Dare To Be is a message to all the women who attend that they have the amazing, God given ability within them to do so much with their lives.   Charlotte Gambill is a Senior Associate Pastor at the Life Church, Bradford, England who meet Natalie years ago by chance in a church in California.  Both have been friends ever since but have had this dream of putting a show together to inspire women to Dare To Be, well, anything they want to be or do in life – to never let anything or anyone tell them they can’t do anything.

If you have yet to see Natalie perform live, you should look up the schedule in the link below (after you finish reading this of course) and try to make it out to one of these events.  There’s a good blend of music, speaking, and video to support the message.  Natalie’s songs also tie in very well and her delivery is such a pleasure to listen to.  She’s won several Dove awards as a leading female vocalist – well deserved!

Charlotte was a delightful speaker who tells some wonderful stories to inspire her audience and show them that there is always hope.  Natalie sang some of her hits: “I Will Not be Moved”, “Held”, “Human”, and “Alive”  and the crowd loved it.  Her music is energizing and her voice commands your attention.

I was so glad I stayed around till the end of the show.  Natalie mentioned the last part of the show was her favorite part.  She started to  tell the story of a local single woman with three children who had been in a head-on collision.  She had surgery after surgery and unfortunately, had to have one of her legs amputated. After all that had happened to her, she persisted through it all and never give up on her dreams.  She also recently got married.  Natalie called her up on stage to be recognized as an amazing example of someone who never lost  hope and always moved forward. Her children and new husband were in attendance and met her up on stage.  Natalie and Charlotte gave her a special bag of gifts but the biggest gift was to see the entire church on their feet clapping for this amazing woman.  They were all standing together as sisters.

After the event was over, I came backstage to say goodbye to Natalie and Charlotte. I also had a chance to chat with Natalie’s husband and producer Bernie Herms about Natalie’s next record.    I told them that I hope they can find a way, amongst both of their busy schedules to keep this event going.  It was such a powerful experience and message that needs to be spread throughout our amazing planet.

For more information, go to this site:  http://www.daretoberevolution.com

Ryan

I like to research what other interviewers have recently asked an artist and then avoid those questions entirely…or at least rephrase them differently, but mostly avoid.  So I got my questions together, packed up my gear and headed down to the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

Once inside the venue, I meet with Jason’s FOH Engineer Ettore “ET” DeDevitiis who had been with Jason for several years now.  ET brought me over to “Guitar World” where my interview with Jason would take place right before their soundcheck. I met several crew members, began setting up my gear and got some quick B-roll video of the mics onstage.  Jason has been loving what the SM86 gives back to him.  He’s very comfortable with its flat front so he can get right on the capsule.  On stage right, there were a cluster of mics set up where later in the show the band members would, one by one, join Jason around a Shure Super 55 and sing acoustic style.

My interview with Jason was great.  We’d met before at a NAMM show where he signed autographs at our booth for an hour.  The line was so long for him we had to turn people away. Look for this interview on our site soon.

After the interview, I went back to FOH to listen to Ettore’s mix.  Of course the arena was all but empty save a few people who were brought in for a special soundcheck party, but ET’s mix was great.  Being a drummer, I honed in on the kick sound and asked if he was using both a Beta 52A and  the new Beta 91A.  He confirmed.  He also mentioned it was a brand new Yamaha kit.  There were Beta 56A’s on the toms, about 4 inches above the heads.  Sounded amazing.

After Jason’s check, I watched a bit of Christina’s soundcheck.  Her voice sounded angelic through her UR2/KSM9 wireless.  I also met her drummer Elmo who had just toured with Skrillex.

Right before showtime, I met my wife and 2 boys out front and we grabbed our seats about 3 songs into Christina’s set. She puts on an energetic show and is so happy to be opening for Jason.  One of her dreams come true!

The arena was about 3/4th’s full and I was happy to see so many people out supporting live music.  Money can be tight for some and the fact that it was that well attended is promising.

