So, I’m on my way to the land of a thousand steel guitars. Where every country artist dreams of being on a horse in the mountains and every Christian artist dreams of being a country artist (they make more money and get to work with Dann Huff).
It’s GMA week, which stands for Get More Aspirin – the week every single famous Christian in the world waits for a table at the same pancake house. It’s like Eureka Springs after a revival. There are new bands being showcased, new authors snubbing their noses at new bands, old solo artists wondering how all these eleven-year-olds got recording contracts, and twelve-year-olds wondering why last year’s recording contract ended so quickly. It’s Circus of the Saints. And it all goes down in the wonderful world of Nashville.
I’m going this year because I’m actually up for one of those Doves. I produced David Crowder Band’s “foreverandeveretc” video, which is up for short-form-music-video-of-the-year alongside the other four Christian music videos that were produced in 2007. If we come out victors, we win an extremely dangerous-looking statue and a slightly shorter wait at the aforementioned pancake house. We here at Steelehouse are very proud of the video, but do not expect to win because we are up against Switchfoot and they’ve scored seventeen Relevant cover stories. Their video features slo-mo underwater explosions and, though ours has animated rodents at the end-of-the-world, it’s not exactly a po-ta-to/po-tah-to comparison. HOWEVER, we are thrilled (as Coolio says) just to be nominated and will consider the trip a success if Crowder recognizes us from a distance. One of my writers (Jeff Huston) and I will probably broadcast our Steelehouse podcast (now available on iTunes for the low, low cost of nothing (animated rodents not included) from down there, just to celebrate the spectacle of it all.
I used to frequent these sorts of gatherings: Christian music festivals, NRB (which is now ICRS – an acronym that sounds like the answer to an off-color knock-knock joke), conferences and whatnot. It’s been a while since I was surrounded by the faces of the Christian music elite, at least it’s been since I was last in the media section of Wal-Mart. So, here’s hoping for a great Dove Awards ceremony. I will blog all about it, blow-by-blow well before you are able to view the edited version on CMT or Lifetime, or the Home Shopping Network (whoever won the contract). It will be just like the afterparties in Hollywood where all of the beautiful starlets get drunk – if you substitute “starlets” with “artists” and “beautiful” with “balding” – and “drunk” with “free mints.”
I can hardly wait. Meet me here, at my blog, after Wednesday evening. I’ll be giving out my own honorary Doves – just because I can.
