Chris Young CD Release Party


Chris Young barely made it to his own party to celebrate the release of his new CD “The Man I Want To Be” which took place at Wal*Mart in his hometown of Murfreesboro, TN on Monday night. Due to electrical problems with aircraft, Chris missed his connecting flight back to Nashville, but thanks to a private jet provided by his music label, he took to the makeshift stage between the isles of clothing, books and of course advance copies of his new CD which is officially released September 1st.

Thousands of fans, including both of his grandmothers, filled the isles and crowded around the stage to help Young celebrate. Many held signs to show how proud they are of him and continue to show him hometown support.



Young started the party off with one of the songs off of his new CD called “Voices” followed by the title track “The Man I Want To Be”. Thanking the crowd for letting him continue to live his dream and make a second album brought loud cheers and applause from the many excited fans in attendance. Young’s grandmother requested a special song called “Dashboard” which Young said was also a favorite of his cousin who was recently sent to Afghanistan.The live portion of the show was closed with “Gettin’ You Home” which was appropriate considering the earlier dilemma of flight problems.

The party which was sponsored by WSIX (The big 98) made one lucky party guest (Doreen Johnson) a winner with a guitar which was autographed personally by the guest of honor. On Air personalities, Big D and Bubba joined Young on stage and asked him to do the honor of pulling the winning entry from the box filled with names after a mock drum roll by the crowd.

Wal*Mart employees made sure the party was complete with gifts for Young including a blue and gold Wal*Mart ball cap which Young proudly put on and posed for photos. A cake which was decorated with a guitar and a picture of the hometown boy was shared with all the guests who came to the party. The line of excited fans, friends and music industry colleagues circled throughout the store as they waited for the opportunity to meet with Young, pose for photos and get autographs.














(L - R Corey Batten, Chris Young and Kent Blazy, co-writers for "Gettin' You Home")


For more information on Chris Young visit http://www.chrisyoungcountry.com/

Additonal photos of the event can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/momentsbymoser

PRESS RELEASE: Charlie Daniels NSAI Series


Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Does It Again…With The Charlie Daniels Band – The legendary, Grammy-award winning Charlie Daniels Band headlined the second concert in NSAI’s “IT ALL BEGINS WITH A SONG” Performance Series at the Wildhorse Saloon on Thursday night (8/27). The packed house was treated to a few tunes by Old Union prior to an energetic performance by the CDB, which included hits from “Long Haired Country Boy” and “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” to a powerful version of “How Great Thou Art.” As the night concluded, Charlie was presented with BMI MillionAir Awards for one million performances of “The South’s Gonna Do It Again,” “In America,” “Drinking My Baby Goodbye,” and four million performances of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” He also received specially autographed lyrics of the “Tennessee Waltz” from NSAI for his contributions to the music industry. During their final song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” the CDB was accompanied by Pro Golfer John Daly.
For more information on the series, visit http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/ and check out the CDB at http://www.charliedaniels.com/.
Pictured (L-R): AristoMedia President Jeff Walker; NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison; Charlie Daniels’ Manager/Co-owner Blue Hat Records David Corlew; Daniels; Daly and BMI Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations Jody Williams.

Photo Credit: Bev Moser / Moments By Moser – 8.27.09

"IT ALL BEGINS WITH A SONG"

Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Does It Again…With The Charlie Daniels Band - The legendary, Grammy-award winning Charlie Daniels Band headlined the second concert in NSAI's "IT ALL BEGINS WITH A SONG" Performance Series at the Wildhorse Saloon on Thursday night (8/27). The packed house was treated to a few tunes by Old Union prior to an energetic performance by the CDB, which included hits from "Long Haired Country Boy" and "The South's Gonna Do It Again" to a powerful version of "How Great Thou Art." As the night concluded, Charlie was presented with BMI MillionAir Awards for one million performances of "The South's Gonna Do It Again," "In America," "Drinking My Baby Goodbye," and four million performances of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." He also received specially autographed lyrics of the "Tennessee Waltz" from NSAI for his contributions to the music industry. During their final song, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," the CDB was accompanied by Pro Golfer John Daly. For more information on the series, visit www.nashvillesongwriters.com and check out the CDB at www.charliedaniels.com.

Pictured (L-R): AristoMedia President Jeff Walker; NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison; Charlie Daniels' Manager/Co-owner Blue Hat Records David Corlew; Daniels; Daly and BMI Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations Jody Williams.
Photo Credit: Bev Moser / Moments By Moser - 8.27.09

ARTICLE: Brady Seals CD Release Party "Play Time"


Brady Seals thought he was going to an industry event for a magazine, but to his surprise his wife Lisa had organized friends, industry executives and several of the songwriters and musicians who were instrumental in his first solo CD project titled “PLAY TIME” which hit the store shelves earlier that day.

