Artist Snapshots (3-26-13)

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Restless Heart visited Larry’s Country Diner recently to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary.

larrys country diner111

Photo Credit: Phil Johnson

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At Saturday’s Grand Ole Opry, Arista Nashville’s Kristen Kelly is shown here welcoming “Walmart singer” Kayla Sloan to Music City. Kayla – a Logan, W.V., Walmart employee who sings to shoppers at the store and has become an internet sensation – made her debut at the Opry, and received a standing ovation.

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Kristen Kelly with Kayla Sloan

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Brett Eldredge (Atlantic/WMN) stopped into St. Louis on Taylor Swift’s Red Tour. He visited with Danny Montana of WIL.

BE WIL Danny Montana111

Pictured (L-R): WMN’s Mark Niederhauser, Brett Eldredge, and WIL’s Danny Montana.

Industry Ink (3-26-13)

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rymanNashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium has been named Venue of the Year by the Academy of Country Music. This marks the third time that the iconic venue has been honored with the industry-voted award. The 48th annual ACM Awards show will be held Sunday, April 7, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and televised live at 8:00 p.m. ET on CBS.
Industry awards, including Venue of the Year, will be formally presented September 10 at the Ryman during the ACM Honors event.
 

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desalvo11DeSalvo Law Firm PLLC has relocated its office from historic Germantown to West End Avenue at 18th Avenue near the Row. The firm, specializing in entertainment, copyright, and trademark law, now can be found at 1720 West End Avenue, Suite 403, Nashville, TN 37203. Founding member and industry veteran, Ramona P. DeSalvo, says, “We are growing over the next few months, adding new attorneys, and offering a broader range of creative services.” Sharing the new space is entertainment attorney Christian Barker who holds a B.A. from the University of Tennessee, an MBA and J.D. from Stetson University in Florida, and a Master of Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School. Barker also attended the year-long Intellectual Property Exchange at University of New Hampshire School of Law.
For more information about the firm, please contact (615) 600-4741.

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March Music, Inc. and LioLamb Music are under new ownership. Staff for the companies include President Kimberly Mullen (also of Granite Music Group/Rock Solid Granite Music), David Allen Haggard (Creative Director), Chad Mullen (Sr. Director of Marketing) and Shelby Mullen (Administrative Director). March Music Inc., LioLamb Music and Granite Music have also welcomed new staff writer Corey Lee Barker to their roster. The Granite Group can be reached here.

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Warner Music Nashville’s Northeast Regional Promotion representative Katie Bright and husband Grant welcomed their first child, William Leo Christenson, on March 21 at 8:49 p.m. Christenson weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz and was 21 inches long. Congratulate Katie here.

leo christianson1111

 
 
 

ACM Opens Voting for Entertainer of the Year, New Artist of the Year

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Fan voting for Entertainer of the Year and New Artist of the Year is now open for the 48th Annual Academy of Country Music awards. Fans can vote at voteACM.com.
The awards will be given out during the 48th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, to be broadcast live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 7, beginning at 8 p.m. ET on the CBS Television Network. 
Entertainer of the Year voting (powered by the Ram Truck Brand) will give fans the opportunity to vote for the Academy’s top honor. Nominees include Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift. ACM New Artist of the Year presented by Kohls nominees include Brantley Gilbert, Jana Kramer and Florida Georgia Line.
Nominees are doing everything they can to garner votes. Swift, up for Entertainer of the Year, recently posted a Vote ACM photo online, featuring an image of Swift as a 6-year-old.

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Gilbert, a New Artist of the Year nominee, also posted an artistic photo encouraging fans to vote.

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Kramer posted a video encouraging her fans’ votes for New Artist of the Year.
http://youtu.be/fLk2IRLp-hI
Florida Georgia Line also posted a series of videos reminding fans to vote for the duo as New Artist of the Year.

 