Jason puts on a great show and his vocal range is pretty amazing.  He really does invite the audience into his party and they all sing along.  The band is super tight and ET has everything sitting right where it should be in the mix.  At one point in the show, he and percussionist Mona Tavakoli were on stage and performed his new song “You F___in’ Did It.”  When Mona kicked in on her Cajon, the whole crowd went wild. Pretty cool.

This is the kind show I could watch night after night and be content.  It’s great when an engineer finds that gig that they are totally into and they love doing their job every night.  With a great singer and a tight band, how could you not?

I can’t wait for the next time Jason comes back to Nashville.  I may not even wait till then…..ROAD TRIP!!

Ryan

Sara has been a Shure Artist for over 5 years now and she sounds amazing through her UR2/KSM9.  She opened the show with an a capella version of “Gravity” which filled up the hall.  The crowd was mesmerized.

This was a striped down show for Sara as she is about to go into writing mode for the next record.  I am going see how I can get the first copy!

(OK, back to reality. )

Sara, her band and crew are such wonderful people to meet up with.  The band is tight, they have fun on stage and it all seems very stress free.  FOH Engineer Trey Smith and MON Engineer Kevin Twist have been with her quite a while and both are Belmont University grads.  (Sara seems to be hiring a lot of people from there….)

Towards the end of the show, Sara’s performed her single “King of Anything” and got the to sing the opening melody line in a call and response fashion.  After the song finished, she and the band left the stage.  The crowd wanted more and were soon signing the call and response part to get her back out.  She said to the crowd ” You guys are so awesome! That’s never happened before.”

It will be a while before Sara does a full tour.  Until then, save up your spare change and when tickets go on sale, BUY SOME!  As long as she keeps coming to Nashville, you can bet I will be there, even if I have to buy tickets!

Ryan

This would be a historic event in itself as the group would be the first headliner to perform on a brand new floor that replaced the original floor that was installed when the “Mother Church” first opened.

Fresh off of an exciting performance with Glen Campbell at the Grammy Awards, they showed up for soundcheck and Kimberely said to me “We see you everywhere!”  They will again at the upcoming Academy of Country Music Awards in Vegas on April 1.

Before laying down this new floor, they reinforced it to be able to hold a lot more weight.  It was strange to walk across the floor and not hear any creaking.

The group is in the process of finishing up a new record and what a great place to try out some new songs.  They performed their hits and threw in 6 new songs.  They also performed a great version of “Fat Bottomed Girls” by Queen!   Kimberly commanded the stage on her UR2/KSM9 wireless while brothers Reid and Neil flanked her with a pair of Beta 58A wired mics.

At one point, the curtain closed in front of the backing band, leaving the Perry’s out in front for some acoustic songs, one of which was a beautiful version of “Amazing Graze” which earned them a standing ovation.

Their 90 minute set concluded with their hit “You Lie.”  This group is full of energy and connects very well with the audience.  Their whole family and crew are a great group of people.

Make  sure to look up their tour schedule and catch them out on some Brad Paisley dates.

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

Bridgestone Arena – Nashville, TN

The last time these wonderful Christian Artists were in Nashville, I had a prior commitment and was unable to stick around for the show.  Tonight, I planned to spend the afternoon and evening with the band and crew.

I meet up with Carter Hassebrook who is the bands FOH Engineer and stage manager.  We went to the stage and I grabbed some video b-roll of the mics on stage.  Shure UHF-R wireless mics are on all vocals with various capsules for each singer.  For their acoustic set, lead singer  Mark Hall has been using a Super 55 and loving it.  I also grabbed some footage of the drum kit as they are using the new Beta 98AMP’s on the toms and the Beta 91A in the kick drum.

As I finished up gathering the b-roll, drummer Brian Scoggin arrived and we got set up to grab a quick interview with him on stage.  I was also planning to interview Carter so I decided at the last minute to interview them at the same time, which worked well!

