Nashville Songwriters Festival Coming in June

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The Nashville Songwriters Festival on Music Row is set for Friday—Sunday, June 1-3. More than 400 emerging songwriters will take the stage at establishments on Demonbreun including Dan McGuinness, Red Rooster, Tin Roof, Otter’s Chicken & Brew, and First Citizen’s Bank. Music runs noon-midnight all three days.

The Best Western Music Row will host music industry booths and training sessions from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Attendees can receive advice on songwriting, recording, publishing, song plugging, contracts, video production, management and publicity.

Festival registration is $150 for three days, $110 for two days, and $60 for one day. A $20 armband allows admission to the concerts. Details and registration at songwritersfestival.org. For further assistance, email [email protected] or call (615) 424-1491.

Brad Paisley Appears on South Park Tonight

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Brad Paisley was invited to the South Park Studios in California this past weekend to be a part of an upcoming episode of the infamous animated series. He collaborated with the show’s developers and will appear twice in the episode, which airs tonight (4/25) at 9 pm CT on Comedy Central.

In his first scene Paisley, who plays a cartoon version of himself, is introduced and sings the national anthem as a lead-in to a Denver Nuggets basketball game. Later in the show his character duets with Cartman, one of the show’s main characters.

Paisley documented his visit on twitter @BradPaisley.

Zac Brown Announces New Album, Introduces New Member

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The Zac Brown Band has returned to the studio to work on its forthcoming album Uncaged, which is set for release on July 10 on Atlantic Records/Southern Ground Artists. The album will also mark the official debut of ZBB’s newest member, percussionist Daniel de los Reyes.

Influenced by guest performer Trombone Shorty and past appearances with Kings of Leon, Zac Brown tells AP that the line-up “creates a new kind of pulse within the band…” and the music is “really about making people dance.”

The band is currently nominated for Billboard Music Awards’ Top Country Artist and for two CMT Awards, Collaborative Video Of The Year (“Knee Deep” f/ Jimmy Buffet) and Best Group Video (“Keep Me In Mind”).

Toby Keith Celebrates a Decade of USO Tours

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Toby Keith signs autographs for US troops overseas

Toby Keith is celebrating 10 years of working with the USO and touring the world to support US troops and their families. The superstar country artist is currently in the middle of a 14 day journey through the Middle East, including entertaining and visiting military personnel in Bahrain and aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

“I can’t believe it has already been a decade, it feels like just yesterday when I first started working with the USO,” said Keith. “I’ve met so many great, brave service men and women over the years and had so many wonderful experiences, that I can barely remember them all. One thing is for sure, I enjoy working with the USO, I love our nation’s troops, and I won’t ever stop doing my part to extend my thanks.”

Since his first USO tour in 2002, Keith’s travels have taken him to over 14 countries including Afghanistan, Belgium, Bosnia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia and more. He has performed over 211 USO shows and meet & greets to date, in front of a total of 182,600 service men and women.

2012 “Best Lawyers” List Released

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The 2012 edition of Best Lawyers In America includes many Nashville entertainment attorneys who were selected based on peer review.

Attorney Derek Crownover is Nashville’s newest addition to the book for 2012, in the field of Entertainment Law—Music. Crownover is the most recent past president and current legal counsel for the Nashville chapter of the TJ Martell Foundation.

Additionally, many other local lawyers have been included for a decade or longer. Attorneys who appear in the book are listed below in alphabetical order. This is a partial list based on information available on BestLawyers.com. The complete list is available in the print edition. Nationwide, only 96 entertainment lawyers were included.

Orville Almon, Jr., Almon Law, PLLC
Karl Braun, Hall Booth Smith & Slover, PC
John C. Beiter, Shackelford, Zumwalt & Hayes
Derek Crownover, Crownover Blevins PC
Linda Edell Howard, Adams and Reese LLP
Robin Mitchell Joyce
Joel A. Katz and three attorneys from Atlanta based Greenberg Traurig LLP
D. Page Kelley, Milom Horsnell Crow Rose Kelley PLC
Philip M. Kirkpatrick, Dickinson Wright PLLC
Samuel D. Lipshie, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
W. Michael Milom, Milom Horsnell Crow Rose Kelley PLC
Denise M. Stevens, Loeb & Loeb LLP

If you are an attorney and your name should be included above, please email [email protected].

DISClaimer Single Reviews (4/25/12)

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This is the time to shine for Lee Brice.

As a singer, songwriter and record maker, he is firing on all eight cylinders. As a singer, he had Billboard’s most-played country single of 2010 with “Love Like Crazy.” As a songwriter, he had Billboard’s most-played country single of 2011 with The Eli Young Band’s rendition of his “Crazy Girl.” That same song earned him the 2012 ACM award for Song of the Year. You will recall that in 2007, he was the cowriter of “More Than a Memory” by Garth Brooks, the only song to debut at No. 1 on the charts. Yesterday, his Hard 2 Love CD hit the stores with a bang. Its leadoff single, “A Woman Like You” rules the hit parade at No. 1. In addition, this week, Lee Brice lands his first Disc of the Day award from “DisClaimer” with the album’s title tune.

