Nashville music industry shifting away from Music Row.

By Jaquetta White, The (Nashville) Tennessean

Cost, connectivity and communication are driving some to depart one of music's most prestigious neighborhoods. (Photo: John Partipilo/The Tennessean)

NASHVILLE -- The house at the corner of 16th Avenue South and Tremont Street has served Mary Hilliard Harrington well for six years. From that post in the Music Row neighborhood, she has watched as her company, The Green Room PR, a music industry-focused public relations firm, has tripled in size and come to count Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley as clients.

But the little house has become restrictive as The Green Room has grown. So Harrington is trading in the quaint office space next month for a contrasting view of exposed brick, high ceilings and an open floor plan.

The move means giving up the firm's address in a neighborhood long favored by the music industry for a mailbox in the emerging SoBro neighborhood. Fifteen years ago, such a decision would have seemed to fly in the face of logic. Today, though, Harrington is on trend.

"I'm not concerned about moving off the Row at all," Harrington said. "I think a lot of the music business is spreading out."

From SoBro to Berry Hill and suburban Franklin, the physical presence of the Nashville music industry is shifting.

And while it is hardly time to write an obituary for Music Row — it still is at the heart of the music business -- the place no longer holds the cachet it once did as the aspirational neighborhood of music-related businesses in Nashville.

Back Row story

Music Row was birthed in the 1950s. The stretch's origin is traced to the opening of the Quonset Hut, a recording studio created by country music station WSM's band leader and music director Owen Bradley in 1958. Other studios soon followed, as did music publishers and record labels. A clustering of sorts began to take shape. In just a few years, and helped along by the success of such artists as Bob Dylan and Elvis who recorded there, the Music Row studios made Nashville a recording mecca.

Still, for a place that has served as home base for many of the leading decision makers in the music world, the landscape is unassuming. With the exception of a few companies such as BMI, which occupies a massive building on Music Square East, studios and management and public relations firms on the Row often are located in houses. If not for the signs out front, they easily could be mistaken for residences.

"A lot of folks view Music Row as somewhat of a campus environment," said Lisa Harless, senior vice president of the entertainment and sports division at Regions Bank. "For folks on the Row, it's not uncommon to walk from a board meeting at ASCAP to Regions to do your banking to a meeting with a business manager."

The reasons for the decentralization of that campus are as varied as the businesses themselves, which included major labels such as Universal Music Group, which left Music Square East for downtown five years ago to cut costs and improve communication among its employees, who had been split between two buildings on Music Row.

For Harrington at The Green Room, moving was functional.

"I wanted the kind of environment where we could all see each other and bounce ideas off of each other," she said. "I really wanted a more creative-feeling environment for (employees) and my clients and anyone coming in for meetings. What we do here is creative, and I really wanted our space to reflect that."

Cliff O'Sullivan, general manager and senior vice president of Sugar Hill Records, said cyber connectivity makes being in close physical proximity to other music businesses less of a necessity.

"We're all on email 20 hours a day anyway," said O'Sullivan, who considered moving Sugar Hill to Music Row but has chosen to go to suburban Franklin instead. "We're a community in a much different way."

Changing neighborhood

For lease signs can be seen all over Music Row in Nashville, Tenn. This one is in the Great American Country building on March 4, which houses many businesses. Over the last decade, many of the big labels have downsized, leading to a shift in the neighborhood's traditional look and feel. As music-related firms move out, other businesses move in and change the neighborhood along with it.(Photo: John Partipilo, The Tennessean)

While it's a relatively new occurrence that established music businesses are choosing to leave or not to locate on Music Row, the ebb and flow of music-related businesses in the neighborhood has been steady.

Real estate broker Ira Blonder said Music Row has been a "volatile environment" for two decades. The whims of the music industry — with businesses such as independent record labels created, bought, merged and closed with regularity — contribute to the area's changing dynamic.

"The volatility is representative of the volatility of the industry," Blonder said. "It's consistent with what's happened in the last 20 years."

Ten years ago, Bart Herbison counted more than 100 for-sale signs on Music Row. The executive director of Nashville Songwriters Association International tied the disruption to illegal music downloading early in the last decade that put many companies out of business and sent others searching for cheaper real estate as profits dwindled. It was a turning point for the neighborhood, he said.

"The big difference on Music Row (now) is that there are dentists' offices, condominiums, lawyers' offices — nothing related to the music industry," said Herbison, whose office is on Roy Acuff Place in the Music Row area. "Virtually every building on these streets was related to the music business, and that's not the case anymore."

