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accommodating the rapidly growing fan base, several weeks in the summer of 2002, the MuzikMafia performed outside in the adjacent parking lot. Unable to contain their
Tuesday night fans, 2002 to 2007 MuzikMafia moved to larger clubs: Tin Roof, 12th & Porter, Mercy Lounge & Fuel. Occasionally, when there was not a weekly show, some of the members would show up to play on Tuesday & Thursday nights at Dan McGuinness, where there was another weekly show called "Dirt Pharm" formed by musicians associated with the MuzikMafia. The final MuzikMafia show was held in January 2008 at the Sam Phillips Music Celebration, in Muscle Shoals Alabama, after a disagreement between members.
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are representative of
Nashville’s rich history of musical diversity and the city’s current identification as “Music City, U.S.A.” The rapid growth in popularity of the MuzikMafia was the result of its two breakout acts, Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson, who celebrated combined record sales of approximately five million units just from May through December 2004.
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frequented weekend
Nashville locales. Focusing more on those who were dedicated to an intensely intimate and social musical experience at an inconvenient time and day of the week. Each performance was free-of-charge and featured musicians from diverse genres, spoken-word artists, a juggler, a fire-breather, and a painter.
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culture was primarily “lived” through experience rather than emphasized on, a reflection of, or adherence to industry norms of how commercial musicians should look or sound. Their original intention was to create a weekly jam session in which like-minded individuals could enjoy a variety of styles in an informal setting.
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The core membership of the MuzikMafia was small—less than twenty individuals. Separately, they are artists, each of whom has experienced relative degrees of success and failure, respectively, in their personal and professional lives. Together, they contributed to significant change in the commercial
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The Muzik Mafia, (Musically
Artistic Friends In Alliance) was a ragtag collection of unique and talented musician friends and collaborators. It is most responsible for the birth and early feeding of country acts like Big & Rich, and Gretchen Wilson. It was the creative brainstorm of four friends
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By the summer of 2002 it was evident that the MuzikMafia was a significant part of the
Nashville music scene. The Pub of Love’s performance area was small; barely 12’ X 20’, and the building was in disrepair, including an upstairs ceiling that was sagging in several places. The Pub was incapable of
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MuzikMafia TV was both a television documentary and a reality show. The six-episode series included behind-the-scenes footage of life on the road during their first stadium tour, The
American Revolution Tour (Sponsored by Chevrolet). Documenting the community’s rise to national prominence the show
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The fact that the MuzikMafia did not promote a single musical idiom might seem like a disqualifying factor in the industry. Their unifying trait was its diversity. The roster included artists who specialized in blues, rock, pop, rap, country, bluegrass, gospel, R&B, and soul that, collectively,
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Everything was acoustic and usually performed on guitar accompanied by a percussionist who played a set of older conga drums with drumsticks. Regardless of age, ethnicity, sex, gender, financial status, social ranking, or belief system welcoming everyone at performances, promoting an atmosphere of
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The godfathers founded MuzikMafia with an ideology of anti-commercialism—a response to Music Row’s commercial hegemony in
Nashville. One of MuzikMafia’s numerous connections to these earlier phenomena is that each contributes to the idea of artistic events as spectacles. For MuzikMafia members,
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The first “official Muzik Mafia” was born from an open mic night at the Pub of Love, Nashville, TN on
October 23, 2001. They held shows intentionally late each Tuesday evening because Tuesdays were, according to the godfathers, “the worst night of the week." and to avoid the club crowd that
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invited the MuzikMafia to perform with him on several tour dates in
February and March 2004. The first took place on February 12, 2004 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Similar MuzikMafia performances with Kid Rock took place in Memphis on 6 March and in Detroit on 20 March that year.
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became an instant hit. Ivan
Dudynsky (producer of MuzikMafia TV) of Live Animals Productions approached the godfathers in late summer 2004 with the idea of producing something on the MuzikMafia for CMT. The first episode of MuzikMafia TV premiered on 15 January 2005 on CMT.
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acceptance. Tuesday shows were an opportunity for MuzikMafia musicians and audience members to be themselves, rather than representations of socially accepted norms.
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Pruett, David B., "MuzikMafia: Community, Identity, and Change from the Nashville Scene to the Popular Mainstream" (2007).M
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night in Nashville. While they aren't official members, people who have performed at the MuzikMafia jams include
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MuzikMafia, From the Local Nashville Scene to the National Mainstream
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David B. Pruett Theses, treatises, and dissertations 8-23-2007, pg 28
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MuzikMafia: From the Nashville Scene to the National Mainstream
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known affectionately as the original founding “Godfathers,”
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MuzikMafia received massive public exposure in 2004. From
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Dean Hall (Resigned from the Mafia in December 2005)
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136:was an informal collection of American
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684:"Behind the Scenes: MuzikMafia"
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368:List of MuzikMafia members
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492:3 Doors Down
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47:verification
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1376:Discography
1245:Solo albums
1214:Look at You
958:Rachel Kice
938:James Otto
832:Page No 149
642:Cowboy Troy
572:Keith Urban
562:Angie Aparo
512:Bobby Brown
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197:Bobby Brown
160:, entitled
18:Musik Mafia
1396:Categories
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1299:Rich Rocks
1235:California
1165:Holy Water
924:John Rich
912:Big Kenny
900:MuzikMafia
761:2010-04-23
688:PEOPLE.com
658:References
650:(Musician)
644:(Musician)
637:Bill Moore
577:Toby Keith
547:Peter Wolf
476:Sean Smith
454:Pit bosses
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413:(Musician)
411:James Otto
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80:newspapers
1347:John Rich
1329:Big Kenny
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612:Panelists
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386:Big Kenny
285:USA Today
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223:Big Kenny
150:John Rich
146:Big Kenny
110:July 2008
1172:Big Time
502:Bon Jovi
487:Kid Rock
258:Kid Rock
185:Bon Jovi
173:Kid Rock
169:open mic
1101:Gravity
859:website
828:Book:-
541:Run DMC
211:History
94:scholar
855:CMT's
712:
522:Saliva
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