Big Winners At BMI—Pinson, Swift, Sony/ATV

The night’s big winners at the 2009 BMI Country Awards in Nashville. (L-R): Troy Tomlinson, Pres./CEO Sony ATV Music Publishing Nashville; Martin Bandier, Chairman/CEO, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC; Del Bryant, BMI Pres./CEO; 2009 BMI Icon Kris Kristofferson; Song of the Year honoree Taylor Swift; Songwriter of the Year Bobby Pinson; Jody Williams, BMI VP Writer/Publisher Relations Nashville; Clay Bradley, BMI Asst. VP Writer/Publisher Relations Nashville; and Phil Graham, BMI Sr. VP Writer/Publisher Relations. Photo: John Russell

The night’s big winners at the 2009 BMI Country Awards in Nashville. (L-R): Troy Tomlinson, Pres./CEO Sony ATV Music Publishing Nashville; Martin Bandier, Chairman/CEO, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC; Del Bryant, BMI Pres./CEO; 2009 BMI Icon Kris Kristofferson; Song of the Year honoree Taylor Swift; Songwriter of the Year Bobby Pinson; Jody Williams, BMI VP Writer/Publisher Relations Nashville; Clay Bradley, BMI Asst. VP Writer/Publisher Relations Nashville; and Phil Graham, BMI Sr. VP Writer/Publisher Relations. Photo: John Russell

It was an evening to celebrate songs and songwriters at BMI’s Country Awards, held last night (11/10) at the organization’s Music Row offices. Bobby Pinson was named Songwriter of the Year, Taylor Swift’s smash “Love Story” received Song of the Year honors, and its publisher Sony/ATV Music was awarded Publisher of the Year. The 57th annual event saluted Kris Kristofferson as a BMI Icon, and honored Brooks & Dunn with the BMI President’s Award.

Pinson’s string of recent hits leading up to his first Songwriter of the Year award include co-writing Sugarland’s chart-toppers “All I Want to Do” and “Already Gone,” as well as Toby Keith’s “She Never Cried in Front of Me.”

Swift’s “Love Story” topped the Billboard Country, pop and AC charts and became the best-selling country song in the U.S. and the most-downloaded country single in U.S. history.

It was the eighth consecutive BMI Country Publisher of the Year title for Sony/ATV, which placed 14 songs among the year’s top 50, including Jimmy Wayne’s “Do You Believe Me Now,” Billy Currington’s “Don’t,” Keith Urban’s “You Look Good in My Shirt,” George Strait’s “Troubadour” and “River of Love,” Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpowder & Lead,” and Swift’s “Love Story,” “Picture to Burn,” and “Should’ve Said No.”

BMI President & CEO Del Bryant; BMI VP, Writer/Publisher Relations, Nashville Jody Williams; and BMI Asst. VP, Writer/Publisher Relations, Nashville Clay Bradley led the ceremony at the black tie gala.

Patty Griffin, Vince Gill, and Willie Nelson offered musical tributes to a visibly moved Kristofferson, who has earned 48 BMI awards. Griffin gave a spellbinding take on “Help Me Make it Through The Night,” Gill was superb on the classic “Why Me?” and Nelson shined on “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” before they all united for the most loved Kristofferson classic of all, “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Bryant congratulated Brooks & Dunn with the BMI President’s Award, given only on unique occasions when an artist has profoundly influenced the music industry. Last night it celebrated the duo’s two decades of hitmaking, which has made them the most-awarded artists in Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association history.

Other top BMI winners included songwriters Jeffrey Steele and Lee Thomas Miller, who added three songs each to the top 50 most-performed list, as well as Toby Keith, Sugarland’s Kristian Bush, Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, Phil O’Donnell, Jim Beavers, Brett Beavers, James Otto, Clint Daniels, and Dallas Davidson, who each contributed two compositions.

Taking home three or more awards each were publishers EMI-Blackwood Music, Inc., Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp., Universal Music Publishing Group, Music of Stage Three, Bobby’s Song and Salvage, Bug Music/Songs of Windswept Pacific, Jeffrey Steele Music/My Life’s Work Music, Noah’s Little Boat Music, Songs of Sea Gayle/New Songs of Sea Gayle, and Taylor Swift Music.

Song Camps Encourage Collaboration

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Song Camps are growing in popularity as a way to introduce writers and pen songs for specific artists or sync placements.

ASCAP will be hosting its third Song Camp in Nashville November 16, 17 and 18. This event will bring together 15 hit songwriters from the Latin, Urban, Pop and Country genres. Scheduled to participate are Alexander Acha, Jessi Alexander, Aureo Baqueiro, Darrell Brown, Leonel García, Ha*Ash, Yoel Henriquez, Brett James, Stevie J., Natalia Lafourcade, Rivers Rutherford, JD Souther, Chris Tompkins, and Craig Wiseman.

