“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” — Groucho Marx. Despite what Groucho said, this is one club you want to be a part of.

The Radio Free Song Club is a group of ten veteran songwriters with a monthly deadline: ready or not, write a new song every month for host Nicholas Hill to play in a regular podcast.

Some of the songs are raw and barely finished, while others are beautifully polished. It’s a balancing act and you never know what you’ll get — the surprises are half the fun.

Kate Jacobs created the series, which debuted in January 2010, and it’s reminiscent of the old Brill Building days of songwriters like Carole King and Neil Diamond cranking out songs on deadline.

Recorded at Gary’s Chop Shop in SoHo (NYC) overlooking “the beaufitul skyline” of Hoboken, NJ, Session Number Two (the latest) features in-studio performances by Kate Jacobs (“On My Monitor”) and Freedy Johnston (“A Little Bit of Something Wrong”), as well as phone conversations with Victoria Williams and Laura Cantrell.

Listen to the program or check out the featured songs. Especially nice is Laura Cantrell’s “Kitty Wells’ Dresses” written by Laura with Amy Allison, and performed by Laura and Mark Spencer. Laura, a Nashville native, considered herself Kitty Wells’ number one fan for years, having grown up in a family of Grand Ole Opry fans.

The broadcasts offer a unique glimpse into the creative process involved in songwriting. There is a delightful intimacy, as if you’re sitting around a comfy livingroom chatting with talented and intelligent musicians.

The latest show ends with Hill (not known for his singing prowess) and Dave Schramm paying tribute to the late Vic Chesnutt in a moving live performance.

Mr. Hill probably states it best. “This show is a balancing act. An album of sorts. A radio program with no FM modulation. 
A broadcast that you will seek out. You will find it right here monthly, where it lays in wait for you.”

Well said. Radio Free Song Club is a gem.

This girl is kind of really cute.

You may know him best as the lead vocalist for Poison, or maybe as a reality TV star on “Rock of Love,” or even as a solo artist, having just released the single “Nothing to Lose.” But now Michaels is tapping into his melodic prowess and knack for writing epic ballads to deliver a song that could just span the breadth of music, including country as he recorded a version of it with pop princess and country music offspring Miley Cyrus.

Yeah, you read that right. Bret Michaels, the “bad boy of rock” with 15 Top 40 singles like “Talk Dirty to Me,” “Something to Believe In” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” has hooked up with the spawn of Billy Ray Cyrus for “Nothing to Lose,” to a bit of internet buzz.

“Bret and I had a great time in the studio together just hanging out and making music,” Cyrus was quoted as saying. “He’s so passionate about music and it shows. I think it’s such a rad collaboration because it shows that two artists that seem so different on the outside can come together and organically create something that we are both proud of.”

And while the concept of pairing the two seems a bit offbeat, word is the collaboration is harmonious on the track.

“I never sat down and said, ‘Look at the content. Look at the lyrical content,” Michaels said. “There is nothing I have to be defensive about, I just thought it was a beautiful song.”

Michaels just released the new single “Lie to Me” from his Custom Built album and will appear on the upcoming season of NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice. He will be at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville on Friday, April 2, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $25, and guests under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult. For tickets and more information, please call 615-902-8211 or visit www.wildhorsesaloon.com.

All five versions of the country-rock ballad “Nothing to Lose” are now available on CD at the singer’s website, and the single featuring Miley Cyrus is available for download on iTunes. To get the latest info on Bret Michaels, including appearances, visit his official website www.BretMichaels.com.

“Rock & Roots or Roots & Roll, whatever you want to call it – we challenge you to find a description that fits other than good music you can count on when you thought maybe you just couldn’t count on music anymore!”  That quote from Lilly Ruby, the Webmaster of www.jamesmccmurtry.com is one of the first things you see when on the site.  It’s fitting since James McMurtry seems much more concerned about making quality music than he is about where it might fit in terms of genre.  McMurtry’s rock songs, which feature strong narratives often about people on hard times, continue to win him fans across genres.  I was fortunate enough to speak with him recently about his tour of Europe, the live record that resulted, the state of the music industry, the current political landscape and some his own musical interests.

