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It’s been a while since my last blog entry, and I apologize to regular readers of Law on the Row. I’ve been in transition mode, getting settled in to my n
ew offices downtown at 2nd Avenue North. I was also invited by my good friend Mark Volman to teach a course at the Mike Curb School of Music in the Entertainment Industry Studies division and have been diving into that task. It’s been a great year so far and I’ve made a lot of new friends. One of those friends is a student in my class, Lyndsey Highlander. She is an amazing talent. Lyndsey will be performing her music at 12th & Porter Lounge tomorrow evening, September 9th. Doors open at 630 and music starts at 7pm. In addition to Lyndsey, the line up includes a variety of genres, including artists Kesley Noffsinger, Russ Dickerson, Ashlyne HUff, and Marie Hines. If you like country, soul, or pop- head on down and support some local artists and songwriters=[;l,! The more friends, the better!
Barry Beckett, renowned Nashville producer and longtime musician, passed away last evening, further dampening, in conjunction with heavy downpours, the opening day of the 2009 CMA Music Festival.
Beckett was a fellow Aquarian, born February 4, 1943 in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a noted keyboardist and musician, perhaps best known as a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section which created the “Muscle Shoals Sound” as part of the recording sessions produced by Rick Hall in the Fame Recording Studio.
Beckett can be heard on various hits from the famous Stax Records (e.g., the Staple Singers‘ "I’ll Take You There”) as well as playing k
eyboards on my favorite Paul Simon tune, the 1973 pop hit "Kodachrome." As a A&R rep for Warner Nashville in themid 80’s and later as a producer, Beckett touched the careers of many notable artists, including Hank Williams, Jr., John Prine, Mary MacGregor, Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Bob Dylan (“Slow Train Coming”), Neal McCoy, Glen Frey, Bob Seger, Delbert McClinton, Joan Baez, Dire Straits, Joe Cocker, Lorrie Morgan, Confederate Railroad, Phish. A partial discography can be found here and here.
He was inducted into the Alabama Musicians’ Hall of Fame in 1995. Among other things, Barry enjoyed building model railroad track layouts when not producing hit records. He, and the music he continued to produce, will be severely missed in the Music Row community and well beyond.
Technorati Tags: Barry Beckett,Nashville,Producer,Bob Dylan,Paul Simon,Kodachrome,Kenny Chesney,Confederate Railroad
Once upon a time, there was a shinny new device called the iPhone that tried to climb up the mammoth hill that is the sole domain of the business smartphone. “I think I can, I think I can,” said the iPhone, and it tried and it tried, but alas, it could only make it up about half way, and then it sputtered and. . . . The end of this story cannot be written.
Obviously, you probably figured out by now that I have fallen victim to the allure driven by the site of all of my business associates who were sporting shiny black and white, Zen-like devices with colorful icons. Yes, I bought an iPhone. And while this article may be a bit off topic for my music business oriented blog, anyone who knows me knows that I am a techie through and through and enjoy new gadgets and technologies more than most. Many of my friends call me the guru for good reason. So, here goes.
As a long time fan of Palm, you might wonder why I did not wait for the premier of the Palm Pre. The simple reason is that Sprint service does not reach to my residential area. That was also the reason that, in recent years, I migrated to Windows Mobile, which I grew to love almost as much as the Palm OS. However, finally I was convinced to switch to the dark side and try it with Apple.
My relationship with my iPhone is what I describe as a “love hate” relationship. Yes, there are many many things I really love about the iPhone. I love the way it feels in your hand, almost like a smooth pebble plucked from a lake in the mountains of Japan. As I said in the story above, very “Zen-like.” After all, that is the Apple way isn’t it?
At first I thought the soft keyboard would drive me crazy. Surprisingly, I’m getting used to it and pretty efficient, although I still maintain that a hardware keyboard is much more efficient – something the Palm Pre does beautifully.
