It’s a new year, and with that comes a new podcast episode! In this episode, host Jason Skipper talks with Miller Piano Specialists General Manager Sherry Smith about the latest news and events happening at Miller Piano.
Topics Discussed:
- Ted Yoder at the River of Calm Concert in January
- Miller Piano Specialists Music Academy Recitals
- February Writer’s Night (First Thursday of Month – Russ Roberts and Friends)
- February River of Calm Concert (Third Thursday Ed Bazel)
- C’Ya On The Flipside II” Benefit Concert at the Grand Ole Opry on Feb 5
- The Yamaha Lunar New Year Promotion
Transcription
Jason Skipper 0:11
Welcome to the Miller Piano Podcast where in each episode we explore the world of music and pianos, how technology has changed over the years in music and the latest happenings at Miller Piano Specialists. I’m your host, Jason Skipper. And I’m here with Sherry Smith, the general manager at Miller Piano Specialists in Cool Springs. Sherry, how’s it going?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 0:33
It’s going wonderful. Jason, how’s it going with you?
Jason Skipper 0:36
Doing good, doing good. It’s been a while since we’ve talked here, at least on the podcast. How was your holiday?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 0:43
The holiday was wonderful, extremely busy. some wonderful new Yamaha friends and clients and it’s just been a great Christmas season. And I hope everybody enjoyed theirs like I did mine…
Jason Skipper 0:57
Awesome I know that you’re talking about several new clients and things that are happening. I’d like to talk about that in a moment. But I know that you’ve been traveling a good bit Are you back for good now?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 1:08
I’m back for good for a while, I never know I do travel quite a bit. And I traveled to Southern Indiana quite a bit where my family is located and I do a radio program up there. The bread of life ministries on Sunday’s, and if I’m not there, and I’m traveling, thanks to the wonderful edge of technology, I can actually do a streaming live radio show from anywhere.
Jason Skipper 1:33
Isn’t that great I love it.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 1:35
It’s awesome.
Jason Skipper 1:36
It really is. It really is. I know. You said it’s been busy. I know there have been several events on the calendar over this past month. I saw on Facebook that we had Ted Yoder at the River of Calm Concert a few weeks ago. Is that right?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 1:51
Ted is awesome. He is from Indiana and plays a hammer dulcimer and has a fantastic wonderful following He has a new project that just came out. And we always love to have Ted here because he is just a remarkable entertainer and performer and musician.
Jason Skipper 2:10
Ted’s amazing. I know, I remember years ago, when I still… I lived in Bolivia for a long time. And when I was still in Bolivia, I remember seeing him on the Internet. I don’t know if it was on Facebook or on YouTube, but one of those viral videos, it’s like, wow, you know, just amazing.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 2:27
He started on YouTube. So that was probably it.
Jason Skipper 2:29
Yeah, exactly. And I did see that the Music Academy, Miller Piano Music Academy had an event just maybe a week ago. Is that right?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 2:38
They did. We had three of our recitals and we have recitals about two to three times a year. And they had them back to back last week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I believe.
Jason Skipper 2:48
Is that right? Okay. Well, very soon we’re going to do a podcast talking about the Music Academy because it is definitely something that I know that we’re proud of, that Miller Piano is proud of and so, definitely want to talk more about that here soon.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 3:04
I want you to because musical education is the future.
Jason Skipper 3:09
It really is. I was looking, you know, I was kind of looking around about it and I saw something that really caught my attention. The philosopher Plato, once said that “music is a more potent instrument than any other for education”. And I thought that was pretty cool.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 3:30
It is. It’s, it’s a well-known fact, and I’m kind of getting off subject here, but it’s a well-known fact, if your child is involved in music, that their math skills, their English skills are all improved scholastically because of music.
Jason Skipper 3:46
It’s amazing. All right. So coming up here in February, what events are scheduled at the store?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 3:54
What we have at the store in February, the first Thursday of this month, we will have Writers Night with Russ Roberts and Friends, and he is a writer that will bring in another writer and we never know what musician’s going to come. It’s always live on our Facebook, or we welcome you to come in and enjoy the fun with us. It’s about an hour and a half. And we usually have somewhere, I think around 850 online viewers. So we’re all over the board with our viewers and we have a great hoedown time. Nobody knows what song’s going to pop up because they’re original. And the musicians just jump in and it shows you how Nashville really works.
Jason Skipper 4:36
That’s awesome. 850, is that what you said?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 4:40
Yes.
