An ongoing music buzz is assuredly nothing new among the Music Row set whose movers 'n' shakers keep the country industry humming along nicely for us all, thank you very much.
However, during the past few days, a different sort of buzz has bubbled up a bit, thanks to filmmaker Chris McDaniel, a producer with Semi-Rebellious Films, who's been roaming the streets, studios, stages, haunts and hideaways of Music City as of late in the name of his forthcoming documentary titled Music City U.S.A.
Based in Arizona, McDaniel has made a few trips to Nashville to interview and shoot footage for the aforementioned documentary. Moreover, what began as a documentary that focused on 2010's catastrophic flooding and the ways in which the music community jumped in to aid the recovery has now grown into something more, says the filmmaker, who has been somewhat awed by Music City's welcome mat for creative artisty that extends far beyond the musical genre it's best known for.
To date, McDaniel has captured interviews with country music's Charlie Daniels, Larry Gatlin, Julie Roberts, Ricky Skaggs and Brady Seals, to name a smattering, and he reports he's slated to chat on camera later this spring with and Ricky Lynn Gregg, Vince Gill, Lorrie Morgan, The Oak Ridge Boys, LeAnn Rimes and Pam Tillis, among others.
As a result of expanding his documentary's subject matter and scope, McDaniel said he "even interviewed reggae royalty The Wailers, because of their work with Kenny Chesney's No. 1 hit, 'Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven.'"
Plus, he told Examiner.com, the Music City U.S.A. documentary "also will include lots of the young talent in Nashville like ... The Lunabelles, Beau Braswell and Coy Taylor, with several exceptional musicians and Nashvillians peppered in."
This week in particular, McDaniel met with WSM-AM's resident Country Music Hall of Fame DJ, Bill Cody, and his sidekick/producer/sports guy Charlie Mattos during the Monday edition of the "Coffee, Country & Cody" broadcast. (As locals may know, the WSM studios at Opryland Hotel were among some of the hardest-hit areas following the spring 2010 flood.)
Over the weekend, McDaniel also interviewed country artist Sean Patrick McGraw for the documentary, and has plans to chat with Scott Southworth and Heino Moeller, co-hosts of WLAC's weekly Music Row Show.
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