Not only this, our PSM1000 system was exclusively relied upon for all wireless ear monitor mixes. 16 mixes and over 50 belt packs were used for all of the acts.

Shure artists Brad Paisley, Luke Bryan, The Band Perry, Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, and Little Big Town all used the UR system with various capsules.

Speaking of Little Big Town, a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to them for winning Single of the Year for “Pontoon” and finally getting the award they have been working towards for 13 years, Vocal Group of the Year!

Other artists that used Shure UR handheld transmitters included Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Willie Nelson, Eli Young Band, Taylor Swift, Hunter Hayes (who won Best New Artist), Brantley Gilbert, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Kelly Clarkson, and Carrie Underwood.

As usual, I was able to attend both rehearsal and the show to hang with the crews and the greet the artists.  I was also pleased to have fellow Shure Associate Bill Ostry visiting from our Market Development team. It’s always a pleasure to have Associates come down to visit and get a taste of all of the action in Nashville.

There are plenty of YouTube videos of the performances from the show online.  Check out them all out, including a very special duet with Kelly Clarkson and Vince Gill.

Ryan

There are so many elements that contribute to putting on an awards show like the GRAMMYs.  To list every aspect would take too long so we’re going to focus on our side of this trip.

As everything usually comes together at the last minute for this show, we sent out a nice compliment of Shure mics to supplement what sound company ATK Audiotek already had in stock. Appearing for the first time on this show was the Beta 181/C condenser mic. We sent 20 of those and saw several get used on tympani (The Beach Boys) and occasionally on drum overheads. We also sent a few of the KSM313 ribbon mics, one of which prominently appeared on John Paul White’s guitar amp during The Civil Wars short but very effective performance in the show.

We were also very pleased to learn early on that the PSM1000 ear monitor systems would be the exclusive system for the show this year. There were plenty of bodypacks on hand for the performers and many of the crew people made a point to let us know how well the system was working for them.

Watching the rehearsal and then the performances over the course of 4 days, there were many highlights for us that sounded amazing in the house, thanks to both Jeff Peterson who finely tuned the PA and Ron Reeves who mixes the acts so well.  The Beach Boys segment featuring Maroon 5 and Foster The People was quite a thrill to hear live in the house. Each group nailed the original harmonies, it was one of the highlights of the evening. The other was seeing The Civil Wars perform on this broadcast. They have quickly become a respected group that continues to impress well-established artists like Adele, Taylor Swift and now Coldplay, who Tweeted that they are now fans of the group.

The Glen Campbell tribute featured newly signed artists The Band Perry who sang “Gentle On My Mind.” It was great to see Glen having so much fun on stage in light of his ongoing battle with Alzheimer’s.

It was especially gratifying to have the industry standard SM58 open this years’ show in front of Bruce Springsteen and then have Sir Paul McCartney close the show on a wired Beta 58A. You can’t get more Rock and Roll than that!

Seeing the same crew that has been doing this successfully for so many years is always a wonderful part of this trip. Maintaining those relationships and letting them know we are there for support is a vital part of attending this show as well as talking with them about our products. There were a lot of people who have not had the opportunity to try the PSM1000’s out. Thanks to ATK Audiotek and the monitor engineers for this show, Mike Parker and Tom Pesa, over 20 acts were exposed to the new standard in monitoring.

Special thanks go out to Michael Abbott who is the audio coordinator for the show, John  Harris and Joel Singer with Music Mix Moblie, who take care of the music mix that goes out to television and Eric Schilling who shares music mix duties with John Harris. This years’ show was monumental in size and every year, it just keeps getting better and better!

- Ryan, Cory and Jenn

Nashville, TN – The Ryman Auditorium

There is such a wonderful feeling when you know you are watching something special.  Whether it’s a great movie,  football games when everyone player giving 150 % (I’m talking Walter Payton 150 %), or a music group that draws you in.

Part of my role in Artist Relations involves seeking out artists that have the ability to influence other artists and people in many ways, but namely musically.  After all, that is where it should start, right?  You know from my past blogs about The Civil Wars and also from word of mouth (if you are now following them) that they are one of those artists.

How is it possible that 2 singers/ instrumentalists can grab an entire audience and keep them as quite as a sleeping child during each song?  You just have to go see it for yourself.  They have so much fun, sing and play so well, that you have absolutely no choice but to be quite and enjoy every second.  Backstage before the show, I was talking with singer/songwriter/guitarist John Paul White who said he has been looking forward to this show for such a long time and that’s what I told him to do – “enjoy every second.”

