April 22, 2023 • 47 mins
Nashville's 'Favorite Person' Cassandra Tormes joins as my guest on The Nashville Hype!™ Podcast to kick off 'season 2' of the show. She's managed Georgetown Studios, RCA's 'Studio A' (arguably the most famous studio in the world), been a successful song publisher and plugger, and worked with Garth Brooks, Ben Folds, and many others in her illustrious career. Staying very much behind the scenes, she's Nashville's 'Secret Weapon' to the music industry.
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From the ot Living Studios in sunnySouth Florida via Nashville, Tennessee. Heard
all over the world on the iHeartRadioNetwork or wherever you get your streaming content.
It's the Nashville Hype with your hostPaul King. The Nashville Hype is
brought to you by Fantasy Song Pitch, a place where songwriters can pitch their
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songs to all their favorite artists onlyat fantasysong pitch dot com. You're listening
to the Nashville Hype with my specialguest, Cassandra Tormez. How long were
you at Georgetown. Oh, let'ssee, five or six years? I
think, wow, five, Yeah, something like that. You weren't always
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in the reception area though, right, or the receptionist. I think eventually
I kind of got to where Iwas the manager throughout the course of things.
But yeah, I think by thetime I left, I was manager
of the studio. But it wasa slow climb, but it was a
great learning experience. And I rememberI would sit down with the in charge
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issue of Music Row magazine and Ijust studied it and I made sure that
I knew who everybody was, andyou know, I just run into people
around town, and I knew whothey were and just tried to educate myself
that way. So are you areyou an outgoing Are you an outgoing person?
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I mean, you've always struck meas very shy in a sense and
quiet. Are you very behind thescenes? But would like if you saw
someone that you had seen in musicrow or something, did you have the
umph to go and actually start aconversation and just say Hi, I'm Cassandra.
I work at Georgetown. I havea little bit of extrovert introvert to
me, so I don't necessarily I'mnot that person that will go up and
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introduce myself, but I will setmyself up in a situation where I will
be able to start a conversation orend up in a conversation for everybody.
And so I remember being at Starbucksone day and I was in line with
Richie McDonald of Lone Star, andI can't remember how I started a conversation
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with him, but it was funnybecause at the time I was working for
Paul Worley, a very successful producerhere in town. He was managing or
not managing, and producing the DixieChicks, and throughout the conversation. Somehow
I mentioned that I was working forPaul, and then the irony was then
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Richie said to me, oh mygosh, you're working for Paul. He
said, I have a song I'dlove to give to the Dixie Chicks.
Can you wait around a second andthen I can go grab a CD and
give you the song? And Isaid sure so, but yeah, so
then I established a rapport with him. So then eventually, you know,
as a person who ended up pitchingsongs, you know, I had to
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rapport with Richie then, I mean, and I don't think I ended up
pitching him a ton of stuff.But in turn, you know, by
being able to get a song intothe you know, Dixie Chicks, you
know camp. Yeah, yeah,so so things just kind of worked out
that way for me. And soin answer to your question, no,
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I'm not that, you know,in your face kind of person, but
I had my subtle ways of kindof orchestrating thing. Yeah, Nashville,
it used to be a very giventake like that. You want to,
yeah, would you take my CDhere? Yes? I will. And
then you turn around and you pitchedthat same person who could be or might
be an artist or an up andcoming artist that you might have seen or
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heard about, and then you endup pitching that person. Remember that,
Remember that time that you gave mea CD and I took it to so
and so. Well, now you'reon the label, and the labels fully
behind you, and here are threesongs that I think would be right for
you. When you left Georgetown,where did you go next? I ended
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up going to work for Paul Worley. Okay, so that was the next
It was Paul. Yeah, Iworked for Paul. I was kind of
doing some independent plugging at the time, and so I kind of went over
there to help his assistant, PageConnors, who was kind of running his
office and doing all of his projectcoordination and that sort of thing. And
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so I was doing a little projectcoordination on the side as well, and
kind of working for Paul and hisoffice and helping Page, and then kind
of doing a little song plugging onthe side. So kind of was just
trying to keep myself as busy asI could do. Yeah, it sounds
like you're a susta busy, youknow, in the in the industry.
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Did you did you leave Georgetown ordid they leave you? I left Georgetown,
Yeah, definitely. So there aresome changes going on and it was
just time. So yeah, andbeing this the studio manager, that's where
and that comes into play a littlelater in your career. Did you find
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at the time did you find thatmore interesting than listening to songs and pitching
songs as a song plugger. Ilove songs, that's my That's my favorite
thing I've ever done is working publishing. My love. My first love is
songs. And working with songwriters andhelping be part of the creative process and
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grooming writers and helping their careers ismy favorite thing. Yeah, Paul Warley,
how long were you with Paul?I think two or three years.
He was Martina McBride and the DixieChicks and then went on to do Lady
A and Lady Yeah. When youleft, Paul, where where did you
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go next? That can be confusingbecause I you know, I did,
I did little stints. I wasbriefly at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
It wasn't very memorable other than thefact that I did get to meet
Dolly Parton when I worked at theCountry Music Hall of Fame. So that's
the only noteworthy thing about being there. So and then I was briefly at
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n SAI, so I you know, I kind of was job hopping for
a while. But so I don'tI can't recall it. What if it's
a little muddy at these times?Did you work at or were you an
independent plugger? I think I wantto recall a conversation we had, and
this conversation is probably a decade anda half old. I mean, like
it goes back aways but three ringcircus? Am I right? Yes?
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Yeah, Jeffrey Steeles, Jeffrey Steele, I couldn't remember his name, Yeah,
Jeffrey. Still we did you workthere or were you doing independent?
Well? I was, I wasdoing independent plugging and then worked with jeffs
for a while, so it waskind of I told him I was doing
independent plugging, but I wanted tohold on to a couple of clients that
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I had, and I was workingwith Casey Bethard, who I adore and
loved his music, and then BigAl Anderson, who Jeff wrote a lot
with and certainly had a lot ofsongs together back then. So I wanted
to keep a hold of them andthen take on Jeff's catalog as well.
So you were pretty successful with thatif I recall, I mean as far
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as I mean, it's hard toget cuts, man, I mean even
with great, great writers like that. I mean, and I have all
my logs of the songs I pitchedthat, you know, I can look
back on a lot of them andsee that eventually they got cut, that
not necessarily I got them cut.My biggest cut was out of Jeff's catalog,
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and it was a song called InternationalHarvester. Yeah, that's one of
my favorite songs. Yeah, andit's it was it's such a fun song
and till Billy O'donald cut it.And it was funny how it happened,
because you know, I went inand pitched it to Phil and and he
I don't even think he put iton hold. I think and so and
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then I ran into him one dayout on the row and he said,
hey, you want to hear yourcut? And I was like, uh,
yeah, I didn't even realize thatit, you know, like totally
get the process was on hold,and yeah, that nobody else was pitching
it. And I could have probablygotten in big trouble because Steve Marklin,
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who was jeff publisher at the time, could have been out pitching it as
well, and I could have gottenin big trouble with that. But because
Jeff knew I was pitching for him, and I don't know how upfront he
was with Steve, but I waspitching, then that could have been a
disaster. However, that didn't happen, thank god. I went and heard
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it and I heard them when heplayed it for me, and he had
that international horrorstric tractor. Oh mygosh. I was like, oh my
gosh, this is awesome. Andthen I remember the first time I heard
it on the radio and I waslike, oh my gosh, this is
so cool. Yeah, it wasjust really fun. And so yeah,
that was my big cut and thenI you know, I had a couple
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of little things along the way,but that was my big one, and
unfortunately it was I think it madeit to the top ten, and then
Craig left the label I think whenit was still kind of on its climb.
Yeah, it is in my catalognow. I mean like i've it's
actually on my Amazon playlist. Soat least every week I hear that,
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and I really I enjoy it.It's just a fun you know, Jeffrey
Steele's got that that's fun. Chorusand you know it's just great. And
uh, the other guys that wroteit friends of mine, Shane Miner and
Danny Myrick. So Danny has headYeah, big writers after that. Yeah,
and so went on to write She'sCountry and you know, had a
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big run with that. So justfun to help see people's careers, you
know, go and just fun process. Yeah, I just loved it,
jeff And I want to say,and I don't know this for certain,
but as this recording, which I'llleave in here even if I'm wrong,
but jeff and John Rich along withsome other person that I don't know,
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has the number one song right now. Oh yeah, I believe. Yeah,
yeah, I can't into the worldor something. Yeah, I don't
know. They're fighting, they're fightingaliens. So yeah, yeah, it's
I think it's a fringe artist,well to me, alternative kind of rappers
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anyways, Yes, another genre Ibelieve, because Jeffrey isn't really a name,
I mean, Nashville. I'm surehe's still you know, big and
famous and it's still probably making youknow, regular cuts from time to time,
but that one kind of came outof left field for me. But
you know, just to see himon the charts and actually see his name
and I thought, wow, okay, Jeffrey Still, and knowing that you
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and I were going to talk today. It literally just came up just the
other day when I saw it,and I was like, Jeffrey Still,
That's what reminded me of that threering circus thing that he was doing.
