Although, my first task when I showed up on Sunday morning for rehearsals was to try and solve a feature issue with our PSM1000 system.  Monitor Engineer Mike Parker had accessed a certain menu to take advantage of some of the “special features” of the system but could not get the unit back into it’s regular operating mode after doing so.  I called up to Shure HQ’s on Monday morning and a few emails later we had the solution.  I find it exciting to learn something new every single day!

As in the past, ATK Audiotek provided over 20 channels of UHF-R wireless systems for both vocals and instrument packs.  They also sent a rack of the aforementioned PSM1000 systems for monitors.    Shure Artists that appeared on the show this year included Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, LeAnn Rimes, and one of the shows hosts Trace Adkins, who performed alongside Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Mixing the music for the show was Randy Faustino and sending it all out to the public was production engineer Klaus Landsberg.  FOH for the venue was Mikel Stewart with ATK Audiotek.

Shure Artist Luke Bryan took home 9 awards that evening and Little Big Town brought home the Video of the Year award.  Congratulations to all of the artists that were nominated and those who won.

Ryan

Someone has been making deals with Mother Nature because she decided to ease up on the crews that work this show in the stifling heat.  There were breezes like we’ve never felt and nights that were simply gorgeous outside.  Yes, there was the expected rainfall but not nearly as bad as it was in past years, interrupting the show schedule.

As usual, I spent the majority of my day over at LP Field as the groups loaded in.  This event has always been exciting to be a part of to see all the contacts we have in Country Music and meet some new faces.  I did, however, spend sometime across the river at the Riverfront Stages to catch a few artists.  Jo Dee Messina has been a Shure Artist clear back to her first hit and she never fails to draw a huge crowd at this event.  After so many years in this industry, she still delivers a great performance!  The other artist I caught there was Corey Smith who had a great following and loves playing in Nashville. If you are not hip to his music, go check out his site and download “Maybe Next Year.”  He’s a great songwriter!

LP Field is home to the Tennessee Titans.  This week, it was the evening party spot for all the fans who spend the week in town to catch all their favorites like Glen Campbell, who I have never seen in concert.  What a treat! One night Ronnie Milsap kicked off the evening playing all of his hits.  He sounded amazing as well.

Some of the Shure Artists that rocked the field were The Band Perry, Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Randy Houser, Little Big Town, Dierks Bentley, and Martina McBride who performed last on Sunday to close out a great week of music in Nashville.

Shure was well represented throughout the fest on both stages thanks to the help of Clair Nashville and Morris Light and Sound.  The wired mics that we brought out to the CMT Music Awards were then brought over to be used at LP Field.

Thanks to all for continuing to wave the Shure Flag and for keeping the spirit of music alive and well in Nashville and beyond.

Ryan

Music City

Day One - empty stadium

Glen Campbell

Covering up at FOH

Paisley's guitar cabs

Brad Paisley

Riverfront Stage

Riverfront 2

UHF-R & PSM900's

Jo Dee's crowd at Riverstages

Jo Dee rocks the river

Jo Dee Messina and Ryan

Luke Bryan

Luke Bryan from FOH

Little Big Town - Front Page News!

Mics a plenty

John McBride and his awesome desk

Side Stage

Crew Humor

Back of the Stadium

Post Show Teardown

This years’ CMT Music Awards was held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday, June 6.  Shure pitched in a healthy supply of wired mics to be used on the show and Clair Nashville brought in the wireless systems.  Endorsers Luke Bryan, The Band Perry, Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, and Brad Paisley all used Shure UHF-R wireless systems with various capsules for their performances.   Other artists who used Shure included Zac Brown Band, Toby Keith, and Kenny Chesney.

I brought in a pair of SRH750DJ headphones for monitor engineer Jason Spence to try out and he was very impressed with their response.  I also caught Brad Paisley backstage and he commented that he’s been loving his amp sound lately with just pair’s of SM57′s on them.

Little Big Town performed their new smash hit “Pontoon” on top of a real Pontoon, complete with a slide off the back and plenty of folks on board having a good time being on national television (See pictures below)

The end of show performance featured Rascal Flatts singing their latest “Banjo” with a quick segue into Journey singing their trademark “Don’t Stop Believing.” The entire audience were on their feet!  A great way to end a great show.

However, that was not the end to my week.  The CMA Music Fest would carry me through the weekend.  (Stand by, I’m going to bring you that blog right after these messages…..)

Ryan

Wireless World

Rascal Flatts and Journey backstage

Jason Spence

Little Big Town

Loading The Stage

My Creds

Red Solo Cup

The Stage

Outside the Arena

A couple of exciting aspects of this years’ show included the fact that PSM1000′s were relied upon as the only system for ear monitors and Shure’s new Axient wireless system made 2 appearances on the show.  The first was with artist Chris Young and then later in the show with Shure Artist Sara Evans.  Both artists used the SM58 capsule and the system sounded incredibly clean.

One emotional point during the show was when Shure Artists Little Big Town sang a song with a children’s choir written by newcomer Hunter Hayes entitled “Here’s Hope.” The group started and ended with verses from John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Another magic moment came in the form of an actual wedding ceremony, performed during the song “Marry Me” sung by Shure Artist Martina McBride who was accompanied by Pat Monahan of Train.

Rascal Flatts debuted their new hit single “Banjo”, joined by Steve Martin whose banjo was captured using a KSM137.  Toby Keith brought out his “Red Solo Cup” for Vegas and sang while wandering through the crowd, joined by the one and only Wayne Newton and comedian Carrot Top. The Band Perry debuted their new single “Postcard from Paris” singing on a trio of KSM9′s.