Music Films at the Nashville Film Festival

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naffThe Nashville Film Festival (NaFF), scheduled for April 18-25 at Regal Green Hills Cinema, will offer numerous music-related films. Here are a few of the highlights, as well as a list of the major features which will be shown before their national release. See the complete line up at nashvillefilmfestival.org.
Select Music Films
Beware of the Dogs (Director: Jeff Kennedy) The Sheepdogs were thousands of dollars in debt and struggling to break out of their native Saskatchewan when their demo won a contest that landed them on the cover of Rolling Stone. Featuring Kid Rock and Jimmy Fallon and live performances by the band. World Premiere.
FOLK (Director: Sara Terry) FOLK follows singer-songwriters of different ages Raina Rose, Hilary Claire Adamson and Dirk Hamilton. World Premiere.
Good Ol’ Freda (Director: Ryan White) Freda Kelly, The Beatles’ loyal secretary, tells her stories for the first time in 50 years.
Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts (Director: Jeremy Dylan) Grammy-winner Lauderdale is an Americana stalwart. His story is told through interviews with him, Elvis Costello, Buddy Miller, John Oates, Jerry Douglas, and many more.
Muscle Shoals (Director: Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier) Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge, Gregg Allman, Clarence Carter, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Bono, and others bear witness to the importance of the ‘Muscle Shoals Sound’ and FAME Studios.
Music Wood (Director: Maxine Trump) Famed guitar-makers travel to remote Southeast Alaska to negotiate with Native American loggers.
This Ain’t No Mouse Music! (Director: Chris Simon, Maureen Gosling) Chris Strachwitz (Arhoolie Records) takes viewers on a hip-shaking stomp from Texas to New Orleans, Cajun country to Appalachia, searching for the musical soul of America.
Very Extremely Dangerous (Director: Paul Duane, Nation: Ireland) Jerry McGill slipped from a rock ’n’ roll career into a life of crime, robbing banks and running from the FBI while touring and appearing in movies.
Presentation Films
Opening Night Selection (April 18): Mud (Director: Jeff Nichols) – Starring Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Paul Sparks. An outlaw on the run searches for his true love and a clean getaway.
Closing Night Selection (April 25): Unfinished Song (Director: Paul Andrew Williams) – Starring Terrence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave, this film about seniors joining a singing group led by a charming and youthful director is said to make viewers laugh and cry.
Dead Man’s Burden (Director: Jared Moshe) – Starring Clare Bowen (from Nashville TV show). Set in New Mexico during the Civil War, this violent Western depicts a family in the lethal grip of its own civil war.
Hits from the Sundance Film Festival: The Kings of Summer, Sightseers, The Spectatular Now and Stories We Tell.
Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Film: Kon-Tiki.

Pistol Party Presses Plastic

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pistol annies annie up“It ain’t final until it’s vinyl.”
That’s a saying people used to have about the vicissitudes of the music business. For the Pistol Annies, the slogan was revived via a listening party staged at United Record Pressing on Monday (March 25).
“We got to see our album actually being pressed, which is cool,” said group member Miranda Lambert at the event. “This is an album that’s meant to be vinyl.”
Guests toured the record-pressing plant, which was making gold-colored vinyl LPs of the group’s new Annie Up as they entered. In the event space upstairs, they then listened to selections from it.
“This place reminds us of why we got into the music business,” said Sony Chairman & CEO Gary Overton. “It was for those big, round things with grooves.”
Annie Up producers Frank Liddell, Chuck Ainlay and Glenn Worf presided. Liddell said that the female trio’s music had grown “exponentially” since its first album. Worf described the new album as “a brave record and a beautiful record.” Ainlay said it was in stark contrast to, “this era of paint-by-numbers records.”
“Their sense of artistry is astonishing, making their music on their own terms,” added Worf. “They’re among the most fearless people I’ve ever known. These three women have more balls than all of our male country artists.”
The producers first played the finger-popping, bluesy “I Feel a Sin Comin’ On,” which opens the album. The acoustic rocker “Damn Thing” features a throbbing upright bass and washboard percussion. “Girls Like Us” is a husky femme ballad. The thumping “Unhappily Married” drew audience chuckles with its tongue-in-cheek lyrics. The sweet, album-closing “I Hope You’re the End of My Story” is a waltz-time romance.
After the tunes, Pistol Annies members Ashley Monroe, Lambert and Angaleena Presley greeted the guests. “Did y’all like it?” asked Monroe. She was answered with a resounding cheer. “You’re all invited to my house for a jukebox party,” offered Presley.
Ainlay told the crowd that the album was recorded with the three women sitting in a circle facing one another. “It was essentially that easy and that fun,” he said. “Go out and sell this record for us, so that we get to go back and do this again.”
As guests departed, they were presented with the finished, gold-colored, vinyl copies of the album.
 
 
 
 
 

MusicRowPics: Second Annual Rising Women on the Row

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The second annual MusicRow “Rising Women on the Row” breakfast at Maggiano’s (Friday, March 22) sponsored by City National Bank gathered folks from throughout the community to schmooze and to honor five women who are making their marks on the Nashville music industry.
The honorees this year were UMPG’s Cyndi Forman, Creative Nation’s Beth Laird, Monarch Publicity’s Cindy Heath, the CMA’s Brandi Simms and UMG’s Cindy Mabe.
See photos from the event below.
 