I mean, you know, sowhat was what is your favorite song or
do you have a favorite song thatyou pitched that did not ever get cut?
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There is a song that, oh, there's a there's a handful,
but one of them is a songthat a writer I had been working with,
Mike mcquerie and Mark Nessler wrote calledLong with a cow a Long with
the Cowboy. It was funny becauseI had I had a hold with George
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Straight and U I was talking toGarth Brooks because I was so excited I
had gotten a George Straight cut,and I was told Garth I said,
oh my gosh, I'm so excitedI have a song on hold with George
Straight. And he's like, ohmy gosh. He's like, that's the
whole reason I came to town wasand he goes and I can't believe you
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played he played a song for Straightenand he's like, and I haven't even
heard it. And I was like, well, I said, I'd love
for you to hear it, andlike, I'd love to get a Garth
cut. You know, I wouldbe really cool, yea, so he
said, and I said, well, I'd be happy for you to hear
it. And so I was likereally excited because you know, certainly i'd
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be thrilled to have either a Garthcut or George Straight. Yeah, you've
got the You've got the number onecountry yardist, which is George Straight,
and then you got the number oneselling which is the number two country artist,
which is Garth Brooks. And ifyou've got your choice between those two,
you would take either one. Iwould be thrilled with either one of
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those rights. Right. I waslike ecstatic, like, oh my gosh,
Like this is a no situation.Right. So I was like right,
like so excited, And so Iwent ahead and sent the song to
Garth. Then you know, Ihear the trumpets playing the background after I
read the email one back from andhe said, that is a great song
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for George Straight. Oh wow,gosh. I was like, oh man,
Like I was like a dagger tothe heart, but um, you
know, I still anyway, it'sa fantastic song and it would fit either
one of them, honestly. Butyeah, even today, how long how
long? How long ago was this? Oh? Probably ten years ago?
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Yeah, but I still fan bythe song. It's a fantastic song.
It's an up tempo, you know, mid up tempo, and if George
did it, it would be alittle more mid tempo. I think it
did it, you know, havea little different take on it. But
so that's one that definitely comes tomind. And then there's a song that
U a great writer, Dan deMay wrote It all happened in a day,
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and I was so bummed because itcame out. Oh he wrote it
around the time Kenny Chesney Don't Blinkcame out. And I was so disappointed
because I played it for Phil Billybecause you know, at this point,
Phil Billy and I kind of hada little thing going because got my cut
with Phil and uh and he heardit and he loved it, and he
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uh he told me, yeah,he's like, oh he was cutting with
Montgomery Gentry and he said, oh, it's just don't blind And I was
like, ah, man, Iknew it, but it's just like it's
one of those songs that I've I'vetold Dan I got I'm bound and determined
before I die to get that sun. Yeah. Right, Well, but
that's another one that I just think, Oh God, before I die,
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I'm gonna I'm gonna find a placefor that song. But there's they're just
a handful that I just think,Oh my gosh, you know, do
you do you have time to actuallywork and pitch nowadays? Are not necessary?
Well, the thing is is,if I find a place for a
song, I would definitely do it. I'm politically incorrect anyway, But the
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thing is, it's like I justdon't know that in the sea of mediocrity
that is country music these days.And that's a blanket statement I understand.
And yes, there are songs thatcut true. You know, I think
these songs are too good to kindof get cut, you know, which
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is really saddens me to say,but that's generally my opinion. Well,
it's also it's also probably uh andI have not heard those songs, but
you know, I tell I takeyour judgment for him, given your career,
and uh, you know, theyprobably aren't too good. But if
their time comes it will come atthe right time, right, you know.
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And this isn't really my song toclaim by any stretch, but and
I and that miss it not mentioningmy friend who I mentioned earlier, TJ
Seals. His father is Troy Seals, and Troy, this is a song
that Troy wrote called Kentucky Boy,and that is a song that I would
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love to for Chris Stapleton to hear, or Dave Cop or wanted you know
something camp because Troy say, Ihave a copy of Troy singing the demo
and Troy, oh my gosh,is a soulful cat man. He just
I would love for Dave Cop tohear that sometime or Stapleton himself. I'm
trying to get Dave's attention several times. He is managed by Brightman and Andrew
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Brightman, and I go, Igo way back with Andrew in the Nashville
hype, and uh, you know, I've had artists in front of him
and all of that. And I'vetried myself to get ahold of uh Dave's
attention through Andrew and it just hasn'tworked. Yeah, I mean, you
know, obviously he's a talented person, and Chris Stapleton just killed on the
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Super Bowl just a few weeks ago, you know, I mean good greed.
He had the head coach out therecrying on the field. It was
so beautiful. Oh yeah, youwent to Cherry Heart? Is that?
Did you do that? After threering or in between? After? Yeah?
They had I read that they havesix they at the time and I
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don't know whatever happened to them,but they had sixteen hundred songs and uh,
just a fantastic catalog. Was yourwas your time there spent pitching that
catalog or what did you do?Yeah? I was there with Shelby Kennedy
and that's where we had Ray Scott. So that's how I got well that's
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the second time I got to workwith Ray. But um we got to
sign Ray there and Pete Salis andhe's good. You know. Yeah,
we had a good little roster there. But it was multifaceted, so it
wasn't just publishing. We did hada marketing component and a record label and
so there was a lot going onthere. You brought up Ray Scott.
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You're the one that is responsible forgetting Ray Scott on the Nashville Hype episode
a few a few episodes ago becauseI reached out to you and I said,
who would be good for an episodeof the Nashville Hype And you're like
Ray Scott and you were enthusiastic aboutsaying that, and it turns out he
was fantastic, and uh, yeah, he just released his new album a
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couple of weeks ago, Wrong Songs, and he did make a good guess,
so apreciate you setting that up.How long did that relationship at Terry
Hart last with you? I wastherefore, I think three years, two
or three years. Unfortunately that companyimploded, So me not having a longer
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stint there was not my fault.The company was. The ending of that
company was we weren't had the FBIthere, Oh my gosh. So it's
a little interesting. But because wewere our investor was the SOMEI Group,
which had the naming rights to whatis now known as Bridgestone. But so
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anyway, but that's another that's crazy. I think when I met you,
you know, like we reconnected,I should say, not just met,
but reconnected during the Fallen Firefighters.I think that was probably at the time
that you were with Terry Hart.Why possibly, Yeah, because when I
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made my way back to Nashville.It seems like a couple of years later
you were with Friday Records. Yeah, it's Friday Records. That's great.
What happened with Friday Friday was agreat little company. I had the pleasure
of working with Kathy Walker. Anddid you ever know Kathy I did not
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know. Oh she's a complete joy, a dear friend to this day.
She had a wonderful career. Shewas a singer, worked with ched Atkins,
and she's been in town for along long time. And I don't
mean to detract from Kathy, becauseshe is a wonderful, talented person in
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and of herself. But she's alsoMichael McDonald's sister, so she's she's had
a lot of experiences because of theopportunities she's had being part of that phenomenal
family. And so I've gotten tohave a lot of neat experiences because she's
so generous and has included me andsome fun things because of that. So
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and Candace Currency, who is nowworking at Sony. So it was the
three of us working together, andwe had some great writers over there.
We had James House, who yeahhe just I guess, Dwight Yoakum just
celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of This Time, that record that had Ain't That Lonely
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Yet, which James wrote and incrediblesong. Yeah now I'm going to that's
the right song, right, Butyeah, So anyway, he was over
there, and then we had RobCrosby, who's another talented writer over there,
and Marcia Aramirez and so anyway,that was a fun little company and
we were there for I think twoor three years, and then I got
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the opportunity while I was there,I was approached by Jerry Hart. It
was our opportunity for me, Sothat's why I left Friday Records. But
that was it was a really greatexperience to work with Friday. Friday came
before Cherry Heart then yes, ohokay, Friday was It seemed like a
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really good, little, you know, independent, strong company that was you
know, going to go places,and you you left, not on bad
terms, but you were like,Okay, I've got this other opportunity.
And then that opportunity ends up gettingrated by the FBI after after a few
years. But one thing you mentionedwas ched Atkins. That brings up a
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conversation we were having just a littlebit ago about approaching people in Nashville if
you don't know him or anything,and you you were able to find ways
to do it. Let's talk alittle bit about Studio A. Studio A
is a revered place in Nashville,and someone bought it, some developer bought
it and was essentially going to turnit down, to turn it down,
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to hear it down. And whenthey started, that petition started, and
then meetings started, and you gotheavily involved in those meetings, and that's
how your network continued to grow untilthe point where you ran Studio A,
one of the most venerated studios ofall time in the history of Nashville.
