Corruption And Jealousy Doesn't Only Exist In Nashville

 

 

When I first started out, this would have been in the early 80s, I noticed the jealous ones.  Some were musicians, some were booking agents, some were radio people, and some were not in the music business at all.

I remember a guy who worked with me at Higa's Automatic Transmissions in the early 70s.  Al was the top R & R guy at the shop.  One day were were on our lunch break just talking idly, enjoying our lunch.  Out of the blue he says to me, "Nobody cares what #2 or #10 does, they want #1".  I don't know why he would have said that to me, because I was not very good at anything that he knew about.  I was new at transmissions, I was mostly cussing out the cars.  There was never any discussion about my Little League Baseball time, or my High School Basketball time, all he saw that I was next to incompetent at transmissions.  Maybe he saw something in my that I didn't, who knows, but I remember that to this day.

So, after 5 years of working on automatic transmissions, first Higa's, then AAMCO in Escondido, then AAMCO in San Diego, one day I said the hell with this, I'm done, done working myself half to death, and done putting up with the likes of Ron Smith - boss man who had it in for me.  By this time, I had gotten good at transmissions - thanks mostly to Al at Higa's - taught me a lot of tricks, and of course, basics.  So, after selling everything I owned - transmission tools, furniture, car, motorcycle, I went to Guitar Center on C Street in San Diego, bought a Les Paul Custom, then down to a tiny music store in Pacific Beach, bought a Fender Super Reverb amp.  I decided to head back to Hawaii.  I knew the area, I knew the military clubs, figured I could get a better start there than in San Diego.  There was also that the guys I'd been hanging around with for the past 4 or 5 years did nothing but try to establish their superiority over me, and that got really old, so, figured I would get out of San Diego.

I arrive in Hawaii, tried to start a band with an uncle who played guitar some.  This is the uncle who used to take me to Palolo Housing (The Projects) and play at parties that his family would have.  I wasn't good by any means, but it was still a good time.  That didn't work out so well, his heart wasn't in playing music, so we parted ways, not good ways, either, but well, such is life.

I started to make my way around to some of the military clubs to talk to managers.  At the same time I found some guys who I thought I might be able to play with.  At some point, a guy, Eddie Parales, saw me at the Fort Shafter Enlisted Men's club.  He had been playing in a Country band in a little country bar called Ducky's Silver Spur - it was way out in Ewa Beach.  He told me they were looking for a guitar player, and if I would be interested in auditioning.  I said I would, even thought I didn't know the first thing about Country Music, or much about lead guitar.  Well, wouldn't you know it, I got the job.  Looking back, it was probably because I was no threat to anybody.  Of course, I didn't think that way that early in my life, but I'm pretty sure that's why I got the job.  Eddie was always good to me, encouraging, telling me I was doing fine, even when I wasn't.  The other guys, kinda not - they had no problem telling me I was weak, gave me a hard time about pretty much everything.  I guess me being who I am, these guys' harping didn't really affect me, I just did the best I could, learned what I could.  This is where a couple of the other old timer musicians (not the ones in the band) took a liking to me, taught me stuff, encouraged me.  There was the one guy, Nick Masters, 60 something year old guy, used to play with Bill Haley and the Comets (after their heyday), who would come in, play my guitar, do his flashy stuff, while sneering and snickering at me.  Same it didn't really affect me, I noticed it, but I guess I just didn't think much of it.  This was the first I noticed the insane jealousy of so many musicians, including 2 of the 3 guys in the band I was in.  These guys, as well as the girl singer, whose band it was, would say less than pleasant things about the other musicians in the circuit.  I vividly remember the horrible things they said about one of the musicians - Earl Hughes.  The guy was very good, good lead guitar player, good fiddle player, good pedal steel player, and good singer - in fact, exceptional at all of it.  He had a good look, and his stage presence was also exceptional.  There was also that the guy I replaced, hated me with a vengeance.  I ran across his Facebook page a few years ago, tried to friend him, but I guess his hatred for me was still with him, so, that was the end of that.  I played in that band for about five months, witnessing the backstabbing, the badmouthing, the resentment.  Being new at music, I had no idea just how intense this kind of thing was, I was so naive, and didn't care to take part in any of it.

So, five months of this, and while some of it was not the greatest time, some of it was great, especially the couple of old timers who were teaching me stuff.  What I learned from those guys was priceless, and I'm thankful for them to have made the effort to share their experience and knowledge with this young kid who could barely play.

The next chapter of my playing music was with J.T. Cardens, another somewhat old timer who knew what true Country Music was.  I guess I'll talk about that in my next post :D .