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George Strait To Release 'Love Is Everything' May 14

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george strait album2211111George Strait is set to release his highly anticipated 40th studio album, Love Is Everything, on May 14 on longtime label home MCA Nashville. Strait rejoined veteran producer Tony Brown to co-produce the album, which features 13 new tracks. Love Is Everything includes four songs written or co-written by Strait, who penned many alongside his son Bubba Strait and songwriter Dean Dillon.  Love Is Everything will be available in stores and at all digital retailers.
In the midst of his two-year final U.S. tour, The Cowboy Rides Away Tour, Strait recently set an all-time attendance record at Reliant Center when he closed out this year’s Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, performing to a crowd of 80,020 fans. The tour has so far sold out 16 of 16 venues played.
‘Love Is Everything’ track listing:
1.  I Got A Car
2.  Give It All We Got Tonight
3.  Blue Melodies
4.  I Just Can’t Go On Dying Like This
5.  I Thought I Heard My Heart Sing
6.  That’s What Breaking Hearts Do
7.  When Love Comes Around Again
8.  The Night Is Young
9.  Sittin’ On The Fence
10.  I Believe
11.  Love Is Everything
12.  You Don’t Know What You’re Missing
13.  When The Credits Roll
 
 

Artist Updates (3-25-13)

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Katie Armiger was recently invited to become an honorary “Friends and Family” member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Pictured (L-R): Rachel Weingartner (Membership Manager, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum), Pamela Johnson (Vice President of Development, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum), Karen Krieschen (Cold River Records), Jay Orr (Vice President, Programs), Erica Johnson (Cold River Records), and Katie Armiger

Pictured (L-R): Rachel Weingartner (Membership Manager, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum), Pamela Johnson (Vice President of Development, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum), Karen Krieschen (Cold River Records), Jay Orr (Vice President, Programs), Erica Johnson (Cold River Records), and Katie Armiger.

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RED Bow Records’ Rachel Farley  stepped onto the famous Grand Ole Opry stage on Friday (March 15) for the first time in her musical career. The evening was quite surreal for Farley, considering it was only six years prior that she visited the Opry as a spectator to see one of her musical idols, Martina McBride, during her very first trip to Nashville.
“The first step in that circle, you always hear people talk about it, but wow,” Farley told America’s Opry Weekend immediately following her performance. “Wow, I mean, you just had to take a deep breath and take it in. It was amazing.”

Photo 1: Pictured (L-R): Shelley Hargis, Michael Knox, Rachel Farley, Pete Fisher. Photo 2: Rachel Farley makes her Grand Ole Opry debut.

Photo 1: Pictured (L-R): Shelley Hargis, Michael Knox, Rachel Farley, Pete Fisher. Photo 2: Rachel Farley makes her Grand Ole Opry debut.

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steak and burger dinner111The Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee (Williamson County Club locations – Fairview & Franklin) will host the 24th Annual Steak & Burger Dinner on May 2, 2013. This year’s event will feature CCM artist Michael W. Smith. The event will begin at 6 p.m. and features a silent auction, a dinner and a performance from Smith. As adults enjoy hamburgers, Club kids will be treated to a special steak dinner. Each table will consist of six adults and two kids so that event attendees learn about the kids in a unique setting.

Event proceeds support educational programs and outreach to over 500 kids, ages 5 to 18, served annually at the two Williamson County Club locations (Fairview & Franklin). Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee operates five Club locations in both Davidson and Williamson Counties and serves over 2,000 kids total annually. More information can be found at www.SteakAndBurgerDinner.com.

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lynch2Dustin Lynch will make his late night TV debut tonight (Monday, March 25) when he performs his current single “She Cranks My Tractor” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The performance is slated for 10:35 p.m. CT.

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Collin Raye, Mark Wills, Jim Ed Brown, Jan Howard, Eddy Raven and David Ball provided their support to the newly launched HonorOne Campaign by recording public service announcements and detailing their personal experiences with the military.
The PSAs challenge Americans to make a pledge of $10 to the organization which assists service men honorone111and women and their families. For each $10 spent at HonorOne.org, the supporter will receive a God Bless the USA Reminder Coin. 100 percent of the profits are donated to the best military charities, including those that provide vital family and post-traumatic stress disorder counseling for soldiers returning from the battlefield. For more information, or to support the HonorOneCampaign, please visit honorone.org.
 

Trace Adkins Taps Collaborators For "Love Will…"

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traceadkinsTrace Adkins rounded up numerous collaborators for his upcoming album, Love Will... Set for release May 14 via Show Dog-Universal Music the project features guests Colbie Caillat, the Harlem Gospel Choir and Exile. His eleventh studio album has tracks produced by Tony Brown, Mark Wright, Frank Rogers, Kenny Beard and Mickey Cones.
Each week until the release, fans can hear a new song at www.TraceAdkins.com. This week, fans can stream “Watch The World End” featuring Caillat.
The Harlem Gospel Choir backs Adkins on the title track “Love Will” and Exile joined him on a new version of one of the band’s biggest radio hits, “Kiss You All Over.”
Fans can pre-order Love Will… via online retailers beginning April 2. Those who pre-order on iTunes will receive an instant download of “Watch The World End.”
Also at www.TraceAdkins.com, fans can complete online tasks to win prizes, including a trip to the live finale of All-Star Celebrity Apprentice in New York City or a cruise aboard Country Cruising 2014.
Adkins has career sales totaling over 10 million units.
Love Will… track listing
1. When I Stop Loving You*
2. So What If I Do**
3. