Open letters are all the rage lately. Ben Folds continues to create Music Row news via Facebook, and Bon Jovi recently took over the Buffalo News to make promises to the community.
On Friday, it was Keith Urban's turn.
Like Folds, he went to bat for a disintegrating Music Row, but Urban took the Bon Jovi route and appeared as a guest columnist in the local paper, Nashville's Tennessean.
Before getting all political, his piece kicks off with a love-at-first sight anecdote.
"It was instantly magical being among rows of the most charming cottages and simple buildings that were housing the global center of country music," Urban wrote. "I knew instantly that this was where I belonged, and I became a Nashville resident in 1992.
"From that moment on, I would drive to the Row almost daily in my rented crap car to write, record demos and generally hang around, meeting all kinds of people. Music Row became my center, because Music Row IS a center."
The big argument over Music Row -- a set of neighborhood streets in south Nashville that includes hundreds of music-oriented companies -- is whether to demolish some traditional buildings in the name of progress.
Folds, the current tenant at RCA Studio A, recently announced that new ownership increased rent 124 percent. He'll be moving out in November, which will presumably allow the new owners to put a wrecking ball through the site that hosted sessions by Elvis Presley, among thousands of others.
"The past, present and the future are ALL still here -- but the Row is currently under threat from developers," Urban wrote. "Nashville has exploded as a music town, and not just country music. Musicians from all genres, all over the world are making the pilgrimage here to immerse themselves in the kind of creative center that so many other cities have lost but that Nashville still maintains."
But while Urban's story urges people to "continue to be vocal about preserving and fortifying our beloved Music Row," it doesn't offer much bite. Folds' forced stand-down is probably more indicative of the near future unless stars begin making radical protests.
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