This year’s Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival Presented by Regions Bank, slated for April 2-April 6, will have an added wow factor for attendees.
Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley, American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi, Jake Owen, Sugarland’s Kristian Bush, Amy Grant, Pistol Annies’ Ashley Monroe and more will trade arena stages for intimate venues as part of Tin Pan South.
Last year, close to 350 talented songwriters performed 92 shows at several of Nashville’s music venues.
Owen will take the stage at The Listening Room Cafe’s early show at 6 p.m. on April 2, and Kelley will be featured during the late show beginning at 9 p.m. On April 3, Monroe will perform during the late show at Hard Rock Cafe Nashville, which starts at 9 p.m.  Grant will take the stage during the Listening Room Cafe’s early show, beginning at 6:30 p.m. on April 6. Bush and DioGuardi will entertain during The Listening Room Cafe on April 5 beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The event has also added two shows at 3rd & Lindsley, bringing the total number of music venues to 10.
Popular Fast Access passes have sold out. Tickets will be available at the door on a cash-only basis for most shows, on a first-come, first-served basis.
For up-to-date lineups, tickets, venues, schedules and other festival information, visit tinpansouth.com.
 

Several Nashvillians were involved with making a new document currently airing on Showtime. Family Band: The Cowsills Story was co-produced by Nashville based Thinking Bee Productions in association with Palcorp out of Los Angeles. The film was co-directed and edited by Nashville director Bill Filipiak. Also involved were Gamma Blast, David Shamban and Jo Hunt. 
The Cowsills was a charttopping family band from Rhode Island comprised of six siblings ranging from eight to 19, and their mother Barbara. The film is an honest look at the battle between the public image of charm and talent and their private reality of secrets and fear. It airs tonight (March 19) and through the month of March.

• • •

Gloriana will take part in Brides‘ magazine’s first-ever Brides Live Wedding event, where everything–from the winning couple to the color scheme to the first-dance song, performed by Gloriana–will be decided upon by Facebook “likes.” Hundreds of couples entered to win and Briana Hainley and Jason Schnitzer from Anaheim, Calif. were chosen. Fans can see Gloriana perform at the St. Regis Monarch Beach at Dana Point, Calif. by tuning in to the live-streamed wedding on April 7 at 4 p.m.
Fans can vote at Facebook.com/brideslivewedding starting today (March 19) and Wednesday (March 20) for the song Gloriana will perform for Briana and Jason’s first dance.
For each “like” that takes place leading up to the Brides Live Wedding, Brides will donate a dollar to the charity of the couple’s choosing, American Cancer Society. To further the charitable impact of the Brides Live Wedding, Gloriana and Brides will give $10,000 to the band’s charity of choice, ACM Lifting Lives, which is dedicated to improving lives through the power of music.

• • •

The deadline for the 2013 Unsigned Only Music Competition has been extended to April 16.
Unsigned Only is a music competition designed for solo artists, bands, and singers who are not signed to a major label record company or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or imprints. Judging criteria includes vocals, performance, originality and songwriting. There is also a category just for Vocal Performance which accepts songs that are not original, and a Teen category for artists 18 years and younger (which includes a scholarship to Berklee College Of Music’s five-week Summer Performance Program as part of the prize package).
The judging panel is comprised of leading recording artists and music journalists. Judges include: Chrissie Hynde; Cyndi Lauper; Iggy Pop; Carly Simon; John Oates; Eve; 3 Doors Down; Neon Trees; Brandi Carlile; Hunter Hayes; Manchester Orchestra; Black Francis; Ryan Bingham; Faith Evans; David Crowder; Craig Morgan; Robert Smith ; Darryl McDaniels; Of Monsters and Men; Wynonna; Aaron Shust; Kirko Bangz; G. Love; Jason Gray; Dustin Lynch; The Mountain Goats; Anthony DeCurtis (Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone); Josh Jackson (Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief, Paste Magazine); Vanessa Satten (Editor-In-Chief, XXL Magazine); Christopher Weingarten (Senior Editor, Spin) and Chris Richards (Pop Music Critic, The Washington Post).
For more information, visit unsignedonly.com.
 