The event was held at The Red House in Franklin, hosted by Suzanne Jeffers and catered by Constant Cravings. The atmosphere of The Red House was one of warmth and welcome. The décor as outstanding and magical as the music and artists who’s work is displayed throughout the spacious rooms.

Guests arrived early to surprise Seals and sign an oversized poster of the CD cover with their well wishes and congratulations.

After thanking the intimate invitation only crowd, Seals was asked to initiate a tradition at The Red House and sign the wall to document the occasion. Rodney Crowell, longtime friend of Seals, also penned his name to the wall and followed by an emotional acoustic set sang by Seals and Crowell.

Guest’s were also treated to a couple songs from the new CD, by Seals and accompanied by Spanky Dynomite, including EENY MENY MINY MOE co-written by Seals, David Bradley and Greg Friia who were in the crowd.

Among the guest list and mingling with the guest of honor and his wife were Larry Pareigis; Nine North Records, Glyn Patterson, Dillon Dixon, Susan Greene, Leslie Armstrong, Bev Moser, Lainey Edwards, Lisa Rollins as well as other music row and industry friends.

For more information on Brady Seals visit http://www.bradyseals.com/

REVIEW: AL GORE HOSTS NASHVILLE PREMIERE OF “INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS”


REGAL GREEN HILLS 16 was transformed into a celebrity fest last evening as former U.S. Vice President hosted the Nashville Premier of “INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS”. Producer Lawrence Bender, as well as leading actress Melanie Laurent and actor Eli Roth were present to welcome the invitation only premiere attendees.

A red carpet and movie posters lined the entry for celebrity guests including Jim Cooper; U.S. Representative, GARY ODOM; TN State Representative, and singer/songwriter, Sheryl Crow. Also attending was Smashmouth lead singer, SteveHarwell, country artists Kathy Mattea, Bucky Covington, Julie Roberts, Danielle Peck, Joey + Rory and Mindy Smith. Jaron Lowenstein of the pop duo Evan & Jaron, rock group AMERICAN BANG (Jaren Johnston, Ben Brown, Kelby Ray, & Neil Mason)

The movie received overwhelming emotional responses from those who were present at the screening. It is about the first year of the German occupation of France, Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish American soldiers to perform swift, shocking acts of retribution. Later known to their enemy as “the basterds,” Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquis, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own.

Employing pulp and propaganda in equal measure, Quentin Tarantino's “INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS”weaves together the infamous, oppressed, real and larger-than-life stories of WWII.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is rated R by the MPAA and opens on August 21st.

For additional photos: Visit www.digitalrodeo.com/drphotos

INTERVIEW: Nathan Lee RISK EVERYTHING


Nathan Lee is like no other artist I have met. Nathan Lee takes command of his time on stage with his voice pouring every ounce of his soul into the emotional lyrics. He loses himself in every song; becomes the song and plays the keys on the piano with the same passion. If you listen closely to the words, you will be taken on a journey that sometimes finds you on dark paths and others rejoicing the personal triumph we each travel as we go through our lives. You will not be disappointed when you put this CD in and you will walk away from one of his shows with a smile. Nathan Lee is as real as it gets.

I visited with Nathan before his last show at 12th & Porter after a two month promotion called “Give A Damn Sunday” in which he was helping raise funds World Vision and building water wells in Ethiopia.


Bev: Let’s talk about your new album which I am absolutely in love with; what kind of time frame did this project fall into and describe the process a little.

Nathan: As far as the record, I went into Paul Moak because I trust him, and I know his style and it was easy to just say “I want you to make the record”; he knows what I do as we have written together. We spent 3 weeks in a room just carving on songs, talking about them, messing with them, tearing them apart, doing some rewrites and then went into the studio and tracked it live, because I hate being in the studio, I hate it, we tracked it in a week. And then did overdubs the second week and it was done.

Bev: I would love to talk to about the photography and the art in the booklet and the CD covers. How much control did you have over that because that blew me away.

Nathan: Photography is all Michael Gomez who I’ve known for years. He came and listened to the songs and would come over to the studio where we were tracking. Then we took 5 days and we would drive around and he would take pictures. We wanted to find the right locations, because a lot of them are so tied into the song itself. The original idea, was that we wanted to have a picture for every song; so everybody that buys a song will get a picture that coincides with the song.

Bev: He did a fabulous job, I had photo envy; for instance the one of you lying in the water and the fire, I cannot pick out one favorite, they are all good.

