A NOT SO ORDINARY JOE

It has been quite the month in Music City. One of the biggest labels of the past decade, Lyric Street Records. closed its' doors--leaving some very talented and creative people out of a job. Rounder Records was sold, even though I have a feeling that the label home of Alison Krauss will keep its' highly artistic reputation intact. The same week that all of this happened, I was leaving the house for Dickson when I received an e-mail that Joe Galante was stepping down from his post at Sony Music---after being with the company (RCA, BMG, SonyBMG) for almost forty years. You could have knocked me over with a feather!

There has been no other music exec in Nashville with the success record as Galante. No one--bar none. Some have come close, but the man stands as one of Nashville's geniuses. He has had the reputation of being tough as nails, and I get it. He is. You can't run the company he did without it. There are many cases of artists having a top ten record one year, and being off the label the next. He's not afraid to pull the plug, even though when I had the honor of interviewing him in 2006, he told he that's not something he relishes. In saying that, I will tell you that I don't always agree with who he drops. Take Jamey Johnson, an artist I fawned over last week. He released an album for the label a few years, had a hit ("The Dollar"), but was dropped. I think things worked out the way they were supposed to, but it remains that Johnson is a great talent--one that should have been able to make his music his way. Rachel Proctor is another one that I think the label missed out on. She had a fantastic album a few years back, but I believe we will hear from her again.

At the same time, what can you say about a man who signed The Judds, Keith Whitley, and Lorrie Morgan....and though he didn't sign them....ask Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, or Alabama how their careers might have fared without Joe and his first-class team on their side. Maybe his biggest leap of faith was signing a 45-year old woman from Arkansas named K.T. Oslin back in the mid 80s. She wasn't going to win the "Sexiest" title, but she had something better---incredible songs, and an ability to relate to a core section of Country's audience. Nobody else would take a chance on her, but Galante's risk paid off...."I'll Always Come Back," 'Do Ya," "Hey, Bobby," and one of the best singles and videos of all time, "80's Ladies."

He would be a legend in my eyes for all of that, but for all his toughness...all his business acumen---one of the reasons he has my respect is for answering a letter from a teenager inquiring about the music business.

Back in 1990, I had an assignment from one of my teachers. I had to write a letter to someone who was doing a job that I wanted to do one day.....Well, I had three choices.....Keith Bilbrey at WSM Radio, Debbie Gibson's personal bodyguard (I was sixteen at the time!), or Galante. I chose the latter. As he has been the past decade, he was on an unbelievable roll at the time, and extremely busy...so I didn't think anything about it. About a month or two later, I checked the mail one day, and there was a package----RCA Records. Nipper himself was on the label! Not only had he answered my letter, but he had sent me a copy of each cassette (Those were the days!) that the label was working at the time...everything from the Judds to Prairie Oyster. I still have the letter.....He didn't have to answer it....but I'm glad he did!

I have been described by my wife as someone who doesn't like change. I guess that is true. But the idea of a Sony / RCA without Galante is as foreign as a WSM without Bilbrey. I have no doubt that the label will continue to thrive under the new management.....but it will be a lot different......Anyway, though I have never thanked him face to face, I want to thank a certain label head from RCA named Galante for not being an "Ordinary Joe," and for what he has done for the music business!