Group Dissatisfied With Country Music Events
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) “Our gripe, if we have one, is that these people want to come in and take our music away,” said Bill Anderson, in one sentence summing up a week of dissension and controversy in country music.
Anderson and about 50 of the more traditional country music artists are the founders of the Association of Country Entertainers (ACE), formed last week to protest the influx of “these people” into country music.
Chairman Anderson and other ACE members were never really specific about who “these people” were. But one thing was certain, they weren’t truly country.
Three days after the ACE was formed last week, two of its members were elected officers of the Country Music Association.
Not that the voices of Porter Wagoner and Tammy Wynette can change the CMA, but their election shows how seriously the music industry regarded the events which led up to ACE’s stormy beginning last Tuesday night.
The artists indicated that they were fed up with a series of 50 called progressive changes in the industry. They weren’t happy with where country music was going. And, although few admitted it publicly, some were afraid they were being left behind.
Entertainer Billy Walker ex pressed the frustrations of a country music stalwart in a world where upstarts and foreigners have the hit songs. “Country music is a way of life,” he said. “Most of us in this group have been in this town (Nashville) for years. We have fought the road to take the music industry where it is today.
“Then others want to take it over”
By others Walker meant “people from California and the East Coast.”
“This used to be a very simple, trustworthy town,” he said. “Then these people came in and prostituted our business and watered down our music. This was done by big money on the East and West Coast.”
“Now, it’s a cliquish, political town.”
This year’s Country Music Association awards were, Anderson said, “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Whereas in the past, a goodly share of the top CMA awards went to such unabashedly country entertainers as Johnny Cash, Charley Pride, Loretta Lynn and Roy Clark, two of the top 1974 awards went to artists with major “cross-over” hits.
Charlie Rich, who some say isn’t really country, was named entertainer of the year. His recent hits, including “Most Beautiful Girl” and “Behind Closed Doors,” were two of the biggest cross-over successes ever. Both went to the top of country and pop charts.
Likewise, Australian Olivia Newton-John, CMA female vocalist of the year, crossed from pop into country with her songs, “I Honestly Love You” and “If You Love Me.”
This is what stuck in the traditionalists craw to win a CMA award you have to be a cross-over artist.
“When Olivia Newton-John has gone on network television, she has denied being a country music artist,” Anderson said.
“We’d rather see a Tammy Wynette or a Loretta Lynn or an anybody who would say ‘Yes, I’m country.”
“Olivia Newton-John’s people have said they don’t want her working personal appearances with the likes of Porter Wagoner, Tammy Wynette and George Jones.”</strong>
The election of Wagoner and Miss Wynette to CMA posts Friday fulfilled Anderson’s promise to get “more of a voice for artists in the Country Music Association.”
During ACE’s first week, the entertainers were not sure what it was they hoped to do, except to define country music as music performed by an artist who says he’s country a move to exclude artists from crossing over from pop and taking country music awards.
CMA officers do not, however, have a voice in CMA policy making, the preserve of the board of directors, which was elected earlier this year. Also, the CMA awards are voted by the organization’s 4,000-plus membership.