MuzikMafia

Last updated

The MuzikMafia was an informal collection of American country music artists, founded in October 2001 in Nashville, Tennessee by Big Kenny and John Rich [1] (who compose the duo Big & Rich [2] ), along with Jon Nicholson and Cory Gierman. [3] They have been the subject of a six-episode television series on the network Country Music Television, [4] entitled MuzikMafia TV, which followed the Muzik Mafia on their first stadium tour, the American Revolution Tour.

Contents

The original MuzikMafia [5] was born from an open mic night in Nashville. While they aren't official members, people who have performed at the MuzikMafia jams include Kid Rock, 3 Doors Down, Velvet Revolver, Bon Jovi, Stephen Cochran, Jewel, Bobby Brown, Sisqo, and Saliva.

History

Founding of the MuzikMafia

The Muzik Mafia, (Musically Artistic Friends In Alliance) was a ragtag collection of unique and talented musician friends and collaborators. It is most responsible for the birth and early feeding of country acts like Big & Rich, and Gretchen Wilson. It was the creative brainstorm of four friends known affectionately as the original founding “Godfathers,” Big Kenny, John Rich (of Big & Rich), R&B/rock/country singer-songwriter Jon Nicholson, and music publisher/executive Cory Gierman. All four were steeped in the same eclectic musical mix. Together they decided to get together periodically in one place and play together. They made an informal pact – no competition, only cooperation and mutual support. Mixing styles and genres, gatherings could go from a rock & country sound to a bluegrass riff to a reggae swag. It was a tribe of serious, and seriously open-minded musicians. [6]

The godfathers founded MuzikMafia with an ideology of anti-commercialism—a response to Music Row’s commercial hegemony in Nashville. [3] One of MuzikMafia’s numerous connections to these earlier phenomena is that each contributes to the idea of artistic events as spectacles. For MuzikMafia members, culture was primarily “lived” through experience rather than emphasized on, a reflection of, or adherence to industry norms of how commercial musicians should look or sound. Their original intention was to create a weekly jam session in which like-minded individuals could enjoy a variety of styles in an informal setting. [7]

The first “official Muzik Mafia” was born from an open mic night at the Pub of Love, Nashville, TN on October 23, 2001. They held shows intentionally late each Tuesday evening because Tuesdays were, according to the godfathers, “the worst night of the week." and to avoid the club crowd that frequented weekend Nashville locales. Focusing more on those who were dedicated to an intensely intimate and social musical experience at an inconvenient time and day of the week. Each performance was free-of-charge and featured musicians from diverse genres, spoken-word artists, a juggler, a fire-breather, and a painter.

Everything was acoustic and usually performed on guitar accompanied by a percussionist who played a set of older conga drums with drumsticks. Regardless of age, ethnicity, sex, gender, financial status, social ranking, or belief system welcoming everyone at performances, promoting an atmosphere of acceptance. Tuesday shows were an opportunity for MuzikMafia musicians and audience members to be themselves, rather than representations of socially accepted norms.

National recognition

The fact that the MuzikMafia did not promote a single musical idiom might seem like a disqualifying factor in the industry. Their unifying trait was its diversity. The roster included artists who specialized in blues, rock, pop, rap, country, bluegrass, gospel, R&B, and soul that, collectively, are representative of Nashville’s rich history of musical diversity and the city’s current identification as “Music City, U.S.A.” The rapid growth in popularity of the MuzikMafia was the result of its two breakout acts, Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson, who celebrated combined record sales of approximately five million units just from May through December 2004.

Kid Rock invited the MuzikMafia to perform with him on several tour dates in February and March 2004. The first took place on February 12, 2004 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Similar MuzikMafia performances with Kid Rock took place in Memphis on 6 March and in Detroit on 20 March that year.

