Pictured (L-R): Connie Bradley, Kelly King, Cyndi Forman, Liz O'Sullivan, Kim Wiggins, Alicia Pruitt, Carla Wallace, Stephanie Greene, Kerri Edwards
Kathy Mattea and the legendary bluegrass band Hot Rize will co-host the 20th annual International Bluegrass Music Awards on Thursday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium.
Mattea’s current album Coal is an acoustic style offering focusing on coal mining stories from Appalachia. The album remained on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album chart for 26 weeks in 2008-2009, including 2 weeks at No. 1. She is the beloved singer of classics like “Eighteen Wheels and A Dozen Roses” and “Where’ve You Been.”
The members of Hot Rize have a long association with IBMA. In fact, they took home the Entertainer of the Year trophy at the very first International Bluegrass Music Awards in 1990. The band is made up of IBMA past presidents Pete “Dr. Banjo” Wernick and Tim O’Brien, who was also named Male Vocalist of the Year in 1993 and 2006. Also in Hot Rize are bass player/renowned public radio etown host Nick Forster, and Bryan Sutton, winner of the IBMA for Guitar Player of the Year numerous times.
Taillight, one of the Southeast’s most successful production companies in entertainment and music television, is expanding its operations with the creation of a new commercial division. Executive Producer Brooke Boling will head the new division, which will represent directors David Jellison, Timothy Kendall (TJK) and Kristin Barlowe.
“Our goal is to produce exceptional work, and we are extremely proud to have joined forces with three of the top directors in the business,” said Tom Forrest, Taillight president. “With the strength of their creative talents, Brooke’s knowledge and ad agency experience, and our strong team of production professionals, we believe Taillight is well-positioned for success in the commercial marketplace.”
With an editorial style and vintage flare, Boling started her career as a photographer, and after graduating from the Portfolio Center in Atlanta, she worked as senior art director for advertising agencies in Atlanta, San Francisco and Nashville. Boling is the former creative director at Warner Bros. Records and in 2005 opened her own boutique agency, Firecracker Studios, which is still going strong today.
Since its founding in 2000, Taillight has produced hundreds of hours of TV programming and live events, countless music videos, and viral Web content for a variety of broadcast networks, record labels and clients. The company’s most recent project was the 2009 CMT Music Awards.
About the Directors
Known primarily for comedy, memorable dialogue and action sports, David Jellison has directed more than 300 commercials since 1999 for such clients as the NFL, PGA, Mercedes, Toyota, Ford, Jaguar, Dell, Subway, Time Warner Cable, EA Sports, Domino’s Pizza and Panasonic.
Timothy Kendall (TJK) has directed hundreds of commercials and independent film projects. He has won several Tellys, an AICP and a Clio for high-profile brands like Ikea, Twix, M&M’s, Kit Kat, Clarks, McDonald’s, Walmart and Sunoco, featuring top NASCAR drivers.
Kristin Barlowe started in commercial work as a model but later moved to agent and scouting work for campaigns from Armani Exchange to Gianfranco Ferre’. She then transitioned into music and fashion photography, and within her first year was shooting album covers. Barlowe directed her first music video in 2004 and then began shooting commercial TV ads in the health care and financial services industries, and for the Tennessee Lottery.
Understanding the various functions and changing role of the record label is the focus of the latest installment of CMA Industry InSite, an online educational series, which is posted on CMA’s member Web site, My.CMAworld.com.
The third episode on Record Labels is available now and features interviews with Mike Dungan, President/CEO Capitol Records Nashville; Fletcher Foster, Senior VP/GM Universal Records South; Joe Galante, Chairman Sony Music Nashville; and Randy Goodman, President Lyric Street and Carolwood Records.
The series is part of CMA’s ongoing strategic mission of being a resource for the Country Music industry. The Association launched the monthly online educational series in April with an episode on Publishing, followed in June by a segment on Artist Management. The series is an exclusive benefit for members of CMA.
Future episodes include topics from Social Networking and Entertainment Law to Country Radio and Touring. Episodes are posted on the third Monday of the month. With each new episode, CMA members are able to submit questions to the panel of experts. Each segment, which is roughly 10 minutes long, is archived for easy access at any time.
Trace Adkins can add action hero to his list of career accomplishments. 12 Gauge Comics is planning a four-issue comic book series called “Luke McBain,” which is based on the country star. The first issue hits stores in November to coincide with Adkins’ tour. It will be available for $3.99 per issue in more than 4,000 comic book stores and other outlets. The story takes place when McBain returns home to rural Louisiana after serving prison time for a crime he didn’t commit. He wants to set things right in the town controlled by greed and corruption. Other music artists have been involved with the comic book scene including Gerald Way of My Chemical Romance and Tori Amos, but Adkins is the first country artist.
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Julianne Hough and her brother Derek are nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography. Their “Great Balls Of Fire” routine on Dancing With The Stars earned the nod. The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sun., Sept. 20 at 7 PM/CT on CBS.
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Sammy Kershaw’s “Louisiana Hot Sauce” was featured prominently in a recent Sunday night episode of HBO’s hit series True Blood. The song, written by Kershaw and Keith Stegall, appeared on his Maybe Not Tonight record that was released by Mercury in 1999. By Monday morning the track was one of the top downloaded tracks on iTunes.
