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.
