Saturday, June 12, 2004
Fan Fair rookie has grueling, productive day - Saturday, 06/12/04
Fan Fair rookie has grueling, productive day
AMBER ARNOLD / STAFF
Rachel Proctor performs at the Riverfront stages Thursday at the CMA Music Festival.
AMBER ARNOLD / STAFF
Rachel Proctor gets her hair and makeup done by Gwen Ankenbauer and Valorie Cole in the dressing room at The Coliseum. Proctor sang harmony vocals on Drift Away with Uncle Kracker on Thursday night, one of many stops during her 15-hour workday at the CMA Music Festival.
By PETER COOPER
Staff Writer
15 hours prove to Rachel Proctor 'we're finally getting somewhere'
It wasn't even 7 a.m., and someone already was hollering at Rachel Proctor.
''Hey, Rachel, will you take a picture with us?'' shouted a man who stood outside the gate at Emerald Sound Studios on Music Row on Thursday.
Assuredly, she would. To Proctor — who was experiencing the CMA Music Festival as an artist for the first time — the shrill request sounded a lot like progress.
''When I heard that, I thought, 'Oh, my God, someone knows who I am,' '' she said.
Inside the Nashville music industry, people have known about Proctor for some time. Now 29, she's been pitching her songs and voice here for 11 years. She co-wrote Where Would You Be, a hit for Martina McBride, and she began working on her major label debut album three years ago.
Since then, the album has been delayed and reconfigured several times, and Proctor has been left to write, record and wait.
''The album got pushed back and pushed back, and I was beginning to think, 'We're gonna lose you,' '' syndicated radio personality Danny Wright said to Proctor during her interview with him at Emerald.
They haven't lost her, though. Proctor's Days Like This album is slated for an August release on BNA Records, and her Me and Emily single is among the 20 most-played songs on country radio. On Thursday, her 15-hour workday was packed with radio and television interviews, performances and autograph sessions, making for a tired singer and a palpable sense of ''we're finally getting somewhere.''
After posing with fans outside the studio gate, Proctor walked into a bustling building filled with publicists, microphones, broadcast personalities and country performers. Proctor was there for nine interviews, each one lasting between five and eight minutes.
Most of her inquisitors were male and middle-aged, most commented on her appearance (''You don't look 29,'' remarked an Asheville, N.C., disc jockey, as if to be 29 was to be way up there in years), and only two got her name wrong (she became ''Julie'' in Rochester, N.Y., and ''Emily'' in Colorado Springs). For each station, she recorded up to 12 ''liners,'' or brief station advertisements.
''Whenever I'm in the beautiful Big Sky country of Montana, I listen to …'' enthused Proctor, who has never been to Montana.
The nine interviews offered Proctor a chance to make a virtual tour of the country, hitting country markets all over in a short time. Other performers, including Joe Nichols, Darryl Worley and Tracy Lawrence, were at Emerald to do the same thing. Worley, who sang with Proctor on one of her album's songs, hugged her and said, ''We were just talking about you yesterday. Everyone just wants you to kick butt, 'cause you're talented.''
At 9:30 a.m., Proctor left the studio with publicist Wes Vause and regional radio promotions manager Jean Williams. She signed a few more autographs at the gate, and then it was on to the Doubletree hotel downtown, to be interviewed on Milwaukee station WMIL and sign autographs for a roomful of Wisconsin fans who were part of a tour group.
''Wash your hands after you touch these people,'' advised Williams, who views germs as detriments to career building.
Proctor made small talk with fans, signed autographs and remained amiable. She'd recently played a casino show in Milwaukee, so many fans were already familiar with her.
''She's a talented gal,'' said Connie Janssen of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., who stretched a T-shirt with an embroidery hoop to make it easier for Proctor to sign. ''After they sign it, I first of all Scotchgard it and then you can wash it without the signatures coming off.''
The next stop was the convention center, where Proctor settled in to the Country Weekly booth to pose for photos and sign her name some more. Fans had just filed past John Arthur Martinez and Steve Azar, and some weren't familiar with Proctor. Others, such as John ''Duke'' Smith of Charleston, W. Va., were longtime listeners. Smith used to watch Proctor play local clubs in her native Mountain State.
''We always told her she'd make it,'' Smith said, autograph in hand. ''She's gonna keep going and going now.''
At least for one day, Smith's prediction was on the money. Proctor kept going, in this case on to an interview with Harry Chapman's Talk of the Town show on WTVF. With stylist Michael McCall there to offer makeup touch-ups in stifling heat, Proctor chatted amiably about her day, her single and her career. Lunch followed, at Merchant's Restaurant, and then Proctor received another makeup job from McCall before heading to the Riverfront Park stage for a midafternoon performance.