CMP:  First off, the record, “Live in Europe,” sounds great.

JM:  Thanks.

CMP:  Was it easier to get the mix right the second time?  I know you talked about that being tough on the first live record (“Live in Aught-Three”).

JM:  It was about the same.  I learned to do a little better mic positions so I don’t have so many esses to have to carve out of it.  Of course, we had keyboards on most of it, so that gives you an extra color to paint with.

CMP:  What made you choose Europe for the record?

JM:  Well, we had put off doing that.  We were always scared of the overhead.  You know, they don’t have Motel 6 over there. And, the exchange rate’s not real friendly, so everything there costs more.  But, we got on a roll with, “We Can’t Make It Here.”  You got to do it someday, so we thought it was the best time to start.  It turned out Mac (Ian McLagan – from Faces) didn’t have to do anything at the time, so he went over there with us.  That helped a lot, especially in the UK.  We recorded at the Paradiso just because they were set up for it.  It was originally just supposed to be a DVD project.  We had to spend three grand to multi-track it so we could mix it properly.  That part was good, but what I didn’t know was that the video was just mixed on the fly.  They didn’t save the raw footage, so I couldn’t go back and edit it.  That’s why you have those weird cross-stage shots at Mac through a forest of microphones because it was just remote cameras on the wall moving around according to the director’s whim.  You know, this guy’s very nice and very professional, but he’s Dutch.  He speaks English, but he’s about three words behind us.  They were shooting us like they know how to shoot a band.  I figured I can’t really charge money just for that.    So, I went ahead and made the record and just did the DVD as a bonus.  They also did vinyl on it; that was pretty cool.

CMP:  How many copies did they print of the vinyl?

JM:  I don’t know.  We’re still selling them.

CMP:  Was it a limited run/one-time deal?

JM:  No, if they sell out, I’m sure they’ll do another run.  Vinyl moves pretty well, these days.  They have those things where you can rip vinyl down to your computer and make an audio file out of it.

CMP:  I guess the European tour went well.  I believe you have some more dates coming up.

JM:  No, we did two European tours.  We did one in the spring with Mac, and then we went back in the fall, back to the UK, Holland and Belgium – just us.  So we’re done with Europe for a little while.  We probably want to do another studio record before we go back there.

CMP:  You felt pretty well received, I guess?

JM:  Yeah, for a first time over there without losing money – it’s pretty unusual.  We learned a lot of things about the business there.  All we knew ahead of time is that you can’t just have a distribution deal there.  You have to have licensees in every country because distribution in Europe just means your records go to a different distribution center, but if you don’t have a licensee to come pick them and put them in the stores, you’re not going to move any product.  So, we’ve got to work on that.  We have one European licensee in Germany, which does great in Germany, but when you try to go to England, it’s hard to get any press because the British hate the Germans.  So, you’ve got to have an English licensee and English publicist and all that.  It’s the same for France and Italy.  So, we’re trying to put it all together.

CMP:  How did the duet with Jon Dee Graham come about?

JM:  Well, we do a regular gig together.  When we’re home, we both play Wednesday nights at the Continental Club in Austin.  And the guy that put the whole tour together is a big Jon Dee fan.  Also, Jon Dee is with Blue Rose Records, which is the German licensee, and they put that whole thing together.  They wanted Jon Dee, and a lot of the promoters did, too.  So, it worked out; we rode the same van, same tour manager – whole thing.

CMP:  So Wednesday nights at the Continental Club ya’ll normally play together?

JM:  He plays at 10:30, and we play at midnight.

CMP:  I caught your show in Little Rock with Drive-by Truckers last fall.  During the show, I noticed when someone requested a song, your comment was, “Some of you know what you want to hear, but you don’t know what you’re going to hear.”

JM:  Yeah, none of you know what you’re going to hear.

CMP:  So, is the set list pretty set?

JM:  Yeah, it’s pretty set, and you can’t just deviate from it on a dime.  Sometimes somebody will call out something that will work.  I stole the concept from David Bromberg.  His line is, “You guys know what you want to hear, but none of you know how to lay out a set.  Do you?”  Then he says, “The only power we have in this world is when we’re on stage.  If you think we’re going to give up a little bit of it, you’re dreaming.”

