CRS DAY 1

Hello CRS 2012!  This weeks festivities kicked off with meeting the fantastic songwriter and artist Joanna Smith.  Smith, whose current song originally was held by Kenny Chesney, knew that she wanted to be the one to sing it.  After a few reluctant, and friendly emails, Chesney turned the song back over to Smith.  I’m glad he did!  As much as I love Kenny Chesney, that song was awesome and it fits her voice perfectly.  I can’t imagine anyone else singing “We Can’t Be Friends” quite the way Smith does.  I also ran into friends of mine who have such an awesome, bluegrass sound, The Roys.  If you like Ricky Scaggs, you’ll love them!  Capitol Records, Brad Paisley, and Thompson Square were among some of the recipients of awards given out today.  After the performances, I had a connect-the-dots moment going on with some of the people I was photographing.  I ran in to Joe Bonsall and Duane Allen of the Oakridge Boys, and soon after we saw the girls from The McClymonts near.  Duane Allen was excited to meet those ladies and, he wanted his picture with them!  After Duane had his picture taken, The McClymonts saw Jerrod Niemann, were just as excited and wanted their picture taken with him.  It was a fun couple of minutes for me to see how excited different artists were to see or meet each other.  That evening was the Country Radio Hall of fame dinner.  I had an opportunity to sit next to a legend in Country Music law, Joel Katz and get to know him and his friend, Moby, who Katz would induct into the Country Radio Hall of Fame later in the evening.  One of the inductees into the Hall of Fame was Bill Whyte.  Whyte’s family, including his wife, daughter, and father, were all there in support of Bill and very proud of his accomplishment.  Linda Davis and Lang Scott, family friends of the Whytes, had the honor of inducting Mr. Whyte.  Davis and Scott gave a touching, playful presentation, talking about their history together with the Whyte’s family.  Linda Davis and Lang Scott are the parents of Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott, who was also in attendance with her husband.  Lang Scott is the president of Music City Networks, a great place for artists looking for branding and website creation.  Later that evening Sony hosted the after-party, where performances by Brent Anderson, Wade Bowen, and Jerrod Niemann.  It was a double celebration, not only were we toasting the start of another great CRS week, but also Gary Overton’s, Chairman/CEO of Sony Music Nashville, birthday!  Looking forward to following Brent Anderson and Wade Bowen’s careers, both of them knocked my socks off with their awesome performances on that small stage in a crowded room!  And of course, Jerrod Niemann had the crowd with cuts off his current album, and a new favorite of mine, “Only God Can Love You More”…ending the night with a fun photo of fans of Jerrod’s, his buddy, Lee Brice and John were in the audience.