Jerry Lee Lewis Dead at 87

[TheBigA]

"Nashville Now" was more than a showcase for current performers and their current hits. Many shows featured veterans of the business whose hit-making days were done -- Roger Miller, Jeannie Seely, Jack Greene, Jimmy Dickens, Donna Fargo, etc.

A lot of TNN shows were geared around that. They got who they could get. TNN was partly owned by the Grand Ole Opry, so they had a lot of shows with Opry members. If you go to the Opry, the audience is mostly 55+ except when Carrie is there. The Circle Network today is very similar to the old TNN.

 

[davideduardo]

A lot of TNN shows were geared around that. They got who they could get. TNN was partly owned by the Grand Ole Opry, so they had a lot of shows with Opry members. If you go to the Opry, the audience is mostly 55+ except when Carrie is there. The Circle Network today is very similar to the old TNN.

In fact, the studios of the old TNN were "behind" the Opry stage and auditorium.

A dear friend, the late John Pate, was Chief Engineer of WSM and its related operations back in the 70's and when I visited him during a walk-through of the facilities, I met a video operator who was very gracious in showing how the TV productions were done... his name: Alan Jackson.

And the audience even then was older by quite a bit. And a lot of them looked like they had Minnie Pearl do their wardrobes for them.

 

[TheBigA]

In fact, the studios of the old TNN were "behind" the Opry stage and auditorium.

In between the Opry, the Opryland Theme Park, and the Opryland Hotel. Quite an amazing complex, with great synergies. The TV network would sell family vacations for the hotel and theme park.

I guess Alan got promoted by the time you got there. The first time Ralph Emery let him sing on Nashville Now, he told everyone Alan worked in the mail room.

 

[davideduardo]

In between the Opry, the Opryland Theme Park, and the Opryland Hotel. Quite an amazing complex, with great synergies. The TV network would sell family vacations for the hotel and theme park.

I guess Alan got promoted by the time you got there. The first time Ralph Emery let him sing on Nashville Now, he told everyone Alan worked in the mail room.

Yep, he was doing something in production when I met him. I later crossed paths with him when he played in SE Georgia and my WTNT in Tallahassee was one of the station sponsors and, to my enormous surprise, he remembered meeting at Opryland. That sort of thing makes you realize that the great talents are not just good musicians... they are bright, kind and aware, too.

Of course, unlike some rock performers who may be challenged to correctly identify the planet they are on, most country artists are pretty well attached to reality. And I found that to be true of all forms of "people's music" whether it be country in the US, ranchera/norteña in Mexico, salsa in Puerto Rico, Vallenato in Colombia or bailanta in Argentina.

 

[tbolt909]

Of course, unlike some rock performers who may be challenged to correctly identify the planet they are on, most country artists are pretty well attached to reality. And I found that to be true of all forms of "people's music" whether it be country in the US, ranchera/norteña in Mexico, salsa in Puerto Rico, Vallenato in Colombia or bailanta in Argentina.

That's an ignorant statement, but not surprising coming from you. This is supposed to be an obituary for Lewis.

By the way, the Byrds once made an excellent country record called "Sweetheart of the Rodeo". Those common folk like Ralph Emery would not accept it because it came from "Rock & Rollers". Talk about Hypocrisy...

 

[firepoint525]

"Nashville Now" was more than a showcase for current performers and their current hits. Many shows featured veterans of the business whose hit-making days were done -- Roger Miller, Jeannie Seely, Jack Greene, Jimmy Dickens, Donna Fargo, etc. -- so Lewis showing up in 1985 to perform a 1977 hit wouldn't have been out of the question. Until its final years, most of the audience for the show appeared to be 55+. I'm not sure Emery was fully on board with the push to bring younger fans to country music in the '90s. His repartee with many of the new stars appeared uncomfortable and forced. Not that Crook and Chase were much hipper, but at least it was plausible that they liked the musicians they were hosting. And they still have a syndicated weekly countdown show that I sometimes catch of one of our local stations on Sunday evenings,

I seem to recall that they became "hipper" once Gary Chapman hosted it. But still, I didn't watch it a whole lot, but probably more than I did before that.

 

[firepoint525]

Here is a country song on which he still pounded the piano!

 

[CTListener]

In between the Opry, the Opryland Theme Park, and the Opryland Hotel. Quite an amazing complex, with great synergies. The TV network would sell family vacations for the hotel and theme park.

I guess Alan got promoted by the time you got there. The first time Ralph Emery let him sing on Nashville Now, he told everyone Alan worked in the mail room.

Dierks Bentley, a major country artist today, got his start in the business interning at TNN while attending Vanderbilt. I believe his job was researching and indexing vintage footage of country music performances. He had no other connections, being a bank executive's son from Arizona who dabbled in bluegrass. But as in so many endeavors, who you know is often just as important as what you know when it comes to laying a foundation for long-term success. I'd imagine his time at TNN provided him quite a bit of both.