November 25, 2019, Issue 681
Q&A: CMA Awards’ Robert Deaton
53rd CMA Awards Exec. Producer Robert Deaton shares inside stories from country music’s biggest night. CA: Celebrating the women of country isn’t the only time you’ve had a theme – the 50th anniversary comes to mind – but is this the biggest concept approach you’ve undertaken? RD: This show is the biggest ever, from honoring women to new hosts and a new set. We overhauled the whole look, the pacing – everything changed. It was important to put one foot forward into the future. What is this show going to be for the next 10 years? We had 53 artists – 48 of them in the genre – onstage, which is the most talent on a CMA Robert Deaton show ever. Personally, I’d always thought the most pressure would be the 50th, but this was more important. That open with Reba, Dolly, Carrie, Sara Evans, Martina McBride, Terri Clark, Gretchen Wilson, Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman – the greatest moments of my career were spent with those women. My first CMA Award was with Martina. Jennifer Nettles was the first host of the Christmas show. I did almost all of Gretchen’s videos and had a long run with Terri. The first song after the open was Loretta Lynn, and my first job at 18 was as a PA on a Crisco commercial in Hurricane Mills with her. I was so anxious going into that rehearsal, not only because of what I knew the performance was going to be, but just seeing them all again. And it was important to present these awesome women in the best way possible. Putting that together had to be an enormous amount of work. Particularly deciding who to put in it and who was even available. Can you walk me through it? We could do that open with entirely different women three more times. Having done this once before for the 50th, I knew it would be an uphill climb and the medley could change 10 times. And it did. Originally the very first song was “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” but after living with it we liked having the three hosts together as the first thing you see and hear. (continued on page 10)
Museum Of Nine Arts: Macon Music/Broken Bow’s Jason Aldean celebrates the release of 9 with WNSH/New York staffers. Pictured (back, l-r) are the station’s Jesse Addy and Katie Neal, the label’s JoJamie Hahr, Aldean and the station’s Kelly Ford; (front) the station’s John Foxx and the label’s Lee Adams.
Pub Scrawl: One Week With Tom Luteran
What started as a conversation among colleagues and a gentle ribbing from one PD bluntly stating, “Honestly, I don’t know what half of you guys actually do” has turned into a Country Aircheck mission to define and explain key industry roles. After spending one week with a program director, record rep and booking agent, it’s time to level up by spending a week with one of the most mysterious of categories – publishing. Specifically, Sony/ATV Music Publishing VP/A&R Tom Luteran. Tom Luteran “I’m not sure my family can even explain what I do,” jokes Luteran, affectionately known as “Big Tom.”
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