Nathan: We had to climb to the top of a mountain one day. It was the sixth and last day and he made me climb all the way up. He knew this pond where he hikes and it was like 30 degrees and I was purple; I could only stand it for 30 seconds and had to get out, they had to put blankets around me, it was rough. Michael did his thing and you know, when it was done, I knew that the record and the art, the photography, was so branding. So was the record, I wasn’t out to try to make it all work for 2009 top forty. I just wanted to make something we loved.

Bev: You either wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on “Risk Everything” correct?

Nathan: Yes

Bev: What kind of time period did this encompass?

Nathan: The oldest song on the record is 10 yrs old. We went back and dug it out of the catalog. So we had about 150 songs to go through for the record, that’s a lot of songs to dig through. We had probably the top three going in that we knew. We knew we had one missing and we wrote it specifically for this project. We then narrowed it down and we were down to around 8 or 9. We were still missing something and we played through all of it as we continued to go over the play list. We would drive around listing to and we wrote “Open Road” and then “Bleeding Black” came four days before we went into the studio. I called them up in the morning and said hey, I think I have another song and we made it. Everything else was pulled from back catalogs.

Bev: Most of them are songs you have lived through, right?

Nathan: Yes

Bev: A lot of them? Most of them? All of them?

Nathan: Yes, I think all of them. It’s hard. I had a publishing deal for five years in Nashville that was an awesome experience just to teach me to get up and write every day. It really was something I appreciate and which I think is important; even if you have nothing, just write crap…write, write, and write. Write every day. I remember one time,(and just know I am not the top 40 machine kind of songwriter that can pop out hits, that’s not my goal). I read an article one time in Rolling stone with Don Henley, and they asked him why he takes so long between records and he said because he had to go live his life. I identified with that. I am not saying there is anything wrong with publishing deals and spinning them out and getting in the machine and going for it and being crazy, nothing wrong with it, I am just not that type. And it is not like I have to go to hell and back to get every song or go on a drinking binge for 90 days. It is not that either.

Bev: Let’s talk about a little bit of your history because you have had your highs and you had your lows. Give me a time line of how things happened.

Nathan: I grew up in the Northeast making music, playing bars from the time I was 14 and I got a management deal when I was 19, moved down here and I’ve been playing bars for 14 ½ yrs. Same thing I am doing now is the same thing I have been doing for 14 ½ yrs. I’ve played bars that don’t exist anymore. So there is your highs and your lows. If you figure out in your head what that means, you are probably right. Some nights I got paid, some nights I didn’t. Some nights there were a lot of people, sometimes there were none. There are a lot of stories that go there about making mistakes and getting angry and flipping out.

Bev: So what is one of the deepest, darkest, ugliest times?

Nathan: Homeless the first time, it sucked…being homeless really sucked.

Bev: So how did it happen? Tell me a little about what got you there.

Nathan: The first time it happened, I was…

Bev: The first time, only time, how many times were you homeless?

Nathan: Three, I know, it sucked. I just couldn’t quit, that was the biggest part of it.
The first time I went out and did a run on the west coast and did some shows and lost all my money, came back, eviction notice, car got repo’d. But whatever. So I lived out of my minivan for a while, I was painting houses to survive. And then a buddy of mine called me one night, I was so ghetto rich. I’m in my minivan in the Wal-Mart parking lot with my cell phone. Right?

Bev: I like the term ghetto rich.

Nathan: Anyway this buddy of mine came over to the Wal-Mart parking lot and said “Come on, I want you to come stay with me”. That ended up being a year and a half for free. He is a hit songwriter and the condition was I would write every week and show him my songs. I would write all night and he would come downstairs and yell at me “that was a horrible bridge”. We would get in fights and but it was awesome, because he believed in me. I quit when I was 30, I was done.

Bev: Quit the music business?

Nathan: Quit! I was done, I put my keyboard in the closet and I was done. I had played all my life making music to survive and I was over it.

Bev: And what were you going to do?

Nathan: This is funny, after I had gone on the road and lost all my money, it seemed all I knew what to do was ruin everything. I mastered that, go on the road, and lose it all. I was exhausted and one of my part time jobs when I was in my twenties, was working for this non-profit called World Vision. They did these big corporate events and I would go out for $100 bucks a day and help build the stage or something. They called one day and said they were going to build a new music division in Nashville and they were going to build these boutique tour models and they wanted to know if would help with the advance, and design these tours from the ground up. You’re going out on the road, you got a little record deal, you’re going to go out and give an appeal every night for World Vision. And in turn, they’re going to back you and put this tour out with two buses and so it was this big machine. And all I knew how to do is everything wrong. So in my mind I went GREAT, let’s not do that.

