TPAC Honors Legendary Musician and Producer Norbert Putnam, the Legacy of Dan Fogelberg and Dollar General at TPAC Gala

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The nonprofit Tennessee Performing Arts Center will present its highest honor, the Applause Award to legendary musician and producer Norbert Putnam and Dollar General Corporation at its annual fundraising event, TPAC Gala 6 p.m. Aug. 26 in the lobby of Andrew Jackson Hall.

The center also will honor the legacy of the late, celebrated singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg, who lived, performed, and recorded in Nashville, with a special posthumous award presentation. Starting Sept. 8, TPAC will present the world premiere of a new, original musical, Part of the Plan, featuring Dan’s music.

In addition to celebrating the honorees’ distinguished contributions to the arts, TPAC’s signature fundraising event, co-chaired this year by Sara and Kevin Hartley and Lauren and Andrew Tavi and themed to the Tony Award®-winning hit musical, An American in Paris, marks the launch of TPAC’s 2017-18 HCA/TriStar Health Broadway at TPAC season.

An American in Paris, which will play Oct. 31 - Nov. 5, 2017 at TPAC’s Andrew Jackson Hall, is directed and choreographed by acclaimed Tony Award®-winner Christopher Wheeldon and brings the magic and romance of Paris to life – in harmony with unforgettable songs from George and Ira Gershwin – to tell the story of an American soldier, a mysterious French girl and an indomitable city, each yearning for a new beginning in the aftermath of war.

TPAC Gala, the nonprofit center’s signature fundraising event, begins with cocktails and a silent auction at 6 p.m. in the lobby of Andrew Jackson Hall, followed at 8 p.m. with the award presentation, dinner from Sargent’s Fine Catering, special performances, and additional music by 12 South.

This year’s auction includes an online component that is now live through Aug. 26.

For more information on TPAC Gala, call 615-687-4300 or visit www.TPAC.org/Gala.

About Norbert Putnam

Few men in popular music have enjoyed a career comparable to bassist and producer Norbert Putnam. As a teenager in Alabama, Putnam made history as part of the original Muscle Shoals rhythm section, playing bass on hits by Top 40 artists like Arthur Alexander, Tommy Roe, and The Tams. By the mid-1960s, he had moved to Nashville and quickly joined a loose group of young musicians regularly called upon for the rock, folk, and R&B recordings coming out of Music City. Putnam played bass on thousands of recordings with some of the most iconic artists of the twentieth century. As a founding member and bassist for Area Code 615, he shaped the session group’s sound on groundbreaking albums in 1969 and 1970 and influenced the developing country rock and Southern rock sub-genres. In 1970, Putnam and David Briggs opened Quadrafonic Studio which would become a recording destination for artists as well-known and diverse as Neil Young, Joe Walsh, and Michael Jackson. Putnam made the jump to producer when Kris Kristofferson suggested him as a replacement for a record with Joan Baez. The result was the platinum album Blessed Are…, and the Top 10 single, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” which hit No. 3 during a 13-week run on the Billboard Hot 100. Impressed by Putnam’s work, Columbia Records chief Clive Davis asked him to produce other folk-rock artists on the label. The first artist he sent was a 19-year-old Dan Fogelberg, for whom Putnam produced his first album, Home Free. Over the years, Putnam brought his magic touch to recordings by Jimmy Buffett, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Donovan, Pousette Dart Band, Eric Anderson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and John Hiatt. He also found time to play bass on 120 recordings with Elvis Presley from 1970-77, and toured Europe and Brazil with the big screen “Elvis in Concert” show. In the early 1980s, Putnam retired from the music business. Selected to design the recording studios and serve as director of the new Delta Music Institute at Delta State University, he developed the multi-disciplinary curriculum and taught for two years. In 2015, Putnam returned, with his wife Sheryl and two wild but loving poodles, to his home town of Florence, Alabama. With the recent publication of his memoir, “Music Lessons,” he continues to write, travel, play, and speak at various venues and universities throughout the world. And, occasionally he brings together his "A Band of Legends" group – all old pros like himself – to tell stories and play the music they made famous.

