Nashville and BET

Nashville Star and the BET Awards shows are train wrecks, of course, but it's the why that has me wondering. You get more future country stars from American Idol than you do Nashville Star. The audience is 100% more for Idol, but at least the winner of NS gets a quick one album recording deal. The first year winner, Buddy Jewell, went on to have some hits and then faded into oblivion when his record company stopped promoting him. Oddly enough it was that year's 3rd place winner, Miranda Lambert, who has gone on to something special. But the fact is that all the other winners sucked or got sucked through the Industry hole known as lack of promotion.
The BET Awards '08 was pretty terrible. It really should've been called the BET Hip Hop show as there was little Soul music. But wait. Two hours in and a tribute to Al Green wakes up the audience. Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton and for the first time in 7 years, Maxwell. Did I say 7 years? That was the last time he put out an album. Neo-Soul strikes BET! Scott and Hamilton are good, but Maxwell brings a buzz to the crowd. "We have his albums, we know him and where has he been?", must have been the words coming out of the audience. His 1972 Al Green cover "Simply Beautiful" is just that, and then Green takes the stage. His voice is hoarse. He can't hit the notes like before. But his moves and the way he works the crowd. Amongst amateurs he's a God.