And it worked. And I started taking on clients and when I was 29 my year’s income was $7400 bucks. When I was 30, I went straight to a $60 grand cut after all my bills were paid, so that was a shift. I had this great house, cars and I’ll never play a gig again. The problem was I was out on all these tours every night standing on the side of the stage. Not jealous, but going “the only thing I could do now is make more money and be better at this” and I didn’t know if I wanted to own a production company. So I did that for 2 ½ yrs, went to Africa with World Vision, got real sick, came home and was in bed for a month.

When you are in bed for a month; you’re thinking, you’re probably going to pray. I prayed, prayed and prayed what the hell’s happened with my life. And after a month of praying and lying in bed, I wasn’t sure what I wanted anymore. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to keep building what I had started. And within one week, I started getting back on my feet, I went to these crazy doctors and I started getting better and I knew, not to over spiritualize, but after praying and being that sick, “okay, I have to figure out what I am going to do”. You know the fork in the road, we all get there numerous times. I lost all my clients in a week. Every client called me with legitimate reasons. Like their fiscal year was up, money’s tight, we can’t renew our contracts, we have to cut back, we’re not doing these events anymore, literally, within a week, it was just the funniest thing, and I just knew.

That was the end of ’06, it was New Year’s Eve, and I packed up my house and put everything in a storage unit . 2007 and 2008, I lived out of my car, the whole two years. I lived around Nashville in my car, stayed on friend’s couches. I had a girlfriend the whole time and I am still with her. She would come find me in the morning, bring me coffee and tell me to get up and go to work. I didn’t know what that meant. Write a song? I’m homeless. I was asleep with the piano in the back and a suitcase. We started booking shows and I went to the Rutledge. That was the first club I played in Nashville when I got here 14 yrs ago, the Blue Sky Court. So I went back and they were just about to open, they had only been open about a week and I asked them if I could come do a show and if it worked would they give me residency. We made a deal, you have about a hundred people, it works and I played there every week for 2007 and 2008 I started at 12th & Porter. I played all year and at the end of the year, we had played 18 months without a break and never made a dime on one show. We rehearsed every week for 4 hrs and play a show for 4 hrs and the way I would pay the band is I started giving my furniture out of my old house. I paid out all of my own belongings and when I ran out of belongings I would trade them hour for hour so if you were my bass player, you gave 4 hours to rehearse, 4 hours show, means I owed 8 hours, so it started being where I was giving days back. I just had to do sweat equity.

Last year, still living in my car, somebody came and saw me play at 12th & Porter who was an alumni from a college in Martha’s Vineyard. This boutique college called Contemporary Music Center, I had never heard of it. They take 35 students a semester and they are all seniors, students from abroad and basically for one semester are locked down on the island and work on your art. There is a discussion panel every day, they bring in special guest speakers, but all you do is write songs every day, playing shows, they have a stage, and you do critique classes. You talk about every emotional thing an artist goes through, you talk about drug addiction, how to do pills, how to go to a doctor, everything in an artist life. All your addictions, your creative processes, you peel back all your layers and you go if you’re going to be an artist, this is what we look at.

This is four months of your life. Off I go, because my car broke down the day they called me and I’m homeless; and my car doesn’t run. They said to me “hey, we need a songwriting teacher”. They put me up and fed me and I taught a songwriting class.

Bev: Wow

Nathan: And the day before I was going to come back, One Revolution called , well it was more like a week before they flew up, said here’s more money come on back and get a place and we’ll make a record. So I made a record, I’m still playing here every week and I leave in September to go on the road.

Bev: That’s the kind of story people just shake their heads at in amazement…most people would have given up, nobody lives in their car for that long. What has been the best part of all this experience?

Nathan: Having a place to live and just enough money to eat every day. I am the kind of person who asks myself “Do I go on the dream bet or go on the “yeah, my parents will be happy bet”. I always stay on the dream

Bev: I believe in you, I think you’re going to go somewhere with this album… What do you classify it as, what kind of music do you categorize it to be?

Nathan: I think its rock pop, it is not the Guns and Roses records that I love and not the bubblegum pop that I like. I love both of those,

Bev: But it also has a Christian feel to it….it is very soulful; it has got so many different aspects to it and it is full of messages about faith.

Nathan: I’m the worst Christian you have ever met, but I love God and I seek him every day. I am about as much a Christian artist as God is a Satanist. You know what I mean? That is the hard part for me, I am in the south, I have made a lot of mistakes, you come back and sit in front of God. I ask the lord what does grace mean, what does faith mean and I am probably going to screw it up along the way but as a Christian artist, I do not go out and do what Christian artists do.