And he’s not the only one with a happening track today. The Lionel Richie & Billy Currington duet, Sawyer Brown, Bucky Covington and Due West all gave Lee a run for his money.

Our DisCovery Award goes to Herrick. The four-piece band enlisted Michael Bonagura of Baillie & The Boys to produce 10 tracks of its album, plus four “bonus” tunes produced by Buddy Cannon. Not too shabby, eh? The group’s debut full-length CD is titled New Dance. It will pin your ears back.

LOCASH COWBOYS/C.O.U.N.T.R.Y.
Writer: Chris Lucas/Preston Brust/Jeffrey Steele; Producer: Jeffrey Steele; Publisher: Sony-ATV Cross Keys/Sony-ATV Tree/Jeffrey Steele/BPJ, ASCAP/BMI; R&J
—This is not the same song that Joe Diffie had with this title in 1996. No indeedy. This one is an amped-up, super-electrified rocker that has next to nothing to do with actual country music. I’ll take Diffie’s tune any day.

CRAIG MORRISON/Fences
Writer: none listed; Producer: Mark Moffatt; Publisher: none listed; CMM (track) (www.craigmorrisonmusic.com)
—This Aussie cracks the U.S. country marketplace with a gently rolling social statement about the nature of barricades in our lives. Well written and expertly produced, it’s a mighty promising debut.

BUCKY COVINGTON/I Wanna Be That Feeling
Writer: Jimmy Yeary/Ben Hayslip; Producer: none listed; Publisher: Black to Black/Get a Load of This/Warner Chappell, BMI/ASCAP; Entertainment One (www.buckycovington.com)
—Hearty and engaging, this comeback single has plenty of melodic oomph and production excitement. With pile-driving punch a-plenty, it’s exceedingly radio friendly. A real contender.

DUE WEST/Things You Can’t Do in a Car
Writer: Brad Hull; Producer: none listed; Publisher: Hull to Pay/Offer You Can’t Refuse, BMI; Black River
—In praise of pickup trucks, this jaunty little number bubbles and bounces in all the right places.

SAWYER BROWN/Ain’t Goin’ Out That Way
Writer: Robert Ellis Orall/Stephen Barker Liles/Brad Douglas Warren/Brett Daniel Warren; Producer: Mark Miller; Publisher: Orall Fixation/It’s a Birthday Party/Rockapop/Stylsonic/EMI Blackwood, ASCAP/BMI; Beach Street (CDX)
—The country-rock arrangement is sunny and bright, yet the gritty, poor-boy lyric is a downbeat contrast. I dig the dogged, determined message as well as the insanely catchy track.

PAT GREEN/All Just to Get to You
Writer: none listed; Producer: none listed; Publisher: none listed; Sugar Hill (ERG)
—The song is terrific, as is his vocal delivery. He should have been surrounded with a more lustrous or muscular production instead of this somewhat spare one. But the performance and composition are so strong that they carry the day nevertheless.

MARK WAYNE GLASMIRE/I Like You
Writer: Mark Wayne Glasmire; Producer: John Albani & John Wayne Glasmire; Publisher: Traceway, ASCAP; Traceway (track) (www.markwayneglasmire.com)
—I have consistently enjoyed this artist’s releases. But this faux-beach, pseudo-Buffett style of country music is among my least favorites. Pass.

LEE BRICE/Hard to Love
Writer: Billy Montana/John Ozier/Ben Glover; Producer: Kyle Jacobs & Matt McClure; Publisher: Mike Curb/Dandon Ranch/Over the Bar/91 One/Arose/EMICMG, BMI/ASCAP; Curb (track)
—Lee is coming off a chart topper (”A Woman Like You”) and remains a strong up-and-comer, so this release is crucial to his forward momentum. I think it will do the trick just fine. The insistent tune, steady rhythm, earnest vocal and true-to-life lyric are all ear tickling. Up, up, up it goes.

HERRICK/Cry Memphis
Writer: Donna Herrick/Kerry Herrick/David Walker; Producer: Buddy Cannon; Publisher: none listed; BreakAway (track) (www.herricklive.com)
—I like it, I like it. The song has a cool, moody, minor-key tune and a dramatic, girl-gone-wrong lyric. Donna’s lead vocal is supported by the band’s ultra-haunting harmonies. Captivating.

LIONEL RICHIE & BILLY CURRINGTON/Just for You
Writer: Lionel Richie/Paul Barry/Mark Taylor; Producer: Tony Brown & Lionel Richie; Publisher: none listed; Mercury Nashville (track) ()
—The songs on Richie’s new Tuskegee CD of country duets are his familiar classics. Except for this one. Evidently, it was a hit in Europe, but it only got to No. 92 on the U.S. pop charts (in 1994). Leave it to song-magnet Currington to wind up with this deliciously melodic, hypnotically rhythmic jewel as his selection on the disc. No one, but no one, writes songs this perfectly pristine as Lionel Richie does. Music to make your heart sing.