We with all my videos and music, all production, all instruments, and all vocals by me : D.

Okie From Muskogee 

45 Years In The Music Business Has Taught Me A Few Things

Some of you may know, you who know me, that I've been in the music business for something like 45 years.  I've been to Nashville 5, 6, times or so.  I've seen what goes on behind the scenes, I've seen documentaries, I've seen articles.  Here is the beginning of my thoughts:

One of the things I've learned by having made it to this late age is, there is so much corruption in the world.  There are people who don't think like decent human beings, they feel the need to control the world, intentionally hurt people, even murder people.  So, let's huddle around the music business, being that that's where I've been all these decades.

From the early 80s on back, it was difficult to break into what was known as the "Big Time", in other words to get signed by a major Country record label.  The first thing to keep in mind is, record executives, "Talent Scouts", today known as "A & R" people have a very bad track record when it comes to signing talent.  They'll all tell you that "Most of the artists and bands we sign never even recoup the promotional costs".  It doesn't seem that difficult to me, to recognize real talent, but for some reason, the people in positions of power - even back then, had a very hard time finding the cream of the crop.  They got lucky with some - Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, and a few others.  But when you think about how many thousands of artists and bands they signed, that never went anywhere, the percentage of talent that was successful was minute.  Well, sometime during the 80s, right around the time that the Urban Cowboy movie came out, things took a turn for the worse.  The record people moved in the direction of Pop music, taking away the true Country roots and traditions.  They signed some of the most horrible acts, and the ones who started out Country, they changed them - turned them towards Pop, which destroyed the careers of many true Country artists, musicians, and bands.  By the early 90s, there were very few true Country artists being signed by the major Country record labels.  By the mid 90s, pretty much all the Country dance halls were gone.  We can thank the record labels, Mainstream Radio, and the Line Dancers for that.  I'll get into all of these in more detail in my future posts.  Record labels started right about that time, to sign some of the most horrid acts, while intentionally locking out true talent - and that system continues to this day - and, they get much better at it with each day that goes by.  Mainstream Radio, of course, being part and parcel to the corruption, would only play what came from the major record labels.  A side:  My dad was a radio disc jockey during the 50s and 60s, he informed me that the front desk of all radio stations were instructed to toss any and all "Unsolicited Music" straight into the trash.  Also by the mid 90s, all the good studio musicians that had been in Nashville were tossed out, having been replaced by cheap imitations.  Ray Flacke was one of the greatest Country guitar players in the history of Country Music, the guy could not get hired for the life of him.  And his story is no isolated case.

The 2000s arrive and now the studios are starting to use electronic devices on the recordings.  Drum machines, MIDI, sampling, Pitch Correcting Software (not to be confused with "Autotune", which is an effect, not any kind of thing that would correct pitch), electronic harmonizers, and soon after - Computer Generated "Content".  Take a quick fast forward to 2025, and the majority of the music you hear coming out of Nashville is mostly computer generated - no real musicians, no real instruments.  The ones doing the singing today, none are actual artists, they are actors, they have been taught how to put on fake southern accents - most of them grossly overdone.  Most of then don't even know how to actually sing.  And the songs - some written by "Staff Writers", who get paid slightly more than minimum wage, to write songs that fit inside the horrible box that Nashville has been creating for decades.  Many of the other songs are written by computers.  This is why the lyrics are mindless and wandering - pandering to the teenage groups who are easily fooled by the billion dollar a year hype that Nashville puts out.  "He's the real deal", the guy they refer to with that one is anything but real.  The back stories are all concocted by the publicist departments - same - guys who sit around all day making up total and complete lies that make these "Stars" sound like something.  I happened to know a guy who worked for a major Country act that has now been around for more than 20 years.  I asked him early on, "What's it like working for ___?".  His answer:  "He's a hell of a nice guy, but it would be great if he could hit a note once in a while".

Before I sign off for tonight, my one last thought, nobody can tell me there isn't real talent out here, it's just that Nashville will not let it be heard.

So, I guess I'll stop here for now.  There is so much more, which I'll get into in my future posts.  So please check back.

The video is me, playing all the instruments, singing all the parts, and doing all the production.  The song is one of my originals, lamenting to my favorite Country singer, Merle Haggard, asking what the hell happened to our music.

Till next time.

Mr. Haggard

It's 2025, I'm Back, For Now, Anyway

Well, it's been something like five years since I last posted anything here.  I was just watching a really good TV show (which is very rare these days), the girl was blogging about her work.  Reminded me I have this blog.  I guess I was using it for somewhat of a journal or diary, and for venting.  I'm pretty sure there are some posts that showed my depression and anxiety, my extreme lows, my disgust, among other less than pleasant things.

