By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — Tim Ghianni has been a Nashville and journalistic treasure since he began a nearly five decade stint as an editor, reporter, photographer and columnist for a host of Middle Tennessee publications. Over the course of that award-winning career, while he also covered many other areas from crime to city politics, sports and state government, Ghianni cultivated numerous friendships with both top Music City and national artists. His latest book “Pilgrims, Pickers and Honky-Tonk Heroes: My Personal Time with Music City Friends and Legends in Rock ‘n’ Roll, R&B, and a Whole Lot of Country (Rowan & Littlefield/Backbeat)” offers readers a fascinating and insightful look at the personalities who’ve made Nashville a special place, and turned it into arguably the nation’s most diversified site for the performance and business of every popular music idiom.
Ghianni also spent many years in the editing/management end of the newspaper business, and is well versed in the major changes that have occurred in the industry. He graciously took time away from a busy schedule to answer some e-mail questions from the Tribune, and didn’t just provide cursory responses. Instead, he provided detailed, comprehensive and thoughtful answers to our inquiries. The conversation covered so much ground we are dividing it into two parts.
Musical memories and industry reflections
Who were your favorite (musical) interview subjects?
“It would be difficult to pick a favorite interview subject from my book, because these chapters were not interview based, but conversation based. These were people who had become my friends after most had originally been topics for newspaper feature stories I wrote. Personal time with these people, their trust in me, random conversations and fly-on-the-wall observations are the basis for these chapters. Over time, though, I’d have to say Kris Kristofferson and Bobby Bare were “favorites,” because they helped me form my love of Nashville with their songs and artistry. I was a big fan of both when I still was in high school in Chicago. So, I’ve taken great joy from talking to them for a story or chapter, but also from our conversations and time together as friends.”
“But that could be said for almost everyone in this book. Hanging out with legendary drummer Jimmy Otey, who gave up regular gigs with James Brown and Little Richard for a family life in Bordeaux was special. And as a Baby Boomer, his ties with The Beatles were fun to explore. Bobby Hebb, who wrote and sang “Sunny,” also became a dear friend. He was on The Beatles’ final tour, and he relished talking about that, even though he had his own claim to fame.”
“The Beatles top my list. I was able to interview Ringo a couple of times. I was trying to get an interview with George Harrison before it became public that he was dying. My favorite was John Lennon, but he was murdered. I’d still like to interview Paul McCartney over tea. I’d love to interview Dylan – I have tried – and any of the Rolling Stones. I did get a chance to exchange pleasantries with their original bassist, Bill Wyman, but no story came from that.”
“In Nashville, I wish I’d had more time with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. John Hartford and Bill Monroe would have been great. Elvis, of course, but at least his original guitarist Scotty Moore was among my dearest friends. I’ve interviewed Vince Gill about a concert, but never have gotten the time to just hang out with him. I’m hoping that will happen. And I wish I’d interviewed Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell, but at least I got to drink beer at the next table. And, oh yeah, I really wish I’d been able to interview Tom Petty about the Southern and country influences in his music. And B.B. King.”
What in your view are the biggest changes, positive and negative, that you have observed in your career?
“The biggest change in journalism in the 49 years since I began my career is the near demise of daily newspapers that cover all aspects of the news: national and international, local, sports, business and arts-lifestyles. Many newspapers have folded, of course, and large-scale corporate chains have taken over most remaining dailies’ leadership, with eyes on the bottom line. Newspapers have been pared down in staffing, numbers of pages and sections and in scope. There are still good journalists working at daily newspapers, but there are a lot fewer of them, so local news coverage has decreased.”
“And the lack of personnel at a local daily is not just reflected in less coverage of local stories, but the corporate model now has many editors, design personnel and headline writers operating from hubs in other cities, where multiple newspapers are put together, and this lack of institutional knowledge about the cities served shows up in the story editing and in headlines. That has led to homogenization of the news, where stories, photography and even editorial decision-making are shared among corporate partners, so smaller numbers of people are covering stories at multiple newspapers and across digital platforms.”
“The Nashville Banner, The Tennessean’s old competition, has been gone for a quarter-century. Without daily competition, there is not the battle to be first, to beat the other guy to the stories. The newspapers used to compete to be first, whether it was sports scores, government news, police news, or even the local symphony’s concert lineup for the year. The cuts in staffing and competition are reflected in the corporate model. The Tennessean, Knoxville News Sentinel and Memphis Commercial Appeal, for example, used to battle to break stories on the Legislature, school issues, and especially sports. Gone is the battle to beat each other on stories about recruiting, rules infractions and even game coverage.”
“The newspapers share those stories across the corporate chain. Tennessee Vols coverage, for example, is created by Knoxville reporters and repeated across the state. None of this is the fault of the reporters, I should note. They do the best they can to do their jobs, but they are held back by the system that has gutted individual newsrooms. A big example of this demise or malaise is in the obituary coverage. Publishing obits for free was a service to the community, families and friends. Then newspapers turned obits into “paid deaths,” and expensive ones at that, and increasingly funeral home websites are the places to find out about passings.”
