Promo Man – Nick Panaseiko

Fri May 06, 2022
Promo Man – Nick Panaseiko

If you’ve never heard of Nick Panaseiko, that’s entirely understandable. He was a backstage guy, making sure that the act onstage is playing to a full house, making sure their records were on the radio and in record stores.

I had the great pleasure of being on the receiving end of this ‘promo man’ while I was in radio in Montreal as Music Director of (CJ)FM 96 back in the late 70s. I was extremely young for that position, however I was treated with such respect and had gained a reputation for having good ears and picking the hits.

Back in the day, ‘radio day’ as it was called was on Wednesdays; a day when all the label guys would line up outside my office to pitch their latest releases. Nick Panaseiko was one of those guys.

Nick would arrive in my office, clutching 45s and albums, looking like Elton John WAY before Elton personified that look, with his signature glasses, great style of dressing, it only amplified the excitement he had for the latest artist, the latest single, the latest album, which he insisted I listen to right away. And he was always right – too many hits to name so read the book!

Simply said -Nick was a Promo Man.

Newly Remastered Releases Johnny Cash Mercury Recordings of Johnny Cash 1986-1991

Fri Jul 03, 2020
Johnny Cash

In the mid-1980s as Johnny Cash found himself between labels, Mercury Records snatched up the country legend for what would end up being a prolific string of six albums in five years. The records, released from 1986 to 1991, were a diverse collection that included a notable reunion with fellow Sun Records alumni Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, star-studded collaborations with Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, Glen Campbell, Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams Jr. and others, inspired takes on songs from Elvis Costello, Guy Clark and Harry Chapin, the Man in Black revisiting his classic hits, and some of the finest songs ever written by Cash. Despite the quality of material, Cash’s stint with Mercury has never been revisited—until now.

Johnny Cash Forever Words The Album

Fri Jun 23 2017
Johnny Cash Forever Words The Album

There’s a new album on its way of new, never before recorded Johnny Cash songs thanks to the foresight of the legend’s son John Carter Cash.  Last year, 2016, Carter Cash published a book of his father’s poetry called ‘Forever Words’ made up of works that the elder Cash left behind. The book contained reproductions of Cash’s own handwritten pages and a collection of never before published poems and musings.  Taking a lead from Arlo Guthrie, who decided to have some of his father, Woody Guthrie’s unused poetry put to music. Carter Cash has done the same with Johnny Cash’s poetry. When publishing the book John Carter Cash told the New York Times: “I want people to have a deeper understanding of my father than just the iconic, cool man in black. I think this book will help provide that.”  And so will the record.

The album began when country artist Brad Paisley set one of the poems from ‘Forever Words’ to music. The song “Gold All Over the Ground” was the first to take shape and prove the viability of the project.