Hillman 50 Years Gig
Notes Excerpt
*** Back to Tennessee - Meeting
Chet Atkins
http://www.hillmanweb.com/book/gigs/03.html#tennessee
During
our Nashville visits we pushed and plugged songs and records and came close
to success with numerous "almost-made-it deals" -- a very common situation
in the world of show business. The publishers and record companies along
music row were mostly set up in what had originally been residential houses.
Our act was a bit of a curiosity
and there were numerous nibbles. Some of the record execs and artists excitedly
played acetates of their latest recording projects and some offered us
songs to record. We even visited Chet Atkins in his RCA office. We dropped
off our latest album for him to review and were invited back to meet with
him the next day. He was fascinated, but didn't think Nashville and the
American South were ready for a Chinese drummer/girl singer in a mixed
marriage yet -- especially after America's recent horrific involvement
in the Asian wars in Vietnam and Indochina.
Later, after I had returned home
to resume teaching, our school secretary received a flurry of calls from
a record company with offices adjacent to the RCA building. They were interested
in putting our material on tapes to be sold at truck stops across America.
The deal looked promising -- they represented other artists such as Rosemary
Clooney -- but somehow we just never finalized a deal. This was the first
of many opportunities that we just couldn't follow up on as long as I was
dedicated to a "day job" up in Canada. Hard decisions.
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