Amy and I had been married for a year when we moved to Nashville.
Even though I had graduated high school a year before Amy, I still had two student teachings to do after she graduated. So she worked at Wal-Mart in Kirksville, I student taught in Ottumwa and Macon. Then I substitute taught in the Kirksville schools for a semester.
Nashville was the hub (still is) of what I call “Corporate” Christian Music (CCM). That is, companies that treat Christian Music as a genre (or sub genre) and who market and profit from “Christian Music” product such as, the sale of recordings, radio airplay, posters, t-shirts, books, other junk, etc. If you wanted a national exposure and presence, you had to be in Nashville. All of the Christian Music record labels were based in Nashville (Word, Star Song, Light, and Reunion) although all of the Christian record labels put together didn’t come close to even one major secular music label. In 1986 I read a book by a Christian Music artist/producer Chris Christian about how to break into the Christian Music Business. One of the “steps” was, “Move to Nashville.” So that’s what we planned to do.
Up until the Jesus People of the 60’s & 70’s, Gospel music was dominated by Southern Gospel, Black Gospel, and Inspirational music, all of which I could not stand let alone track with. All of the Southern Gospel record labels had ties to Country Music as well, hence the strong Nashville presence. But those hippies from the 60’s and 70’s wanted music they could enjoy, and the traditional church experience was right in the middle of their anti-establishment attitude. They liked Jesus. They didn’t like the traditional Church or any of its trappings. Fast forward 20 years later. “Contemporary” Christian music is on the cusp of taking over the Christian Music industry, but most of the people in power at the record labels have the old-school traditional attitude. One factor eventually ended up prevailing and changing the industry. Money. CCM had the potential to reach a huge un-tapped market, a market that had lots of disposable cash. The Southern Gospel audience was aging and dwindling. Amy and I arrived in Nashville in the midst of that tumultuous transition.
When we arrived in Nashville Amy and I went to as many seminars, meetings, discussion groups, forums as we could about the Christian Music Industry. A lot of good questions (important questions) were posed and discussed ad-nausem. But at the heart of every discussion was the key conundrum: Were we a ministry or were we entertainment? This question nearly caused fist-fights everywhere we went. People would start slinging Bible verses and examples and people’s salvation would be questioned and it was spicy. With Tony and Potter’s Clay it was very clear. We wrote songs and constructed our sets with a very specific goal. We wanted to move people’s minds and hearts towards the Lord and His purposes. We were a ministry plain and simple. We were the proto-typical regional artist. We had no “machinery” behind us. Tony booked and made the arrangements. We raised our own money and did our own recording and everything we got in funds went right back into the ministry. In Nashville, that was not the modus operandi but here I am getting ahead of myself.
I fancied myself as a keyboard player. I had a particular style (having loved Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, and George Gershwin) and I practiced a lot. I had played music with Eric Lear and even had a parody type band with my room mate Phil called The What (instead of The Who get it…) Mostly I did more solo work at churches. My Christian Music hero at the time was Michael W. Smith. I really wanted to be him. He had played on Amy Grants albums. He had gone on tour with Amy (we who fancied ourselves CCM-ers called her by her first name) and some of his music was really cool. Some of his lyrics were kind of lame, but the music was cool. I saw him live a couple of times and was hooked. That’s what I wanted to do. Fall of 1986 a group of us drove from Missouri to the Des Moines Civic Center to see his “Big Picture” Tour. It is still one of my favorite concerts ever.
Since we wanted to move to Nashville, Amy and I thought we should visit there. So in the late winter of 1987 we took a road trip to the Music City. Amy’s mother had a childhood friend who had married and moved to Nashville years earlier, so we stayed with them. I had never been down south before. The drive from St. Louis, through Illinois, then Kentucky, and finally into Tennessee was magical. The terrain was so different. The colors were different. We came around that big sweeping curve near Madison, TN that led to the north side of the downtown. We crossed the Cumberland River and there we were. We drove down West End, past Centennial Park where there was an exact replica of the Parthenon, past Vanderbilt University and eventually into the Green Hills area where Carl and Mona lived (perfect southern hosts in a perfect old southern home.)
We drove around potential neighborhoods and ended up looking for houses in Belleview. We ate Thai food at the International Market behind Belmont College. We drove around Music Row and were surprised to see the record and publishing company offices were little more than converted houses along a couple different streets. We went to the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) offices and met with a representative. He listened to my demos and said because I had commercial recordings and that I played live I could join. We drove by Belmont Church where Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith attended.
On our Friday night in Nashville we went to the Koinonia Bookstore and Coffee House. It was famous (in a small way) to Christian Music geeks (like me) who knew that it was one of the first “Jesus Music” venues in the 70’s. Amy had reportedly got her start there and so we were came to pay homage.
The place was packed when we get there and the first person I see is Rich Mullins. He was a songwriter and artist. Amy Grant had covered his song, “Sing Your Praise to the Lord” and it was a big “hit.” I had even shamelessly ripped that song off with a song of my own called, “We have Won.” I was ecstatic. We sat on the floor about 5-feet from the little stage. Rich and his friend “Beaker” played guitars and dulcimer and a keyboard with a huge rack of components. It was awesome. It couldn’t get better. The EMCEE for the night was a new country artist named Bruce Carroll who went on to success, but at that time he was only local. I picked his brain about how to get started and his only advice was to get good songs and build industry relationships.
After Rich’s set was done I was ready to stay in Nashville and not go back to Missouri. Then Bruce walked back to the mic and said sheepishly, “Ladies and gentlemen, Michael W. Smith.” And as if he had read my mind he said, “That’s right, Michael W. Smith.” The place exploded with shouts of about 100 people as “Smitty” walked to the keyboard. Again, we were about 5-feet away from him as he played for about an hour, just him and the keyboard. He had a bit of a cold (and let’s face it, he’s not the strongest vocalist) but it was awesome. It had snowed a little bit that morning but it had all melted by the evening. He said he was inspired to write something while watching the snow that morning and he proceeded to play the rough version of what would eventually become the theme music for his first Christmas CD.
The next night at Koinonia there was an open mic so I sang a couple of songs and got a good response from the audience. That sealed the deal. I thought it was a sign. By this time next year I was going to be a big-time Christian Artist.
Not so much…
chris
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