We certainly had a little bit of rock and roll getting together with country at the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race. One of the contestants who held the lead for a while was Rolling Stones keyboardist, Chuck Leavell (left), seen here with Michael Peterson.
Chuck is a central Georgia tree farmer where he and his wife have 2,500 acres. He’s the proud owner of a New Holland 2410. I asked him why he participated and one of the things he likes is supporting FFA, which he feels strongly about. As far as a celebrity tractor race goes, he thinks it’s the coolest thing in the world. When he’s not on the road rocking and rolling with the Stones, he says you’ll find him on his New Holland out in the woods.
He’s also a big believer in biofuels like biodiesel and has a special interest in cellulosic ethanol production. That makes sense for a tree farmer.
Listen to my interview with Chuck:
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One of the celebrities competing in the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor race was Jimmie Van Zant, pictured on the left with Michael.
Jimmie is a cousin to Johnny, Ronnie and Donnie Van Zant, deceased members of the band, Lynyrd Skynyrd. He’s been making quite a career on his own.
He thinks the tractor race is an excellent opportunity for artists and the public to interact and he really thinks it’s a great idea to use this venue to promote a biofuel like biodiesel.
Listen to my interview with Jimmy:
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Mike Adams (right), Host of AgriTalk was the celebrity announcer of the celebrity tractor race. He and I talked about the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race right before it got started. AgriTalk producer, John Herath, got this photo of us sporting our Frogg Toggs to keep cool.
This was Mike’s second year as the emcee for the race and once again he did a great job of keeping track of all the competitors and entertaining the crowd for an event that lasted several hours. Mike does tend to kid the competitors and I was afraid for him at one point when he made a sarcastic comment to one of the Tennessee Titan guys who drove in the race. Let’s just say he could have come up on stage and picked Mike up and thrown across the race track. But he smiled and waved instead.
Listen to my interview with Mike:
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My latest road trip ended at the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race in Nashville, TN. So this week’s program has been produced there and includes an event wrap-up with Michael.
Michael Peterson has become a good friend after I’ve had so many opportunities to work with him since this event started 3 years ago. Today he got the crowd fired up as they enjoyed the competition and seeing some of their favorite artists get up on a tractor and for the most part, do real well.
Michael got on the tractor himself at one point so I recorded that so you can watch him drive. I think his time was actually the fastest but he can’t win.
Special thanks go out to not only Michael but also Gene Hemphill and Dawn Fox at New Holland as well as Holly Fritz at H.B. Fritz & Associates who did so much work to put this event on.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 174 (8 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board (left) and Chuck Leavell, keyboardist for the Rolling Stones (right) were two of the competitors out here at the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race today.
I spoke to both of them before their competition runs and will post my interview with Chuck later. In this post you can watch Joe give it all he had this year, which was good but just a tad short. I’m betting he’ll be back though. He really commends Michael Peterson for being such an advocate for renewable fuels like biodiesel (the tractor was running on B20) and also New Holland for their support. He says that this country music audience is a great one to expose to the message.
Listen to my interview with Joe:
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The winner of the 2008 Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race is Darby Ledbetter with a time of 47 seconds. He pretty much blew away the competition. Here’s Darby on the New Holland tractor with Michael Peterson (left).
I interviewed Darby right afterward and he was still pretty excited about his win. He’s a National Guard supporter and really appreciates what Micheal Peterson and New Holland and the Army have done to support our troops.
I’m not sure the final count for contestants of today’s race but there were a lot and we were all glad that it was under a tent with the extreme heat. That made it a little challenging for us photographers though.
Listen to Darby the race winner here:
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If you missed it then you missed it. AgWired Live TV broadcast today’s Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race from the Chevy Zone at the CMA Music Fest.
We had people tuning in and out of the broadcast which stretched over several hours today. I’m in the process of editing some pictures, audio and video to post here this afternoon from the hotel. Tomorrow I’ll be heading back to ZimmComm World Headquarters.
Laura posted a video clip with Dustin Delp, seated on the right, the other day at the start of the CMA Music Fest parade. Today I sat down with him at the New Holland booth where he and other FFA members are helping out.
It’s a great project and some of the ones here this year were also here last year.