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Right. Yeah, Well this kindof goes back to my days at Georgetown
Masters because I worked one of theengineers there, Jonathan Russell. His grandfather
was Chet Atkins. And so althoughI never knew Chet, I mean i'd
see him come in to pick upJonathan and they'd go to lunch together,
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and he'd come up and his prizeto Mercedes and take Jonathan to lunch,
and so I mean, i'd kindof see him in passing, but I
was just, you know, certainlyhave a mad respect for the history of
country music, and so to seeChet come in and take Jonathan. I
just it was endeared by that.So just the history and work working Georgetown
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was across the street from the RCAbuilding. So I sat for five years
and saw the building and you know, it was iconic to me anyway,
I mean Nipper and the you know, the whole thing, right, which
just all of that stuff means somethingto me. And for people who are
listening, Nipper is the RCA dog. It's you don't see. You don't
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see Nipper very often anymore, butNipper Eddie Eddie Raven was on RCA at
a time and he had a Nipperdownstairs in his house, and so I
saw, I saw Nipper a lot. But that's for the listeners that don't
know what a nipper is. Yeahright, yeah, I guess you need
to put that in context. Butyeah, so so it was a big
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deal to me. So and actuallywhen I I worked for Paul Whorley,
he had an office there. Sowhen I was working there, I eventually
went to work for Paul in hispublishing company and that's where he had his
offices. And so Ashley Worley,her office was in Chad Atkins old office.
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So I eventually went to work inthat building. So once again it
had become part of my you know, my music row DNA kind of history
for myself personally, so once againkind of meant something to me. So
the thought of them tearing it downsickened me. So I was just thought,
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this is pathetic, and I thoughtthis cannot happen. And so when
I got involved, I think Iwas in between gigs at the time,
and so I kind of knew someof the people's spearheading things at McMakin,
who I had known for years becausehe was an engineer and worked at Georgetown
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back in the day. He wasvery involved, and so I was like,
what can I do to help,and so kind of became involved kind
of putting the mailing list together,that kind of stuff, and started attending
the meetings and we went to wenton to kind of you know, grassroots
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kind of thing. Ben Folds,who held the lease on the studio at
the time, became kind of theyou know, the main guy to kind
of lead the charge as far askind of having a public face that had
you know, had an audience,and so he was very vocal about it.
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Went to you know, billboard andwhoever, you know, all the
music publications and wrote a letter saying, eat guys, this is a big
deal and this cannot happen. Thisis a piece of music history and we
cannot let this happen. It's thelast studio left. And I mean back
in the day there were six studiosthat Sony had built so that the artists
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when they were traveling could go toa studio while they're on the road and
have the same acoustics, and sothat the engineers could go in and have
the same exact sound to reproduce theirrecord, even if they're on the West
coast, the east coast, thatsort of thing, so that the sounds
would be the same. So thiswas the last one standing. There were
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two internationally, and the rest ofthem were domestics. So this was the
last one. So that was thesignificance of that. And chet Atkins was
the head of the studio at thetime, and so that's that tie into
chet Atkins. And so it camedown to the eleventh hour and the building
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was going to be demolished and theywere going to put a calf fay in
it and then put some pictures up. You know, it's going to become
condos or what have you. Andthey were going to put a cafe in
the bottom of it and like putsome pictures up people who recorded there what
have you. So at the eleventhhour, Aubrey Preston, who is a
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philanthropist, he is a preservationist,and Mike kurb and another gentleman who I
can't recall his name, but he'sa healthcare world came together, put it
in a trust and saved it.And so that was like, I was
so exciting. And at the timeeven I think Paul McCartney was in town
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to do a show and he gavea shout out about how the importance of
saving this place. And it's whereDolly Parton recorded the album where she did
I Will Always Love You and Joelenewere recorded there, and I mean it
had a historic significance. I meanEddie Arnold, the Beach Boys recorded there,
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We did confirmation that Sinatra had recordedthere, ow Elvis had recorded there.
I mean, for it to besitting in Music City and it not
be saved is an abomination. No, So it would have been sickening for
it not to still be standing.So and it's now it's now got the
preservation tag on it. I can'trecall what it is. The historic yeah,
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yeah, historic President. It cannever practically be torn down, correct,
right, well, because it's ina trust, yes, And then
it went on to get I thinkthe historic Society. It's on the So
for both reasons, I believe it'sit's saved. Is it still active?
Is the building the recording studio,it's all still active, right, yes?
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And so when I left there,so I had I was managing the
studio and it was a thrill ofa lifetime because I'm telling you, I
would sit there at night or whateverand I would We had this incredib Ben
Folds was holding the lease at thetime when I was there. You know
there we had these really pretty Christmaslights kind of aligning the studio and I
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would sit there and I will alwaysLove You as one of my favorite Dolly
Parton songs, and I would justcut the lights down, have the you
know, twinkle Christmas lights on,and I would just crank that song.
And it brings tears to my eyesto this day to just get to sit
and listen to that song in thestudio. Oh my god. The acoustics,
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yeah, and the acoustics in thestudio were amazing, and Ben Folds
had a really nice little turntable anda nice you know setup going on,
and I get to listen to that, to that song, and just I
mean, yeah, that's like sittingin the mother charts of all mother charts
and listening to the mother song.Yeah exactly. So, I mean,
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you know, and I just Iadore music and songs. I mean,
and you just don't get any betterthan that. You know, how how
long did you stay as the studiomanager there? Um? I think it
was a year, a year anda half. And so Ben Foles decided
that he was going to let goof the lease. So so at that
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point when he had made that decision, Dave Cobb was going to take over
the lease. So at that point, Dave had a you know, he
had his whole setup. He hasn't, you know, studio manager. You
know, he didn't need a studiomanager because he was Ben Ben although he
held the lease on it, helet people rent the studio out. Well,
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Dave was going to be so busy, you know, he wasn't going
to he wasn't going to have thatoption. So, um, he didn't
need a studio manager. So althoughI was very sad to lose that position,
I've I was very confident that thelegacy of great music would continue to
continue Dave. Dave has integrity inthe music that he makes and that sort
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of thing. So that part Iwas very happy about, because you know,
certainly I just admire the integrity andthe music that he chooses to to
produce and that sort of thing.So, right, that part I felt
good about. You know, Sohe did, he did Loretta Lynn didn't
he was he Yeah, he wasthe producer on one of Loretta's latest or
(32:31):
last records. And yeah, yeah, yeah, he's an incredible producer.
There's no reason why he wouldn't havemultiple Grammys and and celebrations and stuff.
You know. I mean, he'sjust he's got a good sonic ear too,
you know. Yeah, he knowshe knows what needs to be,
what where, and what to leaveout even yeah, which is probably the
(32:52):
most important thing, right, yeah, exactly. Well, yeah, and
he and I think I saw hewas just doing a project with Travel Trip,
and I thought, oh, twoGeorgia boys, all right, And
and I you know, once again, Travis Trite is an artist that I
really enjoy. So I thought,that's I look forward to hearing. Now.
Is that Travis's gospel album? Ibelieve? So, yeah, yeah,
(33:15):
that's that should be really fantastic.On an episode in the past,
I was talking about stories of meand No One Travis and meeting him and
stuff, and when he came outwith the idea of a gospel album,
I thought, man, finally,because it's it's kind of a theme of
the Nashville Hype episodes that I alwaysask about gospel or Christian music in correct
(33:37):
in the show. I ask everyonefrom recived. You know, it doesn't
matter who I've had on the show. I talk about it, Ray Scott,
we talk about it. So letme ask you, now, how
much does faith play a role inyour life or your life in music?
In my life, certainly, Iam a believer, and I it's a
(33:59):
very important part of my life,certainly what guides me. And I don't
know how people get along in thisworld without having that kind of fallback of
faith, because I couldn't get througha day without having that kind of belief
but front and center in my life, and I just try to I don't
(34:21):
try to push it on anybody,but I try to. I try to
be vocal enough about it so thatif somebody needs, you know, some
guidance or what have you, thatthey know that they can come to me.
But not that I try to poundit down anybody's throat. As far
as musically, I mean, Idon't. It's not something that I enjoy
(34:43):
going to hear worship music that sortof thing. But I do you know,
I do have a playlist on myiPod or whatever of hymns, old
hymns that I like and old ruggedcross and that's Yeah. Did you ever
come across a song where you everpitched like a gospel into or Christian song
(35:07):
that you thought, Man, Ihave got to get that to someone.
I have heard some things that it'sjust such a limited amount of people that
you can pitch those things too.Yeah, I mean certainly, I've worked
with Austin Cunningham and he had writtensome things that he and Jason Sellers had
(35:28):
written a couple of things that Ithink there aren't blatantly Christian songs, but
they're ambiguous enough that I think youcan kind of you can interpret them.
Yeah, you might have a thought, right, Yeah, that kind of
a thing. So um, andI think of them as as a god
(35:49):
kind of thing that I thought,Oh, I'd love. I think Gary
Levote was doing some U was doinga Christian album. Wow, yeah,
I'd love for him hear these.It could be presented in that context.
