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Leroy Frank Van Dyke (born 4 October 1929 in Mora, Missouri) is billed as "The World’s Most Famous Auctioneer".

Leroy was catapulted into country music recording fame in 1956 by his own composition "Auctioneer," which has to date sold an estimated three million records. He wrote the song about the life of his cousin, National Auctioneers Association Hall of Famer Ray Sims, also a Missourian. Leroy later had the lead role of a budding country music performer in the movie What Am I Bid?, in which Ray Sims played himself as an auctioneer.

In his fifty years plus career, Van Dyke has recorded some 500 songs, dozens of them making the charts. His record of "Walk On By" (1961) was named by Billboard Magazine in 1994 as the biggest country single of all time, based on sales, plays and weeks in the charts. It stayed at number one for nineteen weeks, and in all, charted for 42 weeks, selling approximately three million records.

Other Van Dyke notable hits were "If A Woman Answers," "Black Cloud," "Big Man In A Big House," "Anne Of A Thousand Days," "Happy To Be Unhappy," "Night People," "Be A Good Girl," "Dim Dark Corner," "Five Steps Away," "How Long Must You Keep Me A Secret," "Afraid Of A Heartache," "Big Wide Wonderful World Of Country Music," "Birmingham," "Just A State Of Mind," "Mr. Professor," "My World Is Caving In," "The Other Boys Are Talking," "Poor Guy," "Roses From A Stranger," "Texas Tea," "Who’s Gonna Run The Truck Stop In Tuba City When I’m Gone," "Wrong Side Of The Tracks," "Your Daughter Cried All Night," "Your Money," and "The Life You Offered Me."

He was co-host, with Bill Mack, of the Southern Baptist Radio/TV Commission-produced "Country Crossroads" radio show for ten years, and was later joined by a third co-host, Jerry Clower. This became the most widely syndicated radio show in country music history.

Van Dyke continues a full performance schedule, traveling from his office/home complex on his 1,000-acre (4 km²) ranch in west central Missouri near Sedalia. He is a member of the National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame, is active in many music industry organizations and, as a sideline, raises premium quality Arabian mules. All aspects of his Leroy Van Dyke Enterprises are managed by his wife, Gladys, former legal secretary/court reporter. Their son Ben, plays lead guitar with all Van Dyke performances.

I have never been a big fan of singing contests, but with American Idol, Nashville Star and Colgate Country Showdown, along with numerous other contests, producing such a large amount of our top selling country artists today, I have had to reevaluate my position on this. I have to say that the bigger contests, where millions of real fans end up choosing the winners by their phone in votes, beat the heck out of the way it has always been done. Until these big contests became so influential, future stars were brought into the business by music lawyers, managers or some other movers and shakers on Music Row who had never been more than a mile or two away from 16^th Avenue in twenty years. They have always tried to convince us that they know what America wants to hear, while glossing over the fact that they were all right there in agreement saying that Garth Brooks just didn't have what it takes and instead of wasting their valuable time he should just pack his bags and head on back to Yukon, Oklahoma.

Another thing that contests like American Idol do is bring in an artist with enough clout after winning that they are not going to be able to manipulate that artist away from the music they want to do. I would imagine the discussion would go something like this when you have a big winner like Carrie Underwood come into Nashville to sign with a major label after winning American Idol. The all knowing producer and label head probably tells her they are ready to sign her, but they plan on cutting a Polka album or maybe a Tejano album on her because they "feel" that is what will really fit her voice and will sell. This is when Ms. Underwood would more than likely inform them that she has over six million fans who voted for her the way she is and are out there at this very moment with their credit cards just waiting to buy 6 million of her CD's, and they want them to sound like the Carrie Underwood they voted for. This will probably be the end of the label's plans for artistic control because they know she can walk across the street to their competition and sign a deal with no strings attached. I am guessing this is about the time that all discussions of making Carrie Underwood into a Music Row created image would be shelved.

I remember when I first came to Nashville, there was one of the older, retired music executives that said the music business needed to get back to doing their jobs before they ruined the business. It was his belief that singers should sing, songwriters write, publishers publish, producers produce records and the labels sell the records. That way you have the best people working at all levels and don't let the "Peter Principle" kill your careers and business because you got a little too greedy.

Now getting back to the subject at hand, as an artist, getting to the finals of one of these big singing contests is a monumental task to say the least. You are probably going to do a lot of smaller contests to get there or maybe have to attempt the bigger contests more than once. This is going to mean you need to understand how contests work and how little control you have over anything they do or what they decide. Always keep in mind that any artist can look good as a winner, but a real "star" even looks good when they lose. Put winning out of your mind and sing for the crowd. Just tell yourself that you don't have a prayer in Hades of winning but you are going to have fun and leave that contest with some new fans. There is no way I can write the following into a readable paragraph so I will just list some of the things I have picked up on over the years from being around singing contests.

