{"id":2331,"date":"2021-04-06T17:49:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T17:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.weriseup.com\/thejournal\/?p=2331"},"modified":"2021-08-30T18:14:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T18:14:28","slug":"to-go-or-not-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.weriseup.com\/thejournal\/stories\/to-go-or-not-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"TO GO OR NOT TO GO"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Photo credit - Steve Condon<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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To Go Or Not To Go<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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BY WHITNEY DAANE<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A Nashville-native and graduate of Vanderbilt University, Whitney Daane began her career in entertainment in LA in the film business with stints at Allan-Rice Management and the William Morris Agency before being hired by Madonna to join Maverick Picture Company.\u00a0 Daane realized her true passion was not film but songwriters and found a mentor in iconic music publisher, Lionel Conway.\u00a0 Conway hired Daane to co-lead with Peter Cronin the newly formed Maverick Music Nashville in 1996.\u00a0 In 2000, Daane started her own publishing and writer management company, Mighty Isis Music, representing writers in Nashville, Los Angeles, New York and London and began consulting for London-based start-up Kobalt Music Publishing in 2001.\u00a0 Daane helped launch Kobalt Music Services in the U.S. in November 2001 as a creative consultant and spent fifteen years building the Nashville roster and overseeing the creative staff as well as focusing on the acquisition of new writers and catalogues and exploitation of catalogues for Kobalt\u2019s diverse global roster.\u00a0 In June 2017, Daane launched her new company DAANEgerous Entertainment that encompasses music publishing, writer management, artist development and film & TV project development and is represented globally by Kobalt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Photo Credit- Hunter Armistead <\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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It was a balmy night in Washington, D.C.<\/b>. The summer of \u201969. We had been to Billy Martin\u2019s Carriage House for dinner and had decided to stop by The Whisky A Go Go on M Street on our way home. I was wearing my favorite crushed white vinyl patent leather \u201cgo go\u201d boots which at that time were de rigueur. What was good for Cher was good for me! I remember the flashing lights\u2026 the dancers in cages\u2026 Mama Cass was there\u2026 I was watching in awe from above\u2026 on my father\u2019s shoulders. I was four. It was my first real experience of \u201clive music\u201d and left an indelible mark. I briefly thought about being the girl on the elephant at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. The fabulous lavender feather headdress and rhinestone costume. I got to go \u201cbackstage\u201d behind the tent where I realized all was not so sparkly behind the wizard\u2019s curtain\u2014her feet were filthy. I switched gears back to music\u2014climbing up in the maple tree in the front lawn and giving concerts, singing \u201cGod Didn\u2019t Make Little Green Apples,” and,\u201cLeaving On A Jet Plane,\u201d at the top of my lungs. The neighbors loved it. I was hooked. My first 45s were, \u201cBilly Don\u2019t Be A Hero,\u201d and \u201cAmerican Pie,\u201d followed closely by, \u201cOne Is The Loneliest Number,\u201d\u201cSugar Sugar,\u201d and \u201cHalf Breed,\u201d purchased at Mr. Ayres five & dime on Washington Boulevard. My first \u201crock concert\u201d followed in the early \u201870s at The Castle in Charlevoix, Michigan. CHICAGO at the height of their popularity. \u201cDoes anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?\u201d No one cared because we were all consumed by the music. The vibrational energy washing over us on our blankets and for a few hours uniting us as lovers of the experience. The power of music is undeniable. The power of live music in my opinion is quintessential to civilization, cross-cultural experience, connection to one\u2019s soul and those of others. Diving deep into the unknown of your own heart and mind. And then there\u2019s Ted Nugent, Earth Wind & Fire, Rush, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Bryan Adams, The Commodores, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Boy George, The Pretenders, Bryan Adams, Hall & Oates. These concerts attended at Nashville Municipal Auditorium were just plain fun and youthful wild abandon which, once again in my opinion, is a rite of passage, a quintessential part of growing up.