I think people would also hear itthe way I heard it, you know,
I'm right right, So, andyou know, Jason's singing the demos,
(36:12):
so you know he's got that,He's got that range and stuff.
So I think it would be wouldhave been cool for that project. But
yeah, you know, John Richhe had he had the song God Gave
Me You, God gave Me Youfor the ups and downs. I don't
know the name of the song,but you know it was. It was
a big song for Big and Rich. But uh, you know, as
a listener to K Love and WAYFMall the time. I mean at the
(36:37):
place, I listened to whatever,but when I'm driving driving around, it's
always either on k Love or WAYFMor something of that nature. And uh,
that song it crossed over into Christianmusic, and it's not it's not
blatantly Christian. You know, it'sselling a relationship between two people and saying
God gave me you. But itwas a big hit. I think Bill
(37:00):
wilcom wickom Maybe I don't know whocut it, but well I think it
was. I think Blake Shelton did. And I think Dave Barnes wrote it,
Okay, I think because I wentto see Dave Barnes. Dave Barnes
did the coolest show a few ofabout six weeks two months ago, and
(37:21):
I was so excited to go seeit. It was at Third in Lindsley,
and my friend Kathy Walker I mentionedearlier Dave Barnes was her intern at
some point, and so I hadgotten in touch with her and he was
doing Dave Barnes and Friends do ninetiesCountry, and I was like, oh
my gosh, I go, Ohmy gosh, Kathy, oh can we
go? I go? Would youlike to go see this? And she
(37:44):
was like, yeah, definitely.So I got her and my friend Candice,
who we all worked together at FridayRecords, and we went to see
the show, and oh my gosh, I was in heaven because they did
like, of course, you know, Dixie Chicks, Cowboy Take Me Away,
like these great Arcus humming songs andOnly Love and Strawberry Wine and like
(38:05):
just like great melodies and like funlyrics, and it just it was like
I was in have it anyway.But Dave Barnes, I believe wrote God
gave me you, So yeah,I mean some of that stuff, I
just it's that's the kind of stuffI miss, you know. I melodies
like that, you know, thatkind of stuff. I just wish we
(38:28):
were hearing more of. I think, I think, and I've had this
conversation with others on the show,but I think I think it'll come back
around. I mean, I'm notsure that it will or we've gotten too
far. There's certainly been a ninetiestype revival because people realize that the nineties
was kind of the crescendo, thetop of the top and the best of
the best, you know, thenineties, the early two thousands, um.
(38:51):
But then after that, I don'tI'm not really sure what happened.
Yeah, really we took a nosedive. I'm not sure what happened.
You also were a studio manager forsomeone else, and I can't recall who
that someone else was, But forwhatever reason, I want to think it
was on downtown Second Avenue somewhere.It was Third Avenue, but it was
(39:16):
a Layman drug company. Layman DrugCompany. Yeah. It was funny because
you know, everything, there's atie tie into everything. Because when I
was working for Jeffrey Steele back inthe day, he looked at this building
because he got about purchasing it,and it ended up I met this gentleman
(39:39):
named Will Greg and he eventually endedup buying the building. And it was
an old drug company and it wasbuilt in like the nineteen thirties or something,
and it was a really awesome building, like very cool brick exterior and
still had that Coca Cola like logoon the building. And I think he
(40:00):
had it recreated or I think itwas either had it recreated or just regund
the original. But it's just reallyawesome. And then like two or three
floors and had the original some ofthe original uh tile work, and it
(40:21):
was really got it just a verycool. They just don't make make it,
like make things like that anymore.Yeah, And they found some of
the when they were kind of doingthe redoing the building, they found some
of the old medicine bottles from backin the day when they little glass bottles.
Yeah on gun smoker yeah yeah,yeah. Yeah. So he had
(40:43):
some of those on display and stuff, and so they had a really you
know, stay to the art,you know studio. So it was very
cool. And they were doing videostuff and had some really cool things happening
there, and Punched Brothers were recordingthere and did some really cool things there,
had some did some events stuff thereas well, and it was it
(41:07):
wasn't a very long stint there,but had a really good experience and really
enjoyed will And it's just hard toget a studio off the ground, you
know, And certainly had a lotof people introduced a lot of people,
a lot of my contacts, justhad them come by see the place,
(41:28):
a lot of engineers, a lotof people from the industry that I had
relationships with, and just had themcome by and check the place out and
just tried to help them. Youknow, where are you going from here?
From here? That's a very goodquestion, finally, Yeah, I
asked a good question. No,no, no, no, I just
(41:51):
I partially because I'm still trying tofigure that out, I think. But
currently I'm working at the Music Ihave to say, the Musicians Hall of
Fame, and that's so nut,right, um, the Musicians Union.
So the fun part of it isthat I am again working with Paige Connors,
who I worked with years and yearsago with Paul Worley. So there
(42:13):
was a comfort level there to workwith somebody that I'm good friends with.
It was brought up earlier that youhad talked to Garth about a song that
would be that he was kind ofupset that you didn't play for him,
even though you played it for Georgestraight and then he wrote you a note
back and just said, yeah,this is a perfect song for George.
(42:35):
But you also worked with Garth.I mean you, I know, you've
been friends for a number of years, but you've actually worked it was it
was it Pearl Records that you workedfor him, and you gathered you gathered
all of that. Tell me aboutthat. Yeah, Well, when he
was retired, quote unquote retired andjust kind of stepped away from the business
(42:57):
to race his girls, you know, to got hiatus, and um,
he was, you know, consideringstepping back in and you know the world
had kind of changed in that periodof time because he, uh, you
know, social media had had takenon another aspect of a career and do
(43:19):
you give access to yourself to thefans and that sort of thing, and
you know, there were discussions aboutthings like that, and of course for
Garth, of all people, youknow, who's going to thrive more than
anybody interacting with his fans than GarthBrooks. I mean, yeah, they
love him and he loves them.He yeah, absolutely, I've seen him
(43:43):
breakdown in tears and I'm sure youhave as well. He just loves he
loves people. Oh my god,oh my gosh. You know and and
uh and I'll tell you one ofthe biggest roles was in twenty seventeen,
I got a call out of theblue that hey, do you know,
do you have a path sport?And I was like, well, yeah,
and he's and I mean I thinkI needed to get it dated or
(44:05):
whatever. But anyway, because Iwas thinking, maybe you could. Somebody
in our camp is I don't know, was sick or had to miss a
leg of their tour and I wasthinking maybe you could fill in, and
I was like sure, yeah,yeah. So they were going going to
Canada and so they needed a littlehelp and so he asked me if I
(44:30):
could do it, and I saidabsolutely. So I was able to do
that for two weeks and so thatwas one of the most fun things I've
ever had a chance to do.Yeah, you've seen him. You've probably
seen him live more more times thanmost people I would think. Yeah,
So Garth's coming back from taking thattime off a world that had kind of
(44:55):
changed from what he had been doingsince it had been about ten years.
So he was getting ready to embarkon a different world as far as music
and what it looked like, andthings were now streaming and all of that
had changed. So I was hiredto help kind of in the transition,
(45:15):
like to help get everything ready togo digital and prepare for that and get
all of his photographs and everything fromthat to digital, so go scan everything
and that sort of thing. Soit was a very small group of people,
people that were his friends and yeah, but trusted inner circle. You
(45:38):
you basically put together an anthem,I say, an anthem anthology of yes,
everything Garth that you could find,whether whether it was videos, pictures,
TV show. You basically notated italmost like an accountant but right,
you know, but that way,that way it would reserve gone forward in
(46:01):
this digital age. Right, Andso you know, some people might think,
oh, you know that that isso boring or whatever. But when
the subject matter is somebody that youadore, you know, and just you
know, it's fun to watch theircareer, you know, and it's you
(46:21):
know, just it's fun. It'sfun to work with a work for a
friend. When you are a friend, it's you know, sometimes that's even
more fun. Okay, you thinkto yourself, and I'm sure that the
listeners would probably think, wait,I'm getting paid to do this, you
know, and I get to befriends, you know. You know,
(46:43):
people people look at jobs different ways. I know, but I would think
that when you wake up in themorning and your job is literally to categorize
everything about Garth, you probably think, oh, this is going to be
a pretty good day. Yeah,totally. Absolutely. You've been listening to
the Nashville Hype podcast. I'm yourhost, Paul King. You can find
(47:04):
us at d Nashville hype dot com. We're on all the socials and the
podcast can be heard on Apple,Spotify, Google, iHeart, and many
other places. Thank you so muchfor tuning in.
From the ot Living Studios in sunnySouth Florida via Nashville, Tennessee. Heard
all over the world on the iHeartRadioNetwork or wherever you get your streaming content.