I love God and I know people that are Christians that blow my mind. I usually fail…but I call them when I do not get it. But more than being a Christian artist, an artist, I am still trying to figure out what it means to be a Christian, but singing about hope to people that have had a rough week, that are broken, I am down with that. I am not a preacher, I know what it is like to have no food, no money and make a ton of mistakes and sit in your car and pray about it.

Bev: From all the songs on “Risk Everything”, do you have a favorite?

Nathan: I don’t. I am supposed to have an answer to this question and I don’t. It depends every night. I am a “live” guy. If I found out I was never going to make a record again, I am not the artist to be depressed. I will be depressed if I don’t do shows. I love doing shows. It depends on the night. You know, some nights, “this is exactly where I am at” and another one, you’re like “I just have to get through this”,

Bev: Is there one song you like performing more than another?

Nathan: No. Again, not to keep coming back to it, but depending on the night, because with the guys, when you have five guys on stage and everybody has their life, you don’t know what is going to happen every night. Someone might have been in a fight with a girl, they are depressed, they are excited. Some nights you say “wow”, have not heard that lock in 3 weeks and we have it and then the next week it doesn’t lock. So I get my rush out of it and you really do not know what is going to happen, you get one shot. It adds to the risk factor, in the studio, you just do it, do it, do it until you get a sound you want.

Bev: What has been the worst thing that has happened to you on stage or during a performance?

Nathan: Well, the worst thing was when I was about 20 and we played in a club in New Jersey. The walls were mirrors so you really had no frame of reference for depth and perception. I was drinking hard back then and I thought it would be a great idea to launch, to jump from the stage up to the bar and back. Well I jumped from the stage to the bar and missed it, went down, sprained my ankle and had to crawl back to the stage and do my last song. That was the worst experience on stage.

I have had times when I have gone out and the piano was not turned on because somebody forgot to turn it on or the sustain pedal was not plugged in so when you hit it, it just went “clink”. I have had all these things happen. I have had it when the piano cooked, like fried on stage and I had to just stand and sing a song.

Bev: Now when you push it over, do you do that every show? Did you just do it the one time?

Nathan: No. I do it half the time, now we have fire and smoke that shoots out of it.

Bev: Do you actually break them?

Nathan: Phil Osbum is the production manager and the rule is whenever the piano goes down, the next morning at 9:00 we have coffee and keys. We fix the piano keys.

Bev: So you fix the same ones over and over?

Nathan: Oh yeah, we have a box of keys. We pull them open and fix them or glue them and replace them.

Bev: So instead of breaking a guitar, you push the piano over?

Nathan: Yes, and it is dumb because I have no money! That is a thing that the guy that has the endorsement would do. But I do not want to wait until that day because it might not come so we smash it and try to fix it.


Bev: What else are you doing, from here on out?

Nathan: The record is made, been writing all summer. Doing shows, we did this whole series for World Vision. Giving the money back to help build wells in Ethiopia.

Bev: How much money have you raised for them, do you know?

Nathan: A few grand? I have not counted it, just put all the money in a stack in a safe. They have a grant with Hilton Foundation. World Vision has all these partners that will do grants and what this means is the Hilton foundation says if you find someone to go out and work, we will match it “up to”. They had a $250,000 “up to” grant so whatever I raise they will match it. For the next couple of years I am going to work on it.

Bev: Any other plans for promoting the new CD?

Nathan: September first we leave for 40 days, we are going to do the 40 Day Risk. 40 cities, 40 days, 40 shows, no bookings. If you move to Nashville to do music, you need to do music. The flip side of that coin is an interview I read with Garth Brooks that said “do music but get a job and have some money in your pocket”. I agree.

My Dad just got laid off and he is on unemployment so we are just going to drive around with the web cam, trailer and piano and some speakers and play every night, we don’t know where. Truck stops, churches, thrift clubs, taco stands, south of the border, parties, we don’t know, wherever.

Bev: You are going to do it, you are going to broadcast each performance live?

Nathan: Every night, but because we are going to 40 cities, we don’t know if we will be able to get connection at every location every night. So if not, we will just have to record it and play it later.

Bev: What territory will this 40 day tour take you to?

Nathan: We are going to go to Knoxville and out east. We will leave Nashville the first day of September to Knoxville, out east and all the way down to Florida and all the way up the east coast out to Massachusetts, to Martha’s Vineyard, and play the college and then go all the way up through New York and then out west, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Chicago, Detroit, and then back down all the way to Texas.

Bev: You are covering the east side right now?

Nathan: Yes, the east coast out to the Midwest. If it works, then we will go back and do it again with a bus and a camera crew. If it doesn’t, I will be right here. I have some crazy ideas on promotion. Let’s say I am coming to your hometown and you contact me and offer me $100 or $200 and come play”. Now let’s say someone else is in the same town and you go online and go “I will pay $300”. For everybody that outbids somebody else, the price you pay for outbidding is not only the financial cost but anyone that is a lower bidder can come to the show. So no one is ever ruled out and even if it is at your pool in your back yard and you are willing to pay $1000 bucks, we’ll come to the highest bidder but the other bidder get to go for no charge.