Musicians Corner Begins Season With Cinco de Mayo Celebration

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Musicians Corner will kick off its third season on Sat., May 5 with a beer & wine garden and Cinco de Mayo celebration with main stage performances from 3 – 6 pm.

May 5 will kick off with a Cinco de Mayo celebration highlighting Latin Salsa band Afinke, in addition to musical performances by Sugar & The Hi Lows, The Fisk Jubilee Singers, Escondido, Anderson East, Rayvon Owen and Punchinello. Additionally, a mobile food court lunch will be offered from 11 am – 3 pm with The Dog of the Day Award presentation, Kidsville activities including decorating maracas, and giveaways.

The Musicians Corner Seasonal Beer Garden opens at 2 pm, one hour before the main stage performances each Saturday through June 30. The garden will be located next to the main performance stage for legal drinking-aged attendees. Wine is expected to become available at future date from Arrington Vineyards. Developed in partnership with R.S. Lipman, the beer garden will highlight the local brews including Yazoo and Hap and Harry’s.

The 2012 Spring Season will also include main stage performances by Capitol Records artist Lighter Ray (June 9), The Hogslop String Band (June 17), Kopecky Family Band (June 23) and The Farewell Drifters (June 30).

For more information, click here.

Apartment Complex Coming To Music Row/Belmont Area

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Construction will begin this summer on an apartment complex at the southwest corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Wedgewood Avenue, according to the Nashville Post. This will be the second new residential development in and around Music Row, as construction is underway on Note 16 apartments at the corner of 16th Ave. and Horton.

The just-announced three-story, 15-unit building will have an estimated cost of $2.5 million, reports The Post.

Nashville-based Core Development Services and local real estate investor Donald Seitz are behind the as-yet-unnamed apartment building. They expect to tear down an existing building in July, begin construction in August, and finish the project in summer 2013.

Developers report the exterior will have a similar look and feel as other existing buildings in the neighborhood.

Marty Stuart’s New Album Hits Stores Today

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Grammy winner Marty Stuart has released Nashville, Volume 1: Tear the Woodpile Down, his third album for Sugar Hill Records, to stores today (4/24). The 10 song collection was written almost entirely by Marty and features his touring band the Fabulous Superlatives plus guest vocals from Buck Trent, Kenny Lovelace, Robbie Turner, Hank Williams III, and Lorrie Carter Bennett. Full tracklist is below.

The collection aims to be a journey back to the traditional country music Stuart loved when he first arrived in Nashville in 1972.

“When I reconnected with traditional country music I found myself, my calling,” says Stuart. “The kind that is timeless, beautiful, beyond trend, the empowering force, the reflection of a people and a culture.  The kind of country music that the working man and scholars alike call home.  The job seemed to be to champion it, love it, protect it, care for its people, attempt to write a new chapter for it and to make sure that everybody understands that it’s alive and well in the 21st century.”

Stuart also hosts the Marty Stuart Show on RFD TV, providing a platform for some of Nashville’s classic artists on national television. Check out his upcoming tour dates here.

Nashville, Volume 1: Tear the Woodpile Down tracklisting:

1. Tear The Woodpile Down (Feat. Buck Trent)
2. Sundown In Nashville
3. A Matter Of Time (Feat. Kenny Lovelace)
4. Hollywood Boogie
5. Holding On To Nothing (Feat. Buck Trent)
6. Truck Driver’s Blues
7. Going, Going, Gone
8. The Lonely Kind
9. A Song Of Sadness (Feat. Lorrie Carter Bennett)
10. Picture From Life’s Other Side (Feat. Hank3)

CMT to Present Big New Music Weekend

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Beginning Friday, April 27 at 6 am ET/PT., CMT’s Big New Music Weekend will unveil 12 brand new country music videos, paired alongside some of the biggest recent hits.

The event will include exclusive world premieres by Lady Antebellum (“Perfect Day”); Lee Brice (“Hard to Love”); Kix Brooks featuring Joe Walsh (“New to This Town”); a new version of Thompson Square’s “Glass;” Easton Corbin (“Lovin’ You is Fun”); David Nail (“The Sound of a Million Dreams”); Dustin Lynch (“Cowboys and Angels”); Aaron Lewis (“Endless Summer”); JT Hodges (“Goodbyes Made You Mine”); Casey James (“Cryin’ On A Suitcase-Live”); Thomas Rhett (“Something To Do With My Hands”) and Sonia Leigh (“Bar”). Additionally, the weekend will include the newest videos by superstars Carrie Underwood; Miranda Lambert; Jason Aldean; Rascal Flatts; Luke Bryan; Taylor Swift with The Civil Wars; Eric Church; Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw; Martina McBride and Train; and Kelly Clarkson.

Many of the featured premiere videos will include a personal introduction by the artist.  Additionally, all of the Big New Music Weekend videos will be highlighted across CMT’s digital platforms including CMT.com, Facebook and @FollowCMT on Twitter.