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I grew up.\u00a0 Went to college.\u00a0 Went to law school briefly.\u00a0 Ran away from home and indeed joined the proverbial \u201ccircus\u201d\u2014the music business.\u00a0 I have spent the past thirty years of my life championing songwriters.\u00a0 Experiencing the birth of songs. That moment when one, two, maybe three songwriters sequester themselves and create a music baby.\u00a0 As the \u201cauntie,\u201d I get to hear it first.\u00a0 The process and the experience is nothing short of magical.\u00a0 Going out sometimes seven nights a week to \u201chear\u201d music was the norm.\u00a0 As we all know, on March 13, 2020 that came to a crashing halt. Eerily reminiscent of my first 45, \u201cAmerican Pie,\u201d it was the day the music died\u2014at least temporarily.\u00a0 The music business and the live music industry was turned upside down. If you were a huge star or a veteran hit songwriter, the result of this <\/span>bouleversement<\/span><\/i> was a long vacation at your beach house, applying for PPP to keep your team of people afloat, rescheduling dates and then rescheduling again and waiting for the world to change. If you were a journeyman songwriter or a touring troubadour, the year has not been so kind. Most of the singer\/songwriters I work with supplement their income\u2014a small publishing advance and the intermittent \u201chits\u201d recorded by major label artists\u2014by touring and performing in small clubs and venues for \u201cthe door\u201d and selling \u201cmerch\u201d (t-shirts, posters, CD\u2019s) out of the back of their vans.\u00a0 The upside is they are building an incredibly loyal grassroots following. The downside is if their fans can\u2019t leave the house and all the clubs are shut down, where does the live music go, and how do they make a living?\u00a0 While a stimulus check from the government is a lovely thing, it does not sustain a year of living. And this doesn\u2019t even begin to cover the psychological impact of being cut off not only from your livelihood but from the energy that feeds you\u2014the music itself and the audience\u2019s reaction to it. The flow is reciprocal.\u00a0 A symbiotic exchange of energy.\u00a0 And yes, the industrious creative ones turned to Facebook Live, Instagram Live, webcasts of all kinds\u2014Patreon, where fans can subscribe monthly for unique content from their favorites. But it has been a scary time.\u00a0 As a \u201ccivilian,\u201d we listen to music on the radio, stream music on DSP\u2019s like Spotify\/Pandora\/Tidal etc, we go to shows and concerts, we watch performers on late-night tv. But it takes a village. Behind every major artist, there is a vast array of handlers and co-conspirators\u2014studio and road musicians, cartage people, roadies, managers, lawyers, business managers, concert promoters, merchandise manufacturers and sellers, day to day assistants, bus drivers, truck drivers, staging people, concessions and ticket takers\u2014the list goes on and on and on. So the result of the shut-down spread deep and wide into the economy of the music industry. The fear and economic set-back has been palpable.<\/span><\/p>

Which brings me to someone near and dear to my heart\u2026 Travis Meadows\u2014incredible songwriter, brilliant troubadour, cancer survivor, amputee, ten years+ sober after years of addiction and self-destruction. Now happily married, the darling of deep songs about real things cut by the current glitterati of Hillbilly Hollywood\u2014Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Kenny Chesney, Jake Owen, Reba <\/span>et al<\/span><\/i>. Everything was going so well. Until this, and then that.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cI like me some rising. That\u2019s my jam,\u201d admits Travis.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s about all I\u2019ve ever done.\u00a0 Just ain\u2019t never been kicked this hard.\u00a0 It\u2019s gonna take a minute.\u201d\u00a0 A month ago he very well could have been talking about his career during the pandemic.\u00a0 He\u2019s actually referring to the odyssey that began a month ago when he went in for disc surgery on his neck, to be followed by spinal fusion after a life of excruciating back pain stemming from the prosthesis he wears every day after losing his leg at the ripe age of fourteen to bone cancer.\u00a0 Somehow he woke up from what had supposedly been successful disc replacement with a paralyzed tongue and esophagus.\u00a0 Just swallowing was a frightening and Herculean effort. Talking was out of the question.\u00a0 The Music Row community has rallied around him. A Go Fund Me has raised over $130K and an upcoming benefit at 3<\/span>rd<\/span> & Lindsley with many of the town’s biggest names performing will certainly help pay the medical bills. But what about the singer that can\u2019t sing?\u00a0 I asked him if he was going to his benefit show. \u201cLord no! That would be weird as fuck.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t know how to act. It would feel like attending my own funeral.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