Bev: It’s a win, win.

Nathan: It is a win, there is no way, I wanted to do a something that worst case scenario was survival mode. Everybody from the record company, the marketing company, everybody involved could have something to pull from because the economy is tight, there is just not the money for any artist to do radio promotion or to do a major release tour. That kind of money is just hard right now.

Bev: You have to think outside of the box and come up with something someone else isn’t doing.

Nathan: Yes, and even when it is there, is that the way to go? So, what if we do it with hardly any money, that way, worst case scenario is we have a journal, a bunch of video blogs, we can make a DVD. I have a bunch of hard drives. No one’s out of a lot of money, everyone can use their gifts. We had fun, shared music, met a lot of new people, we will write a story about it at the end and keep making music.

Bev: I know you were in LA recently, can you talk about what you did there?

Nathan: One Revolution is a startup company and with any startup company you have to be smart with your money. One of the things that they came across was L.A. Ink. I’m already covered in tattoos and I’m done with it. Wayne called and said “what if we figure out how you can go on and tell the story of how you ended up here”? Well, I don’t know, I guess, from that angle, I’m cool with it. So we all flew out to L.A. and Kat (Von D) got on board and we tattooed “Risk Everything” across my back. Being around the whole LA group, two things happened; they are really creative and really professional and they are on top of their game. Kat was so right brain, left brain with being creative, drawing it, tattooing and then “I gotta take care of this, and you have cameras, fight breaks out, hold on sweetie, I’ll be right back, it’s work time. She would go over, everybody would get in, shoot the drama, come back, I apologize, let’s get back to work”. And she gets up and does that six days a week. This chick owns her crap and I got it. She just dies for it and it does not matter how many hours. And she is still happy, She is not burned out. So that was cool.

Bev: Did she design it or did you tell her what you wanted it to say or did she come up with words and everything?

Nathan: I gave her some ideas. I said could be “risk everything”, it could be from the record, if there is something from the record you like, I don’t care. Now, what I asked her to do, once you draw it up, stick it on my back and I don’t want to see it until it is done but legally on camera you have to say yes, you have to approve it. I was like, ahhhh. I am here to risk everything…But it was great. But they are going to talk about the record on the show and share the story.

Bev: That will be awesome for you, talk about exposure, literally, exposure.

Nathan: It was awkward, I was in the salon for ten hours with my shirt off and people come in the shop and it was all roped off and they are fans and like, love you, see you on the tube. It was so awkward.

Bev: While you were out there, did you do any other promotional work?

Nathan: We did a lot of interviews out there for placement in TV and film. That is tough, that is a whole other world that is so competitive but it was great, we met some really cool people and it ended up being an awesome trip.

Bev: Nathan, I love your music, I love you as a person and as an artist and I really wish you best of luck with this project. I would love to see you on a big ole stage because you would tear the place up. Your live show is so raw and full of emotion, I always leave with my heart just pumping like crazy from the energy you put into it. Thank you for taking time to do this for me.

Nathan: I enjoyed it and am glad you enjoy it so much and are willing to take your time to listen to me and listen to the music. Thank you!


For more information on Nathan Lee visit http://nathanleemusic.com/ For more information on the RISK EVERYTHING TOUR fans will be alerted to show location, time and special guests via twitter, blogs on www.40dayrisk.com

Additional photos of Nathan Lee can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/momentsbymoser/sets/72157622088161380/

INTERVIEW: David Nail "Red Light"

MCA Nashville recording artist David Nail celebrates the release of his debut album “I'm About To Come Alive” today, but this celebration has taken ten years to get here. I spent a little time with David discussing the journey that led him here and talking about the excitement of seeing a small town boys dreams come true.


Bev: David, thanks for visiting with me today, I have been enjoying the new single hitting the airwaves. Can you tell me about the new CD project you have out? You are doing well with the single.


David: Yes I would love too. The record has been a long time coming; we have been working with it almost two years. I guess we have just been trying to find the right time. I hope there are enough people out there that know who I am and there seems to be enough demand for it. The new single “Red Light” is taking on a life of its own and is doing really well. Everyone seems to be re-energized in regards to the entire project. It is a real exciting time and something that I have been waiting for. I am on the verge of my ten year anniversary here in town and it is something that I know, for me personally, will be emotional day, when the record comes out. It is something that I have been waiting for, for quite some time now.

Bev: What has been the biggest surprise for you?