After the first 2 songs, singer/songwriter/pianist Joy commented to the audience that she probably should not have worn too much black mascara and John Paul said “me either” which was just one of many funny comments during and evening filled with laughter and great music.  Both Joy and John Paul were very emotional about this show and toasted the audience several times for making their first show at the historic Ryman Auditorium a sell out.  It has been their dream to play here. When they initially got together as a team, neither imagined that it would lead to this moment.

Here they are though. Their singles and the albums have captured so much attention. Their live performances have gathered acclaim from many of their peers, including 2011′s Top selling artist Adele. Before Adele though, right here in Nashville, was where they captured the attention of a younger artist.

Towards the end of the evening, John Paul started mentioned how the group likes to give back to the community and help out “less fortunate” artists.  He went on to say that they found an artist that they thought could benefit from an appearance with them but that she was a bit “shy.”  John Paul and Joy motioned for her to come out on stage.  Seconds later, Taylor Swift strolls on stage and sings  a song with the group called “Safe & Sound“.  This beautiful song is included on the upcoming release of The Hunger Games soundtrack.  (I just finished this great book myself and am looking forward to starting the second book)

Taylor became a fan of the group when they performed at The Belcourt Theatre.  She tweeted about them and this certainly helped their cause of trying to expand their fan base.  Thanks Taylor!

I also got the chance to meet with the groups’ videographer Allister Ann.  Allister has been capturing video and photos on the road for a while now and does some amazing work.  She took the time to interview the group for us.  You can watch that video here.

Many of their family members were in attendance for the show.  John Paul jokingly commented that “My whole family tree is here and y’all are probably part of it since we are here in the South.”

Both Joy and John Paul sound crystal clear through the KSM9 and there’s aKSM313 ribbon mic/SM57 combo on his guitar amp.

Look up their schedule online and if they are not coming to a town near you, MOVE!  Seriously, it is worth a road trip to see their live show…it IS something special.

Ryan

Bridgestone Arena – Nashville, TN

Having been down in Nashville for 10 years now, it is always great to be able to attend this awards show.  It’s a reunion for both a lot of our Nashville contacts but also some of our East and West Coast based contacts as well.  I get to hang with Michael Abbott, one of the Audio Producers for this and many other TV shows and  J. Mark King, who does the production mix for the Academy of Country Music Awards also comes out to do this show.  There’s Steve Anderson, who swaps out the input boxes between each act as well as the engineers from Music Mix Mobile (John Harris, Jay Vicari and Joel Singer) who mix the music for the show.  The Nashville crews and the crews from each coast all dig in together to get over 20 performances on the air.  Once the show is on, it’s amazing to watch it all happen.  Even though most of this crew has been doing shows like this for years, they are always looking for ways to improve and present the best show for millions of viewers.

The same goes for Shure!

This year, Shure would play an even bigger role as we have a new series of personal monitor systems to present to artists.  The PSM1000 was about to make its appearance on this show for the first time.  Was I nervous? Not at all.  The system has been out there for a while now and been tested in some high profile settings.  Monitor engineer Jason Spence had just used it 3 weeks ago with Alabama and it passed with flying colors.  The system was ready and so were we!   Jason had been speaking with Shure about wanting to use this system on this show for months.  He told Mike Parker, also a monitor engineer for this and many other shows, that he planned to have units there.  Mike, also a beta tester, would not settle for anything less on his side as well.  When all was said and done, ATK Audiotek out of California shipped 14 channels for this show as well as sending a rack of systems out for the Latin Grammies that same week!

Are you as excited as we are??  Seeing our packs labeled up for use with names like Taylor Swift, Lionel Richie, and Ms. Piggy is pretty exciting.

Jason commented on how beneficial it was for them to be able to adjust the output power of the transmitters so they could reach an artist clear across the arena, providing them with dropout free signal.  That is very important to an artist who is performing in front of a live audience and in turn to millions watching at home.  If their signal cuts out, it can be a real mood killer for an artist in the heat of the moment.  Having those 2 antenna’s on the beltpack makes an amazing difference!

As far as artists on this show, we are always delighted when the list of performers comes in and we see a great representation of Shure Artists.  Like Martina McBride who performed her new single “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” on a wired SM58 and Luke Bryan, who worked the stage with his custom chromed UR2/SM58 wireless on “Country Girl (Shake It For Me).”    We also saw a great Glen Campbell Tribute perfomed by endorsers Vince Gill and Brad Paisley, joined by Keith Urban – all on Shure wireless. Both Lionel Richie and Kenny Loggins requested Shure to use on their performances!