1. Someone is making money off this contest, and they probably could care less who wins or loses most of the time. They just want to put the butts in the seats and sell some booze and hot dogs.

2. When it is all said and done, let's face it, it is mostly a popularity contest at some level or the other - not something to be taken very seriously, much like those online charts and contests, where you harass all your family, friends and totally innocent strangers into going to vote for you. Serious artists don't put much stock in the end results. At least in the singing contests, there's a chance you can make more fans than enemies.

3. There is going to be at least one local favorite who has brought enough fans and family to the venue to raise the roof when they walk out on stage. Don't try to compete with him or her on a personal level but instead say something to their fans like " I met him or her earlier today and they seem to be a very nice person and I predict they are going to have a great future in country music." This takes you out of the fans' line of sight because you said something nice about their hero. Now they will get back to cheering on their hero and hating every other singer in the contest except you.

4. Judges: Every contest is normally decided by about 3 judges. This is very important for you to understand and will make losing a lot easier (keep in mind that my article is not intended to teach you how to win a contest, but just how to survive and keep from making a fool of yourself if and when you lose.) Remember in all contests, if you replaced one of the judges you would change the winner. Once again, this is something you have absolutely no control over. One of these judges is usually a local DJ, one may be a music teacher or music professional of some kind, a contest winner from a previous year and maybe a songwriter or maybe just someone who is a big country music fan. There is no way you can know what kind of music they will all like because they will be all over the map with their opinions. Don't gear your performance to something you think will get them to vote for you. I know this is a worn out cliché, but just be yourself. OK, this is something you probably never thought of before, so keep it in mind before you go bad mouthing off at the judges after they make some idiotic decision, which sooner or later they will do if you keep entering contests. These judges all have something to do with the music that goes on in your community, and some of them are probably on the fair and festival boards that decide who gets hired to play at the county fair, the blackberry festival or the annual cow chip throwing contest. They are the people in your area who will get called when someone needs a band for a wedding or a family reunion. These people are going to be in your life for a long time more than likely, and they have long memories. You should always try to remember that probably 95% of the people you meet when you are out there singing can't do a thing in the world to help you out but 100% of the people you meet have the ability to say something that can hurt your career. Don't give them a reason to dislike you.

5. Song choice: Please think about this before you do the current favorite contest song. What I am calling "contest songs" are those songs that get sung at every contest from "Desperado" to "Wind Beneath My Wings," "Crazy" or "Broken Wing." If you are the only one who sings one of these contest songs in the competition then you are only competing with the artist who had the "hit" with that song. If you are the second one who sings it, you are competing with the other contestant that sang it plus the original artist. If you are the third one in the contest to sing it, the judges are going to be so sick of hearing that song, it may not make any difference how well you sing it because they have already tuned you out.

6. Band: You have to remember this, there's no use getting mad at the band no matter what happens. They are as proud of playing their instrument as you are of your singing, and they did not get up that morning and plan on messing up your song. The odds are they don't even know who you are. If they miss a chord in your song, get it too fast or slow or make some other mistake, it is just that, a mistake, and it's just the luck of the draw that it happened on your performance. You can minimize this by choosing simpler songs that they will probably be more familiar with. If you plan on making a career in singing, you are probably going to have to play in your local area to start out, and let's face it, there's not an unlimited supply of good pickers around, and the bands at these contests are usually made up of the best pickers available. You are more than likely going to be working with them again or some of them may end up being in your personal band someday. Not a good idea to throw a hissy fit and burn a bridge today that you will need tomorrow. If the band makes a mistake, whoever did it already feels bad enough, so just let it go at that.

7. Be really careful about attempting to get any audience participation for your singing at one of these events. A lot of those people out there in the audience want someone else besides you to win. Maybe it's their brother, girlfriend or grandson, so that old "Let's all put our hands together and clap along to this song" or "help me out when we get to the chorus" suggestion has a real good chance of falling flat on its face. This is not worth taking the chance I would say. This next one is probably the kiss of death. Please don't seed the crowd with a few of your fans and have them try to instigate a standing ovation by standing up at the end of your song. If you live to be a hundred years old, you will probably never forget the humiliation you feel when this ingenious plan goes down the crapper, taking you and your former friends with it. Just don't even think about doing it.