Jack Ingram will release his second Big Machine studio project Big Dreams & High Hopes on Tues., Aug. 25. The lead single “Barefoot and Crazy” is already at No. 8 on MusicRow’s Country Breakout Chart. Ingram’s list of top-notch co-writers, producers and collaborators for the new project includes Americana songstress Patty Griffin on the Ingram-penned “Seeing Stars,” and mainstream chart-topper Dierks Bentley on the honky-tonk party anthem “Barbie Doll.” Elsewhere, Little Big Town, Randy Houser, James Otto and The Lost Trailers (also known as The Little Big Lost Beat-Up Ford Funky Times Freedom Choir) contribute gang vocals. Jay Joyce, Jeremy Stover, Doug Lancio and Radney Foster all get production credits on the 11-track effort, and Ingram’s stellar cast of co-writers includes Jeffrey Steele, Darrell Brown, Dallas Davidson, Gary Burr and Tom Shapiro.
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Mac McAnally’s latest album, Down By The River, will be out Aug. 4. The 11-song collection of new original material is his 11th release as a solo artist and his debut for Show Dog Nashville. The self-produced album showcases the acclaimed musician/songwriter on guitar, piano, harmonica, ukulele and percussion. Proceeds from “You First,” the lead single, will benefit the Wounded Warriors Project, whose mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors.
McAnally received his first No. 1 single as an artist and sixth as a writer on his recent collaboration with Kenny Chesney, “Down The Road.” He was named 2008 Musician of the Year by the Country Music Association, and is also a 2007 inductee to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Starting as a Muscle Shoals session musician, then signing as Geffen Records’ first artist at the age of 16, McAnally went on to become a respected guitar player and singer, working with artists including Roy Orbison, Hank Williams Jr., Jimmy Buffett, Travis Tritt, and Dolly Parton. As a producer, he’s helmed successful projects by Sawyer Brown, and Chris LeDoux.
Rascal Flatts became the first country act to perform a concert in historic Wrigley Field in Chicago this past Saturday night. The group entertained a sold-out crowd of 37,000 fans for one of only four concerts ever played in the Chicago Cubs home stadium. Vince Gill and Darius Rucker opened. The Rascal Flatts American Living Unstoppable Tour hits its second stadium of the summer in Columbus, Ohio on Aug. 9.
Kenny Chesney’s Sun City Carnival sailed into San Francisco over the weekend, selling even more tickets (over 36,000) than it did at the same stadium last year. The Corona Extra sponsored tour has already had sold out NFL stadium stops at Chicago’s Soldier Field, Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field and Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field. Unfortunately Sugarland had to cancel their performance that night because Jennifer Nettles is on vocal rest, but Miranda Lambert and Lady Antebellum rocked the crowd.
W.O. Smith School students and their families celebrate Sunday, July 19, as the group departs for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Washington, D.C., and a special concert series and educational workshop at the White House.
Charley Pride has been added to the list of artists performing at the White House tomorrow (7/21) as part of its educational workshop about Country music. Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss and Union Station were previously announced.
The event in the historic East Room will be livestreamed on whitehouse.gov/live starting at 6:25 PM/CT with President Obama’s opening remarks. First Lady Michelle Obama, White House staff and Members of Congress will be in attendance. The White House Music Series is hosted by the First Lady and its goal is to celebrate the arts and the importance of arts education.
The Country Music Association and Country Music Hall of Fame are participating in the program by sending local students to the workshop. The CMA is underwriting all travel costs for 40 students from the W.O. Smith Music School, using funds from the CMA Music Festival and the “Keep the Music Playing” program, which supports music education in Metro Nashville Public Schools. The Museum was asked to provide an educational component at the event and will be sending one of the students who participated in its Words & Music educational program during 2008-09, rising 5th grader Sal La Rosa and Gary Michael Smith, the professional songwriter who added a melody to Sal’s lyrics, to the workshop to perform their composition.
An article in the Sunday Tennessean (by Naomi Synder) asks “Could Nashville’s country and Christian music industry be crushing innovation? It sounds like a ridiculous question, were it not for the musicians who think it might be true.”
The feature length article confuses quality, diversity and professionalism in a swirling discussion which fails to distinguish and/or benchmark any kind of serious criteria with which to explain or build its premise. Read it here.
String Theory Media’s Craig Havighurst has fashioned an interesting response to the allegations in which he looks candidly at the reality of today’s music marketplace and how it effects the artists, writers and musicians that live and work in Music City. Read it here.
Kazaa relaunched today (7/20) in a new form; morphed from an illegal file-trading service to a legal download subscription outfit. For $20/month, users get unlimited downloads of over 1 million tracks from all four major labels. The downside of the service is that the DRM tracks cannot be transferred to portable devices and can only be played on subscribed PCs. Kazaa is owned by the Australian company Altnet.
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The Rock Band Network is a ground-breaking initiative that gives musicians and record labels the ability to author their own original recordings into gameplay files and sell their music as playable Rock Band video game tracks through the newly-created Rock Band Network Music Store. From Harmonix Music Systems and MTV Games, The Rock Band Network will launch as an open beta in late August 2009 in the U.S. and provide a sophisticated toolset, with detailed documentation on how bands can begin the process of authoring songs into Rock Band gameplay files.
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