Why is Nashville called Music City? The history of the nickname.
Nashville earned its nickname after decades and decades of musical pursuits.
- Leslie Fram was the SVP of Music Strategy at CMT for 13 years before cuts by parent company Paramount Global ended her time there.
- Fram created FEMco (Fram Entertainment and Music) focusing on development, talent booking and production.
- Fram says FEMco is a “culmination of my entire career.”
After more than 30 years of working in the music industry, beloved and respected executive Leslie Fram is now going to focus on things that bring her joy.
To some, that might be volunteer work or gardening. Not Fram. Her heart has been in helping up-and-coming artists have a seat at the table. She loves creativity around events and thinking outside the box when it comes to booking talent.
And that’s exactly what the next phase of her career is going to focus on.
Fram has launched FEMco (Fram Entertainment & Music), a consulting collective offering her expertise in the areas of artist development, talent booking & production, and B2B connection to Nashville’s entertainment community.
“ Looking back from my days in radio to working at CMT, all of the things that I love all really involved working with artists and artist discovery and being creative when booking events,” she told The Tennessean. “At CMT when we were doing things like the, the ‘CMT Music Awards’ or ‘Crossroads,’ I started booking those and going, ‘What can I dream up? What can the pairings be? What can the collaborations be?'”
She said she enjoyed pushing boundaries creatively as well as working with young artists.
One up-and-coming artist, Julie Williams, said Fram not only helped her with her career through CMT’s “Next Women of Country” and a Times Square premiere for her music video for “Just Friends,” but also helped her personally.
“Leslie has been a game changer for so many women, artists of color, and other underrepresented voices in Nashville, myself included,” Williams said. “But with Leslie it’s not about the number of artists that she has touched. It is about the depth of care and support that she gives.”
Williams remembers Fram checking on how she was doing as a person and whether or not she had a good support system around her.
“She connected me with Porter’s Call and Music Health Alliance — two organizations that have provided me with critical healthcare services when I could not otherwise afford it,” she added. “While I will always be grateful to Leslie for the ‘big’ opportunities she has provided — the awards shows, music video premieres, shows, etc. — I am most grateful for the ways she has supported my wellbeing and happiness off the stage.”
From CMT to ‘working with a Beatle’
Fram most recently spent 13 years as SVP of music and talent at CMT/Paramount, before being laid off amid massive cuts by parent company Paramount Global. During her tenure at CMT, Fram became known as a staunch advocate for diversity, creating the first female-powered initiative, CMT’s “Next Women of Country.” She also co-founded “Change the Conversation,” a grassroots organization created to address the gender gap in country music.
Brian Phillips has been Fram’s boss and in her words, “mentor” throughout the years. Phillips, now chief content officer at Cumulus Media Inc. said Fram’s combination of intuition, experience and charisma is “legend” in the industry.
“She infuses goodwill and hard-core passion into any project. No one I know better blends innate kindness and take-no-prisoners ferocity,” Phillips told The Tennessean via email. “What work she touches is instantly made better— she transforms black-and-white to technicolor.”
While at CMT, Fram also was the executive producer for the annual “CMT Music Awards,” booked “CMT Crossroads,” and “Storytellers.” Most recently, she served as talent producer on “CBS presents Ringo & Friends at the Ryman.”
“Not many people can put on their resume that they got to work with a Beatle,” Fram said.
Drawing on her more than 30 years of experience in rock radio, pop and country music, talent development and executive leadership, Fram has created a strategic development model for her artist roster which will be focused on purposeful relationships.
“When I was at CMT, I quietly mentored a lot of artists, so now I feel like I can really focus on the artist development side of things, but leave time for talent booking and producing. FEMco will be a culmination of my entire career.”
Life after CMT layoffs
Upon Fram’s exit from CMT, instead of going on social media with a rant about her former employer, she focused on helping those on her former team find new jobs. That’s the type of action Fram is known for. Thinking of others before herself.
After interviewing Fram, we learned her CMT exit was not the first time she had been laid off.
“I left my 17-year job at (radio station) 99X when the company was sold and many of us were out of a job,” she said. “They didn’t renew our contracts so I said, ‘I’m gonna focus on the people that need to get a job. My team, I’m gonna focus on them. I’m gonna take the focus off me and put the focus on them.'”
And when she left CMT? Same thing.
“ When I left CMT, it was the holidays and there were four people on my team that were suddenly without a job with very little severance,” she said. “So I put my focus on them and sometimes when you’re quiet and you sit back, the universe speaks to you. The Ringo thing came up that I started working on and then not a day went by when a female artist didn’t reach out to me about getting together. And I thought, ‘OK, this is telling me something about my next move, my next steps.”
Fram broke the news of her CMT departure with a heartfelt letter posted to her social media.
Phillips added, “Thirty years after our first work together, we still talk virtually every day— swapping observations on trends, people, and the entertainment world. Leslie has reciprocal relationships with everybody who can get things done, and she is never not working. I don’t know a more principled executive.”
FEMCountry aims to ‘amplify female voices’
FEMco has created multiple opportunities for female artists to increase their visibility and reach through events, sponsorships and more through its music-focused production arm, FEMco Presents. The company’s first franchise, FEMcountry is a continuation of Fram’s work in creating critically-acclaimed programs like “Next Women of Country.”
“Honestly, it’s to amplify female voices,” she said. “So many female artists can’t find a stage to play on, can’t find a tour to be on, can’t make money. Some of them are even out there touring and they’re losing money. So we quietly started with some showcases and that will develop into events and hopefully a tour, and then move into other genres like pop and rock. But we’ve started with FEMcountry and it’s been so rewarding.”
Jenna Paulette is another artist Fram helped by including in “Next Women of Country” as well as providing broadcast support for her music videos. Paulette said her career would not be where it is without Fram’s faithful belief and the doors she opened.
“Leslie Fram is a force in country music, a visionary for women and voices that are unexpected within the country genre,” she said. “She cares deeply about the artist’s perspective, and making sure that all quality music has an opportunity to be heard.”
Fram has plans for FEMco Presents to expand to other genres including FEMpop and FEMrock, capitalizing on Fram’s vast experience in several formats.
“ I think now knowing that there’s so many ways to grow this, it’s really exciting,” Fram said.
Melonee Hurt covers music and music business at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Reach Melonee at mhurt@tennessean.com or on Instagram at @MelHurtWrites.
This story was updated to add a gallery.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content