It's the Nashville Hype with your hostPaul King. The Nashville Hype is
brought to you by Fantasy Song Pitch, a place where songwriters can pitch their
(00:23):
songs to all their favorite artists onlyat fantasysong pitch dot com. You're listening
to the Nashville Hype with my specialguest, Cassandra Tormez. How long were
you at Georgetown. Oh, let'ssee, five or six years? I
think, wow, five, Yeah, something like that. You weren't always
(00:45):
in the reception area though, right, or the receptionist. I think eventually
I kind of got to where Iwas the manager throughout the course of things.
But yeah, I think by thetime I left, I was manager
of the studio. But it wasa slow climb, but it was a
great learning experience. And I rememberI would sit down with the in charge
(01:08):
issue of Music Row magazine and Ijust studied it and I made sure that
I knew who everybody was, andyou know, I just run into people
around town, and I knew whothey were and just tried to educate myself
that way. So are you areyou an outgoing Are you an outgoing person?
(01:30):
I mean, you've always struck meas very shy in a sense and
quiet. Are you very behind thescenes? But would like if you saw
someone that you had seen in musicrow or something, did you have the
umph to go and actually start aconversation and just say Hi, I'm Cassandra.
I work at Georgetown. I havea little bit of extrovert introvert to
me, so I don't necessarily I'mnot that person that will go up and
(01:56):
introduce myself, but I will setmyself up in a situation where I will
be able to start a conversation orend up in a conversation for everybody.
And so I remember being at Starbucksone day and I was in line with
Richie McDonald of Lone Star, andI can't remember how I started a conversation
(02:21):
with him, but it was funnybecause at the time I was working for
Paul Worley, a very successful producerhere in town. He was managing or
not managing, and producing the DixieChicks, and throughout the conversation. Somehow
I mentioned that I was working forPaul, and then the irony was then
(02:45):
Richie said to me, oh mygosh, you're working for Paul. He
said, I have a song I'dlove to give to the Dixie Chicks.
Can you wait around a second andthen I can go grab a CD and
give you the song? And Isaid sure so, but yeah, so
then I established a rapport with him. So then eventually, you know,
as a person who ended up pitchingsongs, you know, I had to
(03:09):
rapport with Richie then, I mean, and I don't think I ended up
pitching him a ton of stuff.But in turn, you know, by
being able to get a song intothe you know, Dixie Chicks, you
know camp. Yeah, yeah,so so things just kind of worked out
that way for me. And soin answer to your question, no,
(03:30):
I'm not that, you know,in your face kind of person, but
I had my subtle ways of kindof orchestrating thing. Yeah, Nashville,
it used to be a very giventake like that. You want to,
yeah, would you take my CDhere? Yes? I will. And
then you turn around and you pitchedthat same person who could be or might
be an artist or an up andcoming artist that you might have seen or
(03:54):
heard about, and then you endup pitching that person. Remember that,
Remember that time that you gave mea CD and I took it to so
and so. Well, now you'reon the label, and the labels fully
behind you, and here are threesongs that I think would be right for
you. When you left Georgetown,where did you go next? I ended
(04:15):
up going to work for Paul Worley. Okay, so that was the next
It was Paul. Yeah, Iworked for Paul. I was kind of
doing some independent plugging at the time, and so I kind of went over
there to help his assistant, PageConnors, who was kind of running his
office and doing all of his projectcoordination and that sort of thing. And
(04:39):
so I was doing a little projectcoordination on the side as well, and
kind of working for Paul and hisoffice and helping Page, and then kind
of doing a little song plugging onthe side. So kind of was just
trying to keep myself as busy asI could do. Yeah, it sounds
like you're a susta busy, youknow, in the in the industry.
(05:02):
Did you did you leave Georgetown ordid they leave you? I left Georgetown,
Yeah, definitely. So there aresome changes going on and it was
just time. So yeah, andbeing this the studio manager, that's where
and that comes into play a littlelater in your career. Did you find
(05:23):
at the time did you find thatmore interesting than listening to songs and pitching
songs as a song plugger. Ilove songs, that's my That's my favorite
thing I've ever done is working publishing. My love. My first love is
songs. And working with songwriters andhelping be part of the creative process and
(05:46):
grooming writers and helping their careers ismy favorite thing. Yeah, Paul Warley,
how long were you with Paul?I think two or three years.
He was Martina McBride and the DixieChicks and then went on to do Lady
A and Lady Yeah. When youleft, Paul, where where did you
(06:09):
go next? That can be confusingbecause I you know, I did,
I did little stints. I wasbriefly at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
It wasn't very memorable other than thefact that I did get to meet
Dolly Parton when I worked at theCountry Music Hall of Fame. So that's
the only noteworthy thing about being there. So and then I was briefly at
(06:32):
n SAI, so I you know, I kind of was job hopping for
a while. But so I don'tI can't recall it. What if it's
a little muddy at these times?Did you work at or were you an
independent plugger? I think I wantto recall a conversation we had, and
this conversation is probably a decade anda half old. I mean, like
it goes back aways but three ringcircus? Am I right? Yes?
(06:57):
Yeah, Jeffrey Steeles, Jeffrey Steele, I couldn't remember his name, Yeah,
Jeffrey. Still we did you workthere or were you doing independent?
Well? I was, I wasdoing independent plugging and then worked with jeffs
for a while, so it waskind of I told him I was doing
independent plugging, but I wanted tohold on to a couple of clients that
(07:19):
I had, and I was workingwith Casey Bethard, who I adore and
loved his music, and then BigAl Anderson, who Jeff wrote a lot
with and certainly had a lot ofsongs together back then. So I wanted
to keep a hold of them andthen take on Jeff's catalog as well.
So you were pretty successful with thatif I recall, I mean as far
(07:43):
as I mean, it's hard toget cuts, man, I mean even
with great, great writers like that. I mean, and I have all
my logs of the songs I pitchedthat, you know, I can look
back on a lot of them andsee that eventually they got cut, that
not necessarily I got them cut.My biggest cut was out of Jeff's catalog,
(08:03):
and it was a song called InternationalHarvester. Yeah, that's one of
my favorite songs. Yeah, andit's it was it's such a fun song
and till Billy O'donald cut it.And it was funny how it happened,
because you know, I went inand pitched it to Phil and and he
I don't even think he put iton hold. I think and so and
(08:26):
then I ran into him one dayout on the row and he said,
hey, you want to hear yourcut? And I was like, uh,
yeah, I didn't even realize thatit, you know, like totally
get the process was on hold,and yeah, that nobody else was pitching
it. And I could have probablygotten in big trouble because Steve Marklin,
(08:46):
who was jeff publisher at the time, could have been out pitching it as
well, and I could have gottenin big trouble with that. But because
Jeff knew I was pitching for him, and I don't know how upfront he
was with Steve, but I waspitching, then that could have been a
disaster. However, that didn't happen, thank god. I went and heard
(09:07):
it and I heard them when heplayed it for me, and he had
that international horrorstric tractor. Oh mygosh. I was like, oh my
gosh, this is awesome. Andthen I remember the first time I heard
it on the radio and I waslike, oh my gosh, this is
so cool. Yeah, it wasjust really fun. And so yeah,
that was my big cut and thenI you know, I had a couple
(09:31):
of little things along the way,but that was my big one, and
unfortunately it was I think it madeit to the top ten, and then
Craig left the label I think whenit was still kind of on its climb.
Yeah, it is in my catalognow. I mean like i've it's
actually on my Amazon playlist. Soat least every week I hear that,
(09:52):
and I really I enjoy it.It's just a fun you know, Jeffrey
Steele's got that that's fun. Chorusand you know it's just great. And
uh, the other guys that wroteit friends of mine, Shane Miner and
Danny Myrick. So Danny has headYeah, big writers after that. Yeah,
and so went on to write She'sCountry and you know, had a
(10:15):
big run with that. So justfun to help see people's careers, you
know, go and just fun process. Yeah, I just loved it,
jeff And I want to say,and I don't know this for certain,
but as this recording, which I'llleave in here even if I'm wrong,
but jeff and John Rich along withsome other person that I don't know,
(10:37):
has the number one song right now. Oh yeah, I believe. Yeah,
yeah, I can't into the worldor something. Yeah, I don't
know. They're fighting, they're fightingaliens. So yeah, yeah, it's
I think it's a fringe artist,well to me, alternative kind of rappers
(10:58):
anyways, Yes, another genre Ibelieve, because Jeffrey isn't really a name,
I mean, Nashville. I'm surehe's still you know, big and
famous and it's still probably making youknow, regular cuts from time to time,
but that one kind of came outof left field for me. But
you know, just to see himon the charts and actually see his name
and I thought, wow, okay, Jeffrey Still, and knowing that you
(11:20):
and I were going to talk today. It literally just came up just the
other day when I saw it,and I was like, Jeffrey Still,
That's what reminded me of that threering circus thing that he was doing.
I mean, you know, sowhat was what is your favorite song or
do you have a favorite song thatyou pitched that did not ever get cut?