For the most part, on the positive side, I really love the web browsing experience. The websites that actually work (more on this later) come up beautifully and quickly. And, as a tech person, I really like the fact that there are scores of programmers writting countless applications for the iPhone. For the most part, the marketing is true, “there is an app for that.” That’s sort of where the “hate” part of the relationship begins, in that shaded area between the “for the most part” and the remaining part of 100%! That’s the part that keeps the iPhone from being a full-fledged business phone.
Recently, Apple has been pushing the idea that the iPhone is the ideal phone for business. There are several flaws with the iPhone which, until remedied, will prevent its widespread infiltration into the lockhold that BlackBerry, Palm and Windows Mobile have on that sector of the market.
So, what I’d like to address in this article is not the scores of more obvious deficiencies that have already been pointed out in the blogs and articles – no native voice dial, lack of full support for Bluetooth, no memory expansion, no cut and paste, no MMS, intolerable battery life, etc. – but the less obvious and definitely serious deficiencies that relate more specifically to a business person’s daily use of a smartphone.
First and foremost, and this has certainly been recognized by others, is the lack of support for Javascript and Flash plug-ins in the built-in Safari browser. If your websites relies on either of these, as my www.musicattorney.biz does, then what the iPhone visitor will see is a blue Lego-style brick with a question mark in the middle (see the illustration). What the hell is 
that? Unforgiveable, that’s what it is. There’s no other word for it. And all simply because Apple doesn’t like to play nice with its competitors, particularly Adobe. Shame on you Jobs.
Secondly, and this has always been one of my major beefs with Apple, the proprietary, i.e. closed, operating system. Apple’s SDK, as one developer put it, “has more restrictions than Guantanamo.” Developers require a certain level of integration with the OS in order to develop business-class applications to work around the inherent deficiencies in the native iPhone software. But no – Apple is too proprietary for that. This needs to change and quickly.
One perfect example of this is the calendar. For some unknown reason, there is NO WEEK VIEW in the calendar. No week view? I don’t know about most business people, but for me, the week view is the “go-to” view of choice. Yes, I know, there is a “list” view on the iPhone, but it’s not nearly the same thing. To witness the difference for yourself, download the iPhone version of an old Windows Mobile classic, Pocket Informant and look at the week view in that software. Ah, problem solved you might be thinking. Just use the App! Not so quickly: Pocket Informant ONLY syncs with a Google calendar account. Why, you ask? That’s right, because Apple will not allow the programmers to access the base-level calendar on the iPhone and therefore the information in the iPhone’s calendar CANNOT be displayed in beautiful week view of Pocket Informant. Yes, the week view is sort of a sore spot for me. But is iconic, if you’ll allow me the pun, of the fallacy of the proprietary restraints Apple places on programmers. There is absolutely no excuse.
While we’re on the subject of little annoyances, what’s up with dialing the damn iPhone? There is no quick way to get to the dial pad. Duh!!! It is, first and foremost, supposed to be A PHONE. Give us a quick way to access the dial pad! When you press the pretty green telephone icon, you land on whatever segment of the program you happened to be on when you last opened it, whether it be voicemail or recent contacts. You MIGHT get lucky and land on the dial pad. But there’s a one in four shot that you have to press yet another icon to get to the dial pad to, dare I say it, actually make a phone call. IT’S A PHONE!!!!
Since we’re on the subject, looking up contacts is probably a breeze for some MP3 stealing teenager with 25-50 contacts in their address book. When they swipe their pimple-popping finger down the list I’m sure it flows beautifully for them. I, on the other hand, like many other business people, have close to 2000 contacts in my database: not the same “weeeee” experience with the finger-scrolling thingy! There is simply no good way, on the native applications, to search for a contact and quickly dial them. Fortunately, in this instance, there are several app for that developed by people who recognized this deficiency.