Jason Skipper 4:41
850 Well, for our listeners out there, if you have never seen it, you need to go to the Miller Piano Specialists Facebook page. I believe it is facebook.com/millerpianospecialists, Is that right?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 4:58
You just go Miller Piano Specialists and it pops up.
Jason Skipper 5:01
Pops right up there!
Sherry Carlisle Smith 5:03
If you do like us and follow us you will actually get a notification when we are live with our events.
Jason Skipper 5:12
Very, very cool. Yes, I pulled it up right now and it is facebook.com/millerpianospecialists all together or you can just search it and it pops right up. So, good deal. Is that all that’s going on in February?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 5:23
Oh, absolutely not. And we actually, on the third Thursday, we will have The River of Calm with host Ed Bazel here, and he has not announced yet who our artists will be. But as soon as I know the top-secret information, it will be on our Facebook and our website, so that you can either join us live in the studio where we have some wonderful appetizers from Black Diamond Culinary. And we enjoy an hour’s worth of wonderful, relaxing, calming music. It is streamed live on Facebook and it’s also streamed live on the radio River of Calm. The other exciting thing. We’ve got something else coming up. We’re going to be working with the Elton John autographed Red Piano Limited Edition.
Jason Skipper 6:15
Right.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 6:16
And we are going to be working Wednesday the 5th of February at the Grand Ole Opry house with the Troy Gentry Foundation.
Jason Skipper 6:27
Awesome.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 6:28
Pretty exciting.
Jason Skipper 6:29
Pretty exciting.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 6:31
Yeah.
Jason Skipper 6:32
So tell me more about that. Give me some details.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 6:36
It is gonna be, the Troy Gentry Foundation was actually one of our clients, and to keep his legacy going, they do a benefit concert with different artists. And then the money is given out to. Actually one of the foundations I think they give to is music and schools and Kentucky, but they have several places where the money is spread out to keep Troy’s foundation going and to keep his memory and the love of music going, and love God and love others, I think that was one of his personal beliefs. So we’re going to be involved in that through this wonderful Yamaha Limited Edition Elton Signature. And since Elton could not be there at seven o’clock, he’s on tour. His piano will be center stage as people come in, and the wonderful technology of Disklavier will be playing, keys moving, Elton John music right there while you’re being seated.
Jason Skipper 7:41
That is awesome.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 7:43
And then the different artists that will be there will be playing on the piano. So they’re going to be doing some personal playing on the Elton John piano and actually, there is a list, I can tell you a few performances like Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton, Dirks Bentley, Dustin Lynch, Craig Morgan. There’s a list of thousands and you can find this by looking up the Troy Gentry Foundation concert on the Internet.
Jason Skipper 8:15
Okay, yeah, I just looked it up here. I think I found one here on Vents Magazine. It talks about “See Y’all on the Flip Side II”, I believe is the name of it at the Grand Old Opry on February 5. And yeah, as you mentioned, there are quite a few artists so definitely look that up. Vents Magazine and search for See ya on the Flip Side II.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 8:37
It is going to be a star-studded evening and your tickets are going for a great cause. So if you’re looking for something to really have a great time and support a great cause, you can get your tickets at Ticketmaster and opry.com. They’re going to range anywhere from like $45 to $125 which, for what you’re going to get that night, it’s going to be incredible.
Jason Skipper 9:00
That’s incredible. Yeah
Sherry Carlisle Smith 9:01
I’m so happy Miller Piano gets to be a part of that.
Jason Skipper 9:05
So this piano, it talks about recordings of Elton. I guess he’ll be in New Zealand it looks like. He’ll be Zealand while he’s on there but he’ll be playing.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 9:16
What the Disklavier has, is it has about 37 average radio streaming stations and Elton, of course, playing Yamaha Pianos. Elton has his own station. So we will be tuning in to the streaming station where all of your favorite Elton John’s will be playing on the piano, the keys moving, it’s an incredible experience. If you’ve not experienced a Yamaha Disklavier, please stop by and see us at 650 Frazier Drive because what you will see that night is what we have on our floor, except ours are not read or autographed by Elton.
Jason Skipper 9:59
Oh, we need to get one of those!
Sherry Carlisle Smith 10:02
I need to get a gold pin and mine are mostly black today.