It will be the first time that a cross-genre group of ASCAP writers will participate in the three-day series of songwriting, recording and performing. Song Camp was established in 2008 by ASCAP’s Latin Department and has taken place in Miami and Monterrey, Mexico.

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oleFollowing on the heels of the third annual ole pop+urban songcamp in L.A., four of ole’s top songwriters flew to Berlin last month for an intensive three-day collaborative writing session co-presented with BMG Rights Management. The first-ever international event of its kind hosted by ole was dubbed Euro songcamp.

The European songcamp included ole writers Tebey, Steven Lee Olsen, Rupert Gayle, JC Smith, as well as, ole Chief Creative Officer and songwriter Gilles Godard, and Senior Creative Manager Elizabeth Spear. The writers specifically focused on key commercial projects presented by a number of record label A&R and top music supervisors.

Aimee Mayo Celebrates Million-Air Hits

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Pictured (back row) are BMI’s Mark Mason, David Preston, Beth Mason and Jody Williams; (front row) Aimee Mayo’s mother Becky Thornhill; Mayo’s husband and co-writer Chris Lindsey; and Aimee Mayo. (Photo by Drew Maynard)

Aimee Mayo recently celebrated several Million-Air Awards at Brown’s Diner, a Nashville eatery where she worked before making it big as a songwriter. The 2002 BMI Country Songwriter of the Year, Mayo received Million-Air awards for her impressive string of hits including Lonestar’s “Amazed,” which has generated more than 6 million performances; Martina McBride’s “This One’s for the Girls,” which has earned more than 2 million performances; and Tim McGraw’s “My Best Friend” and “Let’s Make Love,” featuring Faith Hill, and Kenny Chesney’s “Who You’d Be Today,” which have each generated more than 1 million performances.

CMT Features Sugarland Concert Special

Sugarland's Bush (L) and Nettles (R)

Sugarland's Bush (L) and Nettles (R)

Sugarland: Live On The Inside, the one-hour network television special featuring Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush’s Love On The Inside Tour will re-air exclusively on CMT beginning Friday, November 13 at 9 PM/CT and repeat numerous times throughout the month. The video was directed by Shaun Silva and filmed at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. It originally aired August 3 on the ABC Television Network.

Executive produced by Nettles, Bush, Gail Gellman and Jason Owen, the special is a Tacklebox Films production.

Nettles and Bush are also celebrating the triple platinum certification their debut album, Twice The Speed of Life.

Consumers Spending Less This Holiday

graph2Thirty percent of consumers say they will spend less money during the upcoming holiday shopping season than in years past, according to leading market research company The NPD Group, Inc. This is a slight increase from last year’s poll of consumers asking the same question.

The National Retail Federation is projecting holiday retail industry sales to decline 1% this year to $437.6 billion. While this number falls significantly below the 10-year average of 3.39% holiday season growth, the decline is not expected to be as dramatic as last year’s 3.4% drop in holiday retail sales.

A 3% decline in annual retail industry sales is expected for 2009 as a whole.

A separate survey by Burst Media says 85.3% of respondents will shop online this holiday.graph1

Opry Show To Stream On MySpace

carrie-newThe Grand Ole Opry, the world’s longest-running radio show, and MySpace are uniting to live stream an Opry performance with video for the first time. On Nov. 14, 9 – 10 p.m. ET fans can view the live show featuring Opry member and country superstar Carrie Underwood, CMA new artist nominee Jake Owen, and more. The show will be hosted on MySpace Music in cooperation with Ustream. For more information, go to myspace.com/grandoleopry.

Underwood will perform music from her just-released CD Play On, including the fastest-rising single of her career to date, “Cowboy Casanova.”

Opry performances are held every weekend of the year and the Tuesday Night Opry continues through Dec. 15. To plan an Opry visit, or to purchase packages, call (800) SEE-OPRY or log on to opry.com. The Opry is being staged at the historic Ryman Auditorium through Jan. 30, 2010. Fans can stay connected to the Opry via MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Bobby Karl Works the SESAC Awards

 Pictured (left to right): SESAC's Trevor Gale & Shannan Tipton-Neese, Monty Powell, Universal Tunes' Pat Higdon & SESAC's Tim Fink.

Pictured (left to right): SESAC's Trevor Gale & Shannan Tipton-Neese, Monty Powell, Universal Music Publishing's Pat Higdon, and SESAC's Tim Fink.

Chapter 326

We Are Family.

That concept was repeatedly invoked at Monday night’s SESAC banquet on Music Row (11/9). And, my, how the “family” has grown: The event is now double in size what it was just a few short years ago.

