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A Conversation with Billy Block (continued)
PM: It's so inclusive, in fact, that it's surprising that you haven't been inundated with a deluge of singer songwriters and more folky type musicians that could certainly see themselves as alternative country enough to get up there with a great house band like you have on the Medicine Show. [the first hour of every Western Beat show in Nashville, where 4-5 artists get backed up by the house band, Vacation Bible School, featuring Billy on drums]
BB: Well, we do that on the Medicine Show, but the whole idea of doing Western Beat... There are already plenty of Writer's Nights, the Radio Cafe does more of a folk thing, and the Bluebird leans heavily in that direction. In trying to create a niche for ourselves, it was imperative to do something different. So we did. You have to have a band, for instance. In rare or unique circumstances, I have offered the services of the house band to artists who have come a great distance and if the material is not super complicated. On my birthday show a couple of weeks ago, we backed up Claudia Scott and Kevin Welch, and other artists. I think Kevin Gordon was the only one who brought his own band. It' a nice thing to know that the band is so good that they can basically play behind anybody. From Rodney Crowell to Hal Ketchum, all the TV stuff.
The TV thing [Billy got his own Western Beat show on CMT, the Country Music Television channel] was a dream come true for me. I've always felt, and I still believe, that when we succeed in getting these artists on television, the Western Beat brand for these artists and their respective profiles and sales will grow commensurately.
PM: Because that's what you're doing, you're branding.
BB: That's all we're doing. What Western Beat represents is everything from Rock to Rockabilly and Blues to Bluegrass. In the Country world, we use the phrase "all the snap, all the crackle, and none of the pop" to differentiate ourselves from mainstream Country. It's a different kind of Country, but it's more than that. There are a lot of names for it: Americana, Alt-Country, Y'allternative, Insurgent Country. Western Beat's been around for 10 years. The artists that are part of this community have embraced it, and somebody said the other day, "It's the most exciting thing to do next to playing the Opry." I'll take that. The Opry's been around 75 years, we've been here for five. For someone to even make the comparison means that we're really doing something.
But I digress, we'll get back to TV. We did a pilot for the TV show. Tommy Oliphant (Sr.), myself, Flick Wiltshire, a bunch of us just put it together. The pilot was actually footage of Jerry Jeff Walker, Emmy Lou Harris, Duane Jarvis, who else... Anyway, it was a really cool pilot. All filmed at the Exit/In. We took it out to CMT, to Paul Hastaba (he's since left) and Chris Carr. I figured they'd throw us out. They loved it. Before it was over, they were talking about sponsors and time slots. I was very surprised. We did a season with them, went in and shot 13 shows.
PM: Did they put up all the money to do that?
BB: No. I had to go out and raise the money. I went to the people who'd been supportive of us, basically went to the labels. The cost of the musicians and some production, they helped us pay for the first season. Luke Lewis and Kira Florita at Mercury, Alan Butler at SONY, Susan Meyers and their whole staff was very supportive. I met with Tony Brown and Dave Wiegand at MCA, and they were very supportive. Rounder came to the plate, put some of their artists on the show and supported it. Curb did the same. With that kind of support, we were able to launch it. CMT supplied the production, they took care of the lighting and the camera work. And Frank Sass did a tremendous job of mixing it live. Tommy Oliphant was a great partner and co-producer.
The impact of the show was pretty significant. Wherever it was watched, I was told by a lot of people that it was the best thing on the network. It was a very bold move for them at the time, and I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with them on it.
PM: Did they give you any good time slots?
BB: The time slots were terrible, but I didn't care. It was late night Sunday and late night Monday.
PM: So typically corporate. To make a move like that, but not give it a time slot to really give it a shot.
BB: They're doing this show now that was just written up in the paper, called "Total Request" or "Country's Most Wanted" or something. And it's these kids that really have no connection to Country music talking to all the stars. They've dumped so much money into it, and the ratings are abysmal.
PM: They're still chasing this youth market that never did, and never will, exist for Country.
BB: They're chasing an imaginary demographic. Anyway, the first season went well, we met with the guys afterwards. They said, "The numbers were okay, not great, but we believe in the show, and we want to give it a season or two to build it and find its audience." I was fine with that. So they gave me the green light for the second season, and then they said that they were going to pay us this year, which was wonderful. We shook hands, we had a deal, and I went to work booking the shows.
We booked 13 shows for the second season. Two weeks before we were supposed to start shooting, Hastaba and Parr called and said they were cancelling the show. It was devastating. We'd done all the work, we were ready to go, and we had their word that we were going forward with this second season, that we were going to make some money.
PM: They never cut any paper on it.
BB: Well, we were in the process of that. We didn't have paper on the first season until a couple of days before we started shooting. I figured that was their modus operandi, no big deal, I had their word. I'm from Texas, so I feel like a man's word is worth something. They're not from Texas.
It was very difficult to deal with, but as soon as they told me that CMT was not going to do it, I got on the phone with [rival] Great American Country and started a dialogue with them. While nothing is official, they sent a nice letter about pursuing a relationship with us, about producing a TV special for them, and also about working on 13 new episodes. So, that's where we are with that. I'm hopeful that we'll keep moving forward with them, and that next year we'll be back up with 13 more shows, this time on GAC.
PM: Are you managing artists, do you have a label?
BB: Yeah, we have a label. I signed this group Hayseed Dixie [originally called AC Dixie, but the management of the rock group AC/DC forced them to change it. They do very good and very funny bluegrass covers of AC/DC songs] and did a deal with them. I licensed their record for five years, and it's a co-venture now with Dualtone records in Nashville. I raised the profile of the group and created a buzz for them, and we've been on the country charts for 15 weeks. We've sold about thirty thousand units. continue