David: I am not easily surprised. I live my life not waiting for bad things to happen, but I always try to prepare myself for the down side of things and that way I am not surprised. I deal with things as they come along, that makes the good things that much sweeter. As far as any real surprises along the way, when I moved to town things began to happen pretty quickly. I thought I would be four or five records in at this point. If anything, when I talk about being here ten years, I tell people “you remember how long high school took”? It seemed like four years were forever, I have been here the equivalent of two times of high school and a couple of extra years. When you look at it like that, it just seems like “Wow”. It is a lot of time in one place and in some ways I am proud of myself that I didn’t pack up, give up and move on. There were definitely some moments when that was a possibility.

Bev. Have there been any setbacks that you really had to step back and look at and re-evaluate?

David: Yes. I am a pretty serious person, but I can cut up with the best of them. For the most part, when it comes to work and being creative, going out and singing songs, at least in my own personal case, is extremely personal. There is a process of writing a song and then getting comfortable with revealing that side of you to the world. I think there was a time when people came and read me wrong in the beginning; but I think it was just me having to realize that it was okay to be serious and also be able to sit back and relax and enjoy the process just as much as the performing. There are a lot of variables; it is not just the act of hopping up on a stage and singing. I think that I was so intensely focused on that aspect, that I wasn’t really able to open up to the other responsibilities that I had. A lot of it has to do with when I first got my record deal in 2000. I was twenty-one years old and never been on a plane and I was so green about real life experiences that I think that was part of my struggles. The time I have spent here allowed me to mature and be a little bit more prepared this time.

Bev: As far as what is next, you have the single out right now, what is the next step?

David: We have the record ready go on store shelves; we’re doing some radio promotions and shows for radio. I have been fortunate to have some really strong friendships with the people in radio; ones that I hope can last a long time. I have been real lucky to have them to step when it didn’t look like things were going to go through, but they stepped up and took up some of the slack. I have had some really important new ones to come on board in the last few months. Hopefully now we have a little room to breathe and get out there and people are starting to hear more and hopefully the music will take care of itself.

Bev: When you have been out on the road, I am sure you have had some instances, some surprises or embarrassing moments. Can you share any with me?

David: The most embarrassing moment I have had performing was actually a month before I decided to move back to Nashville. I was performing at a talent show at a college. My fraternity brothers pulled some strings to get me into the show so it was a dramatic ordeal. I got there, did my song and I was scooting back away from the microphone when my chair caught one of the cords. I flipped over backwards with the guitar in my hand in front of about 2,000 people that were all in sororities and fraternities. It was pretty mortifying. At nineteen years old, you are at such an impressionable age and so worried about looking cool. I don’t think that anything can happen now that is going to top that. I have one bad habit of not making sure that when I leave a bathroom, my fly is taken care of. I don’t know where that came from or what started it but randomly, in the last six months, I guess I am just getting old; my memory is not working as well. I don’t know what brought it on but I am trying to go above and beyond to make sure that I am nipping that in the bud.

Bev: As far as advice to some of the up and coming artists, what is the one piece of advice that you have gotten that you would pass along?

David: I would just say, try to find the best possible team of people around you. Whether it is management, your booking agent, your business manager and then later on your record label. What I always say is you are only as good as the people around you. I have been fortunate in the last few years to build a team of people around me that I feel set me up to be successful. They have given me the best opportunity to have that true shot which is something I have really strived to get, that one true window of opportunity where your God given talents take over. I would tell them to be patient because what is cool tomorrow was probably not cool yesterday. The trends and what people are interested in or what people are looking for can change rather quickly. It is extremely easy in this city to get discouraged. I have fallen victim to that myself on more than one occasion. It goes back to those people around you that can bring you up when you are down and not feeling so confident or maybe bring you down when you are flying a little too high in the clouds.

Bev: When you do perform live, have you established any kind of a tradition that you do before you get on stage?
David: A few years ago, I went to Memphis to hang out with a buddy of mine and his brother-in-law and family. He had just built this really nice theater room and he was trying to show off. He pulled out this DVD of a live U2 concert. I don’t think he so much wanted me to watch the show as he wanted me to experience the theater and the screen. He turned it on and it was the most unbelievable live performance I had ever seen. The next morning I drove out to a store and purchased the DVD and now every night on the bus, I pop that in and we watch the first couple of songs. It was just really a significant show. I had never seen 800,000 people jump up and down and clap and sing that much in unison. I just tell the guys “hey, we’re not there yet but maybe someday”. I am going to go out and reel in one audience at a time. I remember seeing Garth Brooks on his first tour and I went to that show not knowing what I was getting myself into and a few years later, he is selling out Central Park. It is something that I take very seriously and I try to remind the guys every night it is a marathon, not a sprint and that each show is as important as the other

Bev: When you do perform live, does the audience react more so to one song or the other; or do you have any songs that have gotten a really surprising reaction, that the audience has liked more that you expected?

