Holly auditioned for the USA Networks television show Nashville Star this past weekend, only she didn’t do it in person. Instead, she submitted a video tape of her music and her life for the producers to review. If chosen for the show, she will have to live in a house here in Nashville with the other 9 contestants during the competition. The winner receives a recording contract from Sony Music Nashville.
This is the second season for Nashville Star and although we don’t think that she’ll be picked, it was a good excercise and helped generate a lot of ideas and focus on Holly’s music career. It’s not that we don’t think that Holly is talented enough, quite the opposite, it’s just that there are so many people auditioning for these coveted 10 slots that the chances of the producers watching her video and choosing her seem quite slim. But whose to say? I’m sure last year’s winner, Buddy Jewell thought the same thing when he auditioned.
The video was broken down into two sections, “My Songs” and “My Life”. Each section could be no longer than 10 minutes and they could not be professionally produced. I borrowed a DV camera from my buddy Jason Young and Holly and I spent the past week shooting footage. Over the Thanksgiving holidays, I edited together the video using my old Sony 800MHz laptop and Microsoft Movie Maker software. It was an interesting experience and showed me just how little I know about shooting video. 😛 The final day of editing had me up for over 24 hours, but we finished the tape and had it FedEx’d to California on Saturday morning. The producers have it in their possession now and we’ll let you know if we hear anything.
In the meantime, if you’d like to see how the videos turned out, please choose from the links below. All the clips are in Windows Meda Player format (sorry Mac guys). I recommend downloading the large files if you can, because the small clips are not that good – you lose a lot of detail. Oh and one last caveat, no effects were used in the audio, so what you’re hearing is Holly singing “raw.” For example, in Lost In America, what you’re hearing is Holly singing in the car to the radio. We didn’t have the time or equipment to do anything fancy. 😀
Part One – My Music [large (46.4MB)] [small (2.5MB)]
Part Two – My Life [large (46.4MB)] [small (2.5MB)]
Hey, we Mac guys have Windows Media Player for OS 9 and X! 😉
I suppose one alternative is a standard .mpg file, which Quicktime can view quite nicely, but maybe that’s not an option for you. Downloading now…
Hey wow. That’s an awesome voice. 🙂
To be honest Mike, I’m torn on this one. I depise ‘reality’ shows – I find them utterly artificial and think they make all the people who get involved with them look stupid, greedy, self-serving, and generally not very likeable.
On the other hand, it’s what Holly really wants to do, so I wish her well and hope that if she does make it, her experience is a different one.
Rachel,
I have to agree with you there. I hate reality shows with a passion. The only one that I have ever watched from start to finish was Boy Meets Boy and that was only because it seemed the most geniune.
Nashville Star isn’t that far removed from American Idol and I’ve only seen one episode. One of the judges was clearly trying to make the contestants cry and I immediately turned it off and never watched it again. However, the person that did win does have talent and has gone on to score a chart topping hit as a result of it. So at least the show delivered the goods on what it promsied.
All that being said, we don’t have any expectation that she will get chosen. This was simply an excercise and a deadline for her to work on her career. If something comes of it, fantastic! If it doesn’t then it’s no biggie.
But thank you so much for the kind words and well wishes just the same. 🙂
I am a great singer! I want to become a star!
Nashville Star is a amazing television show. I have sang since I was old enough to talk. I live to sing! I would love to be on this show!