About Dan Fogelberg

Born in 1951 in Peoria, Illinois, premiere American singer-songwriter and composer, Dan Fogelberg recorded and released Home Free, his first album, in 1972 with famed Muscle Shoals producer Norbert Putnam. In 1974, Dan released his second album, Souvenirs, with producer Joe Walsh, resulting in his first hit single, "Part of the Plan." Over the next 30 years, Dan established a worldwide following of faithful fans, who eagerly awaited his next album. Between 1972 and 2003, Dan delivered 13 studio albums, two live albums, two greatest hits albums, and a box set, writing most of the songs and playing many or all the instruments himself. His string of gold and platinum albums generated 21 hit singles. While some of his songs tackled political, spiritual, and environmental issues, Dan may be most well-known for the stories he wove of love, loss, and everyday life. For many fans, his music represents the soundtrack of their lives. "Same Old Lang Syne," inspired by a chance encounter with a former girlfriend, has become a winter holiday standard. "Leader of the Band," an emotional tribute to his father, has been embraced by generations of sons and daughters. “Run for the Roses” is the unofficial theme for the Kentucky Derby. And his biggest hit, "Longer," has been performed during wedding ceremonies for decades. In May 2004, Dan was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and, ultimately, passed away on December 16, 2007, at home in Deer Isle, Maine, his wife Jean at his side. In 2009, Jean released Love in Time, the album Dan recorded and self-produced over the last year of his life. In 2010, Jean, Norbert, Irving Azoff, and Chuck Morris began gathering an eclectic group of artists – both current and contemporary – to record tracks for a tribute album to be released later this year. On August 13, 2017, on what would have Dan’s 66th birthday, he was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. Recently, Dan Fogelberg – Live at Carnegie Hall, a double album of Dan’s 1979 solo concert at the prestigious performance hall, was released. And in two weeks, the world premiere of “Part of the Plan” – a new, Broadway-bound musical featuring his songbook – will take place at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville – the city where Dan recorded his first album with Norbert Putnam 45 years ago and wrote “Part of the Plan,” his first hit single. Dan’s music is his legacy, and his legacy lives on.

About Dollar General

At Dollar General, Serving Others is more than our mission statement; it’s the driving force behind who we are and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.  Dollar General has been delivering value to shoppers for over 75 years. With more than 14,000 stores across 44 states, Dollar General helps shoppers Save time. Save money. Every day!® by offering products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, clothing for the family, housewares and seasonal items at low everyday prices in convenient neighborhood locations. In addition to high quality private brands, Dollar General sells products from America's most-trusted brands such as Clorox, Energizer, Procter & Gamble, Hanes, Coca-Cola, Mars, Unilever, Nestle, Kimberly-Clark, Kellogg's, General Mills, and PepsiCo. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation was established in 1993 in honor of the Company’s co-founder, J.L. Turner, with a basic belief that everyone deserves equal access to quality literacy and basic education instruction. Since its inception, the Foundation has invested more than $136 million in programs that have helped more than 8 million individuals learn to read, prepare for the high school equivalency test or learn English. As the Foundation continues its efforts to increase basic education and literacy skills of individuals of all ages, we are proud to support Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s educational outreach efforts and use of the performing arts to bring literature to life for children in our community.

About the Tennessee Performing Arts Center

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) administers one of the most comprehensive, curriculum-based arts-in-education programs in the United States, offering a variety of learning opportunities for children and adults. Bringing students to TPAC for performances, providing teacher resources and sending artists to schools, TPAC Education has served more than 1.8 million students from pre-school to high school, teachers, and adults over more than three decades. The six distinct programs of TPAC Education are ArtSmart, Disney Musicals in Schools, Humanities Outreach in Tennessee, the Spotlight Awards, TPAC InsideOut and Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts. TPAC is home to an annual Broadway Series, supported by the HCA Foundation on behalf of HCA and the TriStar Family of Hospitals, a wide variety of special engagements and the work of three professional resident companies, Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, and Nashville Repertory Theatre. Institutional sponsors for TPAC include Nissan North America and Coca-Cola. TPAC is funded in part by support from the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission.

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