Shady Ladies of Music City Archives

We’re bringing you stories from women who are chasing their dreams and building a life that they love with New York Country Swag’s, “Woman of the Month.”

Each month, we highlight a different female pursuing her passions. Introducing you to women who are taking risks, working relentlessly and turning their dreams into reality. These are empowering women who serve as role models and should be celebrated.

This month we interviewed another icon in the music business in Nashville, Evelyn Shriver. Shriver is the second half of the Shady Ladies of Music City along with Susan Nadler who we had the pleasure of featuring last month. The ladies together infiltrated the music business in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming the first women to ever run a music label, Asylum Records. In our most recent phone call, Shriver tells us her secret to a long marriage, all about working with Randy Travis and her advice for women in the music industry.

Growing up, Shriver’s father was in the military, and she tells us about living in Germany when she was 13 years old. She recalls going to the teen club to hear music and although it was all of the music popular in the states, it would take about six months for the “new” music to make its way to Germany. She explains that you could go to the teen club and that’s where you could listen to music, and maybe even find your husband. “My husband who I’ve been married to for 47 years, the very first time I saw him I walked into the teen club in Germany and his band was rehearsing,” she explains. Astounded, we were sure to ask what the secret to a long, happy marriage is and Shriver tells us: “The secret is, there are no rules, you just treat each other like you want to be treated and we’ve followed that our entire marriage and it’s worked out pretty good.”

When she came back to the states she finished up high school then joined her soon-to-be-husband in New York where she started working at a public relations firm. “I didn’t even know PR was a thing before I got started, we are talking about 45 years ago,” she tells us. “The company I went to work for represented Carey Grant, Bette Davis, and Joan Crawford who were huge stars, and I thought this was so interesting even though I was just the receptionist at the time.”

After starting her own business in New York, Shriver got sick of living in a one bedroom apartment, she longed for simple things like her own washer and dryer and a BBQ, so while her husband explored the songwriting opportunities in Nashville, she knew she could move there and her business would continue to thrive. She started working with Randy Travis from the very start of his career, explaining that he and his manager then turned wife Lib Hatcher were not familiar with big city living. “The first time we went to Europe on a USO tour, they wanted to go to McDonald’s, that’s not the place you go to in Paris,” she laughs. She also goes on to tell us a story about one of their first trips to L.A. and how they went to a fancy Italian restaurant and Lib ordered a salad, which was only mixed greens with dressing so she proceeded to whip out a fresh tomato from her purse, cut it up and add it to the salad in front of her. “I was just thinking to myself, ‘What the hell is the waiter going to think’,” she giggles.

Susan Nadler, Willie Nelson, and Evelyn Shriver

She talks honestly about being a publicist and giving everything you have for your clients which includes making sacrifices in your own life. “As an older person now looking back, its ‘what happened to my life’. I realize I don’t do anything, I don’t have kids, I don’t have any hobbies,” she explains. “And it wasn’t that I never intended to not have children, I was always just too busy to have children, then I no longer could have children, you give up a lot for people. You have to be available 24/7 for your clients.”

After meeting Susan Nadler in 1988, the two women teamed up to run Asylum Records, making them the first females to ever run a major Nashville label. They went on to sign George Jones and help him release his Grammy-winning album Cold Hard Truth. “I thought it was really good for the town for it to not be one of the usual suspects that got the job, a man and my clients were very supportive, they knew it would be hard to turn it down,” Shriver says of taking the position.

We discussed the nature of women in the music industry and on country radio currently and she tells us how recently she went to an event hosted by her friends Tracey Gershon and Beverly Keel as well as Leslie Fram who run ‘Change the Conversation’. “The place was packed, it must have been 200 women so it’s great that there are all of these women here but I don’t hear the conversation changing much. It seems to be pretty much the same scenario, the guys are running it and the women are doing the cleanup,” she says. “There are a lot of people talking about it but following the press coverage and women on the charts, a year has gone by and there has been one woman to take the top spot.”

After forty years in the music business, Shriver has seen a lot and gives a great few lines of advice for women trying to make their dreams come true in this industry. “My feeling is, you almost have to carve out your own space which is one of the reasons I always had my own company. Just be strong, don’t take the shit from anybody. People always said they were afraid of me or intimated by me because I always told the truth, why is that so scary? I think you just have to stand up for what you believe and if you do that, that will change the conversation.”

