Hancock Wows Get Rich Talent Search

John Rich’s Get Rich Talent Search hosted its second competition at 12th & Porter last night (4/29). Nine acts competed for fame and glory, plus cash prizes in front of eight industry judges including ASCAP’s Connie Bradley, Warner Bros. A&R VP Tracy Gershon, CMA leader Tammy Genovese, Manager Marc Oswald, Billboard writer Ken Tucker, Producer/Warner Music Creative head Scott Hendricks, Sony BMG A&R Jim Catino and Music Row’s Humble Scribe, David M. Ross.

“We want to discover talent that is gifted but struggling,” Rich told the audience. “Hopefully by putting them in front of our judges—industry professionals it would normally take years to get to—we can help speed things up for them by 5 or 6 years.” One of Nashville’s true entertainment impresarios, Rich stormed the stage between acts congratulating and complimenting each of the evenings performers. He also couldn’t resist playing with them a little, moving from intimidating to ingratiating. “Are you ASCAP or BMI,” he asked several performers. Then he’d shout up toward the judges, located in the little balcony, “Did you hear that Connie, they’re unsigned. Well, I bet that’s gonna change before the night is over.” Rich chided Rodeo Pony, an acoustic sextet, from Colorado into singing (i.e. stumbling through) a John Denver song—“Thank God I’m A Country Boy.” He laughingly demanded of country writer/artist Michael Dean Church, “You’re going to play my favorite damn song of yours tonight aren’t you? You’d better, or I’ll just sing my own favorite song and you can stay at the bar.”

According to Rich the acts are chosen from online submissions. To be considered, acts need only send an e-mail to GetRichTalentSearch@gmail.com. An interactive A&R team screens the over 800 monthly submissions and then shares the best with Rich, who makes the final decisions about who will perform. No one actually hears the acts live, until they arrive to play for the judges. Rich acknowledged that online A&R can be a hit and miss process. “Sounding good online is easy cause you can fix that shit,” he told the crowd. “But when you get to 12th & Porter you just gotta rock.” In the middle of the evening the producer/artist/songwriter proved his point singing “Good Lord & The Man”—a serious tribute to freedom, and those who fought for it during WWII.

This judge heavily favored contestant Marsha Hancock, a Belmont student from North Carolina. Her range and emotional punch touched the other judges as well, and she became the evening’s first place winner. Rock trio Mona grabbed second place honors and country/rock stylist Craig Boyd took third.

In the closing moments Rich gave Hancock sage advice from a page in his own career playbook, “You’re going to have a big ole platinum hit record some day,” he said. “But you’re going to have to stick to it.”