MuzikMafia received massive public exposure in 2004. From The Wall Street Journal , Rolling Stone , the Los Angeles Times , USA Today , Entertainment Weekly , The Tennessean , Country Music Today , Billboard Magazine , The Washington Post , Blender Magazine , Country Weekly , and The New York Times . [8] Magazine covers such as Country Weekly and Entertainment Weekly were shouting, “ The Muzik Mafia wants you!” [9]

MuzikMafia TV

MuzikMafia TV was both a television documentary and a reality show. The six-episode series included behind-the-scenes footage of life on the road during their first stadium tour, The American Revolution Tour (Sponsored by Chevrolet). Documenting the community’s rise to national prominence the show became an instant hit. Ivan Dudynsky (producer of MuzikMafia TV) of Live Animals Productions approached the godfathers in late summer 2004 with the idea of producing something on the MuzikMafia for CMT. The first episode of MuzikMafia TV premiered on 15 January 2005 on CMT. [4]

Last performance

By the summer of 2002 it was evident that the MuzikMafia was a significant part of the Nashville music scene. The Pub of Love’s performance area was small; barely 12’ X 20’, and the building was in disrepair, including an upstairs ceiling that was sagging in several places. The Pub was incapable of accommodating the rapidly growing fan base, several weeks in the summer of 2002, the MuzikMafia performed outside in the adjacent parking lot. Unable to contain their Tuesday night fans, 2002 to 2007 MuzikMafia moved to larger clubs: Tin Roof, 12th & Porter, Mercy Lounge & Fuel. Occasionally, when there was not a weekly show, some of the members would show up to play on Tuesday & Thursday nights at Dan McGuinness, where there was another weekly show called "Dirt Pharm" formed by musicians associated with the MuzikMafia. The final MuzikMafia show was held in January 2008 at the Sam Phillips Music Celebration, in Muscle Shoals Alabama, after a disagreement between members.

List of MuzikMafia members

The core membership of the MuzikMafia was small—less than twenty individuals. Separately, they are artists, each of whom has experienced relative degrees of success and failure, respectively, in their personal and professional lives. Together, they contributed to significant change in the commercial music industry and beyond. [10]

Godfathers and godmother

Cory Gierman
Big Kenny
Jon Nicholson
John Rich
Gretchen Wilson

Family members

James Otto (Musician)
Cowboy Troy (Musician)
Damien Horne-Pop/Rock Artist
Rachel Kice (Painter)
Shannon Lawson (Musician)
Two-Foot Fred (Business Man, Comedian)
Shanna Crooks (Musician)
Spoken Word Jen "SWJ" (Poet)
John Anderson (Musician) - Honorary Member

Pit bosses

Max Abrams (aka "Max on Sax")
Pino Squillace
The Reverend Elijah D.D. Holt
Jerry Navarro
Adam Shoenfeld
Sean Smith

Visiting relatives

Kid Rock
3 Doors Down
Velvet Revolver
Bon Jovi
Jewel
Bobby Brown
Sisqo
Saliva
Wynonna Judd
Hank Williams Jr
Darryl McDaniels (Run DMC)
Peter Wolf (J. Geils Band)
George Clinton
Angie Aparo
Martina McBride
Keith Urban
Toby Keith
Richie Sambora
James Hetfield
Buzz M. Kiefer
Scott Sanford

Former members

Dean Hall (Resigned from the Mafia in December 2005)
Chance (Hit in February 2007)

Panelists

In October 2005, Muzikmafia members were receiving their booking engagements through William Morris Agency. The early panelists [11] include

Cory Gierman
Big Kenny
Jon Nicholson
John Rich
Bill Moore
Cowboy Troy (Musician)
Shannon Lawson (Musician)
Rachel Kice (Painter)

Related Research Articles

<i>Here for the Party</i> 2004 studio album by Gretchen Wilson

Here for the Party is the debut studio album by American country music singer Gretchen Wilson. It was released on May 11, 2004 through Epic Records Nashville. After singing in a bar, she met John Rich of Big & Rich, who invited her to work with him. She would later join the MuzikMafia, a collection of Nashville singers and songwriters that gathered weekly to play songs. Wilson recorded the album in Nashville, Tennessee. The album was produced by Joe Scaife, Mark Wright, and John Rich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)</span> 2004 single by Big & Rich

"Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" is a song written and recorded by American country music duo Big & Rich. It was released in April 2004 as the second single from their debut album Horse of a Different Color. It reached number 11 on the U.S. Billboard US Country chart. The song received wide exposure when ESPN featured the song in commercials for its coverage of the 2004 World Series of Poker. It was also featured in the Boston Legal episode "Death Be Not Proud".

Gary Winther Chapman is an American contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter and former television talk show host.