Anyway, I guess I've always been one of those people who cannot stomach things like corruption, fraud, lying, exploiting, manipulating, bullying, and such.  These things are rampant in today's world, and I guess I'm not handling it so well.  My depression comes and goes, my anxiety is pretty much always present, and my disgust meter is constantly pegging.

As of today, I've been in the music business for 45 years.  There have been a few times where I thought I was done, gotten out from a few months to a couple of years, then falling right back into it.  I guess it's who I am, who I'll always be. 

I'm now in Reno, Nevada, been here about eight months.  I spent a couple years in Prineville, Oregon, before this.  I played music fairly regularly while I was in Prineville, and same here, working fairly regularly.

I'm seeing changes in the business.  There was of course, the whole Covid fiasco, which put a lot of people out of business.  I delivered food, it was the best I could do during that time, and amazingly, I survived it all.  Anyway, changes in the music business.

Way back in the 80s, when I was first starting out, all the musicians were better than I was.  They could do things I thought I would never be able to do.  Fast forward to 2025, and I guess I progressed to some degree :D .  I may have mentioned before, but just in case not, I play nine instruments.  And I'm not talking about dabbling, I can actually play nine instruments.  Over the past year or so, I've put together around a hundred music videos.  In these videos, I play all the instruments (all real instruments), then put the video parts together.  I digress.  What I've seen over the past few years is, the calibre of musicians seems to have deteriorated.  I'm not saying there were unlimited numbers of great players and singers back in the day, but the calibre was noticeably better.  I was lucky in the way that there were some old timers in Hawaii at that time, who taught me things - valuable things.  Ettiquette, guitar stuff (most of which I use to this day), Sears And Roebuck turnarounds, and, what Country Music actually is.  There were, of course the ones who weren't so helpful or supportive - taking every opportunity to put me down.  That's not a complaint, it's just life.  Believe it or not, they actually helped me in ways that they probably never thought about.

These days, there are guys who will do ANYTHING to get onto a stage.   A lot of them are downloading karaoke tracks off the internet, put them onto a tablet, go onto a stage and sing karaoke.  They don't really play, most of them can't hit a note, and they're intensely reading lyrics off the tablet.  Then there's the computer generated "Content" - where instead of playing real instruments, they get the computer to generate sounds that resemble real instruments.  I see all of this as fraud, and I've made quite a few people very angry by saying that, but well, it's the way I see it.  It's been a rough road trying to work, with all the corruption, the fraud, the envy and jealousy, and the silly prejudices.  Many who are in positions of booking live music are, or were, musicians.  They see a guy who can do things that they couldn't, who gets too much attention, and he's toast (as they say).  I have had that happen more times than I can count.  Then, there's Facebook, which I see as a great tool to point out corruption and other bad behavior.  Many of these people in positions will see something they don't like, and as a matter of punishment, will lock me out of their place of business - restaurant, bar, etc.

I did land a good place to play up in Virginia City, just outside of Reno.  It's called "Bonanza Mexican Cantina".  The owners are the exception to the rule.  They are honest, decent people who want the best for their customers, and who want their business to do well.  I have yet to see their ego be any part of what they do.  Before that, I worked at a place, Delta Saloon, whole different story.  So, I play at the Bonanza Saturdays and Sundays, and more during the warmer months.  I also play a few places around Reno when weather permits - they are patio jobs.  The Wild River Grille - the manager - same as Bonanza, does his best to do for his customers, as well as for the business.  I'm in their rotation, I play there 3 days a month.  Then there's Legends Bar And Grille - another one where the owner and manager are straight up - what's best for the customers, and for the business. I do well is places where that's the case.  There are a whole lot less of those than the other, but I guess that's just life in the music business in 2025.

So, that's where I am at the moment.  Things got a little tight over this winter, with snow cancelling me a few times, and the endless barrage of corporations stealing money - another of the perils of life in 2025 - well, I guess all along :D .

I'll be here posting for a while.  I have a lot to say about the music business in general - a lot about the horrible corruption in Nashville and the major Country Music record labels.  Maybe some about everyday life.  And who knows what else.

So, hopefully you'll check back to see what other crazy stuff you might find here :D .  I guess I'll try adding a video to each of my posts.  Keep in mind, in my videos, all production, and all instruments and vocals by me.

YouTube Video here:  Dixieland Delight

Till next time.