posted 27 March 2000 07:36 AM         

Saturday, 3/25/2000
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Country music advocate Joe Talbot dies

By Robert K. Oermann
Joe Talbot, one of the Nashville entertainment industry's last remaining champions of traditional country music, died yesterday at age 72.
As a record manufacturer, song publisher, SESAC performance-rights executive and musician, Mr. Talbot contributed to the development of Music Row for more than 50 years.
He was lifetime director, past board chairman and past president of the Country Music Association.
He was also a past Board Chairman of the Country Music Foundation, which operates the Country Music Hall of Fame.
His death, at home, came after he was diagnosed with lung cancer four weeks ago. Joe Talbot would have turned 73 today.
Mr. Talbot also served on the boards of the Recording Academy, the Gospel Music Association, the Nashville Better Business Bureau and SunTrust Bank.
"You won't find anybody who doesn't love Joe Talbot," said legendary session guitarist Ray Edenton yesterday.
His forthright opinions were invariably delivered in his booming country baritone, rich with humor and warmth.
He was particularly outspoken about the roots of country music and his dislike of Music City's pop-crossover record making.
"Country music is like a religion to me," he elaborated during a 1995 interview. "I get very emotional about it, to the point of tears; it stirs me that deeply."
Born in 1927, the Nashville native served in the Army in 1945-46. In 1950 he realized his youthful ambition by becoming the steel guitarist in the band of future Country Music Hall of Fame member Hank Snow.
He performed on the Grand Ole Opry with Snow in 1951-52 and continued to tour and record with the superstar until 1954.
"Back then -- the '40s and the '50s -- there was no money. Those of us who were in the business were in it because we loved it and because we had to do it.
"It was an obsession. As I recall, to go on the road and play was $10 a day and out of that we had to buy our food and clothes.
"Lordy, record sessions paid $41.45, and I'll have to say this: There never has been a pill that would give anybody a high like I used to get playing on those record sessions. I would actually get chill bumps. It didn't make any difference about the money. I was getting to do what I wanted to do and best of all, I could turn the radio on and hear myself played back."
During this same time, Mr. Talbot attended Vanderbilt University Law School, from which he graduated in 1952. He floundered in business for a number of years before establishing United Record Pressing in 1967.
The company boomed as the manufacturer of vinyl discs for Elvis Presley and the million-selling Motown Records acts.
In 1967 Mr. Talbot also became the manager of SESAC's Nashville operations. SESAC is a performance rights organization similar to BMI and ASCAP. He remained there until 1971.
Mr. Talbot's other ventures have included Harbot Music in 1965-67. This company published the songs of Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Ted Harris. He also owned a prominent Music Row office building.
In 1991 Joe Talbot was recognized by the Nashville Entertainment Association with its Master Award. The honor represented the deep affection that the music community had for him, as well as his contributions to the creation of the Nashville show-business industry.
Joe Talbot is the second of the CMA Lifetime Board members who has died, after Wesley Rose.
The original five were Mr. Talbot, Mr. Rose, Bill Denny, Frances Preston and Ralph Peer Jr.
He is survived by his wife, Becky; his song-publisher daughter, Jana; his studio engineer son, Bryan; and his grandchildren Eric and Ellen Talbot.
Visitation will be Monday 6-8 p.m. in Hillwood Presbyterian Church. The funeral will be held there Tuesday at 11 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Frances Williams Preston Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the Nashville Humane Association, Alive Hospice or Hillwood Presbyterian Church.
Joe Talbot requested, "Sprinkle my ashes on Music Square East, from Music Circle South to Division Street."

posted 27 March 2000 12:05 PM         

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kd...and the beat goes on...