'Music in the 'Boro' makes pilot

"Music in the 'Boro" is already a weekly event at Maple Street Grill in downtown Murfreesboro. Soon it could be a TV regular.
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Filming began Sunday night for "Music in the 'Boro with Jack and Diane," a pilot that could be picked up by Great American Country television.

The program stems from Jack and Diane Untz and special guest performers entertaining dinner guests "in the round" style every Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m.

Not long ago, the Untzes received word that GAC was interested in airing the performance as a live, acoustic-style roundtable show featuring their roster of independent artists and songwriters.

No strangers to the music industry, the husband-wife musician duo was thrilled with the possibility of taking the local show to the national public.

"I feel like a bride on her wedding day," Diane Untz said. "We've been waiting so long, and to see it all come to fruition, I'm excited."

Untz said the mission of the show is to showcase talented musicians and songwriters who are still working as independent artists. For the pilot episode of the show, Untz and her husband chose Shannon Cain and Suzanne Karr as special guest performers.

"We chose artists with whom we had a natural camaraderie," Untz said. "This setting is very intimate, and we wanted it to be very natural."

Local video production company New Direction Productions handled the production of the pilot, and if given the green light from GAC will continue with filming the series.

"We started with 'Music in the 'Boro' doing Web shows for the event. At first we shot 15-minute, then 10-minute teasers for the Web site," said Sarah Hayes, assistant producer for New Direction Productions. "We want the pilot to be natural, a more intimate feel with the audience and performers, much like the actual event on Wednesday."

The pilot will be 41 minutes and 45 seconds, as if it were fitting into GAC's one-hour time slot. In addition to the performance, it will include interviews with the artists and recording industry executive, Kevin Ward of Vine Records.
The pilot was shot at Maple Street Grill where "Music in the 'Boro with Jack and Diane" has taken place each week since July 2008. Restaurant owner Mike Zelenak thought that, if picked up, the show could lure more business to downtown Murfreesboro.

"I feel good about this, and I think it will bring people downtown. Whether the show is going on or not, people are going to want to eat at the restaurant they saw on television," he said.

The Untzes approached Zelenak with the idea for the live music show last summer.

"We wanted to have live music, but we didn't want to have bands that would be in a club-type venue. We wanted to keep it classy, and we decided to give it a try, and this just fit," Zelenak said.

Once the pilot is completed, it will be up to GAC to decide if the program will air, and if so, when and how many episodes will need to be filmed.