While I understand that it's part of the job description of an alternative weekly music critic to be aloof and jaded, I do hope that Nashville Cream blogger Steve Haruch will revisit the subject of the Music City Remixed series on WPLN once it airs the sixth and final episode on Monday morning. Here's what he wrote after Part One aired in November:
The first installment, which aired this morning, seems geared at people
who've been living under a rock (but not listening to rock) for the
past, oh, three years. Not much new here: CD sales are down, the
industry is dying, maybe you care (but you probably don't), etc. But it
is first in the series, so I'm hoping it gets a little more interesting
as it goes on, as WPLN generally does a pretty good job with their
local features.
The series was intended for a broad audience, so some basic context was necessary. As such, I was a little miffed that Steve paraphrased the host intro and first sentence of part one as if that's where the story ended. The issue I actually tackled was the crisis in artist development and the long term prospects for the health and welfare of Music City if nobody fills the artist investment void being left by the decline of the major labels. If there's ample reporting already about that in the Nashville press, I'd love to see it. We invite Steve's criticism of the whole series, sincerely hoping he thought it got "a little more interesting."
A full 30-minute podcast version of the series will be posted sometime over the weekend.