David: I am still getting use to taking everything from the audience in. “Red Light” is doing really well with markets so obviously that gets the biggest reaction and that is the one where I really try to pay attention to how loud the people are singing it back to me. We close the show every night with a tune called “Turning Home” which is kind of the theme of this new record. I tell people all the time that I have looked for my entire career for a song that I can really sing and can dig into from the emotional state. I close my eyes every night and I more or less wear that song out word for word. I tell everyone that I know it is Tuesday night or Thursday night but we’re going to take you to church with this one. Close your eyes and imagine it is Sunday morning and they seem to really get in to it. It is a slow song and I know the majority of times you don’t close a show with a slow song but it definitely has that Sunday morning spiritual feeling. It is a very dynamic song and I feel that is the kind of thing I want to leave them with. Sometimes I get a little choked up playing it because it takes me back to those struggles that I had a few years ago and now I am on the verge of some success hopefully.

Bev: Any one thing about the album now that it is coming out, the one thing that you really want to get across to the fans?

David: I was a kid growing up in a small town and could not wait to get out of there. I felt like it was holding me back. I had all these big dreams and aspirations for my life and being from such a rural place that didn’t set me up to succeed. Then I moved to the city and I have traveled all over the country. I have been in the nicest hotels in America and I have eaten at the nicest restaurants and I have flown first class and I have seen all the perks of what I have been fortunate enough to do now for several years. As I have grown older, it almost seems like with each level of success that I start to have, I find myself leaning back toward those small town values and morals. I think subconsciously, this record took on a theme of that when we began making it. You know, this small town kid goes to the big city and thinks all his prayers are going to be answered and little does he know that he’s still so much a part of that small town kid. That is not to say that I don’t enjoy the city and don’t enjoy perks that come with it and the things I get to do. I was raised in a small town and had a very conservative upbringing and I think when you spend 18 years in that environment, it is going to take more than ten years to get it out of me.

Bev: Are you into the Twitter, Facebook and Myspace social networking?

David: I am pretty active, I try to twitter once a day and when I am on the road, I try to do more than that because there are more things going on. I have kind of backed off Myspace. I do a blog once a month and then I’ll check the plays but as I get so many more friend requests and it has grown bigger, it has become harder to try to answer all the questions and be as active as I want to be. My wife already yells at me enough that I am on the computer too much. I don’t want to get divorced for spending too much time on Myspace. The good thing about Twitter is you can control it from your phone so it is much more convenient.

Bev: David, I know you are very excited about the project coming out and seeing this phase of your dreams come true, and I wish you much success. Thank you so much for spending a little time with me and sharing some of your dream and your journey to get here.

David: Thank you Bev and I look forward to you coming to a show soon. I appreciate you taking the time to do this.


For more information on David Nail visit http://www.davidnail.com/


(Photo Credit: Andrew Southam)


James Otto ACC Video Shoot - Behind The Scenes

L to Right-bottom
Leila Riera,
Natalie Bannon,
Felicia King

L to Right top
Brynn Cirota,
Amber McDonald,
James Otto,
Alison Parson,
Deanna Loveland

(Photo Credit: Bev Moser)


Wednesday August 5th, James Otto shot a music video for his latest hit song, “Ain't Gonna Stop", which is going to be used by Atlantic Coast Conference to promote College Football. I was on location and joined James along with the production crew to capture behind the scenes photos during the filming.

The video was directed by award winning Greg Green who brought much expertise to the project. Amy Yakola (ACC Associate Commissioner for Marketing and PR) and Michael Kelly (ACC Associate Commissioner for Football and Communications) were both on location during filming for support of the project.

The football fields at Franklin Academy in Brentwood, TN served as one of the settings for the football and cheerleader scenes and later that same evening the live concert scenes were shot at 12th and Porter downtown Nashville in front of a select V.I.P crowd.

At the end of the video shoot a free concert was given by Otto where he performed with a full band during a 45 minute set that included the featured song “Ain’t Gonna Stop”. He also sang some of his hit songs such as the #1 song he wrote with Lee Thomas Miller and Jamey Johnson titled “In Color” and the song that made him a household name, “Just Got Started Lovin’ You.” Otto graciously thanked those in attendance and gave an outstanding performance.



For more information on James Otto visit http://www.jamesotto.net/

For More Photos of this event visit http://www.digitalrodeo.com/drphotos/photos/album/JamesOttoBehindTheScenesVideoPhotos