International Country Music Association Newsletter December 2001

POB 271238 Nashville, TN 37227

Email: intlcma@aol.com
Scarlett Vanek; Publisher
Bobbie Patterson; Editor
Rhett Ashley; Music Reviews

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Country Legend Needs Kidney
We received a request to help find a kidney donor for Freddy Fender. If you have any information which can help this country legend in his time of need, contact Barbara by email: bggplus3@aol.com

The Following DJs Need Your Music
Bob Atkins, 92 Serentine Creek Road, Redland Bay,QLD, Australia 4155 (country)
Rein Wortelboer, Akelei 10, CA 5803 Venray, The Netherlands (country & gospel,)
Doc Schulze, Aussere-Bayreuther Str 89, D 95032 Hof, Germany (country)
Frank Lindner, Plavener Str 07, d 44139 Dortmund, Germany (country)
Franz-Karl Opitz, Bayernstrasse 8, D 79100 Freiburg, Germany (country)
Horst Von Kofe, Kampstrasse 8, D 58540 Meinerzhagen, Germany (country)
Max Achatz, Theodore Dombart Str 5, 80805 Munich, Germany (country)

Scarlett Gets Married
Our esteemed publisher recently became Mrs. Andy Vanek. We're sure you join us, in wishing them the very best. For those of you who have wondered about Rhett & Scarlett, they are brother and sister. Their parents named him Rhett Ashley and her Scarlett Tarah Dawn. Anybody want to guess what their parents' favorite movie was?

I. C. M. A. Songwriting Contest
Our first contest was a success and is now finished. All the winners have been notified. It was so much fun and we received so many really good songs, the board of directors decided to do another one. The categories and prizes have changed slightly, so here's the scoop:

Categories & Prizes
Country Song, 1st. Place winner $500 and a write up, in the April newsletter.
Country Lyric:, 1st. Place winner $500 and a write up, in the April newsletter.
Gospel Song, 1st. Place winner $500 and awrite up, in the April newsletter.
Gospel Lyric, 1st Place Winner $500 and a write up, in the April newsletter.
Second Place winners will receive 2 free tickets to Ambassador Charlie Ray's Nashville Music Festival, to be held next Memorial Day weekend.

Rules & Deadline
Each entry must be plainly marked with category, in which it is entered. Limit no more than 8 entries per writer. All entries must be postmarked no later than February 15th. Entry Fee: $20 per song or lyric. Mail all entries to: ICMA Song Contest. POB 271238, Nashville, TN 37227

Internet Radio Requests Your Music
We received a request to mention a weekly Internet radio program. For more information contact Tom by email: 2tunes@440music.net

Tennessee CMA Announces First Annual Talent Competition
Colonel Buster Doss, board member of the Tennessee CMA (and our board member, as well) let us know they have settled on a date and location for their first annual talent competition. Membership in the TCMA is free. However; there will be a small entry fee for the competition. For complete information about this important event, call the Colonel at 931-649-2577. If his lovely lady Barbara answers the phone, go ahead and and flirt with her. She's on the board, too. She's a former Miss Tennessee and all Buster will do is shoot you. Buster's mailing address is POB 13, Estill Springs, TN 37330. He's President of three record companies and publishes a magazine.

Open Mic In Nashville
Ernie Simms hosts an open mic night, at the Clarion on Briley Parkway. He has recently changed evenings. His new night is Saturday. For details, give him a call at 615-367-2803.

Jazz Promoter Seeks Music To License For Sale
If you have friends who are into the jazz scene, you can do them a favor. A top Eastern European Jazz promoter is looking for new jazz to license & sell. He also does a jazz radio program & a jazz festival. He is well known and straight up. In 1996, him and Ambassador Charlie Ray CO-produced the largest country festival ever produced in Eastern Europe. For more information contact Dioni Piatkowski by email: erajazzu@jazz.pl

Music Trivia Question
Who was the first country recording artist to have 5 number 1 songs, on a debut album? Answer, later in this issue.

