Time to Rant

Category: News/Opinion 

Earlier this week I celebrated the joy of the inductions of Jerry Lee Lewis and the late Keith Whitley into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  Now is the time to rant.

A little backstory: when I was in college I had a column for a small zine called Hard Country Beat.  I wrote an entry that was similar to what I’m about to opine, and I got called on the carpet for it.  I was a lot younger then.  I’m old now (getting social security), so I don’t give a rat’s tuchas…even less than I did 30 years ago!  If someone’s tail feathers get ruffled by this, then good: pay attention, and do something about it!

Along with the two musicians inducted into the Hall of Fame, the Country Music Association reverted to one of its old, boring, tiresome tactics: giving a Hall of Fame plaque instead of a gold watch to a CMA executive.  This time, Joe Galante gets the induction. 

Yes, Joe Galante has a long (starting in 1974) career with RCA Victor records, helping with the “outlaw” era in the 70s that popularized country music on the pop charts amid the Bee Gees’ disco invasion.  Yes, he helped with the careers of future Hall of Famers like Alabama, Vince Gill, and Keith Whitley.  Yes indeed, Galante’s long career is quite noteworthy. And yes, I believe Galante belongs in the Hall of Fame.

But Joe Galante is also a member of the Country Music Association (CMA) board of directors.  As in, the CMA who votes who goes — and who doesn’t go — into the Hall of Fame. 

Meanwhile, Syd Nathan will yet again have to wait another three years to be considered, when he should have been inducted with the “big class” in 2001, if not earlier.

Why should Syd Nathan be inducted, especially over a record executive from the 70s, 80s, and 90s? Because of one very simple fact:  Sydney Nathan INVENTED the all-country music record label.  And he did it in 1943. 

So why on this earth is this long-deceased bespectacled Jewish businessman from Cincinnati constantly overlooked by the Country Music Hall of Fame?

No, I don’t think for a second that it’s because of the “Jewish businessman” descriptor.  Rather, the fact that he was based in Cincinnati seems to be the problem.

While Nashville has long had a love/hate relationship with country music, for some reason the “powers that be” want every tourist to think that country music only existed because of Nashville.  We all know better.  Many of the pre-World War II recordings in country music were recorded everywhere except Nashville.  (There’s a nice monument to the Gennett Records studios in Richmond, Indiana, where a number of country, jazz, and “race” records were recorded in the 1920s and 30s.)  Good ol’ Nashville, who not only committed murder down on Music Row but also razed the buildings, now tries to bill itself as the epitome of country music.  Do you know where the only building where Hank Williams recorded still standing is standing?  In Cincinnati, the home of Syd Nathan.  (As the Robin and Linda Williams song “Rollin’ and Ramblin’ (The Death of Hank Williams)” says, “Folks in Nashville slammed the door.”  If you want Hank history, don’t go to Nashville, ‘cause you won’t find any there.)

In Cincinnati, during World War II, record store owner Syd Nathan tapped into the wealth of talent available at nearby WLW radio, as well as down the road a little way at Renfro Valley (which actually started as a radio show on WLW before moving to Mount Sterling, Kentucky).  As the proprietor of a record store, he knew firsthand what people were buying.  As a result, in 1943, he founded King Records.

King Records could be considered as much a “cradle of the Hall of Fame” as Knoxville, Tennessee is.  Among the Hall of Famers who recorded for King (either initially or at some point of their career): the Delmore Brothers, Bill Carlisle, Grandpa Jones, and Homer & Jethro; along with Bluegrass Hall of Famers the Stanley Brothers, Jimmy Martin, and Reno & Smiley, and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Moon Mullican.  Add to that the should-be Hall of Famers like Cowboy Copas and you can see that the roster was filled with talent.

Despite the incredible contributions Nathan made to country music through King Records, the Country Music Hall of Fame is the only music hall of fame that has not honored him.  The significance of what King (and its R&B spinoff label, Queen) did in the 40s has been recognized elsewhere.

Nathan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Seymour Stein, founder of Sire Records (named in honor of King Records, as he worked for Nathan), wrote at the conclusion of his essay about Nathan’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, “With his singular vision and unflagging determination, he helped spread the sounds of C&W, R&B, and ultimately, rock and roll across the nation.” 

Additionally, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, where Nathan was inducted in 2006, pointed out the foresight of Nathan’s desire to have complete control, noting that King was the first label to have everything — from recording to pressing to shipping — under one roof.  They also pointed out that Nathan, in 1945, hired Dr. Henry Glover as an A&R executive, making the co-writer of “Blues, Stay Away From Me” the first African-American executive at a white-owned business.

Syd Nathan has the credentials, and then some.  While he died in 1968, it’s no exaggeration to say the Country Music Association is a good 30 years behind the times in acknowledging what Nathan did for the popularity, promotion, and production of country music.  

If only we could get the the CMA to stop kissing its own rear end and acknowledge someone else’s contributions to country music….