We talked about his chapter and what he thinks of Fan Fair. He’s ready to come back:
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The first band on the Chevy Music Stage this morning here at Fan Fair was Michael Peterson’s. He attracted a big crowd. The seats were filled and people gravitated there since you could hear the music up and down the street. Last year Michael performed on the Riverfront Stage.
I recorded a video clip of the band performing “Marriage is the Leading Cause of Divorce” which you can watch here:
You can also watch Michael talk about the song on his website.
I’ve tag teamed with Laura McNamara, seen here busily agriblogging, at the CMA Music Fest where we’ve got some global warming going on. Thank goodness for air conditioning since it’s about 92 degrees out.
I think Laura’s done a great job this week here and you’ll be seeing her covering a number of other events during the coming months.
I spoke with Cindy a little while ago and I think she’s wrapping up her coverage of the World Pork Expo. We sure appreciate Novus International sponsoring her coverage.
The line at singer/songwriter Michael Peterson’s CMA Music Festival exhibit remained long and steady. That’s because unlike most artists, Michael stayed around all day signing autographs, doling out hugs and smiling for pictures with fans. Michael says connecting with people is what events like these are all about and he looks forward to seeing familiar faces each year.
I grabbed some videos with Michael talking about fans and handing out autographs. You can watch the videos here:
New Holland is sharing its booth at the CMA Country Music Festival this year. New Holland is a corporate sponsor of The National Wild Turkey Federation and visitors can find NWTF representatives, including Tom Turkey, at the Sports Zone. Brian Dowler is the public relations manager for NWTF and he says NWTF talks more than just Turkey. In fact, the international organization produces the Outdoor Channel, publishes the Women Outdoors magazine, manages volunteer based wildlife habitation projects and more.
I spoke with Brian and asked him about his organization. You can listen to my interview here:
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Fans waved and hollered, calling out “Michael!” as the New Holland/Michael Peterson float rolled past during the 2008 CMA Country Music Festival Kick-Off Parade. Some fans even blew kisses to the country music singer/songwriter. Others boldly cried out their admiration for the inspirational speaker. Michael and local FFA students tossed t-shirts and waved back to an eager and excited crowd. At one point, Michael even took a phone call from a random construction worker’s phone. I believe it was Michael’s drummer on the line. I’ll have to double check that with Michael though…
I took a couple videos from float, offering a “float’s eye view” of the parade.
A handful of FFA students offered country music singer/songwriter and inspirational speaker Michael Peterson today. Michael spent the day setting up for his exhibit at the Nashville Convention Center in preparation for the 2008 CMA Country Music Festival. The FFA students pitched in on the behind the scenes prep. Of course, their help came with quite the perk. The FFA boys got to join Michael on the New Holland float during the CMA Country Music Festival Kick-Off Parade.
I did a quick video with the boys before the float took off. You can watch the video here:
…or festival rather. The New Holland crew joined Michael Peterson and members of the local FFA chapter in setting up for a week of excitement at the 2008 CMA Country Music Festival. Concerts, autograph sessions, exhibitions and of course the New Holland/Michael Peterson celebrity tractor race will all be a part of this weekend’s festivities.
I interviewed Michael about the legwork that’s goes into preparing for major events like Nashville’s country music celebration. You can listen to my interview with Michael here:
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I’ll have posts from today’s CMA Country Music Festival Kick-Off Parade online soon.
Hey country music fans. I’m already looking forward to this year’s CMA Music Festival, better known as Fan Fair. With New Holland’s support I’ll be there once again.
I just submitted my media credentials request since CMA was already wondering if I’d be there again. I think I was probably the first blogger to get credentialed by them. That’s been common with most of the places I get credentialed. They also like the fact that I’m reaching a new audience for them too.
I guess I’m also looking forward to some hot humid weather that requires a nice cool Frogg Togg around your neck. I’m ready for a change of seasons.
Back your favorite NFL player by picking your favorite Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Burger. The restaurant chain is in the midst of its Burger Showdown. Who’s it going to be? Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees or Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook? You know, this burger showdown thing could catch on. How about a similar system for the elections? Eat a burger to cast your vote!
Chili’s Grill & Bar has drafted three of the NFL’s hottest players to help promote its new Smokehouse Bacon Burgers while raising funds for charity.
