Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/119315
The Road to Nashville Starts Here by STEPHANIE CRIDER The competition is heating up and performers are bringing it to the what you will work on ���rst to bring your craft to the highest level. Our semi���nals of Huske Unplugged. In its fourth season, round two of the involvement increases the likelihood of success. We are the musical equivalent of semi���nals is tonight April 3) and you are not going to want to miss it. The spring training for pro ball.��� semi���nalists in the singer/songwriter competition are competing for a grand A successful musician in his own right, Porter is dedicated to making sure his cash prize of $3,000, a day-long recording session at Manifold Recording clients understand what they are getting into. ���It takes more than being a good and a scholarship for $15,000 to PCG Nashville. The ���nals are slated for singer or performer (to succeed) in this business,��� said Porter. ���That is a very small April 17. part of it. You have to be able to sell yourself ��� you have to have con���dence. If God Huske Unplugged challenges bards to share their best pieces with the blessed you with the opportunity to be a role model, you have to act on it. It is about community, and maybe win a little cash, too. While it���s a great opportunity that awareness, being authentic, being disciplined and focused. We are very selective for the songwriters, the real winners are the people who come to hear them in who we choose to get involved in our programs.��� perform. In its short existence, the On the eve of the ���nal round, PCG competition has seen 96 individuals Nashville will host a seminar for the come out to share their work and ���nalists. It will be a chance for the entertain the crowds with their songwriters to learn a little more about original pieces. the music industry. ���I want to be able When Greg Biltz walked into to answer questions and help them as Huske Hardware two years ago, he much as we can,��� said Porter. Then had no idea what an adventure this during the ���nal round, PCG Nashville undertaking would be. ���Honestly, will judge the event. I was looking for a gig for myself,��� While PCG Nashville coming said Biltz. ���But when I started to Fayetteville is a big deal, Biltz is talking to Josh Collins (owner of con���dent they won���t be disappointed. Huske Hardware), I told him about ���I believe they will see talent they have programs like this that I had been not expected. There are people in this a part of in Dayton, Ohio, and competition that are going to knock Columbus, Ga., ��� and he lit up them back in their seats. I think and said ���Yeah, let���s do it!������ they���ll be impressed with what we From its inception in 2011, are doing,��� said Biltz. Collins and Biltz took great care to With Nashville on board, Huske cultivate the right atmosphere for Unplugged was already set to be a Huske Unplugged. bigger success than ever before. But ���We don���t want this to be when Biltz heard about Manifold Huske Unplugged offers songwriters a chance to be heard. It offers the community first-class American Idol Fayetteville,��� said Recording in Pittsboro N.C., he original entertainment. Biltz. ���From the beginning we knew knew there was another call to that if we kept it about the material, make. Owner Michael Tieman took we would get songwriters, not just performers.��� Biltz up on his offer to come to an open sign up night at Huske Unplugged. They were right. The word got out, and the songwriters came. Rockers and That was all it took for Tieman to sign on as a sponsor and offer a recording country songwriters; R&B songwriters and folk songwriters; metalheads and session as one of the prizes. gospel-music writers came. Some were locals, others happened to be passing ���I listened to the artists and the ones who ended up winning that night through and still others travelled from a state or two away to be a part of were some of my favorites,��� said Tieman. ���They (Josh and Greg) were it. Some were looking for a chance to be discovered, others just wanted correct in telling me that Fayetteville has some diamonds in the rough.��� to be heard and share their work with a friendly crowd. The competitors Tieman performed as a boy soprano in Manhattan before moving on to come from many backgrounds and life experiences, with different skill sets work in the world of computer software. The technical side of the recording and signature sounds ��� a perfect combination for a platform like Huske business had always interested him. ���As I lamented the continual degradation Unplugged. of the quality of recorded music, I realized that as an entrepreneur this is not The listeners came, too. And for the ���rst three seasons Collins happily something I should complain about. This is something I should do something fronted the cash prizes and enjoyed knowing that he was giving songwriters about. So I built a studio.��� a place to call their own by offering up Huske Hardware as a venue. Dad Like Porter, Tieman sees something bigger than just a songwriter to performer Summer Collins, Josh knows ���rsthand the many challenges competition in Huske Unplugged. ���A lot of people talk about North Carolina songwriters and musicians face. This was a fun and easy way to make a in terms of what we have lost ��� jobs etc. I am also seeing a North Carolina difference not only for the songwriters, but it also provided the community that is building new things as well. I am excited to see how we might build with top-notch original entertainment. a kind of North Carolina music that 10 or 20 years from now people will It could have stopped there, but it didn���t. By the start of the fourth season, recognize. There is a lot of musical richness in North Carolina that needs to Summer was making a name for herself in the music world and had been be heard and preserved.��� travelling to Nashville to further her career. That���s where Josh met Bernard Biltz is convinced that what the songwriters at Huske Unplugged offer up Porter of PCG Nashville. It is the mission of PCG to apply a customized is worth hearing and preserving. So is local businessman Mike Lallier, who scienti���c approach to development, producing balance in all areas of the has generously offered to provide the award for the cash prize winners. artist���s mind, body and spirit. The organization provides everything from Indeed, Huske Unplugged has come a long way, baby ��� and in a short branding, to voice and music lessons to health and nutrition classes ��� time, too. But for Biltz the magic is in the music. ���The beautiful thing about anything to help prepare their clients and give them the best chance at being it is that we didn���t know what was going to happen when this all started and successful in whatever musical genre they choose. now here we are ... I tell everybody that ���if you walk out with money or a slot Porter admired Josh���s dedication to the community and the songwriters in the semis, that is great,��� but I am doing this to provide a who participated in Huske Unplugged. If the talent was anything like what venue to showcase their material.��� he���d heard from Summer, Porter could make it work. He offered up a The show starts at 8 p.m. at Huske Hardware, tonight. $15,000 scholarship to the winner. The ���nals are on April 17. Find STEPHANIE CRIDER, Editor. COM���We are in the science of artist development. We are set up like a doctor���s out more at www.facebook.com/ MENTS? Editor@upandcominof���ce,��� said Porter. ���It is my job to look into you, do diagnostics and assign HuskeHardware. gweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM APRIL 3-9, 2013 UCW 15