The decentralization of Music Row has attracted the attention of Nashville city government, which is studying the neighborhood to discover if there is a "workable business model" that can recapture the music industry concentration on the stretch.

"My understanding is that one of the things that helped distinguish Nashville was the fact that the music industry was relatively concentrated in the Music Row area. You had everything there and there was a certain synergism," Metro Planning Director Rick Bernhardt said. "As Music Row evolved, I think we lost some of that synergy."

New age Music Row

Other areas, meanwhile, have emerged as music business hubs. One is Berry Hill, which is anchored by John and Martina McBride's Blackbird Studio.

Gary Belz, who owned Oceanway Studios on Music Row in the early and mid-'90s and now owns House of Blues Studios in Berry Hill, likens the cluster of businesses to a new-age Music Row.

"There are so many publishing houses and studios," Belz said. "It's a nice neighborhood to walk. There are restaurants, so you can run into musicians, producers."

But as Belz plants himself in Berry Hill, others like Jed Hilly are moving from that area and even farther from Music Row. After eight years in Berry Hill, the executive director of the nonprofit Americana Music Association is setting up shop in larger quarters in Franklin.

"We are moving to Franklin for the same reason we moved from Music Row to Berry Hill," Hilly said. "Music Row is a great location, but for what I'm paying in Franklin, I couldn't get that on Music Row."

O'Sullivan's Sugar Hill will join the Americana Music Association in Franklin.

"I certainly explored the idea of going on Music Row, but it occurred to me that people don't really care where your office is. Not everybody is on Music Row anymore," O'Sullivan said. "There might be people that will say it's not a good idea to be there, but to me, Franklin is Nashville. It's just another ZIP code."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/03/18/nashville-music-row/1997923/

McALISTER KEMP HAVE A WINNING WEEKEND

Picking up Australian Video of the year and winning over the huge crowd at CMC Rocks the Hunter.

It's only March and McAlister Kemp have already had a spectacular year. This weekend saw the guys collect the award for CMC Australian Video of the Year at the Awards on Friday night and Saturday they owned the main stage at CMC Rocks the Hunter. After picking up the time slot when Billy Ray Cyrus feel ill and was unable to make it, the duo proved that Australia has home grown talent who can well and truly hold their own against international acts.

The boys even showed some good old Aussie hospitality getting Stephen Barker Liles from Love and Theft up on stage during their set. Love and Theft were scheduled to perform at CMC but when the wife of Stephen's band mate Eric Gunderson went into labour 10 weeks early. Eric raced home to be with her and Stephen was here with his boots on, guitar at the ready and eager to get in front of an the Australian crowd. McAlister Kemp were more than happy to oblige. The trio cranked out Brooks & Dunn's "Play Something Country". Eric and Wife Emily had a gorgeous baby boy who they named Camden. Good news all around.

McAlister Kemps brand of high energy country rock seems to have found its place, with growing interest both at home and overseas. These two seasoned musicians love nothing more than being in front of a live crowd and can't wait to get out on tour. They have opened for US country superstar Alan Jackson, performed at the CMA Music Festival, Global Artist Party in Nashville and have quickly become a regular headline act at major festivals across Australia.

Their towering presence and set list full of anthemic country rock songs like Hell Yeah, Cold Beer Hot Women, and Till the Wheels fall off and Country Proud, makes their show a night not to be missed. You can catch McAlister Kemp at Rooty Hill this Saturday on the last date of their Country Proud Tour. Check out the website for more details. www.mcalisterkemp.com

This is your last chance to see the boys before they head to Nashville to start on Album # 3.

Saturday 23^rd March 2013

Rooty Hill RSL

Tickets available from the venue www.rootyhillrsl.com.au or (02) 9625 5500

Australian country music legends Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey have joined forces in what is sure to be one of the most exciting country music ventures of the year! Their album The Great Country Songbook – a collection of timeless country music classics, some sung individually and others as duets – will be released on the 14th June. They will then hit the road on a national tour, taking the Great Country Songbook tour across Australia.

