Chris Wallin Drawn to ole International Reach, Development Commitment to Writers

Chris Wallin, one of Nashville's most successful songwriters, has found a new place to hang in his hometown that you probably won't find in any guide to Music City U.S.A. - the ole offices in the heart of Music Row.

"I like being around everybody," says Wallin, who has just entered into a worldwide co-publishing arrangement with ole which also includes the acquisition of his impressive back catalogue of hit singles by artists like Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, Montgomery Gentry, Trace Adkins and Confederate Railroad. "If I'm getting ready for a session or something like that-even though I have my own office on 16th down the street from them-I like going over there."

Wallin was drawn to ole's international reach and development commitment to its writers. "It's clear that ole is a company that doesn't stay in the box," says Wallin. "That's one of the things I really love about them-they're unconventional."

Besides the family feel of this new working relationship, one of the immediate attractions for Wallin and other writers is the cutting-edge technology that's available for their use-like musicnow, the state-of-the-art song search database launched by ole in May of 2009. This was an attention grabber for Wallin, who has upcoming cuts with Montgomery Gentry, Billy Currington and James Otto with five others on hold for various artists.

"Oh man, yeah! I'm a gadget guy," he laughs. "I love that technology. When it was explained to me about how musicnow worked, the first thing I wanted to know was how I could use it, because it seemed like a great tool. I like the fact that there's really no download. It doesn't bog down people's systems. You pretty much click on a link and it takes them to a song, so it's very quick. When you send it to multiple people, it compounds the convenience because that would be three or four CDs you would be making and shipping otherwise."

Wallin will perform a song at the ole-sponsored NSAI Tin Pan South preview and kickoff party at The Rutledge in Nashville on March 9th. He will then appear on ole's 2010 "Majorly Indie" Tin Pan South show at The Rutledge on March 30th along with fellow ole writers Roger Springer and Bruce Wallace and Roots Three/ole writer Steven Lee Olsen. Wallin will also be in Hollywood on February 24th to perform at ole's Story Songs for Storytellers event for key contacts in film, television and media.

Wallin, who was born in White Pine, Tennessee, got his first taste of the Nashville nightlife when he was just a kid and his mother, who sang professionally as Joyce Ann Carpenter, performed at some of the honky-tonks that lined the streets of Nashville's Lower Broadway area. Before the Grand Ole Opry moved to the suburbs in March of 1974, this part of town was the cradle of country music that rocked like crazy after sundown.

"It was wild; Broadway wasn't like it is now!" recalls Wallin. "My mother made a record in Nashville when I was seven years old-that would have been the mid-'70s-and we lived on top of a bar on Broadway called The Turf. Mom sang there at night. I still have her jukebox inserts from when we used to go all around town to get the other bars and clubs to put her records in the jukebox."

It was watching his mother's struggles and experiencing his own similar travails early on that has made Wallin such a passionate advocate for the rights of songwriters. He has made numerous trips to Washington, D.C. as part of a NSAI's initiative to present their viewpoint in the on-going copyright debate. They're heading back to the nation's capital on May 18th. "I wrote a song that was kind of the theme song for illegal downloading; it's called 'This Song Ain't Free.' The L.A. Times are doing an article on the subject and they wanted to talk to me. Bart Herbison from the NSAI had me go up and sing it in Washington. People ask me: 'What was your hardest gig?' My hardest gig was getting up in front of all those senators, standing at a speaker's podium and singing 'This Song Ain't Free.' That ain't like the Bluebird!"

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