BOBBY KARL WORKS THE ROOM
Chapter 467
This is the 50th anniversary of the Academy of Country Music, and what better way to celebrate than with the publication of a commemorative book?
That was the agenda at the Country Music Hall of Fame on Wednesday (9/10). The book in question is titled This Is Country, a sumptuous coffee-table tome loaded with photos and souvenir “stick-ins” like ticket, program, newsletter and award-certificate reproductions.
For you music-industry folks out there, a “book” is a thing with paper pages that you turn after reading collections of words on them that are longer than tweets. I doubt that there are more than 100 of you who have read one in the past year. That’s why the sentence, “I have written a book” has a status on Music Row that ranks just below, “I am the hair stylist for Gloriana,” or “I have a line of dialog on this week’s episode of Nashville,” or “I had a cut on the last SheDaisy album.”
Those of us who value book authorship beg to differ. For one thing, it means you’ve brought forth something that will last forever. For another, it demands a helluva lot of creative labor.
Lisa Lee, SVP, Creative & Content Production, Academy of Country Music
“It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done,” said author Lisa Lee. “It’s like giving birth….This is one of my proudest moments.”
We applauded her long and loud in the museum’s ACM Gallery. “She came up with the idea for the book,” said the ACM’s Bob Romeo. Not only that, “Years ago, we didn’t have a staff. I said, ‘Lisa, you’re going to have to build one.’ She has met that challenge. In seven years, Lisa has built a great department.”
Lisa joined the ACM in 2007. She soon realized that the 50th anniversary was impending, so she sought out the ACM’s four founding figures. Two of them – Chris Christensen and hit songwriter Eddie Miller – have died. So she began in 2009 by interviewing survivors Mickey Christensen, then 91, plus Tommy Riggins. Tommy, a West Coast performer and radio promoter, came up with the idea for the ACM while on the golf course. Mickey, who has since passed away, owned the Red Barrel nightclub, which she offered as the host venue.
D.J. country awards for West Coast artists were staged in 1963 and 1964. Then the first official ACM meeting took place on Feb. 17, 1965. The first ACM awards presentation was on Feb. 28, 1966 at the Hollywood Palladium. The book notes that the CMA had been formed in Nashville in 1958, but had not yet mounted an awards show.
Founders Tommy and Mickey, “were so excited [about the book idea],” Lisa reported. “They lit the fire.” They also led Lisa to early ACM honoree and champ yodeler Janet McBride, who had saved a treasure trove of memorabilia. Lisa made that contact in 2012.
“It has just been in the past year that it has really been a crunch,” the book’s mastermind commented. “We saved the last few pages, because we knew we wanted to include the 2014 awards show.”
She is especially proud that all of the living Artist of the Decade awardees participated. Garth Brooks and Randy Owen of Alabama wrote their own essays. Lisa interviewed George Strait and Loretta Lynn for theirs. Marty Stuart wrote eloquently about Marty Robbins. Other essay contributors include stars Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire.
Essays or not, it is a coffee-table collectible. “This is for the fans,” said Lisa. “It is 50 years of country-music history and 50 years of this organization’s history, [but] it is for the consumers.”
It is certainly for the readers who attended. More literate than the rest of you were Wes Vause, Regina Stuve, Sherod Robertson, Suzanne Gordon, Jay Frank, Rod Essig, Chuck Aly, Ken Tucker, Teresa George, Paul Moore, Paul Barnabee, Mike Kraski and Ron Cox.
Attending ACM staffers Tiffany Moon and Taylor Payne presented Lisa with a framed first-proof of the book jacket, plus its Library of Congress registration certification.
The Hall of Fame’s catering, as usual, was tops. During the cocktail reception, we snacked on mushroom caps stuffed with sausage, chicken-salad wontons, hummus, tabbouleh, tzatziki, lavosh (it’s a flat bread), pita points, crostini and marinated grilled vegetables.
“I can’t thank you enough for coming,” said Bob Romeo. On behalf of book lovers everywhere, the pleasure was all mine.
Category: Featured