CMP:  Well, I know in other interviews you’ve talked about, at times, being uncomfortable playing to a crowd, but obviously, you’re live show’s very important to you.

JM:  Yeah, I’m getting better at it.

CMP:  So, you’re getting more comfortable?

JM:  Yeah.  Well, you know, after twenty years as a recording artist.

CMP:  Yeah.  Obviously live music does seem to mean a lot to you specifically.  What does it mean to you?

JM:  Right now, it’s the only way to keep a music career going.  You pretty much have to tour.  Record sales are not what they used to be.  If you don’t have your songs in a big movie, then you better be able to tour.

CMP:  Speaking of the industry, you’ve been on a major label as well as a few independents, and there’s been a lot of upheaval in the industry with the rise of mp3, along with plenty of other things.  Any thoughts on where the industry is going?

JM:  Nobody really knows.  The thought in the back of my mind is that the labels will eventually get control of it again.  They pretty much always do.

CMP:  Obviously, cd sales are down across the board.  Vinyl, at least, has seen a bit of resurgence.  How do you feel the shift to mp3 has affected everything?

JM:  I don’t really know.  I don’t think we get as good of royalty rates through iTunes as we did off our products.  So that’s kind of a drag, but they pretty much own everything now.

CMP:  I noticed that you had some extra tracks at emusic with the “Just Us Kids” release.  How do you feel about emusic?

JM:  I really haven’t had much to do with that.  It sounds like a good idea – any way to get your music out; there is a benefit to it.

CMP:  How about radio – Internet radio, XM?

JM:  That’s helped a lot.  It helped even more before the merger because Jessie Scott, at XM, had that show, X Country.  We got a lot of play from her.  She got fired after they merged with Sirius.  But Mojo still plays us and the Loft still plays us.  So, we’re doing all right.

CMP:  I’ve found it interesting that the artists I’ve heard you talk about – like Little Feat and Sonny Landreth, among others – are people that tend be thought of more as musicians rather than songwriters.  Is it fair to say that you gravitate towards that in terms of what you listen to?

JM:  Yeah, definitely.  The sound is the draw.  You listen with your ears mostly.  A lot of them are good songwriters, too – C.C. Adcock, for one.  That record he did, “Lafayette Marquis” was a great record, very well written songs.  I think my favorite record right now is Danny Barnes’ “Pizza Box,” which he just put out.  He’s on ATO, Dave Matthews’ label.  The songs are good and the sound’s good – just the whole package.

CMP:  With the last few records, you’ve been more openly political in your writing.  One writer had said you had the “Bush-Cheney Blues.”  I’m curious how you feel about the current political landscape.

JM:  I can’t get my head around it.  It’s really strange.  The “upset” in Massachusetts didn’t surprise me all that much.  I remember the footage of the busing riots in Boston in the 70s.  That state isn’t as blue to me as everybody seems to think it is.  The Democrats really should have been watching.  I suspect they let it go because they really didn’t want to vote on healthcare because they’re in the same pockets as the Republicans.  They’re all beholden to the healthcare industry.  It’s a real drag.  I’d like to get some healthcare.

CMP:  Any comments on your governor (Rick Perry – Texas)?

JM:  Well, I never much cared for Perry.  I don’t know where he came from.  Basically, he got in because they had a really progressive, left-leaning agriculture commissioner by the name of Jim Hightower, who’s now a radio personality.  And the companies that make pesticides and fertilizer really didn’t like him.  Farm Bureau, consequently, didn’t like him either.  They did an all-out campaign to get rid of him and they installed Rick Perry as ag commissioner.  I had never heard of him before.  He’s got great hair you know, but I don’t like him.  Among other things, he pushes all this gay bashing legislation.

CMP:  So, there’s plenty of fodder for new songs, I suppose.

JM:  Oh yeah.  I’m not real happy with Obama right now.  He’s just not enough of a fighter.  He thinks he can get people to agree on stuff, and it’s just not going to happen.  If he doesn’t learn a few LBJ tricks, he’s not going to get anything done.