Ed Turnley, Attorney @ Law Accepting New Clients
Good attorneys are hard to find and even harder to hire. Being in any business means you need quick access to a really top notch attorney. When the International CMA was founded, that other CMA (the one that sucks up to major labels and never helps anybody else) tried to force us to change our name. Fortunately; one of our founders already had a relationship with a top notch Nashville attorney, named Edmund Turnley. When we received a letter from that other CMA's lawyer demanding we change our name, we took it to Ed Turnley. In less than a week, the problem went away. Great attorneys stay busy. However; Ed has recently wrapped up several time consuming cases and is currently accepting new clients. His address is Edmund Turnley, 30 Music Square West, Suite 206, Nashville, TN 37203. His telephone number is 615-321-8600.

Airplay International Launches New Non-Major Label Chart
It took almost two years to totally redesign computer software, but January 2002 will see Airplay International once again compiling an honest non-major label chart. As before, their chart will only cover American radio. Nobody has yet devised a way to compile an honest overseas chart. We tried to do so, for several months. However; after almost a year of effort, we had to call it quits. There is so much music released to so many radio programmers in so many countries, it just can't be done. The last time we tried, we had to admit defeat. We had over 400 DJs who sent us over 1,500 playlists that month. Those playlists included almost 5,000 total songs. More than 4900 songs were tied with the exact same number of total radio plays. If we had published an overseas radio chart, we would have had more than 4,900 songs tied for the same chart position. A visit to our DJ message board will show you the problem. On any given day 100 playlists are posted there. Print out the first 10 playlists and lay them by your computer. Look at the other 90 playlists. Every time you find a song that matches one on your first 10 playlists put a mark beside that song. The song with the most marks becomes the number one song. The song with the next most marks is number two, and so forth. If you can find 100 songs which received more marks than all the rest of the songs, you will have compiled an accurate overseas radio chart. If you can't do it, neither can anybody else. The larger the number of playlists, the bigger the problem becomes. You can prove this to yourself, by first checking a total of 50 playlists and then doing the entire 100. If this doesn't convince you, there are other web sites with additional playlists posted. The more playlists you tally, the bigger the problem will become. Of course; you could reduce the number of playlists. You could just pick 5 or 10 and call yourself creating a chart. The problem there is, the smaller the sample the less accurate the chart. An accurate chart must include a wide variety of playlists. Otherwise; the chart has no real meaning. A chart is similar to an opinion poll. If you work in an office with 10 other people, you could go to each of the 10 and ask them what their favorite ice cream is. Let's say 2 people like vanilla ice cream, 2 people like strawberry, and the other six each likes a different flavor. Based on your office poll, could you accurately determine what the other 5 billion people on Earth think about ice cream? That is similar to the way most so called overseas radio charts are put together. The fact is there just ain't any such thing as an accurate overseas radio chart. They are not an accurate gauge of what international radio is playing. At best, the people putting them together are too stupid to understand what they are attempting to do. At worse, they know exactly what they are doing and are deliberately deceiving you. Other than sheer numbers of samples, there is another way to do polling. This is based on what is commonly called scientific sampling. When your newspaper tells you the results of the latest CNN-New York Times poll, it is based on a scientific sampling of the American people. The people doing the poll have been very careful to select the right people to ask whatever questions, they might be asking. For an example, they know that X% of the American population is between 35 & 50 years of age. X% are black, white, male, female, married, single, divorce, city dwellers, small town dwellers, and so forth. They are very careful to include the same percentages of these various groups in their polling sample. When they follow these careful guidelines, they end up with a poll which is accurate to within plus or minus 3%. In other words, the very best they can do with scientific sampling is a 6 point spread. We attempted to create some sort of scientific sampling model for our overseas chart. We would have had to first determine on a worldwide basis what percentage of radio stations were in towns of each population level, what percentage were 5,000 watt, 10,000 watts etc. Since overseas DJs make up their own playlists, we would have needed to know percentages of males & females, age groups, income levels, and many other variables. Our best estimate of time and money required to gather this information and design a computer program which allowed for all the variables was 25,000 man hours and $4,500,000 (four million five hundred thousand dollars). Of course; if honesty and accuracy are unimportant anybody can put together an overseas radio chart. If you just have to have such a chart, make one up and put yourself in the number one position. Your overseas chart will be just as accurate as anybody else's. Overseas radio is important. It can help you polish your song selection, and performance. It can separate you from the vast herd of wannabes who have zero track record. Overseas playlists added to your promo kit impress club owners and other people who book entertainers. Overseas radio play can advance your career in dozens of ways. Just don't fall for crapola charts. Airplay International will be compiling a chart of non-major label country songs played, in the United States. There are only about 1,000 American radio stations which play non-major label country music. Airplay International will be receiving reports from more than one out of five of those stations. This will allow them to compile an accurate chart of what those stations are really playing. It's sort of as if you asked 1,000,000,000 (one billion) people about their favorite ice cream flavor. Based on a sample that large, you could make some accurate and reasonable statements concerning favorite ice cream flavors.

