fisher, Arts, ACM junior staff accountant Mary Pambukyan and Reviver girlfriend being out there on the guy’s shoulders woo-hooing. It’s the party. It’s Entertainment Group vp promotion Jim Malito. the scene more than the artist just standing there in the old way and singing stories — Kenny Rogers’ kind of approach, the great storyteller thing. You don’t see a lot of that anymore.” Indeed, the stadium experience is the antithesis of a calm crooner quietly walking the stage. “With every stadium, there are so many challenges to get through the show,” says Bryan. “Each stadium sounds different. I’m 100 yards in front of the speakers, I’m hearing things at different times. It’s like being in a washing machine for two hours and you just try to come out with all your limbs intact.” The 2018 CMA entertainer of the year candidates — including Chesney, who, ironically, is choosing to avoid stadiums next year — have all impressed voters enough in those circumstances to warrant a nomination in the stadium era. Even Stapleton, who most closely embodies Rogers’ stand-and-deliver presentation, makes music that’s sinewy enough to fire up a big crowd. But the advent of the mega-venue as a realistic concert playground may have Morgan Evans visited with staff from WHKO Dayton, Ohio, when he changed the nature of country music for good. played the Nutter Center on Nov. 3. From left: Warner Music Nashville “They want Metallica or whatever,” says Dunn of a stadium-size audience. manager of Midwest and Northeast radio and streaming Shari Roth, “You’re playing to those kinds of crowds. It definitely influences [the music] WHKO PD/morning host Nancy Wilson, Evans and WHKO assistant on that level.” PD/morning co-host Frye Guy. BOURQUARD MICHEL ARTS: MCCANDLESS; ERIC BONES: Sony Nashville_26_111018.indd 1 11/6/18 10:52 AM BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE NOVEMBER 12, 2018 | PAGE 4 OF 19 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] Pistol Annies’ Interstate Gospel Debuts At No. 1 On Top Country Albums; Combs Commands Country Airplay For Fourth Week Pistol Annies’ Interstate Gospel (RCA down 5 percent, in the week ending Nov. 11. Nashville/Sony Music Nashville) drives onto Combs first reached No. 1 with his debut hit, Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart (dated “Hurricane,” which led for two weeks starting Nov. 17) at No. 1, marking the supergroup’s on the chart dated May 27, 2017. He followed second leader. The set starts with 30,000 with “When It Rains It Pours,” which also equivalent album units earned (27,000 in dominated for two frames beginning Nov.