CMP:  I know you mentioned one new record already.  Are there any specific artists you’re really enjoying right now?

JM:  I ran across a guy named John Fullbright from Oklahoma.  I went down to the Continental Gallery last week, and Jon Dee was doing his thing in the Gallery, which is upstairs – kind of a wine bar at the Continental Club.  He does this thing every Sunday called “Jon Dee and Friends” and his friend that week was this kid from Oklahoma, who’s about 22.  I only heard the last half of the last song.  I could hear him from across the street, and I thought, “Man, that sounds like money to me.”  A lot like Steve Earle – he’s got that same quality to his voice, only he enunciates better, writes really well.  He can go places if he wants to.  I don’t think he’s made up his mind yet.  He likes living out in the woods, and he’s not sure he wants to get into the fray.  I hope he does.

CMP:  Well, thanks for taking the time.  I actually have family in Austin, so I’ll have to catch you sometime at the Continental Club.

JM:  Cool.  Come on down.

Decades ago, idealistic youths dreamed of running off to the circus, becoming nomads taming lions and walking on wires. Today, alt-country grassroots heroes Drive-By Truckers are living the dream of the modern-day circus as part of a touring rock ‘n’ roll band. More than a decade after their formation the band is in their prime, balancing families, a new album (The Big To-Do, out March 16) and a summer tour with Tom Petty. Country Music Pride caught up with songwriter Patterson Hood on a brief break at his Athens home to talk about balancing music with a family, the economy and Man On Wire.

Country Music Pride: Where are you now, Patterson?

Patterson Hood: I’m in Athens, Georgia for a few days. We’re doing weekends now so I got home yesterday and I leave Thursday night.

CMP: What are you doin’ there?

PH: Interviews. (laughs) Pretty much this all the time. I got home last night so I haven’t even unpacked yet. I have to unpack and do laundry.

CMP: Let’s talk about the new album, The Big To-Do. You said it started as recording 25 songs in 25 days. Can you talk a little bit about that process?

PH: It was pretty relaxed and pretty easy. We scheduled 10 days last January and 5 days in March and 10 days in May and just kind of a Monday through Friday schedule at the studio. We went in and knocked it out. It wasn’t particularly hard at any point. Everybody had the songs and a lot of ideas going into it. Everyone was fairly well rested and excited to be there and record. We had a lot of songs and pretty early on we decided not to do Brighter Than Creation’s Dark and we wanted to do a more concise record, a rockin’ record. So we started dividing the songs pretty early on. We essentially made two albums last year and the second will be released later. We’re about 90% finished with it. It seemed like a really good way for us to work and for what we do to do it that way.

CMP: Why did that system work best for you?

PH: We’ve got three different songwriters and three singers and just trying to streamline anything that’s that big is kind of hard unless you have a place for the other stuff to go. They were all really strong songs, the strongest bunch of songs we’ve had yet. So having this other project to work on, we’re all pretty artistically schizophrenic. We’ve been two different parallel bands at the same time and we kind of veer back and forth from one to the other. In the case of Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, it all ended up on one record. We didn’t want to do it that way this time. We wanted to have one or the other instead of all at once. It worked well for us. There was never any kind of drama or conflict or bullshit. Everybody was having a good time and working well together.

CMP: You brought Wes Freed back to do the album art. Where did this circus motif for the art and merchandise come from?

PH: I think mostly Wes. I think it was mostly his idea but it’s something that, there’s a really amazing (thing) between us and Wes and there’s a long history of us fitting in the songs we’re working on, there’s all these things he’s heard or seen in the songs we didn’t realize was there, but it was there. It kind of cross-inspired back and forth, he made us aware of that aspect we kind of ran with it. I’d already written “The Flying Wallendas.” The ‘Big To-Do,’ it’s a Southern saying, this whole idea of, ‘Oh, I’m going to the big to-do.’ The circus aspect of that hadn’t really occurred to us until Wes saw it. We had the song and one thing kind of led to another. We didn’t want to get too literal in it because it’s not a record about the circus. It’s a record about what happens. In the old days, in our grandparents’ generation, kids would go to the circus and then dream of running off and joining the circus. But by time we came of age, the rock show was the circus. That’s what I dreamed of growing up to get to do. This record deals with the realities of you’ve got kids and a family but you’re living on the road, trying to balance all that, be good at your job and still be a good daddy and husband too. It’s a tough thing. So if there’s a recurring theme in the record, that’s it. And I thought Wes did an incredible job capturing that.