Now, getting back to the primary focus of the article, the third annoyance that prevents the iPhone from being a major contender in the business market is the lack of multitasking. That’s right, multitasking. The Palm Pre recognizes and addresses this need beautifully, as does the Blackberry Storm. Both have methods by which you can easily and quickly switch between open programs seamlessly. Not the iPhone. With the iPhone, you must always return to the home screen in order to open a program (if you’re lucky enough to find it on the home screen).
The home screen is designed, once again, for the casual and, dare I say it, younger user. Each program is represented by a cute, colorful icon with neatly rounded edges. Did I say cute? The icon concept works great if you have only a few applications, but if you start to actually utilize the “there’s an app for that” concept and download more than a few pages worth of applications, you soon find that it’s difficult to locate the app you’re look for in any given moment (As an aside, you’ll 
also find that you are limited to the number of applications you install on the iPhone – nine screens of 16 +4, i.e., 148 applications!). Apple has some smart programmers, why not throw in some “categories” or “tabs” or some intelligent organizational method to use in sorting and filing the icons in manageable clusters?! But no, that’s a little to complex for an Apple, I suppose – there’s absolutely NO file or icon management whatsoever.
While we’re on the subject of wish lists and multitasking, why not allow me to have a “back” button that returns me to my previous program. But no, if I want to look up someone’s phone number or address to include in a calendar event, for example, I have to hit the home key, thereby exiting the calendar, go find the contacts icon, press it, scroll through scores of contacts until I find the right one, then select that contact, memorize the information, exit the contacts program, find the calendar icon, press the calendar icon – OH MY FREEEEEKING *#*#*#!!!!!! Isn’t Apple supposed to be the king of simplicity? Somebody surely missed the boat on this one didn’t they? It IS a simple concept – multitasking. Apple didn’t get it. Multitasking is one of the things that all successful business people have in common.
So, you might be wondering, if I am doing all this complaining, why do I still have and use the iPhone. Well, actually as I said, there are many apps that do service many of my needs – an many that work around some of these issues. For example, I utilize Freshbooks for invoicing with its iPhone app, I use SugarSync for file backup and access it with its iPhone app, I use Jott for dictating quick notes to myself and clients and it has a neat iPhone app, I use eReader for my literary needs, Transactions to get myself paid, Pandora to listen to music, Upvise for my shopping list needs, ReQall for my localized to do list, MyCast for weather, and My Banking online, etc. etc. You get the picture. There are still many programs that fill many of my business needs.
Oh, don’t get me wrong: I could do ALL of these things on my old Samsung Blackjack with Windows Mobile. But certainly the iPhone is, after all, the most recent iconic symbol of high technology and that is, after all, why I ultimately ended up with the iPhone. And it does perform beautifully.
I just hope that Apple has their act together enough to realize that their market is expanding, and in order to expand fully into the business sector, it might have to let go of some of its old methods of doing things. Let the programmers in. Let them design fixes to these flaws. Let them develop an app for that! Until then, in my opinion, the Blackberry Storms and Samsung Jacks of the world will continue to have a foothold in that precious business market that every smartphone desires to dominate. Until then, Apple, repeat after me: “I think I can, I think I can . . . .”
Once upon a time, there was a shinny new device called the iPhone that tried to climb up the mammoth hill that is the sole domain of the business smartphone. “I think I can, I think I can,” said the iPhone, and it tried and it tried, but alas, it could only make it up about half way, and then it sputtered and. . . . The end of this story cannot be written.
Obviously, you probably figured out by now that I have fallen victim to the allure driven by the site all of my business associates who were sporting shiny black and white, Zen-like devices which colorful icons. Yes, I bought an iPhone. And while this article may be a bit off topic for my music business oriented blog, anyone who knows me knows that I am a techie through and through and enjoy new gadgets and technologies more than most. Many of my friends call me the guru for good reason. So, here goes.
As a long time fan of Palm, you might wonder why I did not wait for the premier of the Palm Pre. The simple reason is that Sprint service does not reach to my residential area. That was also the reason that, in recent years, I migrated to Windows Mobile, which I grew to love almost as much as the Palm OS. However, finally I was convinced to switch to the dark side and try it with Apple.