In front of roughly 2,500 people, she sang as if it wasn't unbelievably hot, as if she hadn't been up since 6 a.m., as if she hadn't signed her name hundreds of times and smiled enough to make a beauty queen look glum. She played a five-song set, drawing considerable applause on Where Would You Be and Me and Emily, and on material unfamiliar to the fans, such as the slinky, twanging Shame On Me. RCA Label Group President Joe Galante, the man in charge of deciding whether Proctor stays on BNA and how much money is pumped into her career, looked on approvingly.
With the afternoon performance over, the pace eased somewhat. All Proctor did from 4 p.m. on was: fight rush hour and CMA Music Festival traffic; go home to pick up her luggage for a two-day trip to Minnesota; drive to the record company office; ride with Vause to The Coliseum; rehearse with Uncle Kracker; sing harmony vocals on Drift Away at Kracker's Coliseum show; ride back to the record company office; and drive to 100 Oaks Mall, where she caught the tour bus to Minneapolis.
Such a day is unique to the country genre. It's hard to imagine Bruce Springsteen, Norah Jones or the guys in OutKast signing photos at a pop music trade show or Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit reading copy about the Big Sky country into a microphone. Proctor knew about such obligations long before she signed her record deal, though, and there are enough invigorating moments to offset the grind.
Thursday, one of those moments came at the convention center, when a 16-year-old fan named Emily Mueller, from Delray Beach, Fla., approached with a handmade booklet, decorated with colored pencil and bound with pink ribbon.
In the booklet were notes Mueller had collected from fans who frequent Proctor's message board on CMT.com. The board has been active since CMT began playing the video for Me and Emily, a song about a mother leaving an abusive relationship and taking her daughter with her.
''When I hear Me and Emily, I cry,'' said one note in the booklet. ''It's the story of my life.''
The booklet closed with a sweet, handwritten page of thoughts from Mueller — who was so happy about meeting her favorite singer that she could barely make conversation. In the middle of all the pages was a simply worded note that caused Proctor's eyes to mist a little, even as she signed her name for friendly strangers:
''Rachel, from your biggest fan. I love you. MOM.''
Fan Fair rookie has grueling, productive day
AMBER ARNOLD / STAFF
Rachel Proctor performs at the Riverfront stages Thursday at the CMA Music Festival.
AMBER ARNOLD / STAFF
Rachel Proctor gets her hair and makeup done by Gwen Ankenbauer and Valorie Cole in the dressing room at The Coliseum. Proctor sang harmony vocals on Drift Away with Uncle Kracker on Thursday night, one of many stops during her 15-hour workday at the CMA Music Festival.
By PETER COOPER
Staff Writer
15 hours prove to Rachel Proctor 'we're finally getting somewhere'
It wasn't even 7 a.m., and someone already was hollering at Rachel Proctor.
''Hey, Rachel, will you take a picture with us?'' shouted a man who stood outside the gate at Emerald Sound Studios on Music Row on Thursday.
Assuredly, she would. To Proctor — who was experiencing the CMA Music Festival as an artist for the first time — the shrill request sounded a lot like progress.
''When I heard that, I thought, 'Oh, my God, someone knows who I am,' '' she said.
Inside the Nashville music industry, people have known about Proctor for some time. Now 29, she's been pitching her songs and voice here for 11 years. She co-wrote Where Would You Be, a hit for Martina McBride, and she began working on her major label debut album three years ago.
Since then, the album has been delayed and reconfigured several times, and Proctor has been left to write, record and wait.
''The album got pushed back and pushed back, and I was beginning to think, 'We're gonna lose you,' '' syndicated radio personality Danny Wright said to Proctor during her interview with him at Emerald.
They haven't lost her, though. Proctor's Days Like This album is slated for an August release on BNA Records, and her Me and Emily single is among the 20 most-played songs on country radio. On Thursday, her 15-hour workday was packed with radio and television interviews, performances and autograph sessions, making for a tired singer and a palpable sense of ''we're finally getting somewhere.''
After posing with fans outside the studio gate, Proctor walked into a bustling building filled with publicists, microphones, broadcast personalities and country performers. Proctor was there for nine interviews, each one lasting between five and eight minutes.