With a career spanning four decades, Reba is a powerful recording artist, a dynamic and compelling performer, a shrewd businesswoman, a star of television, film and Broadway and a versatile entertainer. The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will pay tribute to this  multi-talented artist with the biographical cameo exhibition Reba: All the Women I Am, which opens in the museum’s East Gallery on Aug. 9, 2013, and runs through June 8, 2014.
“Reba is the most successful female country performer of her generation, and a major influence on many of the female recording artists who have followed her,” said Museum Director Kyle Young. “Her achievements and accolades are almost too numerous to mention: She has sold more than 40 million records, charted nearly 60 Top Ten singles and 24 #1 hits, and been honored with nearly 50 major awards, including two Grammy awards, the Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year award and the Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year award; she is also one of only four entertainers in history to receive the National Artistic Achievement Award from the U.S. Congress. And, of course, she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011.
“It’s impossible to overstate Reba’s impact on country music, and her contributions go well beyond recording,” Young continued. “She heightened production values for country concerts, adding elaborate stages, video screens and multiple costume changes. Such innovations are now de rigueur on the tours of top country artists. Furthermore, through her work on Broadway, in film, and as the star of two television comedies, Reba has helped to heighten and expand the profile of country music, lifting all boats in her magnificent wake. We are looking forward to telling the rich, inspiring and always entertaining story of one of country music’s brightest lights.”
Reba Nell McEntire was born in McAlester, Okla. on March 28, 1955, and grew up in Chockie, Okla., on a cattle ranch. Influenced by their mother, Jackie, who was a talented singer, Reba and her siblings Pake and Susie began performing as the Singing McEntires while in high school.
In 1974, Reba sang the national anthem at the National Rodeo Finals in Oklahoma City; cowboy singer Red Steagall heard her and financed a recording session, which led to her signing with Mercury Records in 1975.  She garnered her first NO. 1 singles in 1982 and 1983 with “Can’t Even Get the Blues” and “You’re the First Time I’ve Thought About Leaving.”
After a move to MCA Records in 1983, Reba produced a slew of now-classic country hits including “How Blue,” “Somebody Should Leave,” “Whoever’s in New England,” “The Last One to Know” and many more. During this time, music videos became an important vehicle for reaching fans; Reba’s clip for “Whoever’s in New England” sparked an interest in acting, and in 1990 she appeared in her first film, Tremors.  She went on to appear in 10 more films, to date.
In March 1991, Reba suffered a personal tragedy when seven members of her band, her road manager, and the pilot and co-pilot of a chartered private jet were killed in a plane crash.  Reba took an extended break from touring and recorded the album For My Broken Heart.  The record, which included “Is There Life Out There” and “The Greatest Man I Never Knew,” became one of her best sellers.
Throughout the 1990s, Reba continued her chart success:  Her many hits during the decade include “The Heart Won’t Lie” (with Vince Gill), “Does He Love You” (with Linda Davis) and “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”
In January 2001, Reba starred in the Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun.  She parlayed that success into  her own comedy series, Reba, from 2001 to 2007, Reba starred in her own hit comedy series, Reba. In 2008, she left MCA Records and signed with Valory Music Group, a subsidiary of Big Machine Records.  Her first album for the label, Keep on Loving You, was released in August 2009; it featured the No. 1 single “Consider Me Gone.”
In 1988 Reba founded Starstruck Entertainment, a multi-dimensional corporation encompassing booking, management, music publishing, a recording studio and transportation services.  In 1989, she married her manager, Narvel Blackstock; he continues to oversee Starstruck’s many enterprises.
Although Reba was awarded country music’s highest honor in 2011 with her election to the Country Music Hall of Fame, her career shows no signs of slowing down:  She is currently starring in the ABC comedy Malibu Country; her most recent album, All the Women I Am, spawned the No. 1 hit “Turn on the Radio.”

Tim McGraw’s biography will be told in Bluewater Productions’ FAME: Tim McGraw, a bio-comic. The bio-comic, which will be released tomorrow (March 20), was written by David A. McIntee and brought to visual life by artist Jed Mickle. The cover was painted by William Sleeper.
“It was fun to do,” McIntee said, of working on the comic. “Tim has had a wider career and area of interest than people might think. I loved the chance to do something with a hint of the Western, to go with the musical genre. I think his fans will enjoy that tone to it.”
This is not Bluewater’s first foray into the country music world. The comic book publisher recently released a bio-comic on Taylor Swift. Bluewater also has Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley comic books in production.
To order the comic book in print exclusively at Comic Flea Market for $3.99, click here.
Digital copies will also be available for $1.99. Download the comic to your e-reader from iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Books, DriveThru Comics, Wowio, iVerse, and more.