CMP: So how has having a family impacted your songwriting?

PH: I think it’s made me a better writer, but it’s also made it harder. It’s harder because when I get home from touring I need to be home and be with my family and with my kids. But writing on the road’s really hard, but I’ve gotta write something out because that’s what Daddy does for a living. It’s a tough balancing act. But the writing, the kids and what they’ve brought into it. It’s hard to be too cynical when you’ve got a 4-year-old sitting to your left. There’s enough cynicism without writing overly cynical songs. I can be negative sometimes, and certainly some of the subject matter I write about is pretty dark and all of that, but having kids brings a light to it.

CMP: You said you wrote the first single, “This Fucking Job,” right before the economy collapsed in 2008. Has the way events in this country have transpired since affect how you feel about the song?

PH: Sure. It’s funny but it’s not funny. We’ve spent a lot of time on the road and going from town to town and when the economy collapsed like it did, it wasn’t surprising to any of us, or probably to anybody who spends time traveling and meeting people. It might have been surprising to the politicians in D.C. or the stockbrokers on Wall Street, but to the people who were going from town to town, you could see it coming pretty easily. If you outsource an entire sector of our economy’s jobs to other places, all those people out of work who got paid two wages and now they’re working at Wal-Mart or something like that, it creates a vacuum. Something’s gotta fall into that vacuum. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. So the song was kind of about that. And before it happened. And watching it happen was unfortunately not surprising.

CMP: Do you have any recession-beating tips for our readers?

PH: No, I don’t. We’re trying to answer it ourselves. We’re lucky in that our business is surviving okay. We’re doing okay. The music industry has been hit real hard. We were never really part of the lot of the music industry, per se. What we did was outside of all that. We built our thing pretty grassroots playing live, so when the big machine crashed, the major label music industry machine crashed, if anything, it was good for our business because we didn’t have to compete against the machine.

CMP: So do you think that grassroots movement is where music is still headed?

PH: I think it’s definitely where it’s heading and where it is. And it’s probably a better place. Artistically, I think it’s better. The industry has decided that dealing with artists and their crazy temperament, they’d be better off putting some pretty face and write them a bunch of songs and put them front of a camera than dealing with a Kurt Cobain that has a personal and artistic agenda to deal with, and because of that we’ve got a lot of mindless music being thrown out there into the American consciousness. So it’s not surprising people didn’t build any loyalty to that. They didn’t mind downloading for free because it didn’t seem like it was real people being affected by it. We’re kind of slugging it out, building our fan base one person at a time or 100 people at a time as opposed to a video that got us a million hits.

CMP: It’s funny that you mention this whole idea of the music industry putting a pretty face on things –– I was watching the Grammys and there was this tribute to Michael Jackson and two of the five performers were American Idol alumni.

PH: I guess there is American Idol, but I don’t watch it and I don’t pay attention to it. To me it has no basis on the real world. It kind of doesn’t exist for me. What’s the guy that plays the cynical bad cop on there—

CMP: Simon Cowell?

PH: He does not exist. He wouldn’t like my band anyway, so fuck him. He badmouthed Ringo. What kind of idiot badmouths Ringo?

CMP: He badmouthed Ringo Starr?! When was this?

PH: He badmouthed Ringo Starr. For starters, he was a fucking Beatle. Probably the most underrated Beatles. And the fact that Simon can’t see that, that’s one of the only things I know about him. Fuck that guy. He’s probably in our drummer’s top two or three favorite drummers.

CMP: Reading your notes on the songs, it sounds like a lot of them connect to movie scenes. You reference Madeline Kahn in Paper Moon, Night of the Hunter and the great documentary Man On Wire as influencing various songs on the album. How does film connect to your songwriting?

