Panel Report:
Developing New Headliners The Country Music Way
Moderator
Rob Beckham William Morris Agency
Brian Hill Monterey Peninsula Artists / Paradigm
Fletcher Foster Universal Records South
Darin Lashinsky Outback Concerts
Darin Murphy CAA
Bill Simmons The Fitzgerald Hartley Company

Maybe the hour-long panel can be summed up by what each of the panelists said at the very end. Moving from Bill Simmons on one end to Rob Beckham on the other, the concert execs gave their opinions as to why country music has a lot of successful career artists.

While acts in other genres tend to have brilliant but short-lived careers lately, country music has built Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill and many more into career performers. Certainly, there are new headliners in every genre but country music must be doing something especially right.

Could it be the music resonates with a concertgoing fan base where other music does not? Is country radio a better marketing tool than rock radio? Or could it be that the people on the panel have a strategy that other genres could learn from?

"I think we have the advantage of not having as many one-hit wonders," Bill Simmons said. "We have an advantage with our relationship with radio, and you can mentor. You can grow from an opening to a middle act to a headliner."
Country artists - through fairs, festivals and events like what was once known as FanFair - tend to get "closer" to their fans than other genres, but record marketing vet Fletcher Foster cautioned that it doesn't mean country artists - or any artists - are visiting their fans door-to-door. Access needs to be managed.

"It's a two-edged sword. You have to have a mystique factor," Foster said. "You don't want to burn out a market by visiting it too much. Some people think country has an `ah shucks' factor, but there's a fine line of keeping a celebrity a celebrity and a star a star where they're not out there whoring themselves every night."

He added that, in his belief, country music is successful because it is the pop music of the '70s.

"Everybody else has gone on and done their niche. Here, you can bring your family. You can bring your boyfriend, bring your girlfriend, you can come in any combi-nation of people that makes you feel comfortable. A lot of genres can't do that.

If we continue as an industry to embrace our diversity, be it a Sugarland or a John Mellencamp, rather than divide it up, we'll be stronger as a unit."

To Murphy, it was the difference between touring to support a record and just plain touring.

"[Other genres] don't get as deep. A lot of up-and-coming rock acts don't hit the secondary or tertiary markets," he said. "It's more about the major SoundScan markets and then the tour's over. Our process is not as quick."

Lashinsky said country promoters have the opportunity to bring artists to places where the fans can "touch and see" them.

"I have the opportunity with de-veloping artists like Sugarland, where they'll play a 4,500-seater in Salem, Va. In the big rock world you don't have that and in the developing rock world you don't have that. And part of it is, in all of these towns, you have country radio stations that are number one in their market."

Murphy joined in, saying that rock acts would normally play Boston and Washington, D.C., but not "give a shit" about Salem, and "maybe they should."

Hill thought country music acts embraced their fans better than any other genre.

For Beckham, it was the comparisons that have been made between Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett, and between Rascal Flatts and Bon Jovi. They're the next generation of those rockers.

"Chesney wants to build a party every single night. Even if you don't like his music, you're still going to go to the concert because his show kicks ass. And that's where your friends are," Beckham said. "He puts on a great rock show and has a good time. How many acts go out into the parking lot before the show and drink with their fans? You're not going to see rock acts or pop acts do that."

He added that, beyond the 2-million-plus core fans you can rely on to buy the records, there is the fan who'll buy a country album at Target along with a Ludicrous, Usher or Kanye West album.

"It's an interesting place to be. I just see it getting bigger and stronger," Beckham said. "With the next generation of headlining acts, I think country music is going to be solid for a long, long time."

Joe Reinartz