Garth's New Album Reveals His Dark Side
Garth's latest album, "Scarecrow" is dark indeed. Perhaps; his recent divorce brought out his darker side. Something did. The final cut is the darkest of the bunch. It was inspired by the death of his mother.

Crystal Gayle In Native American Music Awards Hall Of Fame
She is of Cherokee heritage and was the first female inductee. R. Carlos Nakai received the "Lifetime Achievement Award" and the Neville Brothers were named "Living Legends." Nakai's career includes 40 albums, two gold records, & several Grammy nominations. The Neville Brothers carry on the rich New Orleans R&B legacy. They are on the soundtrack of the documentary, "Black Indians." Ms. Gayle also was CO-host of the Christian Country Music Association Awards Show, in Nashville.

Songs Needed For Movie Soundtrack
Jessica Culpepper Music, B. M. I. is reviewing outside material. The material is needed for a documentary film, which will be entitled, "American Pride." It hopes to document America's reaction to the events of September 11. Submission policy: Send 3 songs or less to; Jessica Culpepper Music, B. M. I. POB 271656, Nashville, TN 37227

Answer To Music Trivia Question
Clint Black

A Reader's Comment From The United Kingdom
Thank you for sending me newsletters. However, I disagree with your view that the prime cause of Elvis Presley's success was the genius of "Colonel" Parker. Even more questionable is your statement this was a genius benign in intent towards Elvis Presley and his family. You begin with an inaccuracy, stating that "Colonel Tom Parker was born June 26, 1910, in Austria." Evidence points to him coming illegally to America not from Austria but Holland. Tom Parker, manager of the late Elvis Presley, has confirmed published reports that he was born in Holland and never became an American citizen. Parker, whose original name was Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk, revealed his origin in court papers seeking dismissal of a lawsuit filed against him by the Presley estate in Manhattan Federal Court. Declaring, "I am a man without a country," Parker claimed he cannot be sued under Federal laws. (Variety: 8 June 1983): The dictionary definition of "genius" is "a person or spirit regarded as powerfully influencing a person for good or evil"; an exceptional ... power or ability or tendency" (Oxford English). Note there is no assumption of morality in genius. So a "genius" is gifted, either for good or for evil. Adolf Hitler for example has been attributed with "genius" and of course there was no morality in that genius but rather evil. He WAS born in Austria, by the way. So the "Colonel" could possibly be credited with genius. Certainly his early career which included placing chickens on a hot plate and having them dance at a fairground, took a meteoric and inspired lease of life after encountering the very young, the naive and talented Elvis Presley. However, crediting him with having essentially created Elvis Presley is unjustified. Elvis once claimed that his unique success was due to him being in the right place at the right time. In other words, history was at the point where there had to come along someone who in the words of Sam Phillips would be white but sound black and so earn him (Phillips) a million dollars. And Elvis happened to be that man, according to himself. Elvis had a wide enough knowledge of music history to make that above modest observation. However it is also true that he was not just a product of history but a maker of history. Long before Parker or Phillips heard him, Elvis had a distinct musical pedigree and a growing local following of those who had discovered his unique ability to fuse country and black styles making something new. Hence your comparison of Elvis Presley with various artists is inappropriate since however talented they may be, none (with the possible exception of Frank Sinatra) were musical innovators as was Elvis. More absurd is your claim not only that Parker's "genius" was creative but that it was a kindly genius that inhabited the "Colonel" and which benignly endowed generations of the Presley family. This is an odd disavowal of the Court's ruling that the Colonel's percentage from Elvis Presley was uniquely exploitative. You claim that Parker intended to benefit the Presley family. However it is evident that the Presley family do not share your opinion, since it was only by suing him for fraud and mismanagement that they were able to reap their proper financial inheritance. Of course both men are now dead and of their lives and our lives, only God can be the final Judge. I am not implying that Elvis Presley was all good or that the "Colonel" was all bad. The Bible says that all have sinned. It is reputably recorded that Elvis knew Jesus Christ as His Saviour and asked forgiveness of God before he died. Maybe that example, along with his unique musical gift, is his greatest legacy to us. Yours sincerely, Deborah Shah