PH: I am a huge, huge movie nerd. My two great loves other than my family is music and movies. And there’s not a big difference to me. I react to both in a pretty similar way. And likewise, I’ve always thought of our records as little movies that didn’t have the movies attached than as records because they tend to have a certain narrative and a certain structure. So it actually comes pretty natural. [Our album] Southern Rock Opera is an outline for a screenplay me and another guy were gonna write and I got busy with this band and the other guy ended up joining the band and we ended up writing a record instead of a movie. I had a band. I didn’t have a movie deal. I know how to make a record and I didn’t have the money or the means to make a movie. So that’s always been a recurring theme in our work. Brighter Than Creation’s Dark had all the John Ford references and Monument Valley so that’s always kind of come naturally for us. I was very moved by Man On Wire and so for reasons that are obvious now. I would certainly never walk on a fucking tightrope because I’m afraid of heights, but I totally understand the obsession and that habit. So that drew me to “The Flying Wallendas” story because it wasn’t just one crazy guy but he raised his kids up on that fucking wire. And I can relate to that and that certainly inspired that song. And the thing at the end of the song was true.

CMP: Let’s talk a bit about your history. You’re an Athens, Georgia band, which means you’re part of this great music city heritage with R.E.M., the B-52’s, Neutral Milk Hotel, the late, great Vic Chestnut. How has the music scene in Athens changed since you got your start?

PH: So far, it’s continued. It has continued doing what it does and I’m grateful for that. To me, it’s not getting any easier, but there continues to be really cool and interesting bands and I hope that will continue to continue. When I moved to town, I moved after the original heydays. I missed the B-52s/R.E.M. era. But I lived back home in Alabama I got a job working sound at a couple different clubs and there were hundreds of bands and some really, really good ones but just not as they were no less great. In the last few years I haven’t been able to keep up as much as I’d like to. I still do, but I used to go out 4-5 nights a week, now I go out one night every two weeks. We’ve had a hard year here. This town has gotten hit really hard because of the economy. Rent has gotten a lot higher. We lost the Georgia Theatre, one of our landmark clubs. And of course, Randy Bewley passed away last year and that was a huge tragic lost. And now we’ve lost Chestnutt, which is just devastating. There’s no one like that. No other artist on earth like that, and it’s just an unspeakable tragedy for everybody. But I’m sure we’ll continue on as a town. There’s still young kids forming their first bands who will be out kickin’ our ass. So it continues, fortunately.

CMP: Are there any up-and-coming Athens bands our readers should know about?

PH: Oh, certainly. It does continue. There’s The Whigs and there’s a band called Bambara and a band called Pride Parade, we actually took them out recently to play a show with us, a really good punk-rock influenced band. Bo Bedingfield is a great songwriter. Bloodkin’s an old band, they’re as old of a band as we are but their last record is the best record they’ve ever done. There continues to be cool stuff. Mr. Ed, who is Vic’s niece, made a couple of wonderful records.

CMP: I know you probably get asked this a lot, but what was it like working with Booker T.?

PH: A dream come true, only better. He taught us a lot. We didn’t have a lot of time to put into that but we did our part of that record in four days. We worked hard in those four days. Things didn’t really sink in until six, eight months later. There were lessons we learned making his record that really paid off in the Big To-Do. There were some musical things. We’ve always been a band driven by the lyrical content of our songs and we’d always mark changes on what was going on in the lyrics so taking that away forced us to think about it in a very different way. I think it made us a better band.

CMP: Any big Spring Break plans?

PH: I don’t even know when that is. We’re touring all the time. We’re doing weekends until April 1. We’re playing constantly. So that’s going to be our Spring Break, going out workin’.

CMP: You’re going on tour with Tom Petty this summer. What are your expectations for that?