Since every member of the group is also a Youth Minister, they are all very well spoken and know so much about each other.  It was a great interview – you can look for that on our YouTube channel at some point. Following the interview, the band soundchecked for about 30-40 minutes. After their soundcheck, everyone usually meets at the front rows of the venue for prayer time.  They discuss a bible verse or two then disperse amongst the chairs in the venue to bless them and send their prayers out that the audience will enjoy the show and live in the moment.

Then the openers, Sanctus Real, The Afters, and newcomer Lindsay McCall from Chicago all soundchecked.  According to Carter, all three lead vocalists for these groups requested to sing on the UR2/KSM9!

It is always great, during these economic times, to see a full house.  People were spending their money on shirts and merchandise. This tour for Casting Crowns is in support of their freshly released CD Come To The Well.  Their messages are very powerful and thought provoking.  “God doesn’t NEED me, he WANTS me.”

It is so important that the message reaches the audience with the utmost clarity.  Shure microphones are there to help complete that mission.

Ryan

Nashville, TN

Soundland Nashville has taken over the town with great new upcoming bands.  I hope you got a chance to go out and hear some new music.

I started out my day on Thursday by visiting a panel discussion at the Belcourt Theatre on the success of the band The Civil Wars.  If you are not familiar with the group yet, please click on the link.  They are on tour in Europe with Adele, who was quoted saying this is her favorite group live. The speakers included people from their record label, distribution, marketing, and their producer.  It was very interesting to listen to the details of how this group came together, by chance, at a writing seminar and immediately hit it off.  So many great opportunities have come their way and their team has done a great job of handling them.  Their success at iTunes was amazing and now they are opening for one of the best selling artists. Go pick up their record, Barton Hallow, …. immediately after you finish reading this blog of course.

Following this panel was another regarding Grooveshark, the music streaming service. So many people are starting to enjoy having access to thousands of songs at their fingertips.

After that, I went over to Soundland’s temporary headquarters to catch an interview and performance with new Endorser Justin Townes Earle.  American Songwriter did the interview and Shure captured it all.  We supplied a couple of KSM42′s, a KSM353 ribbon mic, some Beta 27′s, and a few SM57′s to capture these moments, which will later be put up online.  The engineer’s were enjoying it all through a couple sets of SRH940 headphones.  The mixes sounded great!  (see pics below).  There will be many other artists interview up as well so visit Soundland’s website often to see them up there soon.

I then walked over to the 12th avenue concert are and waited for the evening’s show to begin.  Tonight featured a group that’s starting to take off – Cults.  Closing the show were endorsers Foster The People.  I watched Cults perform for a little bit and noticed that they were using a non-Shure vocal mic up front.  However, halfway through the set, I saw the monitor engineer change out to an SM58. Sounded like it may have helped a bit.  Festival situations are always difficult to walk in to as you may not get the soundcheck you are used to.

Foster took the stage and proceeded to rock the crowd. An energetic set and a great light show was just what the crowd needed.  While I was hanging out watching their set, I was back by one of the food trucks.  This was a BBQ food truck !  The owner called me over to take a look at what he had on the smoker.  Upon opening the lid, he revealed about 10 pulled pork roasts, completely caramelized over and smelling way too good.  He asks one of his assistants for a serving dish and proceeds to pull apart the meat to give me a sample.  Heavenly….is the word that comes to mind.  Then, if it couldn’t get any better, he offers me some of that caramelized bark!  DONE!  I’m falling deeper and deeper into BBQ bliss…”and I can’t get up.”

After a great set by Foster The People, I met with their sound engineer who proceeded to tell about how much they love the UR wireless mics and the PSM900′s.  Then I’m escorted to the buses where I’m introduced to both Mark Foster and Mark Pontius who thanked Shure for our support.  Foster is loving the freedom of his wireless UR2/KSM9 vocal mic, saying “it’s made me a new frontman.”

The next day (Friday, Sept 23), I went over to the Cannery Ballroom to grab a video interview with Justin Townes Earle. Justin has a rich, deep knowledge and appreciation of traditional country artists.  He loves to talk about them.  They have influenced the way he chooses to perform and connect with his audience.  Justin also loves his new Beta 57A vocal mic as well as his PSM900 ear system. I don’t want to spoil the surprise when you see the interview on our website so I will stop at saying that this was a great interview to be a part of and I have meet another wonderful, approachable artist in this exciting world that is our music industry.