(11:43):
There is a song that, oh, there's a there's a handful,
but one of them is a songthat a writer I had been working with,
Mike mcquerie and Mark Nessler wrote calledLong with a cow a Long with
the Cowboy. It was funny becauseI had I had a hold with George
(12:05):
Straight and U I was talking toGarth Brooks because I was so excited I
had gotten a George Straight cut,and I was told Garth I said,
oh my gosh, I'm so excitedI have a song on hold with George
Straight. And he's like, ohmy gosh. He's like, that's the
whole reason I came to town wasand he goes and I can't believe you
(12:28):
played he played a song for Straightenand he's like, and I haven't even
heard it. And I was like, well, I said, I'd love
for you to hear it, andlike, I'd love to get a Garth
cut. You know, I wouldbe really cool, yea, so he
said, and I said, well, I'd be happy for you to hear
it. And so I was likereally excited because you know, certainly i'd
(12:48):
be thrilled to have either a Garthcut or George Straight. Yeah, you've
got the You've got the number onecountry yardist, which is George Straight,
and then you got the number oneselling which is the number two country artist,
which is Garth Brooks. And ifyou've got your choice between those two,
you would take either one. Iwould be thrilled with either one of
(13:09):
those rights. Right. I waslike ecstatic, like, oh my gosh,
Like this is a no situation.Right. So I was like right,
like so excited, And so Iwent ahead and sent the song to
Garth. Then you know, Ihear the trumpets playing the background after I
read the email one back from andhe said, that is a great song
(13:31):
for George Straight. Oh wow,gosh. I was like, oh man,
Like I was like a dagger tothe heart, but um, you
know, I still anyway, it'sa fantastic song and it would fit either
one of them, honestly. Butyeah, even today, how long how
long? How long ago was this? Oh? Probably ten years ago?
(13:56):
Yeah, but I still fan bythe song. It's a fantastic song.
It's an up tempo, you know, mid up tempo, and if George
did it, it would be alittle more mid tempo. I think it
did it, you know, havea little different take on it. But
so that's one that definitely comes tomind. And then there's a song that
U a great writer, Dan deMay wrote It all happened in a day,
(14:22):
and I was so bummed because itcame out. Oh he wrote it
around the time Kenny Chesney Don't Blinkcame out. And I was so disappointed
because I played it for Phil Billybecause you know, at this point,
Phil Billy and I kind of hada little thing going because got my cut
with Phil and uh and he heardit and he loved it, and he
(14:45):
uh he told me, yeah,he's like, oh he was cutting with
Montgomery Gentry and he said, oh, it's just don't blind And I was
like, ah, man, Iknew it, but it's just like it's
one of those songs that I've I'vetold Dan I got I'm bound and determined
before I die to get that sun. Yeah. Right, Well, but
that's another one that I just think, Oh God, before I die,
(15:07):
I'm gonna I'm gonna find a placefor that song. But there's they're just
a handful that I just think,Oh my gosh, you know, do
you do you have time to actuallywork and pitch nowadays? Are not necessary?
Well, the thing is is,if I find a place for a
song, I would definitely do it. I'm politically incorrect anyway, But the
(15:28):
thing is, it's like I justdon't know that in the sea of mediocrity
that is country music these days.And that's a blanket statement I understand.
And yes, there are songs thatcut true. You know, I think
these songs are too good to kindof get cut, you know, which
(15:48):
is really saddens me to say,but that's generally my opinion. Well,
it's also it's also probably uh andI have not heard those songs, but
you know, I tell I takeyour judgment for him, given your career,
and uh, you know, theyprobably aren't too good. But if
their time comes it will come atthe right time, right, you know.
(16:10):
And this isn't really my song toclaim by any stretch, but and
I and that miss it not mentioningmy friend who I mentioned earlier, TJ
Seals. His father is Troy Seals, and Troy, this is a song
that Troy wrote called Kentucky Boy,and that is a song that I would
(16:32):
love to for Chris Stapleton to hear, or Dave Cop or wanted you know
something camp because Troy say, Ihave a copy of Troy singing the demo
and Troy, oh my gosh,is a soulful cat man. He just
I would love for Dave Cop tohear that sometime or Stapleton himself. I'm
trying to get Dave's attention several times. He is managed by Brightman and Andrew
(16:57):
Brightman, and I go, Igo way back with Andrew in the Nashville
hype, and uh, you know, I've had artists in front of him
and all of that. And I'vetried myself to get ahold of uh Dave's
attention through Andrew and it just hasn'tworked. Yeah, I mean, you
know, obviously he's a talented person, and Chris Stapleton just killed on the
(17:22):
Super Bowl just a few weeks ago, you know, I mean good greed.
He had the head coach out therecrying on the field. It was
so beautiful. Oh yeah, youwent to Cherry Heart? Is that?
Did you do that? After threering or in between? After? Yeah?
They had I read that they havesix they at the time and I
(17:45):
don't know whatever happened to them,but they had sixteen hundred songs and uh,
just a fantastic catalog. Was yourwas your time there spent pitching that
catalog or what did you do?Yeah? I was there with Shelby Kennedy
and that's where we had Ray Scott. So that's how I got well that's
(18:06):
the second time I got to workwith Ray. But um we got to
sign Ray there and Pete Salis andhe's good. You know. Yeah,
we had a good little roster there. But it was multifaceted, so it
wasn't just publishing. We did hada marketing component and a record label and
so there was a lot going onthere. You brought up Ray Scott.
(18:30):
You're the one that is responsible forgetting Ray Scott on the Nashville Hype episode
a few a few episodes ago becauseI reached out to you and I said,
who would be good for an episodeof the Nashville Hype And you're like
Ray Scott and you were enthusiastic aboutsaying that, and it turns out he
was fantastic, and uh, yeah, he just released his new album a
(18:52):
couple of weeks ago, Wrong Songs, and he did make a good guess,
so apreciate you setting that up.How long did that relationship at Terry
Hart last with you? I wastherefore, I think three years, two
or three years. Unfortunately that companyimploded, So me not having a longer
(19:15):
stint there was not my fault.The company was. The ending of that
company was we weren't had the FBIthere, Oh my gosh. So it's
a little interesting. But because wewere our investor was the SOMEI Group,
which had the naming rights to whatis now known as Bridgestone. But so
(19:41):
anyway, but that's another that's crazy. I think when I met you,
you know, like we reconnected,I should say, not just met,
but reconnected during the Fallen Firefighters.I think that was probably at the time
that you were with Terry Hart.Why possibly, Yeah, because when I
(20:02):
made my way back to Nashville.It seems like a couple of years later
you were with Friday Records. Yeah, it's Friday Records. That's great.
What happened with Friday Friday was agreat little company. I had the pleasure
of working with Kathy Walker. Anddid you ever know Kathy I did not
(20:22):
know. Oh she's a complete joy, a dear friend to this day.
She had a wonderful career. Shewas a singer, worked with ched Atkins,
and she's been in town for along long time. And I don't
mean to detract from Kathy, becauseshe is a wonderful, talented person in
(20:45):
and of herself. But she's alsoMichael McDonald's sister, so she's she's had
a lot of experiences because of theopportunities she's had being part of that phenomenal
family. And so I've gotten tohave a lot of neat experiences because she's
so generous and has included me andsome fun things because of that. So
(21:07):
and Candace Currency, who is nowworking at Sony. So it was the
three of us working together, andwe had some great writers over there.
We had James House, who yeahhe just I guess, Dwight Yoakum just
celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of This Time, that record that had Ain't That Lonely
(21:29):
Yet, which James wrote and incrediblesong. Yeah now I'm going to that's
the right song, right, Butyeah, So anyway, he was over
there, and then we had RobCrosby, who's another talented writer over there,
and Marcia Aramirez and so anyway,that was a fun little company and
we were there for I think twoor three years, and then I got
(21:53):
the opportunity while I was there,I was approached by Jerry Hart. It
was our opportunity for me, Sothat's why I left Friday Records. But
that was it was a really greatexperience to work with Friday. Friday came
before Cherry Heart then yes, ohokay, Friday was It seemed like a
(22:15):
really good, little, you know, independent, strong company that was you
know, going to go places,and you you left, not on bad
terms, but you were like,Okay, I've got this other opportunity.
And then that opportunity ends up gettingrated by the FBI after after a few
years. But one thing you mentionedwas ched Atkins. That brings up a
(22:36):
conversation we were having just a littlebit ago about approaching people in Nashville if
you don't know him or anything,and you you were able to find ways
to do it. Let's talk alittle bit about Studio A. Studio A
is a revered place in Nashville,and someone bought it, some developer bought
it and was essentially going to turnit down, to turn it down,
(22:59):
to hear it down. And whenthey started, that petition started, and
then meetings started, and you gotheavily involved in those meetings, and that's
how your network continued to grow untilthe point where you ran Studio A,
one of the most venerated studios ofall time in the history of Nashville.