My relationship with my iPhone is what I describe as a “love hate” relationship. Yes, there are many many things I really love about the iPhone. I love the way it feels in your hand, almost like a smooth pebble plucked from a lake in the mountains of Japan. As I said in the story above, very “Zen-like.” After all, that is the Apple way isn’t it?
At first I thought the soft keyboard would drive me crazy. Surprisingly, I’m getting used to it and pretty efficient, although I still maintain that a hardware keyboard is much more efficient – something the Palm Pre does beautifully.
For the most part, on the positive side, I really love the web browsing experience. The websites that actually work (more on this later) come up beautifully and quickly. And, as a tech person, I really like the fact that there are scores of programmers written countless applications for the iPhone. For the most part, the marketing is true, “there is an app for that.” That’s sort of where the “hate” part of the relationship begins, in that area between the “for the most part” and the remaining part of 100%!
Recently, Apple has been pushing the idea that the iPhone is the ideal phone for business. There are several flaws with the iPhone which, until remedied, will prevent its widespread infiltration into the lockhold that BlackBerry, Palm and Windows Mobile have on that sector of the market.
So, what I’d like to address in this article is not the scores of more obvious deficiencies that have already been pointed out in the blogs and articles – no native voice dial, lack of full support for Bluetooth, no memory expansion, no cut and paste, no MMS, etc. – but the less obvious and definitely serious deficiencies that relate more specifically to a business person’s daily use of a smartphone.
First and foremost, and this has certainly be recognized by others, is the lack of support for Javascript and Flash plug-ins in the built-in Safari browser. If your websites relies on either of these, and my www.musicattorney.biz does, then what the iPhone visitor will see is a blue Lego-style brick with a question mark in the middle. See the illustration. What the hell is that? Unforgiveable. There’s no other word for it. And all simple because Apple doesn’t like to play nice with its competitors, particularly Adobe.
Secondly, and this has always been one of my major beefs with Apple, the proprietary, i.e. closed, operating system. Apple’s SDK, as one developer put it, “has more restrictions than Guantanamo.” Developers require a certain level of integration with the OS in order to develop business-class applications to work around the inherent deficiencies in the native software. One perfect example of this is the calendar. For some unknown reason, there is NO WEEK VIEW in the calendar. No week view. I don’t know about most business people, but for me, the week view is the go-to view. Yes, I know, there is a “list” view – not the same thing. To witness the difference for yourself, download the iPhone version of Pocket Informant and look at the week view. Ah, problem solved you might think. Just use the App. Not so quick. Pocket Informant only syncs with Google calendar. Why, you ask? That’s right, because Apple will not allow them to access the base-level calendar on the iPhone and therefore the information in the iPhone’s calendar CANNOT be displayed in beautiful week view of Pocket Informant. Yes, the week view is a touchy subject for me.
While we’re on the subject of little annoyances, what’s up with dialing the damn iPhone? There is no quick way to get to the dial pad. Duh!@!! It is, first and foremost, supposed to be a phone. Give a quick way to access my dial pad. When you press the pretty green telephone icon, you land on whatever button you happened to be on when you opened the program before, whether it be the voicemail or recent contacts. You MIGHT get lucky and land on the dial pad. But there’s a one in four shot that you have to press yet another icon to get to the dial pad to, dare I say it, actually make a phone call.
Since we’re on the subject, looking up contacts is probably a breeze for someone with 25-50 contacts in their address book. You swipe down the list and it flows beautifully. I, like many other business people, have close to 2000 contacts in my database. Not such a “weeeee” experience with the scrolling thing! There is simply no good way, on the native applications, to search for a contact and quickly dial them. Fortunately, in this instance, there is an app for that.