PH: I’m looking at it, obviously it’s an incredible opportunity for us as a band, but we’re excited about it as music fans. Everyone in our band is in total agreement about it. We all listen to all kinds of music and we certainly have a lot of common ground in our taste but it all goes in different directions. Tom Petty is one of the artists that everyone in our band not only agrees about it but really loves. It’s a class act on every level. He’s been making great records for years, continues to play great shows. I’m hoping I’ll learn a little bit from it too. But watching them multiple nights perform those kinds of rooms, there’s a lot to gain from that aspect alone. That’s a new place for us to been. We’ve played big festivals outdoors and opened for some arena bands before, but never on that kind of level for that length of time. I’m hoping to learn something.

www.drivebytruckers.com/

Honors Gala raised over $400,000 last year

Business and music industry leaders and celebrities will gather to celebrate the T.J. Martell Foundation Honors Gala on Monday, March 22.

In Nashville, the Foundation annually supports cancer research through the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, in honor of Frances Preston, national President of the T.J. Martell Foundation and former President and CEO of BMI.  Last year¹s Gala raised event raised over $400,000 to benefit cancer, leukemia and AIDS research.

Along with supporting this very worthwhile cause, the Gala will recognize Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, the Honorable William H. Frist, M.D., country music’s Brooks and Dunn, Michael Bolton and Susan Simons for their humanitarian efforts.

The Honors Gala, which will be held at the Hutton Hotel, is an invitation-only black tie event beginning at 6 p.m. with a cocktail reception and an impressive silent and live auction.  The festivities will continue at 7:30 p.m. when dinner is served and the ceremony gets underway.

Entertainment will include the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, Dave Mason and others yet to be announced.  The Honors Gala is also known for its marquee presenters, which this year features Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, Ross Perot, Jr., Pete Coors and Frances Williams Preston.

Even though this is our second year putting on the Honors Gala for the Martell Foundation, it is arguably one of the biggest nights in Nashville,” said Laura Heatherly, executive director of the Nashville branch of the T.J. Martell Foundation.  ”We are extremely grateful host such a wonderful event and honor five outstanding individuals, all in the name of benefiting the research at the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.”

Governor Bredesen will receive this year¹s Lifetime Humanitarian Award. Bredesen has been gracious with his support of numerous causes, including Nashville¹s Table, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Cover Tennessee, the Heritage Conservation Trust Fund, the Land Trust for Tennessee and the Governor¹s Books from Birth Foundation.

The Lifetime Medical Achievement Award will go to Senator Frist.  Along with establishing the Vanderbilt Multi-Organ Transplant Center, Senator Frist is known for his dedication to medical missions in developing nations by his work with Hope Through Healing Hands, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the ONE campaign, which promotes global health as a currency for peace around the world.

Country superstars Brooks and Dunn will receive the Tony Martell Lifetime Entertainment Achievement Award.  After spending 20 years together, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn announced they will be going separate ways following their 2010 tour, aptly named The Last Rodeo.  Thanks to 23 chart-topping singles during their iconic career, the two are leaving on top as the best-selling duo in country music history.

The inaugural Frances Williams Preston Lifetime Music Industry Award, which recognizes lifetime commitment of outstanding endeavors as a musician, will go to Bolton.  Besides playing to sold out arenas worldwide, Bolton has sold over 53 millions albums and won two Grammys for Best Male Vocalist and six American Music Awards.

Born and raised in Nashville, Simons will be honored with the Spirit of Nashville Award for her years of charitable service to Middle Tennessee. Simons has associated herself with Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Alive Hospice, the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, the Metropolitan Convention Center Commission, the Community Foundation, the Tennessee State Museum Foundation, United Way, and the International Women’s Forum, to name a few.

Table sponsorships range from $10,000 to $100,000.  Individual tickets are at $1,000 and $500 levels.  Ads honoring the honorees may also be purchased in the commemorative journal.   For more information on the Honors Gala log onto www.HonorsGala.org.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (February 22, 2010) The guest line-up for Jay Leno’s first show back as “The Tonight Show” was just released and Brad Paisley will be the musical guest – along with Jamie Foxx and Olympic Gold medal Skier Lindsey Vonn.

“The Tonight Show” airs weeknights at 11:35pm ET on NBC.

Ain’t In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm, directed by Jacob Hatley, finds the musician thrust into the spotlight after a Grammy nomination and increasing popularity, but he is also now forced to confront the dark times after The Band’s demise. He’s haunted by throat cancer, bankruptcy, drug addiction and the tragic loss of band mates Richard Manuel and Rick Danko.