“The gradual birth of locally oriented websites and small town weeklies fueled by the need to fill the void has been good, because the Little League scores, the City Council, the deaths and the wedding/engagement announcements find their homes there. Of course, the big dailies also have websites, and they try to draw readers there, but the drastic decline in staffing is reflected in that coverage, as well. And then there are questions about accessibility and cost.”
What in your view are the biggest changes, positive and negative, in the newspaper business that you have observed in your career?
“The biggest change in journalism in the 49 years since I began my career is the near demise of daily newspapers that cover all aspects of the news: national and international, local, sports, business and arts-lifestyles. Many newspapers have folded, of course, and large-scale corporate chains have taken over most remaining dailies’ leadership, with eyes on the bottom line. Newspapers have been pared down in staffing, numbers of pages and sections and in scope. There are still good journalists working at daily newspapers, but there are a lot fewer of them, so local news coverage has decreased.”
“And the lack of personnel at a local daily is not just reflected in less coverage of local stories, but the corporate model now has many editors, design personnel and headline writers operating from hubs in other cities, where multiple newspapers are put together, and this lack of institutional knowledge about the cities served shows up in the story editing and in headlines. That has led to homogenization of the news, where stories, photography and even editorial decision-making are shared among corporate partners, so smaller numbers of people are covering stories at multiple newspapers and across digital platforms.”
“The Nashville Banner, The Tennessean’s old competition, has been gone for a quarter-century. Without daily competition, there is not the battle to be first, to beat the other guy to the stories. The newspapers used to compete to be first, whether it was sports scores, government news, police news or even the local symphony’s concert lineup for the year. The cuts in staffing and competition are reflected in the corporate model. The Tennessean, Knoxville News Sentinel and Memphis Commercial Appeal, for example, used to battle to break stories on the Legislature, school issues, and especially sports. Gone is the battle to beat each other on stories about recruiting, rules infractions and even game coverage.”
“The newspapers share those stories across the corporate chain. Tennessee Vols coverage, for example, is created by Knoxville reporters and repeated across the state. None of this is the fault of the reporters, I should note. They do the best they can to do their jobs, but they are held back by the system that has gutted individual newsrooms.A big example of this demise or malaise is in the obituary coverage. Publishing obits for free was a service to the community, families and friends. Then newspapers turned obits into “paid deaths,” and expensive ones at that, and increasingly funeral home websites are the places to find out about passings.”
“The gradual birth of locally oriented websites and small town weeklies fueled by the need to fill the void has been good, because the Little League scores, the City Council, the deaths and the wedding/engagement announcements find their homes there. Of course, the big dailies also have websites, and they try to draw readers there, but the drastic decline in staffing is reflected in that coverage, as well. And then there are questions about accessibility and cost.”
How has arts journalism and music coverage changed, both good and bad?
Arts journalism has increasingly been downplayed by newspapers. In the early 2000s, I was entertainment editor at The Tennessean. I had a full-time writer for books and classical music, a full-time writer for theater and movies, three full-time writers covering music and the business of music and a gossip columnist, who also covered radio.”
“In addition, I was contributing stories about the people in the arts, trying to fill in the gray areas between beats. We had a Friday section devoted to movies along with lists of what was going on that weekend. Our Sunday section, generally massive in size, was filled with takeout pieces about all the arts. And during the week, we had daily local arts pieces covering our section fronts. And we had concert, film and symphony reviews that were produced on deadline and went into the live news section for the morning after they occurred.”
“ As deadlines became earlier and earlier, though, those events generally were not done in time for a page that had to be finished by 8 p.m. or earlier, so they migrated to the inside of the entertainment section in the next-day’s newspaper. It takes staff and payroll hours, which are diminishing, so arts coverage increasingly has gone to niche publications.”
Do you think folks living outside Nashville really understand just how diversified and extensive the music scene here really is?
“No. It’s getting better because of things like the “Night Train to Nashville” exhibit and activities focusing on the city’s old R&B scene and the fact some of those old-timers were re-energized to perform again and the ones who had remained active were given more opportunities. That exhibit was staged by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the musical brotherhood between Music Row and Jefferson Street was among the highlights. Of course, the National Museum of African American Music’s presence on Lower Broadway is another touchstone.”
“But while people may know that Jimi Hendrix had formative years in North Nashville, they may not know much about his best friend, Billy Cox, an internationally acclaimed bassist, who lives quietly here. Nor do they likely know anything about, for example, the late Johnny Jones, who beat Jimi in a guitar duel on Jefferson Street and served as a mentor to the guy whose mark on rock ’n’ roll hasn’t diminished 53 years after his death.And there is a thriving jazz scene as well as heroes of rock, like Duane Eddy and Jason & the Scorchers and so many more who call or have called Nashville home. That’s not including the Americana/folk scene and some of the greats like the late John Prine and so many he influenced.”