8. When it is all over and you've lost to some little no-singing twit who is the niece of one of the judges, which eventually is going to happen, you will be at that point in your career where they test the metal and see what you are really made of. How you conduct yourself at this moment is going to tell you if you have what it takes to be a Garth Brooks or a Dolly Parton. Most of the losers in these contests, as soon as the winner is announced, will take their hurt feelings and damaged egos and hit the door, getting out of there as fast as they can. The real winners that night, and I don't mean the one who gets the trophy and the check, will be the singers who congratulate the winner and go introduce themselves to the judges and tell them they're glad they weren't the ones that had to pick the winners because there was a lot of great talent on that stage. No need to be phony about anything, just adopt the attitude that the contest is over and done with and move on to your next obstacle. Walk around in the crowd, and if some fan comes up and tells you they think you should have won because you were the best singer in the contest, just laugh and tell them you are going to try to get them a job as judge next time and that it is worth more than any trophy to just hear them say they liked your singing. Most singers won't be able to do this, and that is one reason why artists like Garth and Dolly don't come along every day.

That's about all the things I can remember about singing contests off the top of my head, so now I will tell you a little anecdotal story about a singing contest that I am familiar with.

.Erin Hay told me she was going to enter a singing contest awhile back that they were having at the Little Nashville Opry in Nashville, Indiana, and I was more than a little surprised because she never showed any interest in being in a singing contest. I asked her why the change of heart? She said that she wasn't interested in competing or winning the contest, but she wanted to use it as an audition so the club owners could hear her sing and maybe she could get a job playing at the club. The Little Nashville Opry caters to a more traditional country crowd, and that is exactly the kind of music Erin sings for those not familiar with her. Erin said she had figured out that they would have a good back-up band there to play for the contestants and that most of the singers in the contest would be playing the more modern country songs that were on the radio, so she would just go sing a couple of old country standards, and though she didn't figure she had a shot at winning, the club owners could hear that she sang the kind of music their regular crowd liked and maybe she could get a gig singing there. Erin said it was a typical contest and sure enough everyone except her sang the current radio hits. Four different girls sang Martina McBride's "Broken Wing," and when it was Erin's turn, she just sang the old Leroy Van Dyke standard "Walk On By" and Jack Greene's "There Goes My Everything." The back-up band was the regular house band from the Little Nashville Opry, so they had probably played those two songs thousands of times, and they really sounded good. She said as soon as she finished singing, she located the club owner and got to talking to her about maybe coming up there and playing a regular gig. Not anticipating she would place even a distant third, she said she almost fainted when they announced she was the winner of the contest. Erin said she will always suspect they gave it to her just because she didn't sing "Broken Wing." The icing on the cake was that night they hired her to come back and open a show for one of her idols from the Grand Ole Opry, Connie Smith. She also got $500 for first place. That was her one and only singing contest as far as I know.

CDBABY - If you have a CD for sell and you are serious about online sells then it has to be on CDBABY This costs you $35 but if you are going to sell anything online this is your best bet. This is one of those website you pretty much need to be on and there's no way around it. Every time anyone hears you on the radio and wants to buy your CD the first place they go to look for it is CDBABY if you are an indie artist.

.MYSPACE - There are over 236 MILLION websites on MYSPACE. It is free and if you are willing to put a little effort into it you can probably make a living from this one website. If you are one of those artists that just like to stick your music up anywhere you can and then just sit around waiting for something to happen this place won't be of any value to you but if you network it a little everyday there is no limit to what you can do here.

YouTube (Free) - Unlimited potential with YouTube. You can make some decent SlideShows here just using the MovieMaker that is already in your computer. Here's 37 SlideShows I made with MovieMaker and put up on YouTube

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"Click Banner Below for Website"

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When you "Click" on the ICON above the DOWNLOAD for iTunes 7 will be in the upper right corner of page

Shop for music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, podcasts, and games. For Mac + PC.

Tired of paying $15 bucks for a CD and it only has one or two good songs on it ?

Just "click" on the ITunes ICON above and download their simple little

program to your computer then "click" on any PHOTO below and you

can browse through all the songs on the CD, listen to samples from

each song and then buy legal downloads of the songs you like

for .99 cents. Might as well learn how to do this now if you

don't know how because this is the way music sells

are heading and it makes so much sense.

