CMT News

Jenny Gill launched the American syndication of her weekly Teen Country radio show Tuesday (Sept. 30) at the Country Music Hall of Fame with a live taping featuring performances by her father, Vince Gill, and mother, Janis Cummins, of the reconstituted Sweethearts of the Rodeo. Also appearing to sing and chat about current and impending projects were Jimmy Wayne, Bering Strait, Pam Tillis, Memarie, Craig Morgan and Lila McCann. All the artists did acoustic sets. Dressed in a long-sleeved baseball jersey and hip-hugger jeans ("This is radio," she explained), Gill presided over the musical parade with an endearing mixture of awe and familiarity. But it took her wisecracking superstar dad to put it all in perspective. After listening to the earlier acts wail about doomed relationships, an absentee father, a homeless man with a death wish and the emotional ravages of a divorce, the elder Gill ambled onto the stage, bent to kiss his daughter and observed, "This has turned into some kind of hillbilly therapy." The two-and-a-half hour taping was sponsored and promoted by Nashville's WSM-FM, which is the first radio station in the U.S. to carry the show. Teen Country has been syndicated in Canada for several months. The series is aimed at the 15- to 29-year-old audience. 10/01/03