Another big highlight for me was when KISS walked by backstage, a couple of times.  They were there to present the award for Vocal Group of the Year.  I grew up listening to these Rock Icons and to see them that close was pretty awesome.

The crew for the show worked extra hard this year as they were rehearsing 2 shows at once.  The next day after the awards show was a special concert – Lionel Richie and Friends – to be broadcast later this month.  It’s always a pleasure hanging with this crew as they are so professional and offer great advice/commentary on current and future products.

Click on this link to see some highlights of the show and all the Shure products in action.

Nashville, TN

2011 marks not only the 40 year Anniversary of the CMA Music Fest but also the 10th year of the Shure office in Nashville. I have been fortunate to be able to attend this show since Shure opened the Nashville Artist Relations office in 2001. It has been great to be able to support this event and meet with all of the great people who have put it on over the years. It has changed over the years as they are now taping many of the performances for later inclusion in a 2 hour television special. Roughly half of the artists that performed at LP Field during the 4 day event are either Shure Artists or used Shure on vocals. OK, why not, let’s list them all!

Shure Artists:

Sara Evans
Brad Paisley
Dierks Bentley
Little Big Town
Martina McBride
Trace Adkins

Josh Turner, Dailey & Vincent  and Rascal Flatts

Shure users:

Ashton Shepherd
Chris Young
The Band Perry
and The Janedear Girls

It’s always great to see the crews for each of these artists and meet new faces and engineers.   This show is the perfect place to get lots of business accomplished.  Although it’s very hot and the hours are long, I do look forward to this show every year.

Each night, the stadium filled up with enthusiastic crowds and there were several guest artists who showed up to sing along.  Alabama showed up on Thursday night to perform with Brad Paisley, American Idol winner Scotty McCreery joined Josh Turner on a song, Martina McBride and Idol runner-up Lauren Alaina made a great pairing on Martina’s song “Anyway“, Little Big Town joined  Rascal Flatts for an awesome display of vocal harmonies on a medley of classic rock tunes.

As customary, each night started off with the singing of our National Anthem.  On Saturday night, Shure Artists’ Dailey and Vincent sang their version which is THE BEST version that I have ever heard.  I’m sure it will be up on the internet soon enough,  keep an eye out for it.

Some of the products that were prominently used throughout the shows included the UR2/SM58 and the UR2/KSM9 for many of the lead and backing vocals, the Beta 98AMP for toms, a few KSM313 ribbon mics on amps  and well as many KSM32′s for overheads and guitar amps.

The annual appearance of rain was broken this year but it was a close one on Saturday evening.  It cooled off quite a bit (which was welcomed by some) but never a drop.

So comes to a close another great year of artists performing at this wonderful event.  Speaking of Anniversaries, my wife and I celebrated 17 years on Saturday!  Looking forward to many more!

Ryan

Montclair State University – Montclair, NJ

This was the first time in about 3-4 years that I’ve been back at the Modern Drummer Fest and back to MSU.  It was great to see this campus again and it has been growing and rebuilding ever since.

Last year, Shure sent a boatload of mics to the event.  This year, due to the fact that 2 Shure artists were on the bill, I decided it would be good to come out and support.  I arrived Friday afternoon and went over to the hall to see how set-up was progressing……quite nicely actually!  Shure Endorser Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez was setting up his group first as they would be closing the show.  He had 12 musicians and a flamenco tap dancer to top it all off.   Among these musicians was an amazing vocal singer from Spain that Horacio has been telling me about for years: Concha Buika.  Along a percussion player, 3 background singers (one being Horacio’s daughter) a couple of horn players, Keys, guitar, and bass, this would turn out to be one of the most interesting and musically complex performances I had ever seen at this show.  My compliments to Negro’s manager, Margaret Sterlacci for organizing all of these artists, literally from around the globe to come in and perform.  Of course,  I made sure that we had plenty of the new mics along for the ride.  On his Toms, we put up the Beta 98AMP and for his ride, the Beta 181/C.  On overheads, a pair of KSM32‘s.  On the guitar amp, the KSM313 ribbon mic always delivers amazing tone. On the Kick, the popular Beta 52A and the new Beta 91A combination.

The next morning, I arrived at the University around 9 am to catch the show opening with endorser Jim Riley (Rascal Flatts).  Jim was invited to do a Master Class for about 125 people.  Jim is also a fantastic player and a great clinician.  His focus was on using rudiments to enhance your playing on the kit musically.  He played along with several tracks that he had composed.  He also mentioned that as musical director for Rascal Flatts, he is allowed a lot of flexibility in arranging for them.  Jim also used the Beta 98AMP’s and the Beta 181′s for his clinic. A special Congratulations goes out to Jim for being voted the Modern Drummer 2011 Country Drummer of the Year.

Other artists invited this year included Gil Sharone, Trevor Lawrence Jr., Jeff “Tain” Watts, John Riley and Aquiles Priester.  It was a great show and there were plenty of great comments on the new Beta drum mics.

Shure Endorser Billy Ward also showed up.  It was wonderful catching up with him.

Special Thanks to the staff at Modern Drummer magazine for always putting together an exciting show.  Thanks to HB Group and Bill Dest for handling the sound needs and the crew for taking such good care of all of the mics.

Buddy Guy is the featured artist in this issue, in which editor Cory Lorentz bemoans the current glut of reality shows and gives a shout-out to those talented folks who are still driving the long road to fame, with all its blood, sweat, and tears.

View and download the full On Tour With Shure Fall 2008 Issue on shure.com.