This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Anderson (singer)</span> American country musician

John David Anderson is an American country singer with a successful career that has lasted more than 40 years. Starting in 1977 with the release of his first single, "I've Got a Feelin' ", Anderson has charted more than 40 singles on the Billboard country music charts, including five number ones: "Wild and Blue", "Swingin'", "Black Sheep", "Straight Tequila Night", and "Money in the Bank". He has also recorded 22 studio albums on several labels. His latest album, Years, was released on April 10, 2020, on the Easy Eye Sound label and was produced by Nashville veteran producer David Ferguson and Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Rich</span> American country musician

John Rich is an American country music singer-songwriter, hit record producer and successful entrepreneur. From 1992 to 1998, he was a member of the country band Lonestar, in which he played bass guitar, wrote his first #1 song called "Come Cryin'To Me" and alternated with Richie McDonald as lead vocalist. After departing from the band in 1998, he embarked on a solo career on BNA Records in the late 1990s, releasing two singles for the label and recording Underneath the Same Moon, which was not released until 2006. In 2001, he self-released Rescue Me, an album he was inspired to record by a cancer patient named Katie Darnell. By 2003, he joined Big Kenny to form the duo Big & Rich, who released three albums on Warner Bros. Records as well as ten singles, including the Number One "Lost in This Moment". After Big & Rich went on hiatus in 2007, Rich began work on a third solo album, Son of a Preacher Man, which produced two more chart singles including the Top Ten song "Shutting Detroit Down." In 2011, Rich released two extended plays, Rich Rocks and For the Kids, before re-establishing Big & Rich in 2012. Big and Rich launched "Big and Rich Records" in 2014 and scored big hits with "Look At You", "Loving Lately", and "Run Away With You."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Kenny</span> American country music singer

William Kenneth Alphin, best known by his stage name Big Kenny, is an American country music singer. He and John Rich comprise the duo Big & Rich, who recorded four studio albums and charted fifteen singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

<i>All Jacked Up</i> 2005 studio album by Gretchen Wilson

All Jacked Up is the second studio album by American country music artist Gretchen Wilson, released on September 27, 2005 through Epic Nashville Records. After the massive success of her debut album Here for the Party (2004), Wilson went back into the studio to record its follow-up. Wilson worked with mostly the same team as her debut, with the album being produced by John Rich, Wilson, and Mark Wright.

<i>Horse of a Different Color</i> (Big & Rich album) 2004 studio album by Big & Rich

Horse of a Different Color is the debut studio album by American country music duo Big & Rich, released on May 4, 2004, by Warner Bros. Nashville. The album contains the hit singles "Wild West Show", "Save a Horse ", "Holy Water", and "Big Time". Respectively, these reached No. 21, No. 11, No. 15, and No. 20 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The album was certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA for shipments of three million copies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Otto</span> American country music artist (born 1973)

James Allen Otto is an American country music singer and songwriter. Otto began his career on Mercury Nashville Records in 2002, charting three minor singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and recording his debut album Days of Our Lives for the label before being dropped in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shannon Lawson</span> American singer-songwriter

Shannon Lee Lawson is an American country music artist and songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Time Jumpers</span> Musical group

The Time Jumpers is the name of a Western swing band formed in 1998 by a group of Nashville studio musicians who enjoyed jamming together. Country star Vince Gill was a member of the group between 2010 and 2020. The 11–member group started playing occasional local gigs until they agreed to take a regular slot playing at the Station Inn, a venerable Nashville bluegrass venue. They later moved to a larger venue, Nashville's "3rd & Lindsley", and were called by Tennessean writer Juli Thanki, "One of the hottest shows in town". Some of their guest artists on the weekly live show have included Joe Walsh, Robert Plant, Norah Jones, Bonnie Raitt, Reba McEntire, Jimmy Buffett, Kings of Leon, and Toby Keith. Amy Grant said, "You can't hear that caliber of musicians every Monday night for a cover charge in any town in America except here". The group rarely travels, but in 2010 they performed at New York's Lincoln Center. In 2007, they recorded a live album entitled Jumpin' Time and in 2012 recorded The Time Jumpers. At the 2017 Grammy Awards the group won "Best American Roots Song" for Vince Gill's composition "Kid Sister".

<i>Gone Country</i> (TV series) Country music-centric reality television series

Gone Country is an American celebrity reality television show in which contestants compete to become a country music singer. The winner gets a country single produced by host John Rich, one-half of the country duo Big & Rich. It aired on CMT, with reruns on TV Land, and VH1. On the first-season finale, Julio Iglesias Jr. was named the winner.