Most of her inquisitors were male and middle-aged, most commented on her appearance (''You don't look 29,'' remarked an Asheville, N.C., disc jockey, as if to be 29 was to be way up there in years), and only two got her name wrong (she became ''Julie'' in Rochester, N.Y., and ''Emily'' in Colorado Springs). For each station, she recorded up to 12 ''liners,'' or brief station advertisements.
''Whenever I'm in the beautiful Big Sky country of Montana, I listen to …'' enthused Proctor, who has never been to Montana.
The nine interviews offered Proctor a chance to make a virtual tour of the country, hitting country markets all over in a short time. Other performers, including Joe Nichols, Darryl Worley and Tracy Lawrence, were at Emerald to do the same thing. Worley, who sang with Proctor on one of her album's songs, hugged her and said, ''We were just talking about you yesterday. Everyone just wants you to kick butt, 'cause you're talented.''
At 9:30 a.m., Proctor left the studio with publicist Wes Vause and regional radio promotions manager Jean Williams. She signed a few more autographs at the gate, and then it was on to the Doubletree hotel downtown, to be interviewed on Milwaukee station WMIL and sign autographs for a roomful of Wisconsin fans who were part of a tour group.
''Wash your hands after you touch these people,'' advised Williams, who views germs as detriments to career building.
Proctor made small talk with fans, signed autographs and remained amiable. She'd recently played a casino show in Milwaukee, so many fans were already familiar with her.
''She's a talented gal,'' said Connie Janssen of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., who stretched a T-shirt with an embroidery hoop to make it easier for Proctor to sign. ''After they sign it, I first of all Scotchgard it and then you can wash it without the signatures coming off.''
The next stop was the convention center, where Proctor settled in to the Country Weekly booth to pose for photos and sign her name some more. Fans had just filed past John Arthur Martinez and Steve Azar, and some weren't familiar with Proctor. Others, such as John ''Duke'' Smith of Charleston, W. Va., were longtime listeners. Smith used to watch Proctor play local clubs in her native Mountain State.
''We always told her she'd make it,'' Smith said, autograph in hand. ''She's gonna keep going and going now.''
At least for one day, Smith's prediction was on the money. Proctor kept going, in this case on to an interview with Harry Chapman's Talk of the Town show on WTVF. With stylist Michael McCall there to offer makeup touch-ups in stifling heat, Proctor chatted amiably about her day, her single and her career. Lunch followed, at Merchant's Restaurant, and then Proctor received another makeup job from McCall before heading to the Riverfront Park stage for a midafternoon performance.
In front of roughly 2,500 people, she sang as if it wasn't unbelievably hot, as if she hadn't been up since 6 a.m., as if she hadn't signed her name hundreds of times and smiled enough to make a beauty queen look glum. She played a five-song set, drawing considerable applause on Where Would You Be and Me and Emily, and on material unfamiliar to the fans, such as the slinky, twanging Shame On Me. RCA Label Group President Joe Galante, the man in charge of deciding whether Proctor stays on BNA and how much money is pumped into her career, looked on approvingly.
With the afternoon performance over, the pace eased somewhat. All Proctor did from 4 p.m. on was: fight rush hour and CMA Music Festival traffic; go home to pick up her luggage for a two-day trip to Minnesota; drive to the record company office; ride with Vause to The Coliseum; rehearse with Uncle Kracker; sing harmony vocals on Drift Away at Kracker's Coliseum show; ride back to the record company office; and drive to 100 Oaks Mall, where she caught the tour bus to Minneapolis.
Such a day is unique to the country genre. It's hard to imagine Bruce Springsteen, Norah Jones or the guys in OutKast signing photos at a pop music trade show or Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit reading copy about the Big Sky country into a microphone. Proctor knew about such obligations long before she signed her record deal, though, and there are enough invigorating moments to offset the grind.
Thursday, one of those moments came at the convention center, when a 16-year-old fan named Emily Mueller, from Delray Beach, Fla., approached with a handmade booklet, decorated with colored pencil and bound with pink ribbon.
In the booklet were notes Mueller had collected from fans who frequent Proctor's message board on CMT.com. The board has been active since CMT began playing the video for Me and Emily, a song about a mother leaving an abusive relationship and taking her daughter with her.
''When I hear Me and Emily, I cry,'' said one note in the booklet. ''It's the story of my life.''
The booklet closed with a sweet, handwritten page of thoughts from Mueller — who was so happy about meeting her favorite singer that she could barely make conversation. In the middle of all the pages was a simply worded note that caused Proctor's eyes to mist a little, even as she signed her name for friendly strangers:
''Rachel, from your biggest fan. I love you. MOM.''