Merle Haggard___Becky Hobbs____Jerry Lee Lewis__Erin Hay_______Johnny Cash

Brad Paisley_______Lacy J Dalton___________Blake Shelton______Joe Nichols_______Amber Digby

___

____

Erin Hay______George Strait_______Carrie Underwood______Jim Reeves______Dale Watson

Gene Watson____Erin Hay____Kenny Chesney________Joni Compretta__THORNBIRDS

Taylor Swift___Mike Anderson_____Miranda Lambert__Western Swing__Susie Hopman

Erin Hay_______Joe Diffie____Connie Smith_________Danny Griego_____R Rated Party CD

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Poem written by Subscriber from Canada ~ Guillaume Bertrand

Nashville showcase newsletter

Often, people in Nashville love country music

Because every singer is talented and fantastic

Well fortunately, today with just a simple click

You can notify that Internet is absolutely magic

If you subscribe to Lonnie’s weekly newsletter

You will see that there is so much to discover

So if you are an unknown but awesome singer

Just email him and everything should get better

A country artist is always great and excellent

So with a newsletter, we can enjoy the present

And today, being open to music is important

To see that country singers have a real talent

Everyone that loves country music is saying

That Lonnie’s texts are beautiful and amazing

So a very beautiful poem today I am writing

To say that I really appreciate what he is doing

This awesome newsletter is emailed weekly

And the text is written by our friend Lonnie

So if country music makes you very happy

Just subscribe to the list and wait patiently

Guillaume Bertrand

Hi everybody, I am born In Repentigny, Canada and now i'm in Otterburn Park and Repentigny so it's extremely far away from Nashville but since I heard Melinda Myers (www.melindamyersmusic.com) I began to love Nashville's singers! Kathy Ashworth and Kelly Archer are two excellent singers and songwriters too! I'm so glad to meet Lonnie today! He's really nice and he is extremely kind when you know him well! A talented singer too... well I write poetry a lot and i'm inspired by the tragic facts in life or great things that happen but i'm French Canadian so they are all in french! The one I wrote to Lonnie is not my first in English! Hope you like it guys, if you want to email me, just send Lonnie an email and he will forward it to me, I always respond to very nice comments, not to spammers! thank you
Guillaume Bertrand

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Links below for those of us easily amused

A Walking Tour of Nashville, Tennessee

Just "Click" Next to walk through the 10 Photos showing Nashville Lower Broadway sights

http://nashville.about.com/od/historyandsites/ss/lowerbroad.htm

Goose Attack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd6Tp-dTisw

Rabbit Bites Snake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9YnCIEDE1Y

For B. Thomas in Norway who called this week and said he was missing Nashville.

Here's a "Live" Cam of Broadway in Nashville.

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/tennessee/nashville/

Noodling Catfish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biL-QcviQGk

Pig Races

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0n9LBZ6LkI

Insane Hypno Optical Illusion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrgOp0hscMw&feature=related

Snake Swallows Egg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0JZ0XCdkPE

Puppy & Mirror

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSmOCVr0Ry0&feature=related

CELEBRITY PHOTOGRAPHY......let me do your photos for your next album cover, web site, and fan club newsletter! Top-quality photo work at competitive prices. Have camera/will travel! I shoot recording sessions, fan club events, publicity shots, and so forth. Over 30 years experience, and I love Nashville! Call Dave Fox at 815/438-3051. See my web site at www.foxfamousfotos.com .

Please drop by www.myspace.com/woodywoodruffcowboypoet and listen to my new poem PROUD TO CALL HER HOME not since John Wayne recorded America..Why I Love Her has one like this been released. please share it with all and let me know your thoughts.

thanks Woody Woodruff

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Artists & Songs Produced by Lonnie Ratliff

"click Photos for websites

Tim Chesney

Tim has delivered a great Traditional Country music Album that delivers a mix of Honky Tonk tunes, Ballads and some great Toe Tapping songs. This Album will have you listening to it for many years to come. I will be spinning a lot of this CD on my Radio Program Way Downunder in Australia. Great Album Tim and remember to always keep it COUNTRY - Rod Bradey - Stone Cold Country - Australia

http://www.myspace.com/timchesney1

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Brit Lyng (Norway)

Norwegian country singer Brit Lyng teams up with Nashville record producer Lonnie Ratliff on her sophomore CD "Good Morning Nashville" and the end results will most likely help her carve herself a nice niche near the top of the Scandinavian country music scene.

http://www.myspace.com/britlyng

Ron Wayne Atwood

Many of the Lonnie Ratliff produced CD "Oh Susanna" tracks have ‘honky-tonk’ stamped on them. This down-home anthology of country-dance ballads of everyday themes is resplendent in traditional styles of guitar, steel and fiddle and such. Ron painstakingly manipulates the whole audio project awash with the best of what we have come to know as honky-tonk.

http://www.myspace.com/ronwayneatwood

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Lonnie's "Spotlight Songs"

"Keep Looking Over Your Shoulder"

Written with Lindy Gravelle I have always thought this Spaghetti Western sounding song could be a deal maker in the hands of an artist looking to sign with a major label. Being one of the writers I am probably a little prejudiced toward the song but you gotta admit it don't sound like anything that's out there right now. Those who pay attention to this sort of thing know that you don't make new "Stars" by copying the old ones. You've gotta come up with something that is just a little bit different.