Tour Dates :

Aug 1 – Country Club Resort – Launceston – tickets 1300 795 257

Aug 2 – Wrest Point Casino – Hobart – tickets 1300 795 257

Aug 3 – Town Hall – Burnie – 03 6430 5850

Aug 15 – Montreal Community Theatre – Tumut – tickets 02 6947 9100

Aug 16 – Entertainment Centre - Shoalhaven – tickets 1300 788 503

Aug 17 - Rooty Hill RSL – Rooty Hill – tickets 02 9325 5500

Aug 29 – Hexham Bowling Club – Hexham – 02 4964 8079

Aug 30 – Mingara Recreation Club – Mingara – tickets 02 4349 7799

Nov 7 - Kedron Wavell Services Club – Chermside – 1300 692 582

Nov 8 – Empire Theatre – Toowoomba – 1300 655 299

Nov 9 - Twin Towns Services Club – Tweed Heads – tickets 1800 014 014

Nov 14 – Lighthouse Theatre - Warrnambool - tickets 03 5559 4999

Nov 15 - Crown Casino – Melbourne – tickets 1300 795 012

Nov 16 - Crown Casino – Melbourne – tickets 1300 795 012

For more details, see www.troycassardaley.com.au or www.adamharvey.com.au

[HR][/HR]

Sand and Stone, the stunning 11-track fourth album from Far North Queensland folk/alt-country duo The McMenamins, amply confirms what the music world has long suspected – in their own quiet way, siblings Fleur and Simon McMenamin are monster talents. With a recent invitation to perform at the Byron Bay Bluesfest topping off a period that has seen appearances at major festivals such as the International Folk Alliance in Memphis and Queensland’s BIGSOUND, attention-grabbing tours of North America and rave critical reviews, The McMenamins seem set to cement their place in the global folk market.

The songs on Sand and Stone extend across European and North American roots forms, while still retaining an over-arching harmony. There are echoes of Americana here, of southern states spirituals, of Irish folk and, underpinning it all, a sensibility that grows from a very Australian understanding of time and place.

“I feel that our music has evolved a lot since we released our first, self-titled album in 2005,” says Fleur. “I think we’ve really started to find our own sound. We’ve become clearer in the sort of music we want to make. I think the sound of The McMenamins is settling into its own place now.” It’s a place, Fleur says, informed by a very strong regard for family, ancestry and geography. Fleur and Simon both live in small towns in Far North Queensland, with their respective partners and children. Family life, community and, as Fleur puts it, “the cycle of the harvest”, underpin the music on this album. Sand and Stone is classic folk: rooted firmly in the concrete imagery of real people and real places.

With Sand and Stone the duo has firmly ensured their place in the burgeoning Australian alt-folk pantheon. Critical acclaim for The McMenamins’ 2005 debut was followed by a whirlwind national tour supporting heavyweights Missy Higgins, Ben Lee and Ray LaMontagne which put them in front of crowds of as many as 15,000. Momentum only increased with the release of follow-up, In This Light in 2007, and saw them invited to showcase at the prestigious Canadian Music Week in Toronto, which pushed their music into the North American market, while back home they were tapped to support homegrown alt-folk superstars The Waifs.

The contrast between idyllic rural tropical home lives and international musical commitments became sharply defined in 2010 when third album, Long Time Gone, set tongues wagging and feet tapping in folk and roots circles around the world. The McMenamins’ international exposure continued to grow in scope and influence, with performances in Nashville, Memphis, Portland and Austin Texas. It is a contrast that Sand and Stone will undoubtedly heighten, but, says Fleur, The McMenamins are ready for it.

“There’s possibly a bit more pressure on us these days, but I don’t think we really feel it,” she says. “I think aspirations change as you grow. Music is one thing in my life that has never gone away, but I’ve changed a lot in my attitudes. I’m not just a musician any more: I’m married, I’ve got children – there are other important things in my life. I’ve grown more and more comfortable as a performer over the years. When you’re an independent artist there’s a lot of pressure, just on the business side. It takes a lot of time and energy to do all those associated roles – manager, tour manager, negotiator, and so on. On stage, I don’t feel that pressure. On stage is where I get to let go and enjoy it, and the music is a refuge.”

It’s also damn good. Sand and Stone was recorded at Applewood Lane Studios, an old converted chapel near Brisbane (owned by Multi ARIA Award winning Producer Magoo). The Album was engineered and mixed by Benjamin McCarthy, who Co-produced with Fleur. All songs were written by Fleur and Simon, who were joined by Benjamin McCarthy – again – on piano, electric bass and percussion; and Steve Pope, on drums.

The McMenamins were good from the get-go. Now, however, eight years after their debut, they are very good indeed. They have the skills, the chops, the experience and – perhaps most importantly – the proper perspective. “I think early on in my career I worried about people judging me,” says Fleur. “That people might not like our music. None of that worries me so much anymore. I’m embracing the artistry of it now and I allow myself to take musical liberties. I guess I feel like it’s Ok to make the music as big or as intimate as I want. It’s OK to be brave.”

Sand and Stone is released on Friday 8^th March 2013 through MGM.

For more information, please visit www.themacswebsite.com