The film will make its world premier at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin, TX, from March 12 – 21. A schedule of show times will be announced at a later date.

American musical icon Levon Helm recently won his second consecutive Grammy Award in the category of “Best American Album” for Electric Dirt, his second release on Vanguard/Dirt Farmer Music. Win or lose, he is an artist who will not go quietly into the night.

On one of the few sunny Saturday’s since New Year’s Day, I decided to take a Road Trip to Lake Jackson, TX. Not really a tourist hot spot, however this weekend one of country music’s top hit makers was performing at The Clarion at Brazosport College. Collin Raye has a track record of five certified platinum albums, 24 top ten hits, and 15 number one hits. Saturday night’s performance was billed as an acoustic performance with two acoustic guitars (Collin being one) and piano accompaniment. Raye is known for his rocking, upbeat and energetic performances, so an acoustic performance seems a little “out of character”. So it would seem.

The Clarion is a 600 seat concert hall built to accommodate acoustical performances. The “acoustics” proved to be quite impressive on Saturday evening. Raye emerged on a darkened stage to begin the evening with one of his top ten singles from 1999 “Anyone Else”. He continued on with well known hits that included “Little Rock”, “I Can Still Feel You”, and “Little Red Rodeo”.

Raye is very personable and quickly established a rapport with his audience. He mentioned that he likes performing in the smaller venues because it is more intimate and he can make eye contact with almost everyone in the audience. Raye stressed that the large stadium shows are exciting due to the sheer number in the crowds, but the smaller venues made him feel like he was performing with friends in their living rooms. Throughout the evening he made everyone feel right at home.

Raye’s voice continues to be as strong and as powerful today as when he first emerged on the country music scene in 1991. With the release of his latest CD “Never Going Back”, Raye continues to produce quality and versatility in his music. With only his guitar and piano accompaniment, Raye performed two selections from the CD, “The Only Jesus” and the latest single release “She’s With Me”. “She’s With Me” is a touching tribute to his granddaughter who has a regressive neurological condition that could have only been written by a loving grandfather.

Mid-way through the evening, Raye changed the tempo and the direction of the show. Raye throughout his career has played cover songs from other artists that he has admired or desired to pay tribute to. Tonight was no different but with a daring selection of classics that expanded several decades and genres of music. A daunting challenge for any artist with a full band but certainly would be considered an amazing achievement for an acoustic set.

Raye began with the timeless Simon and Garfunkel classic “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. He introduced the song by stating that “it was one of those you are afraid to do because you don’t want to mess it up”. No worries. Raye did a beautiful rendition of this classic and was rewarded with applauses and cheers from the crowd. He followed with Kris Kistofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down”.

Raye next faced the challenge of “Rockin’ It Up” with “Do It Again” by Steely Dan with two acoustic guitars and one grand piano. Rockin’ It Up they did with the amazing guitar accompaniment of Chris Raspante and outstanding piano accompaniment of Melanie Shore. The electronic embellishment and the beat of a drum were never missed. The crowd was engaged and amazed and erupted with applauses of appreciation several times throughout the song.

Raye ended the set of timeless classics with a rendition of Hank Williams Sr’s “Ramblin’ Man” and Elton John’s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”.

Raye then returned to the hits that gave him his multi-platinum status. He rocked out again with “That’s My Story” which he explained that he continues to perform “true” to the style of the original recording and sings it in the original key even though he is “not as young as he use to be”. Raye explained to the audience that Conway Twitty gave him sage advice at one time to never change the key of your songs because your audience will appreciate you more. Good advice.

Raye concluded the evening with his first Number One hit “Love, Me” which the audience sang along to throughout. He returned for an encore with “In This Life”.

An acoustic performance for Collin Raye was definitely NOT out of character. The audience enjoyed an evening of true (not enhanced) music performed by three exceptionally talented artists. The artists were rewarded with a standing ovation, applause and cheers.

For contact and tour information, www.collinraye.com.

Hey Josh Turner fans – did you catch him on The Dave Letterman show? If you didn’t, you can see it here. If you did, come on over and comment on the clip!