Fan Fair Nick Krewen GRAMMY.COM Farewell Fan Fair. When it wound down June 8 with a rare reunion of The Judds, the door closed on a 32-year tradition. Upon its return in 2004, the annual Nashville country music festival – which encourages fans to mingle with its stars – will be sporting a different name: the CMA (Country Music Association) Music Festival. More troubling to hardcore country music fans,…
Nick Krewen For the KW Record November 4, 1999 Stacey Earle is making up for lost time. The younger sister of country renegade Steve waited until she was 38 to release this year’s Simple Gearle album, a stunning collection of roots-driven folk, blues and alternative country. “I always tinkered around with music and played it, by ear, around the house when we were younger,” Earle said from her Nashville…
Max Hutchinson one of 300 pros still in there pitching tunes to artists By Nick Krewen Special To The Star Wednesday, April 21, 1999 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Max Hutchinson may not be Roger Clemens, but he knows how to pitch. As one of Nashville’s 300 song pluggers, the middlemen who lob songs to recording artists for prospective album and single cuts, the Vancouver-born Canadian is starter, reliever…
Nashville In A Tizzy Over Sluggish Album Sales And Radio Airplay By Nick Krewen Special To The Star Saturday, April 17, 1999 NASHVILLE: Music Row is in turmoil. As the heart of the country music business, this eight-block community of record companies, radio stations, music publishers, recording studios and management offices, located in central Nashville, Tennessee, is on the verge of panic. After enjoying a decade of unprecedented…
PUBLISHED IN COUNTRY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 13, 1998 By Nick Krewen Seventy-five years after his death, the legend of Hank Williams still looms larger than life. The Alabama native was not only country music’s most influential star, but its most colorful, packing a lot of living, loving, laughter and anguish in his brief 29 year lifespan. Although Hank Williams left behind an ageless country music catalogue logjammed with immortal…