.... Demo by Lindy Gravelle

Keep Looking Over Your Shoulder
lo-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=2773616&q=lo

hi-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=2773616&q=hi

If song will not play from above LINKS try this one: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=2773616

The showdown came at high noon you hit me with goodbye
The sun was at your back and tears were in my eyes
You fired angry words then you left our love for dead
You walked away in silence but it's not over yet

Keep looking over your shoulder
Love didn't die so easily
Just when you think you've forgotten
You're gonna face my memory
And you'll be taken by surprise
When you realize what you left in the dust
Keep looking over your shoulder
You're being followed by our love

You're foolin' yourself if you're thinkin' that you're free
'Cause there'll be sleepless nights you'll remember you and me
You'll try to shake that feeling oh but you can't dodge the truth
And that's when you'll admit that you still love me too

Keep looking over your shoulder
Love didn't die so easily
Just when you think you've forgotten
You're gonna face my memory
And you'll be taken by surprise
When you realize what you left in the dust
Keep looking over your shoulder
You're being followed by our love

Copr. Lonnie Ratliff/Lindy Gravelle

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"Goodbye Ireland" was written with my good buddy and fellow "Okie" Jim Carter. This is probably on of the more complex yet simple songs I have ever been a part of. The lyric seems to work on three different levels that we know of so far. The first and most obvious came from an idea I probably first thought of when I was in my 20's. I am not sure but It may have been a TV show that influenced me or perhaps I read a book. The source is long forgotten but I remember I was just overwhelmed by my emotional reaction to what these people had to have been going through during the time of the potato famine in Ireland. Families were being torn apart as those who could, left their homeland to come to America simply to keep from starving to death. I imagined the goodbye scenes at the ship and thought that it had to be extremely hard because most of these people had to realistically know that they were seeing their friends and family members for the last time this side of heaven as they got on those ships bound for the new world.

The second scenerio where the lyrics to Goodbye Ireland work is when the listener takes Ireland to symbolically represent someone the singer has and always will love unconditionally and circumstances have separated them. This could be anything from the love of your life to a family member that for one reason or another can no longer be a part of your life. Like fathers and sons or mothers and daughters that no longer speak to each other.

The third scenerio where Goodbye Ireland seems to be telling a specific story is one that Jim and I never thought about when we wrote the song but there is no question that it fits perfectly. This was pointed out to us by a friend. We had all lost a common friend to suicide and our buddy one day said that he thought it was nice that Jim and I had written a song about it. The song he was talking about was Goodbye Ireland. We had never made that connection but when you go back and listen to the song's lyrics it all makes sense as to why he thought that was what the song was about.

Maybe it will mean something else to the next person that hears it. That's what's nice about songs.

" Goodbye Ireland "

"Click" LINKS below to play GOODBYE IRELAND
Goodbye Ireland (Male Version) Jesse Chavez (Demo)
lo-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=2775638&q=lo

hi-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=2775638&q=hi

If song will not play from above LINKS try this one: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=2775638

*************************************************************************************************
*************************************************************************************************
GOODBYE IRELAND (Female Version) Erin Hay (Demo)
lo-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=4114306&q=lo

hi-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=4114306&q=hi

If song will not play from above LINKS try this one: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=4114306

Goodbye Ireland

The moment's drawing nearer now and I know this means more than most goodbyes
I linger on familiar scenes, it's like looking through a stranger's eyes
I'm no vagabond traveller in my heart you hold all that I hold dear
In my soul I feel a famine and on my face I feel an emerald tear

Goodbye Ireland I must sail across this ocean alone
Knowing time's a silent thief knowing should I never see you again
An emptiness shall follow me til my life ends
Goodbye Ireland

The ship lies in the harbor now the captain he'll not wait for nary man
Tis fair the well ( Female: - I must be saying then) my fair lady quickly I will go while I still can
There's a new world waiting for me and I go in search of something that we've lost
Please say that you'll forgive me my heart's too weak to bare a heavy cross

Goodbye Ireland I must sail across this ocean alone
Knowing time's a silent thief knowing should I never see you again
An emptiness shall follow me til my life ends
Goodbye Ireland

Goodbye Ireland will I ever see you again

Lonnie Ratliff / Jim Carter
Copr. Okie Acres Music (BMI) Bull's Run Music (ASCAP)

Lonnie Ratliff

Copr. Okie Acres Music (BMI)

Your comments are always welcome and

if you would like to record one of my songs just

E Mail me at: NashvilleShowcase@comcast.net

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Keep Looking Over Your Shoulder

Subscriber Roundup

This Newsletter section is meant to help introduce you to some of the other Subscribers to this Newsletter. Just click on the Photos or Banners to go to their websites where you can read about them, send them and E Mail or sign their guestbooks. Take a few moments to get to know some of these subscribers. Lonnie Ratliff

Dale Watson..........Jayme Lynn Scott.....