The Shady Ladies of Music City podcast is now live and showcases Evelyn and Susan and their hilarious stories about their journies. Check out each of the episodes below.

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We’re bringing you stories from women who are chasing their dreams and building a life that they love with New York Country Swag’s, “Woman of the Month.”

Photo By: Anna Webber/Getty Images for 2017 ACM Honors

This month we interviewed an icon in the music business in Nashville, Susan Nadler. Nadler who is 72 years young is one of the Shady Ladies of Music City, a new podcast premiering next week. Along with Evelyn Shriver, the two women infiltrated the music business in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming the first women to ever run a music label, Asylum Records. In our hilarious phone call, Nadler is honest about her life, being a woman in the industry and gives some of the best advice to young girls who are following this dream.

Nadler took us back to the days growing up in Pittsburgh, to her journey to Israel, running a popcorn stand in Key West, and eventually making her way to Music City to further her love and respect for the music business. As a child, she recalls playing the flute, her sisters playing the piano and the violin and there always being music in the house. She loved R&B, listening under the covers at night to a tiny transistor radio that her father gifted her. “It was a great way to grow up, music was a huge part of my life,” she says.

She recalls going to see Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in concert, “Bob Dylan and Joan Baez were two of the first that I ever heard that made me fall in love with folk music, I still loved R&B but I got to hear so many different kinds of music, I was pretty lucky,” she tells us. “I used to go to the record store on Fridays, there was a place called the National Record Mart, and I would buy 45s every Friday.” Still, to this day, she explains that she is the only person she knows who still goes on Amazon to buy CDs from artists that she loves.

To say her life before Nashville was unconventional is quite the understatement, over the years between growing up in Pittsburgh and marrying a songwriter in Tennesee, Nadler lived in Israel, was busted for smuggling drugs, spent time in a jail in Mexico and owned a popcorn stand outside of a bar in Key West, Florida that was popular for its drag shows.

After marrying her second husband who had written the popular song for Glen Campbell, “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife” she started writing for The Tennessean, and sort of fell into public relations in the music industry. “I met all of these incredible songwriters, they all got along great and they all played their music together, they weren’t so competitive, they were really friendly,” she tells us. She worked closely with Tammy Wynette, stating she was the most generous person she had ever met in Nashville. “She was just unbelievable when I first started working for her, I didn’t have a dime, Tammy and her husband offered me money if I needed help to get into the music business,” she recalls. She managed Lorrie Morgan before meeting Evelyn in 1988 and the two of them teamed up to run Asylum Records, making them the first females to ever run a major Nashville label. They went on to sign George Jones and help him release his Grammy-winning album Cold Hard Truth. She explains how it was tough being women in that industry because the men who were running everything weren’t thrilled with them being in that position.

We discussed what a day in the life looked like during those years and she explained: “Every day there was stuff going on, there were number one parties all of the time, people coming to pitch us songs, where you don’t want to take the time out to listen to it, but you never know who you’ll hear,” Nadler says. “Every day was very busy, it was really fast-paced, we were hard-pressed to keep up with it all.”

As two women who were pioneering the way for others over the past four decades, Nadler and Shriver have seen many changes in the music business over the years but Nadler says one thing that hasn’t really changed “the boys run the city and they run the business”. Explaining she feels there are a few women who have broken in but that most of the time, women are too nervous to fight for what they want.

As far as advice, she simply laughs and says “Don’t fuck anybody, that’s the first thing I’ll say. Don’t get involved with anybody romantically or sexually that you are in business with, its a huge mistake.” She also is heartfelt when she says to not lose your love for the music, for the reason you are in this business in the first place. “No matter what else happens and keep listening and keep looking for new stars.”

Nadler still resides in Nashville and is getting ready for the release of the podcast Shady Ladies of Music City. She also loved poetry as she was growing up, and always thought that she would become a writer, which eventually she did, becoming a published author of three books, all available here on Amazon.com.

The first episode of Shady Ladies of Music City will be released on June 4th but you can listen to minisodes now about Evelyn and Susan below. Check back next month when we will feature Evelyn as our June Woman of the Month.

Follow the Shady Ladies of Music City on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

+ Follow our country music adventures on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook:

Posts

NYCS Woman of the Month: Evelyn Shriver

Woman of the Month: Susan Nadler