Now, getting back to the primary focus, the third annoyance that restricts the iPhone from being a major contender in the business market is the lack of multi-tasking. That’s right, multi-tasking. The Palm Pre recognizes and addresses this need beautifully, as does the Blackberry Storm. With the iPhone, you must always return to the icon screen, which is, again, designed for the casual user. The icon concept works great if you have only a few applications, but if you start to actually utilize the “there’s an app for that” concept, you quickly find that it’s difficult to find the app you’re look for. You also will find, by the way, that you are limited to the number of applications you install on the iPhone – nine screens +4 only! Apple has some smart programmers, why not throw in some “categories” or “tabs” or some intelligent organizational method! No file or icon management whatsoever. I don’t ask for much.
While we’re on the wish list, why not allow me to have a “back” button, to return to my previous program. But no, if I want to look up someone’s phone number or address to include in a calendar event, I have to hit the home key, thereby exiting the calendar, go find the contacts icon, press it, scroll through scores of contacts until I find the right one, then select that contact, memorize the information, exit the contacts program, find the calendar icon, press the calendar icon – OH MY FREEEEEKING *#*#*#!!!!!! Isn’t Apple supposed to be the king of simplicity? Somebody surely missed the boat on this one didn’t they? It is a simple concept – multitasking. Apple didn’t get it.
So, you might be wondering, why do I still have and use the iPhone. Well, actually as I said there are many apps that do service many of my needs. I utilize Freshbooks for invoicing, SugarSync for file backup and access, Jott for quick notes to myself, Google for directions, eReader for my literary needs, Transactions to get myself paid, Pandora to listen to music, Upvise for my shopping list needs, ReQall for my localized to do list, MyCast for weather, Banking online, etc. etc. You get the picture.
Don’t get me wrong. I could do ALL of these things on my old Samsung Blackjack with Windows Mobile. But certainly the iPhone is, after all, the most recent iconic symbol of high technology. I just hope that Apple has their act together enough to realize that their market is expanding, and in order to expand fully into the business sector, it might have to let go of some of its old methods of doing things. Let the programmers in. Let them design fixes to these flaws. Let them develop an app for that! Until then, in my opinion, the Blackberry Storms and Samsung Jacks of the world will continue to have a foothold in that precious business market that every smartphone desires to dominate. Until then, Apple, repeat after me: “I think I can, I think I can . . . .”
For the last several weeks, I have enjoy
ed being a guest host on Malcolm West’s live radio program, Race Night. It’s a weekly show that airs on WSM 650 AM from 7-9 p.m CST. The show is broadcasted into over 37 states and, as Malcolm quips, two outhouses! It reaches over 150,000 listeners.
The show is very unique: it consists primarily of Malcolm’s commentary and responses to callers regarding the evening’s NASCAR race. However, interspersed in the NASCAR theme are musical elements, including special featured guests who are prominent songwriters, entertainers and music industry veterans. I was introduced to the show by my good friend and banker, Lisa Harless of Regions Bank.
Malcolm asked that I participate in the music industry portion of the evening to give an entertainment attorney’s perspective. I’ve had the pleasure of participating in live interviews with Malcolm’s musical guests Jessica Miller, Buffalo Rome, Harold Bradley, Ray Walker and Karen Staley. That’s Malcolm on the right in the photograph, together with Ray Walker, myself, and Kevin Anderson, the engineer and producer.
I can’t wait to see who will be on next week! Join me and Malcolm for a fun evening of family entertainment next Sunday evening!
Rep. John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee brought the Performance Rights Act (HR 848) up for markup this morni
ng.
HR 848 created no small amount of disagreement among radio broadcasters, minority broadcasters, trade unions and civil rights groups. However, a group of minority artists, including Duke Fakir of the Four Tops, Dionne Farris and Jon Secada, recently sent a letter indicating support for Rep. Conyers and this legislation. The letters stated in part:
As minority artists, we support a strong and vibrant local radio industry. We know that minority broadcasters play a vital role in our communities. And we support efforts to create accommodations in the legislation for small, minority-owned stations. But the creation of a fair performance right cannot be delayed further. We have already waited far too long. “Not now” is not an acceptable answer.