________

Vickie Cross............Tim Cooper .

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Jack Greene.....................Billy Stone.......

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Do you have a friend who would like this NEWSLETTER ?

I bet you have a friend who is a big country music fan and would enjoy the Country Music Newsletter I send out every week. Maybe a country singer in your family or community or maybe an aunt, uncle grandma, grandpa, mother, father, brother, sister, songwriter or just about anyone else. Why not sign them up for this COUNTRY MUSIC NEWSLETTER ?

You can go to this LINK below and sign them up yourself at

http://members6.boardhost.com/SongReviews/

Just fill out the little boxes at the top of the page. The only box you really have to fill out is their E Mail address and then hit SUBMIT. Please do not sign up anyone who hates country music naturally and even if you do sign up someone who decides they don't like it they can unsubscribe when they get the first NEWSLETTER. I have had so many people ask me to send the NEWSLETTER to people they knew that I thought I would just let you know that you can sign them up yourself.

Thanks

Lonnie NashvilleShowcase@comcast.net

If you can't help me with the "Cat" then go take a look at my New Website that became necessary after I accidentally deleted the old one. It is amazing how your mind is not as sharp at 3 AM as you think it is. - Lonnie

Lonnie's New Website

It still has the same URL so your old Links should still work

This new website is mostly all LINKS on the left side of the page.

www.NashvilleCDStore.com

If the "Cat" is yours please

E Mail me and make some

arrangments to pick it up.

NashvilleShowcase@comcast.net

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Buying a house in Nashville ?

If you are thinking of moving to Nashville and need to buy a house I recommend you get in touch with my buddy Craig Stahl.

Some of you will know Craig from his 13 years working with Alan Jackson and also as my partner in Okie Acres Music & Studio.

Give him a call when you need property in Nashville or sign up for his Newsletter

I hope you enjoyed our first issue of Roadie Real Estate.com. Please email me your thoughts and suggestions. If you liked it

please hit the forward e-mail button at the bottom of the page. Please visit my website at www.RoadieRealEstate.com I would love t

o help you buy or sell your next home or help you with any of your Real Estate needs. If you are not moving anytime soon,

please keep me in mind to be of service to friends and family. I really appreciate your referals.

Craig Stahl "The Roadie Realtor"

615-578-9175

rocksolidproperties@gmail.com

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"When It's Too Country For Everyone Else, It's Just Right For Me"

Erin Hay

THE COLLECTION "Click" Photo to purchase Erin's CD's THE CIRCLE

"Click" Yellow Button below to play

Lo-Fi Samples from THE CIRCLE CD

Lo-Fi Music Samples from this 23 song CD

"click" on EBAY Logo below

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Getting that Nashville Sound without ever leaving home.

AKA things Lonnie does to keep from getting a real job.

First let me say that this is just an economical alternative and not quite as good as coming to Nashville in person and nowhere near as much fun. That being said we are all aware that circumstance and money often dictate our lives a lot more than we would like and a trip to Music City may just be out of the question for one reason or another. With that in mind I decided to write this little article to make artists aware of some of the options that I have, as a record producer, made available. I will just list the basics and if you have any questions you can contact me. NashvilleShowcase@comcast.net

Keep in mind that I record with a live Nashville session band and do not use drum machines or have one musician play all the parts. I also do not use pitch adjusters to change the keys. All tracks are real and played by session players.

Lease an original song music track. $250

1. The cheapest option is just lease one of the tracks I already have available of my original songs. These cost $250 for each song and include a mechanical license making it legal for you to put the song on your CD and sell up to 1000 CD's royalty free. You can also sing the song in contests such as American Idol, Colgate Country Showdown or Nashville Star. You can release the song to radio on a compilation CD if you like, you can post the song on your MYSPACE website and you can even sell downloads on the Internet at i-Tunes, CDBABY, Napster etc! and you keep all the money for the first 1000 downloads. This is an excellent deal and a lot of artists just lease one of my tracks when they need to get something out to radio or their fans while they are working on their next CD. This is also a good way to add a couple of songs to your next CD and save a little money.