(23:22):
Right. Yeah, Well this kindof goes back to my days at Georgetown
Masters because I worked one of theengineers there, Jonathan Russell. His grandfather
was Chet Atkins. And so althoughI never knew Chet, I mean i'd
see him come in to pick upJonathan and they'd go to lunch together,
(23:44):
and he'd come up and his prizeto Mercedes and take Jonathan to lunch,
and so I mean, i'd kindof see him in passing, but I
was just, you know, certainlyhave a mad respect for the history of
country music, and so to seeChet come in and take Jonathan. I
just it was endeared by that.So just the history and work working Georgetown
(24:11):
was across the street from the RCAbuilding. So I sat for five years
and saw the building and you know, it was iconic to me anyway,
I mean Nipper and the you know, the whole thing, right, which
just all of that stuff means somethingto me. And for people who are
listening, Nipper is the RCA dog. It's you don't see. You don't
(24:33):
see Nipper very often anymore, butNipper Eddie Eddie Raven was on RCA at
a time and he had a Nipperdownstairs in his house, and so I
saw, I saw Nipper a lot. But that's for the listeners that don't
know what a nipper is. Yeahright, yeah, I guess you need
to put that in context. Butyeah, so so it was a big
(24:56):
deal to me. So and actuallywhen I I worked for Paul Whorley,
he had an office there. Sowhen I was working there, I eventually
went to work for Paul in hispublishing company and that's where he had his
offices. And so Ashley Worley,her office was in Chad Atkins old office.
(25:19):
So I eventually went to work inthat building. So once again it
had become part of my you know, my music row DNA kind of history
for myself personally, so once againkind of meant something to me. So
the thought of them tearing it downsickened me. So I was just thought,
(25:44):
this is pathetic, and I thoughtthis cannot happen. And so when
I got involved, I think Iwas in between gigs at the time,
and so I kind of knew someof the people's spearheading things at McMakin,
who I had known for years becausehe was an engineer and worked at Georgetown
(26:06):
back in the day. He wasvery involved, and so I was like,
what can I do to help,and so kind of became involved kind
of putting the mailing list together,that kind of stuff, and started attending
the meetings and we went to wenton to kind of you know, grassroots
(26:26):
kind of thing. Ben Folds,who held the lease on the studio at
the time, became kind of theyou know, the main guy to kind
of lead the charge as far askind of having a public face that had
you know, had an audience,and so he was very vocal about it.
(26:47):
Went to you know, billboard andwhoever, you know, all the
music publications and wrote a letter saying, eat guys, this is a big
deal and this cannot happen. Thisis a piece of music history and we
cannot let this happen. It's thelast studio left. And I mean back
in the day there were six studiosthat Sony had built so that the artists
(27:11):
when they were traveling could go toa studio while they're on the road and
have the same acoustics, and sothat the engineers could go in and have
the same exact sound to reproduce theirrecord, even if they're on the West
coast, the east coast, thatsort of thing, so that the sounds
would be the same. So thiswas the last one standing. There were
(27:36):
two internationally, and the rest ofthem were domestics. So this was the
last one. So that was thesignificance of that. And chet Atkins was
the head of the studio at thetime, and so that's that tie into
chet Atkins. And so it camedown to the eleventh hour and the building
(27:56):
was going to be demolished and theywere going to put a calf fay in
it and then put some pictures up. You know, it's going to become
condos or what have you. Andthey were going to put a cafe in
the bottom of it and like putsome pictures up people who recorded there what
have you. So at the eleventhhour, Aubrey Preston, who is a
(28:17):
philanthropist, he is a preservationist,and Mike kurb and another gentleman who I
can't recall his name, but he'sa healthcare world came together, put it
in a trust and saved it.And so that was like, I was
so exciting. And at the timeeven I think Paul McCartney was in town
(28:38):
to do a show and he gavea shout out about how the importance of
saving this place. And it's whereDolly Parton recorded the album where she did
I Will Always Love You and Joelenewere recorded there, and I mean it
had a historic significance. I meanEddie Arnold, the Beach Boys recorded there,
(28:59):
We did confirmation that Sinatra had recordedthere, ow Elvis had recorded there.
I mean, for it to besitting in Music City and it not
be saved is an abomination. No, So it would have been sickening for
it not to still be standing.So and it's now it's now got the
preservation tag on it. I can'trecall what it is. The historic yeah,
(29:25):
yeah, historic President. It cannever practically be torn down, correct,
right, well, because it's ina trust, yes, And then
it went on to get I thinkthe historic Society. It's on the So
for both reasons, I believe it'sit's saved. Is it still active?
Is the building the recording studio,it's all still active, right, yes?
(29:45):
And so when I left there,so I had I was managing the
studio and it was a thrill ofa lifetime because I'm telling you, I
would sit there at night or whateverand I would We had this incredib Ben
Folds was holding the lease at thetime when I was there. You know
there we had these really pretty Christmaslights kind of aligning the studio and I
(30:10):
would sit there and I will alwaysLove You as one of my favorite Dolly
Parton songs, and I would justcut the lights down, have the you
know, twinkle Christmas lights on,and I would just crank that song.
And it brings tears to my eyesto this day to just get to sit
and listen to that song in thestudio. Oh my god. The acoustics,
(30:34):
yeah, and the acoustics in thestudio were amazing, and Ben Folds
had a really nice little turntable anda nice you know setup going on,
and I get to listen to that, to that song, and just I
mean, yeah, that's like sittingin the mother charts of all mother charts
and listening to the mother song.Yeah exactly. So, I mean,
(30:59):
you know, and I just Iadore music and songs. I mean,
and you just don't get any betterthan that. You know, how how
long did you stay as the studiomanager there? Um? I think it
was a year, a year anda half. And so Ben Foles decided
that he was going to let goof the lease. So so at that
(31:21):
point when he had made that decision, Dave Cobb was going to take over
the lease. So at that point, Dave had a you know, he
had his whole setup. He hasn't, you know, studio manager. You
know, he didn't need a studiomanager because he was Ben Ben although he
held the lease on it, helet people rent the studio out. Well,
(31:45):
Dave was going to be so busy, you know, he wasn't going
to he wasn't going to have thatoption. So, um, he didn't
need a studio manager. So althoughI was very sad to lose that position,
I've I was very confident that thelegacy of great music would continue to
continue Dave. Dave has integrity inthe music that he makes and that sort
(32:09):
of thing. So that part Iwas very happy about, because you know,
certainly I just admire the integrity andthe music that he chooses to to
produce and that sort of thing.So, right, that part I felt
good about. You know, Sohe did, he did Loretta Lynn didn't
he was he Yeah, he wasthe producer on one of Loretta's latest or
(32:31):
last records. And yeah, yeah, yeah, he's an incredible producer.
There's no reason why he wouldn't havemultiple Grammys and and celebrations and stuff.
You know. I mean, he'sjust he's got a good sonic ear too,
you know. Yeah, he knowshe knows what needs to be,
what where, and what to leaveout even yeah, which is probably the
(32:52):
most important thing, right, yeah, exactly. Well, yeah, and
he and I think I saw hewas just doing a project with Travel Trip,
and I thought, oh, twoGeorgia boys, all right, And
and I you know, once again, Travis Trite is an artist that I
really enjoy. So I thought,that's I look forward to hearing. Now.
Is that Travis's gospel album? Ibelieve? So, yeah, yeah,
(33:15):
that's that should be really fantastic.On an episode in the past,
I was talking about stories of meand No One Travis and meeting him and
stuff, and when he came outwith the idea of a gospel album,
I thought, man, finally,because it's it's kind of a theme of
the Nashville Hype episodes that I alwaysask about gospel or Christian music in correct
(33:37):
in the show. I ask everyonefrom recived. You know, it doesn't
matter who I've had on the show. I talk about it, Ray Scott,
we talk about it. So letme ask you, now, how
much does faith play a role inyour life or your life in music?
In my life, certainly, Iam a believer, and I it's a
(33:59):
very important part of my life,certainly what guides me. And I don't
know how people get along in thisworld without having that kind of fallback of
faith, because I couldn't get througha day without having that kind of belief
but front and center in my life, and I just try to I don't
(34:21):
try to push it on anybody,but I try to. I try to
be vocal enough about it so thatif somebody needs, you know, some
guidance or what have you, thatthey know that they can come to me.
But not that I try to poundit down anybody's throat. As far
as musically, I mean, Idon't. It's not something that I enjoy
(34:43):
going to hear worship music that sortof thing. But I do you know,
I do have a playlist on myiPod or whatever of hymns, old
hymns that I like and old ruggedcross and that's Yeah. Did you ever
come across a song where you everpitched like a gospel into or Christian song
(35:07):
that you thought, Man, Ihave got to get that to someone.
I have heard some things that it'sjust such a limited amount of people that
you can pitch those things too.Yeah, I mean certainly, I've worked
with Austin Cunningham and he had writtensome things that he and Jason Sellers had
(35:28):
written a couple of things that Ithink there aren't blatantly Christian songs, but
they're ambiguous enough that I think youcan kind of you can interpret them.
