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Giving
and Receiving: LDS
Music Makers Find Happy Homes in Nashville
by
Ron Simpson
Utah songwriter advocate and general manager, Tantara Records
Diamond
Rio's Dan Truman and producer/composer Ron Saltmarsh
It wasn't that many years
ago that Marie Osmond was based in Nashville, had some country hits,
and her husband Brian Blosil would confide, "It's just so hard.
Just when you think you've broken through and you've been accepted,
you hit a wall and you realize there really is a form of religious
discrimination going on."
Today's LDS
music makers in Nashville seem to be flourishing, though I don't
think religious attitudes have necessarily changed in the region.
During Marie
Osmond's Nashville years, the Church was fighting to build a temple,
and seemed thwarted at every turn. Today we have our Nashville Temple,
not on the original site, but in the lovely quiet meadows of suburban
Franklin.
Now, Tennessee
music-biz Mormons hold their heads high and speak proudly of their
religious heritage. During the 1999 Temple open house, Dan and Wendee
Truman were volunteer guides, and Dan escorted Diamond Rio lead
singer Marty Roe's Tuesday-night Bible-study group through the temple
and answered Dan Truman of Diamond Rio their many questions.
One of the
most visible LDS
Ron Saltmarsh is a BYU music graduate and a media celebrities
in Nashville composer. Now sending his music to the Nashville
home office via MP3 files from an enviable rural home located in
Oregon, Ron served as bishop of his Nashville ward until that recent
move. Another high-achieving Nashville insider is Tony Martin. Son
of veteran Nashville songwriter Glenn Martin, Tony graduated from
BYU in communications with an emphasis in journalism and began his
career in Chicago as a reporter for Time magazine. As he
tells it, the phone rang one day, and it was his brother, telling
him that one of Tony's songs had been recorded, was getting heavy
air play, and was certain to be headed for the charts. "I thought
maybe I should go back to Nashville," says Tony in his quiet, understated
way. He's been turning out hits ever since. His song, "Third Rock
from the Sun", provided the title of the hit TV series a few years
ago. Tony Martin often has two or more songs in the country top
twenty at the same time, and while he undoubtedly receives a comfortable
income from harnessing his prodigious songwriting talent, he has
also found time to give something back, serving until recently as
bishop of his suburban Nashville ward.
No question
Dan Truman got lucky when he joined Diamond Rio, but do you know
the rest of Dan's story? He and his new bride Wendee took the leap
of faith and moved to Nashville upon graduation from BYU, where
Dan had traveled as the keyboard player for the Young Ambassadors,
and Wendee was a featured singer and dancer onstage. Both found
work at Opryland, USA, in the glory days of that venue (the late
80's), when as many as thirteen live shows were featured simultaneously.
Wendee's all-American good looks and can-do personality won the
hearts of her bosses, and Wendee's picture was featured on the billboards
that promoted Opryland throughout the South and Midwest. After Dan
became known as a top keyboard player in the park, he was invited
to join a band called The Tennessee River Boys, who had The Flipside
Theater at Opryland all to themselves. The Tennessee River Boys
eventually broke away from Opryland and metamorphosed into Diamond
Rio. (As they say, it takes ten years to become an overnight success.)
And success certainly describes Diamond Rio: four times they've
been named Country Music Association's vocal group of the year.
This past year they were a Grammy nominee.
Of all the
LDS celebrities who are BYU graduates, Dan is certainly one of the
most visible, and arguably the most gracious. In every interview
I've seen, Dan credits his education, his mission, and his touring
experience with The Young Ambassadors as setting the stage-literally-for
the successes that have followed. ("Do you enjoy touring with Diamond
Rio more than you did with your BYU group?" asks an interviewer
from a country music fan magazine. "What do you think?"
counters Dan without missing a beat. "Would you rather tour Texas
with five guys on a bus or fly to places like India and Russia with
fifteen girls?")
Other current
LDS Nashvillians (Nashvillains?) include Randy Kartchner, who might
be the first Mormon accepted into the Christian music industry,
creating tracks (midi orchestrations) for contemporary Christian
songwriters and publishers. Jason Deere, who went to BYU for one
year, playing in the bluegrass band that travels with the BYU folk
dancers, has found a niche creating demos for songwriters, including
the unbelievably successful Diane Warren ("How Can I Live," etc.),
who has offices in LA and Nashville, and who is the undisputed queen
of the craft.
SheDaisy appeared
in their home state, Utah, as a teen singing group, The Osborn Sisters,
and signed several ultimately disappointing record deals before
Lyric Street Records (Disney's Nashville division) helped them get
the musical recipe just right and renamed them "SheDaisy." The aforementioned
Jason Deere had a lot do with the explosive sound of that first
breakout album. Drummer Joel Stevenett, who also hails from Utah
and is married to Kristen Osborn of SheDaisy, is part of country
star Jo Dee Messina's road band.
Tanja Crouch,
a Mormon who's not from Utah, is a record business lady, handling
business affairs for Randy Travis and for Roy Orbison, or I should
I say Barbara Orbison, widow of the legendary singer/songwriter.
Other familiar
LDS music personalities are seen from time to time in Music City.
Utah musicians Staci Peters and Tyler Castleton have a second career
as Nashville songwriters (the popular Jericho Road song, For the
Love of a Woman, was also cut in Nashville by Martina McBride.)
Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band are rumored to have a Nashville production
deal cooking with legendary producer Keith Thomas and with Jason
Deere also involved.
The phone rings
in my Nashville hotel room on my last day in town.
"Hello, Ron?
This is Tony Martin. I'm sorry I didn't call you yesterday, but
we went to the temple, sort of on the spur of the moment."
This has gotta
be the new Nashville. There's a temple in the heart of Tennessee,
and there's a new generation of Mormons in the heart of Music Row,
making Music City hum.
I like it like
this.
P.S. Watch
for one of the individuals named above to make a surprise appearance
at the Pearl Awards this summer.
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© 2001 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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