To address the concerns of minority broadcasters, Conyers offered the following amendments at today’s markup:
Affordable payment for small, rural, nonprofit, minority, religious and educational broadcasters
· Any station that makes less than $100,000 annually will pay only $500 annually for unlimited use of music
· Any station that makes less than $500,000 but more than $100,000 annually will pay only $2500 (half of the amount in introduced bill) annually for unlimited use of music
· Any station that makes less than $1,250,000 but more than $500,000 annually will pay only $5000 (the amount in introduced bill) annually for unlimited use of music
Relief for current economic situation
· No payment for 2 years by any station that makes less than $5,000,000 annually
· No payment for 1 year by any station that makes more than $5,000,000 annually
Parity for all radio services
· Establishes a “placeholder” standard to determine a fair rate for all radio services that will encourage negotiations between the stakeholders
Cannot hurt local communities
· Assures that this legislation cannot affect broadcasters public interest obligations to serve the local community
Assures consideration of relevant evidence
· Evidence relevant to small, noncommercial, minority, and religious broadcasters and religious and minority royalty recipients must be considered by the Copyright Royalty Judges
Other minority and civil rights groups that sent letters expressing support for the act included the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, Rhythm and Blues Foundation and the A. Phillip Randolph Institute.
The executive director of the musicFIRST Coalition, Jennifer Bendall, supported the committee’s decision:
“We applaud Chairman Conyers and Committee members for their work on the Performance Rights Act and for supporting artists, musicians and rights holders in their fight for fair compensation when their music is used by AM and FM radio stations.
The Performance Rights Act will bring fairness to artists, musicians and rights holders and one that’s fair to radio and its counterparts. It also includes accommodations for small and minority-owned broadcasters. musicFIRST looks forward to the next chapter and to Congress to ensure that U.S. artists and musicians receive the performance right they deserve.”
Now that HR 848 has cleared the committee, it will be brought in front of the entire House for debate and vote.
My friend and colleague James H. Harris III was recently certified as a Civil Trial Specialist by the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization. Just over 300 Tennessee attorneys have completed the rigorous certification process established and required by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
To be certified, Tennessee attorneys must met certain requirements, including a certain number of years of experience in their particular field of certification, demonstration of special education, passage of an examination, and recommendation from other judges and attorneys.
Tennessee attorneys are not required to be certified in a particular field in order to practice in that area, and in fact Tennessee does not have a certification process for every area of legal practice (entertainment law, for example, is excluded). Currently, certification is only offered in the areas of Civil Trial, Criminal Trial, Bankruptcy, Malpractice, Elder Law, Estate Planning, Family Law and a few other areas.
Another member of my association, Gail Bradford, is certified in the area of Estate Planning.
Congratulations Jim!
Technorati Tags: Tennessee Civil Trial Specialist
I’d like to take this time to wish all the readers of my blog, Law on the Row a very happy and prosperous new year. I hope and trust that everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. Thanks for paying attention to my musings over the past few years!
Word is spreading on the Internet about PassAlong Networks, Inc.’s recent infusion of investment capital. PassAlong is a digital music distribution and sharing service aptly headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee. According to VentureWire, the company plans to close a $30 million funding round later this month.
PassAlong, also known as the Tennessee Pacific Group, LLC, was founded in 2002 by former Microsoft executive, Dave Jaworski and, Scott Lewis, an independent entrepreneur
er. Mr. Jaworski’s blog, Can’t Stop the Music, can be found here. The company raised $40 million in start up monies from angel investors – an unusually substantial amount from individual investors – and also raised another $10 million in investment capital in April 2007.
Music veteran Jeff Skillen recently went to work for the company as their VP of Entertainment Relations.