“I’m proud to be a member of the SESAC family,” said Songwriter of the Year winner Monty Powell. Monty won for his Keith Urban hits “Sweet Thing” and “Kiss a Girl,” and the former was named SESAC’s Country Song of the Year. He is also the co-writer of Urban’s new single, “’Til Summer Comes Around.”

“For me, it really is like a big family gathering,” said SESAC’s Tim Fink.

He pointed out that SESAC is the only performing rights organization that honors Americana songwriters and introduced a video montage that included SESAC Americana celebs Hayes Carl, Gurf Morlix, The Avett Brothers, Todd Snider, The Greencards, Band of Heathens, Kieran Kane, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jim Lauderdale.

sesacThis past Americana convention’s attendance was at an all-time high, Tim pointed out, adding that there is also now a Grammy Award for the category.

Dustin, Savannah and their father Kevin Welch accepted a SESAC Americana trophy. Peter Cooper picked up two. Carol Young, Joe Lee King, Colin Brooks and Kieran Kane were also Americana honorees. Bug Music’s Roger Murrah accepted for an absent Gurf Morlix. Also not attending was double Americana winner Bob Dylan.

Following opening remarks by Pat Collins and dinner, Trevor Gale announced, “a special performance from someone who is considered a song’s best friend…the one and only Joe Nichols.”

“This is a song from the record,” said Joe introducing a track from his new Old Things New collection. “It’s not the single, which I’m supposed to plug at every opportunity.”

He proceeded to stun the crowd with the ballad that closes the CD, “An Old Friend of Mine.” The song is about gaining sobriety, which the performer did not long ago. His emotional delivery of the extraordinary lyric drew gasps, shouts and a standing ovation.

“Wow,” said Tim, “that’s a powerful performance.”

The other performance during the event was a stirring, highly political song called “Across America,” sung by new SESAC signee Nanci Griffith with co-writers Charley Stefl and Thomm Jutz. It appears on Nanci’s CD The Loving Kind. Nanci, by the way, also referred to SESAC as her new “family.”

SESAC’s Shannon Tipton Neese and John Mullins joined Tim Fink for the presentation of the country awards. Honorees included Scooter Caruso (“Better as a Memory”), Tim Johnson (“Do You Believe Me Now”), Hillary Scott (“Looking for a Good Time,” “I Run to You” and “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore”), Brice Long (“Anything Goes”), Liz Rose (“You Belong with Me” and “White Horse”), Anthony Smith (“I Want My Life Back”), Kim Tribble (“One in Every Crowd”) and the afore mentioned Monty Powell.

Pat Higdon and Kent Earls accepted Publisher of the Year honors for Universal Tunes and Eden Valley Music.

I used to describe this banquet by writing something like, “SESAC celebrated in intimate elegance.” With more than 400 guests attending this year, it might not be quite so “intimate.” But it is still the most elegant of the performance rights events in Music City.

Gold and mauve metallic cloths covered the dining tables. Each held a centerpiece of massed crimson carnations, and the same flowers hung in globes from branches stationed throughout the cocktail tent. The dining tent’s chandeliers were crystal curtains and tubes that shimmered under pastel lights of various hues. Crystals were also tucked into the tent drapes. The entire room seemed to glitter.

Dinner was exquisite. We began with a salad with a pear center surrounded by mixed greens, spiced pecans and bleu cheese mousse drizzled with a raspberry balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The main course was pan-seared grouper over sautéed baby spinach, plus savory corn bread pudding and sliced beef tenderloin that you could cut with merely a fork. The irresistible (believe me, I tried) dessert was an apple cake truffle over pumpkin mousse topped with whipped cream. The brandy finale was a nice touch, too.

Gliding through the evening and looking fabulous were Lady Antebellum, Pam Rose, Billy & Jill Block, Butch Baker, Jamie Johnson of The Grascals, Burt Stein, Jerry Salley, Blaine Larsen, Scott Siman, Jim Zumwalt, Victoria Shaw, Richard Leigh, Roxie Dean, Gary Burr, Rick & Janis Carnes, Clay Myers, Pete Fisher, Nancy Shapiro, Troy Tomlinson, Nashville First Lady Anne Davis, Jed Hilly, Kira Florita, Ree Guyer Buchanan, Dwight Wiles, Tinti Moffatt, Frank Liddell, Gary Overton, Ben Vaughn, Kyle Young, Glenn Middleworth, David & Carolyn Corlew, David & Susana Ross, John Grady, Blake Chancey, Dan Hill, Kevin Lamb, Debbie Carroll, Jill Colucci, Jeff Walker, Gilles Godard and Pat Finch. The balmy fall evening weather could not have been more perfect.

