Country music seeks to raise NYC profile
Nekesa Moody

NEW YORK—Like a secret lover embraced in private yet rarely seen in public, country music’s relationship with New York City has been a curious, hush-hush affair. Country music sells well in New York, yet it hasn’t had much of a presence on America’s ultimate music stage. There’s no country radio station, and even country music’s top acts rarely include New York on their tour dates, performing in its surrounding areas rather than in the city itself.
“New York City is a notoriously hard market to perform country music in,” says singer Trace Adkins. It may get a little easier after this week. For the first time, the Country Music Association Awards — usually Nashville’s big shindig — will be held in New York. Instead of the Grand Ole Opry House, Madison Square Garden will play host to the likes of Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Lee Ann Womack, Gretchen Wilson and Brooks & Dunn, who are hosting the show. The event will also integrate pop’s elite, including Elton John and Bon Jovi.
“Our business is based in Nashville and it always will be, but New York City is still our No. 1 or No. 2 market,” says Kix Brooks. “There’s an amazing history of country music here, most people just don’t realize. Garth (Brooks) is still the biggest concert that was ever in (Central) Park.” And the celebration has already begun: The days leading up to the show include numerous performances and events designed to showcase — and enhance — country’s popularity here, including a “Broadway Meets Country” concert featuring the top stars in both fields, and a celebration of the Grand Ole Opry’s 80th anniversary with a concert at Carnegie Hall.
While this is the CMA Awards’ first adventure in New York City, the Grand Ole Opry has been at Carnegie Hall before, though it was more than four decades ago — Opry legend Minnie Pearl joined Ernest Tubb there in 1947 and performed with its stars there again in 1961. Monday’s anniversary show will feature Paisley, Martina McBride, Alan Jackson, Alison Krauss and Adkins, to name a few.
Pete Fisher, the Grand Ole Opry’s general manager, hopes the showcase, along with country music’s week in New York, will help it shed its reputation as a genre popular with the South and Midwest only. “I was born and raised in the Northeast, and country music often times is attached to a stereotype, and really, the evolution of country music over the past couple of decades shows it is mainstream music,” Fisher says.