New Year's Eve TV

The winner for me was Stephen Wilson, Jr.

I was bouncing around from Andy and Anderson on CNN to Ryan Seacrest on ABC to Nashville's Big Bash on CBS.

And most of the time I stayed on Nashville's Big Bash. Because there was an authenticity there, a direct connection between performer and viewer that I did not feel on the other two outlets.

As for Ryan Seacrest... Is there anybody who likes that guy? Anybody who is passionate about him? He's two-dimensional and faux authentic and I find him impossible to watch. He's the kind of character we were exposed to on television before cable and then streaming. Someone bland enough not to offend most people, yet we are looking for more edge. As for what is still billed as "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," immediately dating the show, the guy's been dead since 2012, many viewers have no idea who he was and don't care...there was a constant banner saying that sections were prerecorded, and they felt like it...taped in advance in Las Vegas where a bogus party was created for television and...this is only marginally different from Guy Lombardo (and you've got to be over 65 at least to remember him!). Sure, there were "live" performances in Times Square, but these were akin to performances on floats during the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. You get face time as you don't play completely live and nobody at home can get excited about what you're doing, you're just reminding the audience that you exist, and then there was...

Nashville.

As for Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper... Their moment has passed. Andy has built a career on the foibles of rich women disconnected from reality, and right now reality is piss-poor. You can say it's a respite from politics, but the focus on wealth...is at odds with the population's growing problem with income inequality. So Andy was the nice guy in high school...but he looked like a hungover deer in the headlights during much of this show and Anderson Cooper seemed to be asking himself what in the hell he was doing there, it undercut whatever news gravitas he possesses. Nothing lasts forever, these two cut-ups were a novelty, the antidote to the canned Dick Clark show, but now there's a new game in town, Nashville's Big Bash...

Would you rather hang in Times Square and wait for the ball to drop or go to a live outdoor show in Nashville?

At first I thought the Big Bash was for everybody. But then I realized the bifurcation of America still exists, North and South, Blue and Red, Democrat and Republican. But in this case, the south has risen again.

Hardy, an intelligent guy, I know from speaking with him, looked a bit uncomfortable, out of place, but Bert Kreischer was the perfect co-host for this alcohol-fueled frenzy. You had multiple stages and multiple acts. I'd be lying if I didn't say there was a bit too much Lainey Wilson... As for the clothing...sure, it's winter, and there's a long history of "outfits' in country, but that was when country was still a backwater, which it no longer is. Whereas Jason Aldean came out in jeans and a brown leather coat...he was the heir to the Allman Brothers and all the rest of the acts that played on stage in their street clothes.

Nashville's Big Bash had the feel of a concert, a show, it was palpable. And demonstrated more depth than the pop dreck on the two other outlets. In a world where rock is dead and pop and hip-hop dominates...the seventies are gone.

But they're fully alive in Nashville, where it was more about the playing than the image. Can elite northerners be converted? Well, some have been, but too many are categorically against these people and their music. But this is not the country of old, this is rock and roll. As for the political beliefs...you grasp your enemy tightly, you convert them from the inside. Believe me, there's no rule against a left-leaning country star. Instead of being a rapper or a TV music contestant if you want to have an impact you should go to Nashville, which in many ways is the new L.A., it has stolen Hollywood's thunder, however... Unlike the popsters, scratch a country star and you'll find that they've been honing their chops from a very young age. Singing and playing as kids. Kenny Chesney made his bones playing in bars, kind of like Hootie & the Blowfish, but now Darius Rucker is a country star...and in case you didn't notice, he's Black, and Nashville has no problem with that.

There's a whole country culture, the upstarts know the hit acts who preceded them, but none of this gets ink or traction in the left wing media...country is seen as a sideshow, when along with Latin it's becoming the main show. It's a disruption in the marketplace those in L.A. and New York did not foresee. Country has moved closer to the center, the acts are better, the songs are singable and now it's on an endless course of triumph.

And where else can a 46 year old midwestern nerd bumpkin break through?

Wilson was a direct contrast to the prepackaged performers on ABC and CNN. He was wearing clothes he might don if he was working in the yard, and he had glasses that were so out of style (but with large lenses for visibility), that he seemed like a real guy, who was playing a guitar akin to that of Willie Nelson, as in beat-up. And he didn't need no stinkin' backup musicians to sell his song, to get it across.

I'd been following Wilson's career in print, with the mentions and statistics, but last night he closed me. A New Year's Eve TV appearance can be equivalent to CBS Sunday Morning, if you just don't punch the clock, don't call your stylist before your sound-mixer, if you rise to the occasion.

And Keith Urban was playing... "You Get What You Give"??? New Radicals' (i.e. Gregg Alexander) smash released in 1998?? And giving it his all?

Turns out Urban has been doing this number at shows for a while now, but last night, with the energy he displayed... He was not promoting his new single, he was capturing the joy of New Year's Eve, the energy, letting go of commerce and focusing on the music, which was a relief.

In a phony, sold-out world of people telling us they're better than we are, and richer too...Nashville's Big Bash was a revelation. As it has been previously, which is why I tuned in. The ratings will come down, the brain dead will have still been watching ABC and CNN, but last night all the excitement was in Nashville, beamed to us via CBS. Live music played by real musicians, songs you can sing along to, played by stars. Isn't this the music business we loved and reveled in back in the day?

YES!

--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25