Convoy Hauls Country Music To Eastern Europe
Country music, now on the back end of its latest and biggest U.S. surge, is still very cool and regarded as an “art form” in Eastern Europe, reports George Hamilton V, the first American country performer to make an extended tour of Poland.
Country Convoy, as it was called, was a 35-day 14-show jaunt by five bands - four Polish ones and Hamilton’s - sponsored by the Polish-owned Hagoka trucking company. Playing in soccer stadiums, they traveled from the German border to the Baltic Sea in a double-decker bus, a single-decker bus and a tractor-trailer with a rear end that folded out to make a stage.
“It reminded me of stories about the Grand Ole Opry caravan shows” of the 1930s and ‘40s, says Hamilton, son of longtime Opry cast member George Hamilton IV.
But this tour, begun in July, involved barriers even the old Opry tours didn’t have to surmount. Take the language one, for instance. The younger Hamilton, who jumped at the chance to participate, says he and his bass player were backed by a Polish band whose members spoke no English.
The group was “very professional and had been practicing with a tape, so they knew the songs,” but there were situations where, had there been no language barrier, the two Americans could simply have whispered to their backers, “‘Hey, why are you standing in front of me?’ or ‘Why are you taking that solo when I’m supposed to be taking my solo?”’ Hamilton says.
“The real hard part,” he adds, “was sometimes when you’d say, ‘Take it,’ meaning a solo, and you (ended up) sort of screaming at them. Then they might look at you like, ‘What did I do wrong?”’
The solution?
“We had a smoke machine, and I could run over to its pedal and step on it. Smoke will get you out of anything.”
About 10 shows into Hamilton’s run, the “Country Convoy” - which took its name from the ‘70s megahit “Convoy” - arrived at Wragowo and the annual Country Picnic, one of the premiere country festivals in Europe. Suddenly Hamilton and his non-English-speaking Hagoka Band had to play in front of a couple of American acts: ex-Little Texas member Brady Seals and his new band, as well as live-wire pianist/vocalist Becky Hobbs.
Things seem to have gone off fine for Hamilton’s troupe even there, doubtlessly due to the fact that this son of country music’s foremost international ambassador has himself accomplished such international feats as seven tours of England and a previous performance at Poland’s Country Picnic in 1990. It was his enjoyment of that visit and his admiration of the Polish people that led him to volunteer for the 1996 tour.
The most striking part of Poland’s country phenomenon, the singer indicates, is how American country music - before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain - has helped inspire Poles to demand better lives for themselves. On the ‘96 “Convoy,” Hamilton was told about an earlier one in which Polish truckers convoyed to Warsaw to demand changes in harsh regulations of their industry.
“In Eastern Europe, country music has kind of changed some things,” Hamilton concludes. “Over there, it has inspired people to take control of their lives. Over here, I guess all it can inspire us to do is the ‘Watermelon Crawl.”’
Young fans abandon country
One reason country record sales have dropped dramatically in the past couple of years is that many young fans drawn in by the Garth Brooks excitement of the early ‘90s have moved on to “alternative rock” or whatever, leaving high and dry most of the 25-and-under male acts Nashville reflexively signed.
The reason the young fans moved on, besides the fact that that’s what young fans do, is almost certainly their lack of empathy with the persistently positive and non-rebellious song fare country radio and mainstream Nashville producers have been trying to give them.
And the 25-and-under artists left behind don’t appeal greatly to country’s traditional 25-and-over fans, most of whose favorites - Randy Travis, Ricky Van Shelton, Merle Haggard and George Jones - have been banished from mainstream radio.
Maybe the producers and radio programmers ought to offer the public more mature artists and a few more songs that reflect the not-so-rosy real-life with which the bulk of country fans are most familiar.
If those things happen, the guess here is that, as always in the past, the field will hugely rebound from the current unpleasantness.
Twain tour in fall ‘97?
Talk is that the long-awaited Shania Twain concert tour may begin in the fall of 1997 and visit intimate-sized theaters for extended stands.
Twain, who has sold more than 7 million copies of her “The Woman in Me” album, has yet to do her first paid concert since the album came out in early 1995.
Brooks, Dunn to race
Stage mates - but fierce competitors behind the wheel - Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn again will be driving Legends race cars against each other Oct. 9 in the Mark Collie Race Against Diabetes at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds in Nashville.
The only problem is, there can be but one winner, so it might be best for the duo’s smooth-running partnership if that winner turns out to be neither Brooks nor Dunn.
The two, who practically live on the highway (as opposed to the racetrack) headlining a tour ranked by Pollstar as one of the Top 10 of all musical types for ‘96, plan to come in out of the dust and mud around Thanksgiving and hang around their respective homes until after the Christmas holidays.
Jones celebrates 65th
The great George Jones, whose new “I Lived to Tell it All” album shows that he may well be singing better than ever, recently celebrated his 65th birthday with family and friends at his Nashville-area home.
Willie Nelson goes reggae
The similarly-timeless Willie Nelson, who is as eclectic as Jones is traditional, is reported to be preparing a reggae album for release near the end of the year.