Gone Country uproots these seven musical celebrities and moves them into a Nashville mansion together to embark on a two-week adventure, hosted by singer-songwriter John Rich. Each celebrity will be paired up with some of Nashville's finest songwriters in an attempt to prepare them for a career in country music. In each episode, the cast competes against each other in challenges that will test them musically and physically to adapt to a country music lifestyle, both on and off the stage. At the end of the two weeks, the artist who is most prepared to impress a country audience, as determined by Rich, will record and release a song.

The CMT Music Awards is a fan-voted awards show for country music videos and television performances. After more than twenty years in Nashville, the awards ceremony is now held Austin, Texas, and is broadcast live on CBS, along with CMT and other Paramount Global networks. Voting takes place on CMT's website, CMT.com.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damien Horne</span> American singer-songwriter

Damien Horne, also known as Mista D is an American recording artist, musician and songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Rose</span> American singer

Margaret Rose Durante is an American soul and country music singer. In 2009, Durante signed to Universal Republic and released a cover of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody". A year later, she left Universal Republic and signed to independent Emrose Records, an imprint that used the services of James Stroud's Stroudavarious Records. She charted two singles for Emrose and released her digital EP, Maybe Tonight. Maggie also recorded two songs that were featured in episodes of the Disney Channel's Shake It Up and Good Luck Charlie television series, and were included on the Shake It Up: Break It Down soundtrack album that was released on July 12, 2011. Durante changed her recording name to Maggie Rose in 2012 after signing with Scott Siman's RPM Management. When Siman expanded RPM to include a mainstream country label, he launched the album with her as the flagship artist with the first single being "I Ain't Your Mama". In 2017, Rose signed to Startruck Records, where she released her 2018 album Change the Whole Thing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big & Rich</span> American country music duo

Big & Rich is an American country music duo composed of Big Kenny and John Rich, both of whom are songwriters, vocalists, and guitarists. Before the duo's foundation, Rich was bass guitarist in the country band Lonestar, while Kenny was a solo artist for Hollywood Records.

The Farm, also known as The Farm Inc., was an American country music trio consisting of Nick Hoffman, Damien Horne and Krista Marie. Signed to All In Records in association with Warner Music Nashville and Elektra Records and New Revolution, the trio has released the singles "Home Sweet Home" and "Be Grateful", which have charted on Hot Country Songs. Horne is a former member of John Rich's songwriting group MuzikMafia, while Marie is a former solo artist for Broken Bow Records. Hoffman is the host and producer of the award-winning TV show "Nick's Wild Ride" that airs on Outdoor Channel and played fiddle in Kenny Chesney's road band. The three met during a songwriting session which included former Western Flyer member Danny Myrick, who also became the group's producer.

Adam Shoenfeld is a professional guitarist, songwriter and producer based in Nashville, TN. Primarily focused on modern country music, his guitar playing has been featured on over 500 albums, and is closely associated with Big & Rich and Jason Aldean ("Hicktown").

References

  1. ↑ Muzik Mafia's Big & Rich Lead the Parade, Retrieved November 12, 2013
  2. ↑ "Behind the Scenes: MuzikMafia". PEOPLE.com.
  3. 1 2 Pruett, David B. (2010). MuzikMafia: From the Nashville Scene to the National Mainstream. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN   978-1604734386.
  4. 1 2 "CMT : TV Shows : Watch Full Episodes Online : Featured Shows, Schedules and Top 20 Video Countdown". CMT.
  5. ↑ "MuzikMafia : Muzik Without Prejudice". Archived from the original on 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  6. ↑ Allen Rucker, Big & Rich: All Access, June 5th 2007 by Center Street, Page 32/33
  7. ↑ David B. Pruett Theses, treatises, and dissertations 8-23-2007, pg 28
  8. ↑ Allen Rucker, Big & Rich: All Access, Published June 5th 2007 by Center Street pg 44
  9. ↑ "Nash Country Daily". Nash Country Daily.
  10. ↑ Pruett, David B., "MuzikMafia: Community, Identity, and Change from the Nashville Scene to the Popular Mainstream" (2007).M
  11. ↑ Book:- MuzikMafia, From the Local Nashville Scene to the National Mainstream Page No 149
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.