PassAlong has a patent pending on its media service engine architecture, which is designed to work across all operating systems and platforms and is device-independent. It launched its first digital music download store on e-Bay in September 2004
The company has digital music catalog agreements with all four major record labels: Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, EMI, and Sony/BMG. The PassAlong catalog includes nearly 3 million songs, including not only catalog from the majors, but also nearly 2 million independent songs in MP3 format. Most of its music is either DRM or MP3, and the company became certified by Microsoft PlayforSure in December 2004.
The music-sharing services gets its name from the fact that it allows consumers to recommend music to friends with links to song clips sent through email and instant messaging services from AOL, MSN and Yahoo. 
PassAlong Network Inc.’s portfolio of other products, many of which are interactive, includes:
StoreBlocks, an online platform of tools and templates for building digital music/media stores, including PassAlong’s library of songs from the four major labels and MP3 files from independent artists. This system currently powers 120 digital music stores, including Proctor and Gamble’s Julie’s Jukebox;
OnTour, is an award-winning family of concert notification applications, widgets and websites;
freedomMP3, is a “non-DRM” solution, providing protection technology and media tracking services designed to safeguard artists’ rights without hindering consumer rights via interoperability;.
Skylocker is a media storage and market-management platform;
Speakerheart a subsidiary of PassAlong, is an exciting independent-artist publishing and promotion system; and
Connected Consumer, a series of platforms and services aimed at enhancing the connected consumer experience.
Look for this exciting company to go places on the web.
Country artist Michael Peterson is the recipient of this year’s Bob Hope ‘Spirit of Hope’ Award, thereby recognized for his dedication and continued contributions to the troops of the United
States Armed Forces.
The Spirit of Hope award is presented annually to distinguish ed Americans whose patriotism and service to the troops reflects that of Bob Hope. Commissioned by the USO in November 1997, the award was name after Hope, who at that time was designated as the first and only honorary veteran of the United States Armed Forces for his decades of entertaining troops, both in peacetime and in combat zones. Hope symbolized the idea that America cared about and supported its troops, and he remains the USO’s “Ambassador of Good Will.”
The award was given to Peterson at a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. in late October. Other notable winners of the award in the past include the Country Music Association, CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, and former astronaut John Glenn.
“The men and women in uniform who serve our nation selflessly with honor and integrity are inspiring to be around,” said Peterson upon receiving the award. “For decades, Bob Hope saluted them with entertainment and encouragement from home. Because of Mr. Hope’s sacrifice and service, today’s entertainers have the same opportunity. I am grateful for this 
recognition and the privilege of being associated with his legacy.”
Peterson completed the U.S. Army sponsored ‘My Real Life – Strong For America Tour’ earlier this year. In addition to performing, the singer introduced various programs and services at each stop of the tour that empowered students to make great choices and provided civic leaders and businesses with new strategies for contributing to their local communities. A live concert headlined by Peterson concluded each week’s events.
The former collegiate football star continues his support of the troops with a series of overseas dates during the holidays. He will also perform for U.S. Army Chief Of Staff General George W. Casey Jr. in my old stomping grounds, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 5th at the Union League of Philadelphia, prior to the annual Army-Navy football game.
Peterson first arrived on the country music scene in 1997 with the success of his self-titled debut album, which produced such hits as Drink, Swear, Steal & Lie which reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart (now Hot Country Songs)and From Here To Eternity which made it all the way to number one. The album was certified gold by the RIAA, and ultimately generated a total of five hit singles on the Billboard charts. In addition, he was recognized as country music’s top selling new male artist by Billboard and R&R in that same year.
Peterson, a great ambassador for country music industry, has also contributed his time to other charities such as The Ronald McDonald House, the Special Olympics, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The USO is a Congressionally chartered, nonprofit organization, that is not a government agency, but rather is funded by many national corporations and other private contributors. For more information on the USO, call 1-800-876-7469 or visit their Web site, www.uso.org.
Congratulations Michael!