New to the Shure family is The Band Perry, who performed on custom painted Super 55′s and went on to pick up 3 CMA Awards that night!   Sara Evans sang her most recent big hit “Stronger” on a UR2/Sm58. Taking home the coveted Entertainer of the Year award that night was Taylor Swift who sang on a UR2/Beta 58A.

Endorser Luke Bryan also co-hosted the red carpet with Ellen before the show.  His FOH engineer, Pete Healey, came by earlier that day to see if we could find him a Shure wired mic that Luke could use for that broacast.  We found an Sm58 and thanks to Pete, another TV spot!

During the show, I ran into many artists, engineers, and managers backstage.  It’s always a great time to catch up with them as they are usually out on the road or busy releasing a new record.  I was waiting  around backstage each time The Band Perry picked up an award to congratulate them.  I also talked with Rascal Flatts drummer and endorser Jim Riley, who was getting set to travel up to Indianapolis for the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) to do a drum clinic later in the week.  I would be traveling in the same direction right after this show.

After the awards show concluded, I went up to Jason Spense’s monitor “world” and talked with him and his techs about how the show went.  Thumbs UP all around.  One tech even commented that they received no complaints about dropouts or bad mixes, which he mentioned was very unusual for this show.   That brought a big smile to my face!

A BIG THANK YOU to Mike Abbott, Jason Spence, Mike Parker, J. Mark King, John Harris, Jay Vicari, Joel Singer, Steve Anderson, and so many more for an amazing job.  Thank you to the artists who continue to rely on Shure every night they step on stage.  Most of all, thank YOU for spending your time on our blog site and reading this blog.  Send it along to a friend !

Take care and keep coming back for more!  (If you want more RIGHT NOW, here’s our press release on the show and the amazing PSM1000 system.)

Ryan

Schuba’s Tavern – Chicago, IL

My parents were married about 3 blocks away from Schuba’s.  It’s always great to be able to drive down Belmont Avenue in Chicago and still see the church, and many other sights that I grew up seeing when I lived in Chicago.  My Grandmother lived about 2 blocks North of Belmont Avenue, walking distance from Cubs park.  My Grandfather played as a one-man band at the Cubby Bear several times, right across the street from Wrigley Field.

I always love going to see shows in Chicago as well.  When I found out that newly signed endorsers, The Civil Wars were in town for 2 nights, I just had to catch a show.  I had heard about them when I went to see Tony Rice and newly signed endorser Josh Williams play a show in Nashville at the Belcourt Theatre.  The engineers for the Theatre were raving about this group that had performed the night before and that Taylor Swift was tweeting them up.  With the help of today’s technology, I was able to look them up on my handy iPhone and find out more info. A few days later, I reached out via email met up with management.  Later, I met with the group, they tried out a few mics and ended up loving the KSM9 for their vocals.  John Paul White mentioned that he used the SM7B to record his vocals for their debut full length release.  The other half of the group is Joy Williams who I had known about from the Christian market.

So, back to Chicago.  I called up our Chicago based photographer, the infamous Paul Natkin and he was free for the evening to grab some live shots.  We arrived at Schuba’s at about 5:45 and grabbed some dinner (the French Onion soup at Schuba’s is the BEEEEST!).

Immediately following dinner, Joy and John Paul had arrived to do a quick line check.  We took the opportunity to grab some shots of them in the alley behind the club.  We returned to find an artist named Arum Rae Valkonen doing her line check. She is part of group called White Dress however, The Civil Wars asked her to come out solo and travel with them.  Arum Rae sang through a standard SM58 and played guitar. It was a great set of music and she has an interesting voice.

The 58 came off and a pair of KSM9′s took their place front and center.  Joy and John Paul took the stage and proceeded to quiet the room with every song.  Their voices blend together with the magic of Simon & Garfunkel.  Their songs, deep and rich with emotional content.  At every song’s end, wild applause.  The sold out crowd was mesmerized.  I was so glad I sent that email !!

Minimal production, 2 performers, 3 vocal mics, 2 instrument mics  (KSM313 on JP’s amp and 1 Beta 57A for Joy’s “Squeeze Box” and that was it. How could something so easy be soo goood?  Something magical happens when you break it to just the singers and their song.  How can that emit more emotion than a big massive production?  Somehow, it just does….and I don’t care why.  I just stand there and enjoy every second.  I was right there in front, behind my favorite photographer, both of us….speechless.

Ryan