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, and Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook will each represent one of three new Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Burgers in the name of their favorite charity. Available now, guests are encouraged to visit their neighborhood Chili’s to taste these new burgers, because the player with the best-selling burger at the end of the 60-day promotional period will receive $10,000 from Chili’s to donate to their charity of choice.
Guests can visit the Chili’s Web Site to track the competition and register for prizes, including an all-expense-paid trip for two to any 2008 regular season pro or college football game and team helmets autographed by Peterson, Brees, and Westbrook. (more…)
Many of the pictures I take out and about the country have been getting used by various publications, newsletters and websites. Here’s a unique one than I was happy to allow to use a couple of the photos I took at this summer’s CMA Music Festival. It’s called Schmap. They’re basically travel guides. They needed some photos for their Nashville Map.
The site lets you create widgets like this one for your website so I thought I’d post one here that has my photos they used in it. When you go to the site there’s a photo album than includes a few of the ones I took.
This week on the ZimmCast I wrap up some things related to the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race.
To start with one of the contestants that I interviewed was Eddie George, former Tennessee Titans running back. He said that this would be his first time on a tractor. He had his family along and his wife, Ty, competed too. They had a lot of fun and as he says, it was all to support some worthwhile causes.
I also want to announce that Kyle Wilson, Agro Equipment Co., Uvalde, TX was the winner of the auction for last year’s celebrity tractor that was signed by the contestants in the first race. We didn’t know it at the time but he and his family were at this year’s race so we didn’t get to see each other. I talked to him by phone and learned that his son, Trey, is an aspiring music artist himself. You can find out all about him on his website.
Kyle says that he thinks New Holland should do more of this type of high visibility promotion and he really likes the tie-in with Michael Peterson and country music.
You can listen to Michael Peterson’s song, “Down on the Farm,” while watching a slide show from the week of activities by using this link.
The program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network and a band called Straight 88’s. The song is “Draggin Down Main Street.” I was just in a rockabilly mood today so I hope you enjoy it.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 124 (14 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes.
One of the competitors in the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race was National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe. He’s pictured here on top of the tractor with Michael Peterson and all the FFA students who helped out at the event.
Unfortunately Joe didn’t win but he had a good competitive time. You can watch his efforts on this YouTube video.
We certainly had a little bit of rock and roll getting together with country at the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race. One of the contestants who held the lead for a while was Rolling Stones keyboardist, Chuck Leavell (left), seen here with Michael Peterson.
One of the celebrities competing in the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor race was Jimmie Van Zant, pictured on the left with Michael.
Mike Adams (right), Host of 
My latest road trip ended at the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race in Nashville, TN. So this week’s program has been produced there and includes an event wrap-up with Michael.
Michael Peterson has become a good friend after I’ve had so many opportunities to work with him since this event started 3 years ago. Today he got the crowd fired up as they enjoyed the competition and seeing some of their favorite artists get up on a tractor and for the most part, do real well. 
Joe Jobe, CEO of the 
The winner of the 2008 Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race is Darby Ledbetter with a time of 47 seconds. He pretty much blew away the competition. Here’s Darby on the New Holland tractor with Michael Peterson (left).
If you missed it then you missed it. AgWired Live TV broadcast today’s Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race from the Chevy Zone at the CMA Music Fest.
Laura posted a 
The first band on the Chevy Music Stage this morning here at Fan Fair was Michael Peterson’s. He attracted a big crowd. The seats were filled and people gravitated there since you could hear the music up and down the street. Last year Michael performed on the Riverfront Stage.
I’ve tag teamed with Laura McNamara, seen here busily agriblogging, at the CMA Music Fest where we’ve got some global warming going on. Thank goodness for air conditioning since it’s about 92 degrees out.
The line at singer/songwriter 
Hey country music fans. I’m already looking forward to this year’s 
To start with one of the contestants that I interviewed was 
winner of the auction for last year’s celebrity tractor that was signed by the contestants in the first race. We didn’t know it at the time but he and his family were at this year’s race so we didn’t get to see each other. I talked to him by phone and learned that his son, Trey, is an aspiring music artist himself. You can find out all about him 
One of the competitors in the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race was 
Cool Interactive Ideas in new media was the topic of a NAMA Boot Camp presentation by Erin Holte, Martin Williams.
