Tenn. Singers Croak During Allergy Season article

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Tenn. Singers Croak During Allergy Season

By JOHN GEROME, Associated Press Writer

http://news./s/ap/20050524/ap_en_mu/allergic_singers

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - For a town where so many people earn their living

with a clear voice and a keen ear, Nashville sure is a lousy place for

singers.

It sits in a moist, green bowl where pollens and pollutants get

trapped in the air and give allergy sufferers fits. Spring and fall

are the worst — so bad that some artists have to delay their recording

sessions.

" They can't get the tone, " said Dr. Gaelyn Garrett, medical director

of the Vanderbilt Voice Center. " I've had a couple of singers recently

who have just postponed their studio work for a few weeks. "

The clinic, part of Vanderbilt University, treats everyone from local

choir members to superstars like Willie . The biggest problem

for most is nasal drainage.

" It affects the resonance and the feedback they get when they're

singing, " Garrett said. " A lot of the professional singers will wear

monitors. They rely on the feedback of their voice to help them find

the notes and help with loudness. When they're congested in the nasal

passages, it makes it very difficult. "

Country singer White is reminded how difficult every time he

hears his 1996 hit " I'm Not Supposed to Love You Anymore " on the radio.

" To this day it still bothers me because I can hear it in my nose. I

can hear a little bit of the nasally thing, " White said. " I remember

that time was very difficult for me. It didn't affect the fate of the

record, but I can still hear it. "

White, an Oklahoma native who says he's allergic to just about

everything, had trouble before he moved to Nashville, but Tennessee

has made his allergies worse.

Things got so bad when he was recording his third album, " The Right

Place, " that he had to go to California where the climate is drier to

finish it.

" We would have a session set up to do vocals and my nose would really

close up and we'd have to stop and reschedule, " White said. " We were

wasting money. I had to go somewhere else where I could breathe. "

Nashville lies in a gently rolling basin surrounded by the western and

eastern Highland Rim. Like much of the Southeast, it typically ranks

among the worst in the country for allergies and air pollution. The

area has a long growing season and abundant rainfall and is

particularly bad for ragweed and pollen.

" We have tons of trees and a lot of other kinds of pollen, so the

pollen count is very high here, " said Dr. Overholt, an allergist

in lin, about 20 miles south of Nashville.

A leading recording center, Nashville is home to thousands of

professional musicians, singers, producers and engineers. Country

artists alone sold 77.9 million albums last year — nearly 12 percent

of all album sales in all genres, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Over the years, everyone from Elvis Presley and ny Cash to

Bob Dylan and Uncle Kracker have recorded here.

Overholt estimates that about 50 of his patients are singers, and they

all complain of the same things: hoarseness, poor tone and limited

vocal range.

" They feel they have a lot of trouble hitting the top end, " he said.

Bluegrass singer Melonie Cannon had a scare last September when she

developed laryngitis and went to a specialist.

" He said 'Let me tell you something. You are in the wrong profession

and in the wrong town with your allergies,' " said Cannon, 32, who

released her self-titled debut album last year.

She was ordered not to sing or speak for three weeks. Fortunately for

Cannon, sinus surgery and medication did the trick. Now, she says, her

throat " feels like silk. "