Jason Skipper 10:05
Oh, wow. Well, we’ve talked about the Disklavier a few times but it’s amazing. So how many stations did you say there are?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 10:13
I believe there’s around 37 now. I may be off by two or on by two. Most of the stations are going to be genres of music, Gershwin, that type of thing, Elton John. But they also have different stations. They add in like there’s always a holiday station. And that’s incredible because every month they have a different holiday theme of music, the Grammys, the Oscars.
And we have something else I need to say!
Jason Skipper 10:45
Yes?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 10:45
We need to do a big shout out and congratulations also. This year, you know, we have our MPS award show. And we have a horizon award of young people that are on the horizon. And Yates McKendree was one of our winners this year. I was surprised this week. Yates accepted a Grammy!
Jason Skipper 11:11
Shout out to Yates!
Sherry Carlisle Smith 11:12
19, and he accepted a Grammy for a guitar-playing, I believe, part on Delbert McClinton’s latest album. So we are just, I feel like it was like destined to be and it was like… we knew that there was a lot of stuff happening with this young man but never in my wildest dreams did I think at 19 he would be receiving his first Grammy
Jason Skipper 11:39
At such a young age. 19. Well, shout out to Yates, congratulations! That is incredible. Awesome.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 11:47
So you never know what’s gonna happen at Miller Piano Specialists!
Jason Skipper 11:51
I hear you there. So I know that at Miller we just started with the Yamaha Promotion which is the Chinese New Year, the Lunar New Year correct?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 12:02
Correct. We started that on the 25th.
Jason Skipper 12:05
Can you give us a rundown exactly what that entails?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 12:07
Yeah, it is a great, great program. It celebrates the Chinese New Year, the Lunar New Year. I believe it’s the Year of the Rat this year. And what Yamaha does in conjunction with that is they do a rebate program from Yamaha. So it goes up to $1,000 rebate. So, and depending on the Piano that you choose, and there’s a list in our store listed of the different Pianos and the rebate prices that you would get back from Yamaha, for purchasing.
Jason Skipper 12:35
Right
Sherry Carlisle Smith 12:36
So it’s a very great program and we celebrate this, we try to celebrate this once a year, and they have made some great offers on great pianos with savings for you right now. So please come by and check that out. You will see Red Envelopes with Chinese writing of the new year on them and inside will be your card and it will tell you the different prices that you are going to receive the rebates on which pianos.
Jason Skipper 13:02
So now’s the time to get out there and look at them get by the store.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 13:07
Right now because this only lasts… it fell on an odd time… and I believe this only lasts through right at the end of February. It started a little bit early because we have a leap year this year.
Jason Skipper 13:22
Right. Right. Okay, got ya.
Sherry Carlisle Smith 13:24
So you want to get in as soon as you can because things are moving pretty fast. And inventory. Yes, we can always order it for you, but wouldn’t it be much nicer just to have it delivered in 48 hours?
Jason Skipper 13:36
Yeah. and have it there, be able to see it, get it, test it out and then get it during the time. Exactly. So before we finish up any other exciting news going on right now?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 13:49
It’s always exciting here with the crew that works here and that we’re crazier than bedbugs. We love what we do. We absolutely love meeting the people. Seeing you. We’ve always got coffee. Come by, see us, hang out with us, play some pianos, you might find just the thing you’re looking for.
Jason Skipper 14:08
For anyone who follows Miller Pianist Specialist on Facebook, you should know when Sherry says that they’re crazier than bug beds. Yes. You can tell…
Sherry Carlisle Smith 14:19
Bed bugs, bed bugs. Yeah. No, it’s an old saying.
Jason Skipper 14:23
An old saying that’s awesome, though. But well, good deal, Sherry, I appreciate your time here and anything else you wanted to say before we finish?
Sherry Carlisle Smith 14:32
No, we just want to thank everyone for your support through the years and we’re looking for many more and come see us at 650 Frazier, Dr. Franklin, Tennessee, in between Sperrys and Basset Furniture, or you can call us at 615-771-0020. We’re open on Thursday and Friday nights till eight o’clock. So come on by.
Jason Skipper 14:52
All right, good deal. Well, thank you, Sherry. Sherry is the General Sales Manager once again at Miller Piano Specialists in Cool Springs. As always, you can find the show notes of this episode and a transcript, right on our website on millerps.com. Just go there and you can go to Podcast or you can scroll down and you’ll see it on the bottom of the page. And you can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Podcasts and on Spotify. And look us up on your favorite podcast listening platform. And, by the way, don’t forget to rate review and subscribe and once again, this is your host Jason Skipper. We’ll see you next time.