How it works: Go to my lease song website at: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=649173

Browse through the 4 Pages of songs I have available and if you find something you like in your key contact me and make arrangments for payment. I take credit cards through PayPal or you can send me a check. After I receive payment I will send you a CD with the music track on it. You take this into your local recording studio or a good home studio and put your final vocals and harmony on it and bingo you got your original song. (Note: I also have a few cover tunes available you will notice and the same deal goes for them including a Mechanical License - I just take part of the money you pay me for the lease and go to Harry Fox and purchase a license in YOUR NAME and send it to you.)

Drawbacks: On these $250 song leases you are stuck with the key I recorded the song in and the final mix I made (You cannot turn up the guitar, fiddle etc!) These are just like the Carrie Underwood karaoke tracks you buy to sing along with down at the karaoke bar except these songs will be original and you will have written permission to use them as if they are your own.

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Lease an original song (Custom) music track. $350 per song

This works just like the lease above except you are choosing songs from my songwriter catalog which is much larger. There are about 90 songs there (4 pages on the website)

On this deal you just pick the song you want and I go cut you a new track of that song so you tell me what key you want it recorded in and if you want to replace some instrument on the track just tell me. (example I can use a saxophone on your track instead of the steel guitar that is on the original demo) this song is being recorded for you so just tell me what you want.

How it works: Go to my Songwriter website at: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=392838

Just find a song you like and contact me:

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Cover Tunes: So you have heard an Alan Jackson, Tammy Wynette, Garth Brooks or Taylor Swift tune you like and want to lease a music track in your key. I can record one for you and get you a Mechanical License in your name so you have all legal rights to use it for $350 to $450 depending on the Mechanical License you need.

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Track for a Song you wrote: $450

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Note from Lonnie = I am not in the business to cheat anyone so you can feel comfortable working with me. Just GOOGLE www.google.com Lonnie Ratliff Nashville Record Producer and also feel free to contact anyone I have worked with. I know a lot of the younger artists do not understand all the terminology in the music business and will have questions. If you are spending money with me and we are working together I will answer any questions you have. I will never take advantage of anyones lack of knowledge to make myself a few extra bucks. I figure if I treat you right you will keep doing business with me and that goes along with my plan of not having to get a "Real Job".

E Mail me at: NashvilleShowcase@comcast.net or Phone (615) 742 0666 Evenings & Weekends OK - Leave call back number.

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This is the final section of Sharecropper's Rose.

If you have not read the first section go to the

following LINK BELOW where it is posted.

http://members7.boardhost.com/Articles/

Excerpt from the forthcoming book The Wordweaver

Sharecropper’s Rose (Final Section)