Our Reply
Thank you for your observations and opinions. It was never my intention to say Col Parker was kindly, generous, or especially interested in anybody's welfare, except his own. I only pointed out the result of his actions. As a direct result of Col. Tom Parker's skills as a promoter Elvis became a superstar and his family is enjoying great wealth. Bill Gates goal was to make money. In the process of chasing money, Microsoft was created. Microsoft has changed the world by enabling the PC revolution, but it was created and continues to make money. Thomas Edison did not pursue his many inventions to help mankind. His goal was to make money. However; his recording machine, light bulb, moving pictures, and other inventions have indeed changed the world & benefited mankind. I do not intend to compare Tom Parker with either Bill Gates or Thomas Edison. I merely point out the fact that a high percentage of good results arise from less than noble intentions. To follow up on your reference to Hitler, I point out one other such item. People who rise to the peak of political success, by definition are power seekers. If Churchill had not been a power seeker, he would not have been in a position to contribute to Hitler's defeat and demise. There is a common American saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." The understood counter part is, "the road to heaven is frequently paved with self interested intentions." Colonel Tom Parker was neither kindly nor easy to abide. He was a genius at promotion. As a direct result of his genius, some bad and many good results were achieved. The world is full of highly talented failures. A quick visit to Nashville's lower Broadway district will allow you to see dozens of them. Would Elvis have ended up on lower Broadway, without Col. Parker? We'll never know, since we cannot change history and remove Col. Parker from Elvis's career. I do believe it is rational to draw this conclusion, without a highly skilled & motivated promoter his career would certainly have been vastly different. Fate, happenstance, luck, or the Gods of fortune put Elvis & Tom Parker together. The result was and is history. Jason Hawkins worked very closely with Tom Parker. He frequently hired young ladies to scream and faint. He carefully put them in the front rows so everybody in the back rows could see them and be swept into similar reactions. You could call that a dirty trick. You could call that mob psychology. Col. Parker called it promotion. I like his definition. I know Jason Hawkins very well. I have known him for more than 20 years. Jason says Tom confided in him, near the end of his life. The Colonel told Jason he was born in Austria. He went to Holland to avoid arrest in Austria. In Holland, he obtained false papers as a Dutch citizen. He moved to the United States to farther conceal his real past and citizenship. Is the story true? I have no reason to question Jason's story. He has never broadcast the story or his close relationship with Colonel Parker. I believe the Colonel told the story to Jason. That does not prove the story was accurate. Col. Parker was a highly skilled story teller. He operated from a purely self interest point of view. He was a very complex person. If he had hidden motivations, he almost certainly would lie. I can see the self interest in telling courts and the public he was born in Holland. I cannot see the self interest in telling Jason Hawkins he was born in Austria. Therefore; I believe the Austrian birth version. Of course; each of us can choose to believe or not believe any story. Again thank you, for your comments. I believe your comments & our reply will trigger thought and intelligent conversation, among some of our readers.-Rhett

Music Reviews By Rhett Ashley will return in January

From All Of Us To All Of You, Have a Safe & Joyous Hoilday Season!!
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