Yeah, you might have a thought, right, Yeah, that kind of
a thing. So um, andI think of them as as a god
(35:49):
kind of thing that I thought,Oh, I'd love. I think Gary
Levote was doing some U was doinga Christian album. Wow, yeah,
I'd love for him hear these.It could be presented in that context.
I think people would also hear itthe way I heard it, you know,
I'm right right, So, andyou know, Jason's singing the demos,
(36:12):
so you know he's got that,He's got that range and stuff.
So I think it would be wouldhave been cool for that project. But
yeah, you know, John Richhe had he had the song God Gave
Me You, God gave Me Youfor the ups and downs. I don't
know the name of the song,but you know it was. It was
a big song for Big and Rich. But uh, you know, as
a listener to K Love and WAYFMall the time. I mean at the
(36:37):
place, I listened to whatever,but when I'm driving driving around, it's
always either on k Love or WAYFMor something of that nature. And uh,
that song it crossed over into Christianmusic, and it's not it's not
blatantly Christian. You know, it'sselling a relationship between two people and saying
God gave me you. But itwas a big hit. I think Bill
(37:00):
wilcom wickom Maybe I don't know whocut it, but well I think it
was. I think Blake Shelton did. And I think Dave Barnes wrote it,
Okay, I think because I wentto see Dave Barnes. Dave Barnes
did the coolest show a few ofabout six weeks two months ago, and
(37:21):
I was so excited to go seeit. It was at Third in Lindsley,
and my friend Kathy Walker I mentionedearlier Dave Barnes was her intern at
some point, and so I hadgotten in touch with her and he was
doing Dave Barnes and Friends do ninetiesCountry, and I was like, oh
my gosh, I go, Ohmy gosh, Kathy, oh can we
go? I go? Would youlike to go see this? And she
(37:44):
was like, yeah, definitely.So I got her and my friend Candice,
who we all worked together at FridayRecords, and we went to see
the show, and oh my gosh, I was in heaven because they did
like, of course, you know, Dixie Chicks, Cowboy Take Me Away,
like these great Arcus humming songs andOnly Love and Strawberry Wine and like
(38:05):
just like great melodies and like funlyrics, and it just it was like
I was in have it anyway.But Dave Barnes, I believe wrote God
gave me you, So yeah,I mean some of that stuff, I
just it's that's the kind of stuffI miss, you know. I melodies
like that, you know, thatkind of stuff. I just wish we
(38:28):
were hearing more of. I think, I think, and I've had this
conversation with others on the show,but I think I think it'll come back
around. I mean, I'm notsure that it will or we've gotten too
far. There's certainly been a ninetiestype revival because people realize that the nineties
was kind of the crescendo, thetop of the top and the best of
the best, you know, thenineties, the early two thousands, um.
(38:51):
But then after that, I don'tI'm not really sure what happened.
Yeah, really we took a nosedive. I'm not sure what happened.
You also were a studio manager forsomeone else, and I can't recall who
that someone else was, But forwhatever reason, I want to think it
was on downtown Second Avenue somewhere.It was Third Avenue, but it was
(39:16):
a Layman drug company. Layman DrugCompany. Yeah. It was funny because
you know, everything, there's atie tie into everything. Because when I
was working for Jeffrey Steele back inthe day, he looked at this building
because he got about purchasing it,and it ended up I met this gentleman
(39:39):
named Will Greg and he eventually endedup buying the building. And it was
an old drug company and it wasbuilt in like the nineteen thirties or something,
and it was a really awesome building, like very cool brick exterior and
still had that Coca Cola like logoon the building. And I think he
(40:00):
had it recreated or I think itwas either had it recreated or just regund
the original. But it's just reallyawesome. And then like two or three
floors and had the original some ofthe original uh tile work, and it
(40:21):
was really got it just a verycool. They just don't make make it,
like make things like that anymore.Yeah, And they found some of
the when they were kind of doingthe redoing the building, they found some
of the old medicine bottles from backin the day when they little glass bottles.
Yeah on gun smoker yeah yeah,yeah. Yeah. So he had
(40:43):
some of those on display and stuff, and so they had a really you
know, stay to the art,you know studio. So it was very
cool. And they were doing videostuff and had some really cool things happening
there, and Punched Brothers were recordingthere and did some really cool things there,
had some did some events stuff thereas well, and it was it
(41:07):
wasn't a very long stint there,but had a really good experience and really
enjoyed will And it's just hard toget a studio off the ground, you
know, And certainly had a lotof people introduced a lot of people,
a lot of my contacts, justhad them come by see the place,
(41:28):
a lot of engineers, a lotof people from the industry that I had
relationships with, and just had themcome by and check the place out and
just tried to help them. Youknow, where are you going from here?
From here? That's a very goodquestion, finally, Yeah, I
asked a good question. No,no, no, no, I just
(41:51):
I partially because I'm still trying tofigure that out, I think. But
currently I'm working at the Music Ihave to say, the Musicians Hall of
Fame, and that's so nut,right, um, the Musicians Union.
So the fun part of it isthat I am again working with Paige Connors,
who I worked with years and yearsago with Paul Worley. So there
(42:13):
was a comfort level there to workwith somebody that I'm good friends with.
It was brought up earlier that youhad talked to Garth about a song that
would be that he was kind ofupset that you didn't play for him,
even though you played it for Georgestraight and then he wrote you a note
back and just said, yeah,this is a perfect song for George.
(42:35):
But you also worked with Garth.I mean you, I know, you've
been friends for a number of years, but you've actually worked it was it
was it Pearl Records that you workedfor him, and you gathered you gathered
all of that. Tell me aboutthat. Yeah, Well, when he
was retired, quote unquote retired andjust kind of stepped away from the business
(42:57):
to race his girls, you know, to got hiatus, and um,
he was, you know, consideringstepping back in and you know the world
had kind of changed in that periodof time because he, uh, you
know, social media had had takenon another aspect of a career and do
(43:19):
you give access to yourself to thefans and that sort of thing, and
you know, there were discussions aboutthings like that, and of course for
Garth, of all people, youknow, who's going to thrive more than
anybody interacting with his fans than GarthBrooks. I mean, yeah, they
love him and he loves them.He yeah, absolutely, I've seen him
(43:43):
breakdown in tears and I'm sure youhave as well. He just loves he
loves people. Oh my god,oh my gosh. You know and and
uh and I'll tell you one ofthe biggest roles was in twenty seventeen,
I got a call out of theblue that hey, do you know,
do you have a path sport?And I was like, well, yeah,
and he's and I mean I thinkI needed to get it dated or
(44:05):
whatever. But anyway, because Iwas thinking, maybe you could. Somebody
in our camp is I don't know, was sick or had to miss a
leg of their tour and I wasthinking maybe you could fill in, and
I was like sure, yeah,yeah. So they were going going to
Canada and so they needed a littlehelp and so he asked me if I
(44:30):
could do it, and I saidabsolutely. So I was able to do
that for two weeks and so thatwas one of the most fun things I've
ever had a chance to do.Yeah, you've seen him. You've probably
seen him live more more times thanmost people I would think. Yeah,
So Garth's coming back from taking thattime off a world that had kind of
(44:55):
changed from what he had been doingsince it had been about ten years.
So he was getting ready to embarkon a different world as far as music
and what it looked like, andthings were now streaming and all of that
had changed. So I was hiredto help kind of in the transition,
(45:15):
like to help get everything ready togo digital and prepare for that and get
all of his photographs and everything fromthat to digital, so go scan everything
and that sort of thing. Soit was a very small group of people,
people that were his friends and yeah, but trusted inner circle. You
(45:38):
you basically put together an anthem,I say, an anthem anthology of yes,
everything Garth that you could find,whether whether it was videos, pictures,
TV show. You basically notated italmost like an accountant but right,
you know, but that way,that way it would reserve gone forward in
(46:01):
this digital age. Right, Andso you know, some people might think,
oh, you know that that isso boring or whatever. But when
the subject matter is somebody that youadore, you know, and just you
know, it's fun to watch theircareer, you know, and it's you
(46:21):
know, just it's fun. It'sfun to work with a work for a
friend. When you are a friend, it's you know, sometimes that's even
more fun. Okay, you thinkto yourself, and I'm sure that the
listeners would probably think, wait,I'm getting paid to do this, you
know, and I get to befriends, you know. You know,
(46:43):
people people look at jobs different ways. I know, but I would think
that when you wake up in themorning and your job is literally to categorize
everything about Garth, you probably think, oh, this is going to be
a pretty good day. Yeah,totally. Absolutely. You've been listening to
the Nashville Hype podcast. I'm yourhost, Paul King. You can find
(47:04):
us at d Nashville hype dot com. We're on all the socials and the
podcast can be heard on Apple,Spotify, Google, iHeart, and many
other places. Thank you so muchfor tuning in.
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