Lonnie Ratliff

Sharecropper's Rose (Final Section)
By
Lonnie Ratliff
There it was, the rose bush, pretty much as Clayton remembered it from over forty years ago, when his mom had stuck a single cutting in this almost barren Oklahoma ground and carried water from the well as it fought for its meager existence that first year. It never was much of a rose bush, or at least nothing like the pictures of the ones shown in the seed catalogs they would get in the mail every year. As best Clayton could remember it only produced a bumper crop of the beautiful flowers that one year. Other than that one time it was pretty much like the woman who planted it and the sharecropper kids that chased the cattle away from it, always looking like they were both only one more bad year away from disaster.
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Never more than a few roses grew on the bush, but they always managed to bloom right when they were needed the most. Although Clayton tried to build a little fence for his Mom around the bush to keep the cattle and other varmints away from the roses, it was usually a losing battle. As he stared at the bush now he thought to himself, this old sharecropper's rose bush is a living monument to a time long past and has pretty much served it's purpose on this earth quiet honorably. Noticing the scraggly condition it was now in, he figured that the lonely rose bush at best had just one or two more blistering Oklahoma summers left on this earth. Like a lot of things that had grown on this farm, it had lived its life right there on the edge, but at least it had always found the strength to keep going when it needed to and someone was depending on it.
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Clayton remembered the first time the rose bush had come through for him as clear as could be. It was his graduation from Moyers High School and mom's rose bush came up with that one perfect flower for his date for the prom. The next time of any significance he remembered when the rose bush was called in to duty it offered up just enough roses for a bridal bouquet for his oldest sister's wedding. Those two times the sharecropper's rose bush acted just like a trusted member of the family, producing just enough roses for the job at hand and saving Clayton and his sister from embarrassment. The third time they turned to the rose bush for flowers for the family was as far as he could tell the reason that God probably put that rose bush on earth and gave his mom the strength to draw water from the well every day of those hot summers and carry it to the corner of the yard where she would water it and manage to keep it alive for the future job that lay ahead.
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As his mind drifted back to that last winter he spent here on the old Tarkington farm, he almost shivered as he remembered just how uncommonly cold that winter was. His and his brother's little lean-to bedroom that had been built on to the house had cracks in the walls that were big enough to throw a cat through. They had picked up some empty cardboard boxes when they were in Antlers and ripped them apart and tacked them up like wallpaper and that kept a lot of the cold wind out. Luckily their bedroom was on the south side of the house or they might have frozen to death. No one had time to think about their mom's rose bush during that winter, and even if they had, there was nothing that could have been done. The sharecropper's rose bush appeared to be just another lost cause in a family that was used to lost causes.
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Spring came through like gang busters, and lo and behold one day, Clayton's mom announced that the rose bush they had given up for dead was just loaded down with rose buds. As much as she loved that old rose bush, you would have thought she would have been more excited about it looking like it was going to have a bumper crop of roses that year. From the safety of all the years that had now passed, Clayton realized that his mom must have sensed a dark omen of things to come that spring as she saw the rose bush with all those young buds. That was just not the way a rose bush planted in Pushmataha county soil and living under the worst of conditions was supposed to act. Clayton remembered how she would just sigh when one of the little kids would break a toy or some other knick knack and then say "We can't have nothing". It seemed to Clayton that life by then had probably beaten his mom down so many times that even on a beautiful spring day after a long hard winter she could not let herself believe that a sharecropper's wife living out on the Miller Road could even have a rose bush full of beautiful roses. That was a hard truth to face but it brought him much closer to her at that moment, sitting by a rose bush she had planted over forty years ago, than they had ever been in life.
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Now he could see that destiny had already chosen the destination that spring, when the rose bush was loaded with buds and preparing for its triumphant summer filled with flowers. They were all just along for the ride, never suspecting it was the end of the line for life as they had known it up until then. Clayton's last memory as he got up from the ground by the rose bush was that his mom never got to see all those beautiful roses the one year that the rose bush produced its bumper crop. That was the summer that, even though she was not that old, she came to the conclusion that she just couldn't take any more of a life where you just can't have nothing. One morning as the sharecroppers rose bush came alive with the roses that would cover her grave, she refused to open her eyes and her battles were over.
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This is the second and final half of the Sharecropper's Rose story. As usual your comments are welcome. Just send me an E Mail at:
NashvilleShowcase@comcast.net
Copr. 2008 Lonnie C. Ratliff
Acknowledgments: Erin Hay for the original idea to flesh out this partially true story. We are now writing a song together with this same title..
Linda Carter & Bill Littleton for making sure my original hen scratchings and poor spelling became readable.
Thanks for convincing me I had something worth saying to Bill Littleton, Jim Carter and Dick Damron.
(Section Two)

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"Click" PHOTO to listen to

" Country Music's King "

Erin Hay

Featured song is Erin Hay "Country Music's King" written by Jon & Jerry Gray and is the current release on Gary Bradshaw's Western Heart Promo. compilation CD. gbradshaw3@cox.net

Produced by Lonnie Ratliff NashvilleShowcase@comcast.net

List of "Studio Pickers"

Drums: Steve Holland

Upright Bass: Dow Tomlin

Piano: Rodger Morris

Guitars: Vaughn Lofstead

Steel Guitar: Perley Curtis

Fiddle: Jim Unger

Harmony: Christy Cornelius

This song will be on Erin's next CD entitled "Blue Country Song" which we hope to have finished this fall.

Send any comments about "Country Music's King" to Erin at: ErinHay2002@Yahoo.com

Country Music's King - Erin Hay - "click" Links below to listen

lo-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=6647375&q=lo

hi-fi URL: http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=6647375&q=hi

If the song will not play using LINKS above try this one: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6647375

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Dixon DeVore http://cdbaby.com/all/devore

Imprinters To The Stars Since 1985

Since 1985, we have been imprinting and/or embroidering apparel, pens, cups, keytags, mugs, Tote Bags, Equipment Stickers, CD Carrying cases and thousands of other products for Bands, Artists DJs and Promoters. We have our own in-house art department and can take the simplest idea and morph it into aneffective, multi-color design. You'll wow 'em in Vegas!
We know The Music Business.

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Artists release your songs worldwide on

Gary Bradshaw's WHP Compilation.

RhonBob Promo for Country & Gospel

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Artists if you need a little help getting your latest record off the DJ's desk and

on to their turntable you might want to contact Sherry.

She speaks the DJ's language fluently.

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Artists looking for someone to help you with your CD Cover artwork, printing and pressing your CD ? Check with Karen Bruno at Amazon Audio

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Artists looking for original songs click on my banner and check out my songwriter website with 2 pages of original songs. If you hear something you like and need more info or a mechanical license to record it just contact me.

Lonnie Ratliff

NashvilleShowcase@comcast.net

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