It\u2019s a frightening proposition when you have spent your life writing and creating and singing. It\u2019s not what you do, it\u2019s who you are\u2014and patience is not a virtue.\u00a0 \u201cI need to be proactive.\u00a0 I can\u2019t just sit around and hope that it comes back.\u00a0 I am hopeful. There\u2019s been a shift the last three days.\u00a0 I think I turned a corner.\u00a0 I managed to get down the steps to my basement to do laundry. I had to crawl back up on all fours, but it was a big damn day.\u00a0 Still have a long way to go.\u201d <\/span><\/p>

Life imitates art.\u00a0 We have a long way to go.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cWill we ever feel completely okay, smashed up against each other in a mosh pit? Shoulder to shoulder general admission at an arena or an outdoor stadium dripping sweat in the middle of August?\u201d<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Maybe. I have gone with trepidation to a local singer\/songwriter venue a few times over the past few weeks. Socially-distanced tables. Masks when not seated. It still feels strange and gives me pause but the music transcends the fear.\u00a0 I have to dip my wing back in the water.\u00a0 Music is who I am. It feeds me. For me, music is an essential service, and musicians, the unsung essential workers of the pandemic. And truthfully, \u201cyoung people\u201d under the age of 30 are out in droves\u2014as if nothing has happened. Masks? What are masks?\u00a0 Will they ever feel the backlash of this plague?\u00a0 Who knows? And I hope not.\u00a0 I hope to a certain degree we can put this behind us and face the music.\u00a0 We are hard-wired for connection.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a magical connection\u2014like God walking in the room,\u201d Travis says, \u201cI always dye Easter eggs with my wife, and this year more than ever I think about rising\u2014He Has Risen. We are all rising. All will be well in the end.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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www.grammy.com\/musicares<\/a><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Photo credit - Phylicia J. L. Munn.\u200b<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cI had a radio guy say, \u2018Why don\u2019t you write some cute little fluffy song?\u2019,\u201d Mickey Guyton says, assessing the reality of country radio today. \u201cBut I\u2019m an adult. I\u2019m a woman going through real shit \u2013 and my life isn\u2019t light and fluffy.\u201d<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Photo credit - Steve Mundinger<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Beyond aligning our water molecules, music unites us. It\u2019s a mystery beyond consciousness. Here is some food for thought on why we need to head back to concerts from this leading voice in live music, Jim Horowitz, President and CEO of Jazz Aspen Snowmass, who knows \u201cMusic is sustenance.\u201d<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Music connects us all. It has even been proven to heal and foster health and growth of humans and plants through its mere vibration. These artists have taken their voices and used them to make a difference, to unite us all through the common language and transformative power of music. Rihanna uses her Clara Lionel Foundation to harness philanthropic efforts on a global scale. Next issue we talk to artists giving back big.<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Photo credit – Steve Condon To Go Or Not To Go BY WHITNEY DAANE A Nashville-native and graduate of Vanderbilt University, Whitney Daane began her career in entertainment in LA in the film business with stints at Allan-Rice Management and the William Morris Agency before being hired by Madonna to join Maverick Picture Company.\u00a0 Daane\u2026 <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-1","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nTO GO OR NOT TO GO - WERISEUP<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n