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Country Music Week activities actually got underway the day before, on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon at Hall of Fame Park (11/8). This was a Music City Walk of Fame induction ceremony for Dolly Parton, Kid Rock, Charlie Daniels and the late Ernest Tubb and Tootsie Bess.

“It’s great to be married to the Mayor and be in love with the Governor,” said Dolly, referring to husband Carl Dean (who was not there), the similarly named Karl Dean (who was) and Gov. Phil Bredesen (also present).

Dolly remained in the spotlight Monday afternoon (11/9) via a screening and press conference for her new Live From London DVD at The Tracking Room.

“I love doing what I do, and I’m going to do it until the day I die,” vowed the ageless wonder. She swore that she will never retire.

In addition to a star-struck international press corps, her admirers included Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, George Jones and Charlie Monk.

Swift Set To Open CMA Awards

taylor_swift_13557It was announced today (11/8) that four-time nominee Taylor Swift will deliver the opening performance at Wednesday night’s (11/11) CMA Awards. The 43rd Annual CMA Awards, hosted by fellow nominees Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, will air live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on ABC.

Swift, who won the Horizon Award in 2007, received four nominations this year with Entertainer; Female; Album for Fearless; and Music Video for “Love Story.” She could receive a second trophy for producing Fearless with Nathan Chapman. At age 19, Swift is the youngest artist ever to be nominated for Entertainer. The last solo female artist to win the category was Shania Twain in 1999.

In addition to Swift, performers already announced include Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney and Dave Mathews, Billy Currington, Vince Gill and Daughtry, Kid Rock and Jamey Johnson, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, George Strait, Sugarland, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, and Zac Brown Band.

Announced as Awards presenters during “Country Music’s Biggest Night(tm)” are Dale Earnhardt Jr., Neil Flynn, Patricia Heaton, Julianne Hough, Randy Houser, The Judds, Kid Rock, Kris Kristofferson, Jake Owen, Kellie Pickler, LeAnn Rimes, Robin Roberts, and Lee Ann Womack. Love And Theft will host the Pre-Telecast Awards.

CMA Honors Walter C. Miller

(l-r) co-host of "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," Brad Paisley; CMA Chief Executive Officer, Tammy Genovese; Miller; daughter of Miller, Debbie Miller; CMA Awards Executive Producer, Robert Deaton; Former CMA Awards host and member of Country Music Hall of Fame, Vince Gill; and Director, CMA Awards and son of Miller, Paul Miller. Photographer: John Russell / CMA

(L-R) co-host of "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards" Brad Paisley; CMA CEO Tammy Genovese; Miller; daughter of Miller, Debbie Miller; CMA Awards Exec. Producer Robert Deaton; Former CMA Awards host and Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill; and Director, CMA Awards and son of Miller, Paul Miller.

The Country Music Association recently presented the Irving Waugh Award of Excellence to longtime and treasured former CMA Awards Executive Producer, Walter C. Miller. He was recognized for his 40-years of working with the CMA Awards, as producer, executive producer, and now consulting producer, on Friday, Nov. 6, at a reception in the Suite Level Lounge in the Sommet Center, attended by industry and CMA Board leaders.

Twelve-time host of the CMA Awards Vince Gill presented the Award, recalling, “Walter and I became fast friends and quickly learned to trust each other.”

“Country Music is my anthem,” said Miller. “After all this time, I’ve become an honorary Nashvillian. This is my second home.”

“For nearly four decades, Walter has contributed immeasurably to the success and popularity of the CMA Awards,” said CMA Chief Executive Officer Tammy Genovese. “His vision and passion for this program and our artists is an inspiration to those fortunate enough to have worked with him.”

Handed out at the CMA board’s discretion, the award has only been given to four other recipients since it was first presented to its namesake Irving Waugh in 1983. Other winners include Frances Preston, Jo Walker-Meador, and Johnny Cash.

Photos From The Walk of Fame Ceremony

Photo: Alan Mayor

(L-R): Kid Rock, Ernest Tubb Jr., Larry Weakley (grandson of Tootsie Bess), Charlie Daniels and Dolly Parton. Photo: Alan Mayor

Music City, Inc. yesterday (11/8) inducted the seventh class into the Music City Walk of Fame: Tootsie Bess, Charlie Daniels, Dolly Parton, Kid Rock and Ernest Tubb. The honorees were recognized officially with the unveiling of commemorative sidewalk markers in the Hall of Fame Park in downtown Nashville. The induction ceremony, sponsored by Great American Country, was free and open to the public. Gibson Guitar is the Walk’s founding sponsor.

Kid Rock and Zac Brown Photo: Alan Mayor

Kid Rock and Zac Brown. Photo: Alan Mayor

Dolly at her star. Photo: Alan Mayor

Dolly at her star. Photo: Alan Mayor