CMA Close Up
CMA Close Up is an award-winning, bi-monthly magazine produced by CMA. The magazine features artist profiles, spotlights on CMA events, and in-depth articles on new developments, technologies and initiatives that are relevant to the music industry.
Launched in April 2011, CMA Close Up honors a CMA Member of the Month by recognizing individual constituents and their achievements by featuring them in an article and interview on CMAworld.com.
May 2012 Member of the Month:
Blair Garner
By: Bob Doerschuk
Editor, CMA Close Up
It was a great album concept: spotlight some of today’s top Country artists doing great songs that didn’t get the exposure they deserved, since none had been released as a single. That was enough to interest Blair Garner in putting together Beyond the Hits Volume 1, the first music release from his new TriPower production and development company.
The digital-only album spotlights 20 exceptional but little-heard tracks by Trace Adkins, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood and other headliners. That’s laudable on several levels — a service to the artists who care about these songs, to fans eager to hear more from their favorites and especially for songwriters, as other performers have already expressed in hearing and possibly recording something from these tracks. But the longtime host of the radio show “After MidNite with Blair Garner” also saw Beyond the Hits Volume 1 as an opportunity to benefit people in need.
“One of the things that strikes me about Country, and one reason I’m so proud to be a part of Country, is the charitable efforts that each of these artists put out there,” he reflected. “I don’t have the wealth of opportunity that some of them have to make significant contributions. All I can do is the best that I can, and Beyond the Hits Volume 1 is simply an extension of that.”
From the moment he conceived the idea for this project, Garner intended to donate a portion of its earnings to worthy causes. Ultimately he came up with three, one of which was CMA’s Keep the Music Playing initiative in support of giving musical instruments to public schools. “I wanted to include Keep the Music Playing specifically because for 40-something years my dad has been a band director down in Texas,” he said. “I actually flew him out to Nashville for CMA’s Keep the Music Playing All Stars concert in February at Schermerhorn Symphony Center. In a way, this is my attempt to say ‘Thank you so much for giving me a career that I never could have even dreamed of,’ and to get to interact with the people that put this music out there.” (Keep the Music Playing receives one-third of the profits, with equal shares going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Academy of Country Music’s Lifting Lives.)
As much as he loves his work, the two-time CMA Broadcast Award nominee feels a different kind of satisfaction from coming up with a way to help. “Absolutely, because you’re affecting people’s lives in a positive way for those who may think they’re powerless over whatever burdens them. This is not a world from which you can just take. You’ve got to find a way to give back.”
Beyond the Hits Volume 1 is available as an album-only download in the U.S. exclusively on iTunes for $9.99. (itunes.com/beyondthehits)