Please take a gander at some of the photos and if you attended Soundland, please (pretty please) write back and let us know of your experiences.  We’d love to hear from you!

A special THANKS to the folks at American Songwriter magazine for inviting Shure to be a part of this event.

Ryan

Bridgestone Arena- Nashville, TN

I’ve seen them before, and I will see them again – every chance I get!  Maroon 5 is such a great band to see/hear live.  They are tight, energetic, and well “schooled” in playing so many styles of music. After all, that’s what they are all about and it shows in their music. So many different influences come together in music that makes you move.  Everyone in the band has their part in each song, well orchestrated to let each part shine equally.

I was seated with my 15 year old son side stage, which forced us to watch the musicians more than the video screens, which were hard to see from our angle.  While I can appreciate great graphics and visuals that always add to the performance, I really enjoyed this angle.  As some of you may have gathered, I’m a drummer. So naturally, I tend to be drawn in to that person in a band quickly.  I must, therefore,  start out by citing that M5 drummer Matt Flynn is a MONSTER player.  Everyone has their place in a group but the drums provide the foundation.  Matt provides that so well in this group as this music demands it.  He was “on” all night and Adam Levine was right “on” with him.  I love watching a drummer who commands his drum kit.  Watching Matt land hits crashes so tightly and with such cool force all set long was inspirational.

Back to the rest of the band.  Adam Levine had a great time last night.  “You’re wearing me out, Nashville” he yelled out after one song.  He is a great front man and wonderful vocalist.  He and James Valentine’s guitar playing compliment each other so well.  Michael Madden on bass locks in on Matt’s solid foundation and Jesse Carmichal’s keys provide a harmonious counterpoint for each song.

Changing directions is in this bands nature but it always sounds like Maroon 5.  That’s their magic.  It’s no wonder why they took an immediate liking to fellow new endorsers Fitz & The Tantrums early on.  Both band provide a fresh approach to honoring those who came before them but in their own unique ways.

Adam sounds awesome on his UR2/KSM9 champagne colored wireless mic.  FOH engineer Jim Ebdon loves this mic on Adam’s voice and had the band dialed in nicely!  I also was introduced to one of the groups recording engineers for the past 2 records, Noah Passovoy, who stated that the SM7 has been the mic of choice for Adam’s vocals, beating out much more expensive and typical competitors for that spot.

I look forward to every new project from this group and wish them nothing but the best on their road to continued success.  Speaking of the road, here’s a link to catch them while they are out on tour:  http://bit.ly/oRtiOv

When you go to their show, feel free to write back and tell us about your evening.

Also, check our MySpace page and our Artist site regularly as we will be editing the video interview I got with Adam and James backstage.  I included a few photos from last night including a shot of the groups “recycling center” in each of the dressing rooms.

Enjoy!

Ryan

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

The Ryman Auditorium – Nashville, TN

Brian McKnight has been nominated for many Grammy’s and other awards in the R & B category over the years. His vocal ability and songwriting skills are highly regarded. He has collaborated with some of the best in R & B.  Currently on tour, he now collaborates with his 2 sons Niko and Brian Jr. on a show that covers his musical upbringing and influences.  It’s a stripped down, mostly A Capella journey through his musical past all they way up to his sons co-producing his latest projects.

Tonight, being in Nashville, Brian had the added bonus of being joined by his brother Claude, who lives in town and is also co-founder of the endorsing group Take 6.   I had a chance to catch the group at soundcheck and listen to them work out a few numbers for the show.  4 UR2/KSM9‘s and 4 PSM900 systems…that was about it, besides a grand piano and a couple of keyboards.  When it’s all about the music, what else do you need?

I hope you have a chance to catch the Just Me Tour in your city.  It’s amazing what the power of 4 voices can do and they have a lot of fun doing it.  Click HERE for his upcoming dates.

Ryan