Brooks, Jackson join Nashville Songwriters hall (AP)

By CHRIS TALBOTT, AP Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott, Ap Entertainment Writer – Sun Oct 16, 11:02 pm ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson have won more honors than they can count. The one they took home Sunday night was near the top of the list.

Brooks and Jackson were inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame along with top songsmiths John Bettis, Thom Schuyler and Allen Shamblin.

"It's the songwriter, that's what it's all about," Brooks said. "I mean this is it. We can talk all day about entertainer. We can talk all day about record sales. It starts with the songs. And to be confused as a songwriter, then honored as one, that's the bomb."

Jackson and Brooks are members of the so-called "Class of `89" group of country superstars. Their success over the last two decades helped push country music from the county fair to major arenas and football stadiums.

Brooks, inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City earlier this year, is the best-selling solo artist in U.S. history with more than 128 million albums sold. Songs like "If Tomorrow Never Comes" and "The Thunder Rolls" helped launch his career.

Jackson, who helped spearhead the new traditionalist movement in country, has 35 No. 1 country songs, including "Chattahoochee" and "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," which Taylor Swift sang for him Sunday.

"I've won a lot of awards but the songwriting thing has always been most important to me," Jackson said. "I've never thought of myself as much of a singer, so I've always fell back on my songwriting. It's the most creative part of the business. It all starts with the songs."

Jackson and Brooks were inducted as songwriter/artists. Brooks said straight songwriter inductees like Bettis ("Slow Hand," "Human Nature" and "Top of the World," Schuyler ("16th Avenue" and "Long Line of Love") and Shamblin ("The House That Built Me" and "I Can't Make You Love Me") are the real stars of the night.

"I can go in that room and show you the guys I hang out with, and all of them are songwriters," Brooks said. "And to be called that with these guys, because their talent is amazing, makes me very proud. I'm not saying I agree with it, but I'm very proud."

Kimberly Perry of family act The Band Perry won the Nashville Songwriters Association International song of the year for the breakthrough hit "If I Die Young." Chris DuBois, who co-wrote Brad Paisley hits "Old Alabama" and "Anything Like Me," was named songwriter of the year.

Swift won her fourth songwriter/artist of the year award in five years and at 21 remains the youngest winner of that award. Swift told the audience about her first big Nashville showcase at the age of 14 when many of the industry's most influential people were in attendance. She recalled saying to herself over and over "Don't mess this up."

"Ever since then there's been thousands of times in my life where I've said to myself, `Don't mess this up, don't mess this up, don't mess this up' — including right now," Swift said. "And I'm just going to keep going out there and trying not to mess this up."

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Online:

http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com

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Nashville hosts National Folk Festival Sept. 2-4 (AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nashville has no theme park, no beach and no casinos.

But it has music. Lots of it.

The National Folk Festival, which is coming to Nashville Labor Day weekend, caps off several months of major events held here that validate Nashville's self-proclaimed moniker "Music City USA."

The free, 73rd folk festival Sept. 2-4 is to feature more than 250 of the country's finest traditional performers and craftsmen, with simultaneous performances on six stages throughout the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. An estimated 60,000 to 80,000 attendees are expected.

Audiences will be treated to authentic blues, gospel, jazz, cowboy, bluegrass, klezmer, Cajun, rhythm and blues, mariachi, Western swing, zydeco and more. Even polka. Yes, in Nashville, the city famed for fiddles and fringe.

Performances will celebrate the cultures of Native American, Celtic, Acadian, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, East Asian, Appalachian, Hispanic, Eastern European, African and Pacific Island.

Organizers also promise "a delicious variety of ethnic and regional food specialties."

If Southern food is more appealing, Nashville has plenty of fried chicken, country ham, pork barbecue, collard greens, red-eye gravy, grits and fried green tomatoes. Wash it down with sweet tea.

Gov. Bill Haslam, in announcing the folk festival, said it "preserves and celebrates the roots and variety of American culture we have here in our state."

The festival will take place a few blocks away from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (a city shrine) and a dozen or so raucous honky-tonks where hot guitars compete with cold beer for popularity.

If visitors want a taste of American culture, there's a Hard Rock Cafe on the downtown waterfront. And a Hooters.

The festival has been produced since 1934 by the National Council for the Traditional Arts. With such a long run, the festival has transcended country music, Big Band, rock `n' roll, disco and rap.

A sampling of scheduled acts this year: La Excelencia, doing salsa; Samba Mapangala & Orchestre Virunga, doing East African rumba and soukous; the Massive Monkeys, doing breakdance; Lloyd Arneach, a Cherokee storyteller.

Nashville, which already has 11 million tourists a year, beat out more than 40 other cities to host the event for the next three years. The festival is projected to pump $10 million into the local economy each year.

The festival will follow in the impressive cowboy bootsteps of a myriad of recent musical treats.

The four-day CMA Festival in June at the Tennessee Titans' LP Field had daily attendance of 65,000 exuberant fans to see an array of country performers including Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Reba McEntire. That event left approximately $30 million in direct visitor spending in the city.

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, held at the same time 60 miles away on a 700-acre field near Manchester, Tenn., sold all 80,000 tickets.

And there's been more.

There are four Grand Ole Opry shows each week, weekly bluegrass performances and the production "Always...Patsy Cline," which wrapped up summer weekend shows July 24.

U2 performed before 45,000 at Nashville's Vanderbilt Stadium July 2. Lady Gaga and Jimmy Buffett also performed in the city recently.

More music is coming soon and it's not just country weepers.

In September alone, Journey with Foreigner and Night Ranger have a show on the books Sept. 13. Swift is to perform two nights, Sept. 16-17.

Last December, Garth Brooks performed nine sold out shows over seven nights in Nashville, raising $5 million for flood relief in Tennessee.

"Playing music has never felt better or ever felt more right," he said after the shows.

Has there been too much music? Too much of a good thing?

Mayor Karl Dean, ever a Southern gentleman, says no.

"The more we have, the better," he said, adding: "No city in the United States can match our city for the raw talent, creativity and long history of making music."

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If You Go...

NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL: Sept. 2-4, Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville; http://www.nationalfolkfestival.com/. Free admission. Festival features more than 250 traditional performers and craftspeople on six stages, plus a marketplace, children's activities, workshops and food.

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Fire destroys Trace Adkins home near Nashville (Reuters)

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – Country music star Trace Adkins' home in a Nashville suburb was destroyed by fire on Saturday, but no injuries were reported, a spokesperson for the singer said.

"The home Trace Adkins shares with his family has been lost in a fire that began early Saturday evening," the spokesperson said. "Thankfully, Mr. Adkins, his wife Rhonda and their three daughters are unharmed."

Adkins was flying to Alaska for a concert next week when the fire consumed his house in Brentwood near Nashville. When he arrived in Alaska, he learned of the fire and immediately boarded a flight back to Tennessee.

The fire spread rapidly but was quickly contained and did not spread to other homes, the spokesperson said.

Rhonda Adkins was not home when the fire broke out. Their daughters who were home and a sitter quickly escaped the house.

The full Brentwood Fire Department was sent to the scene and the department was expected to remain there well into the night, a fire dispatcher said.

(Reporting by Vernell Hackett; Editing by David Bailey)

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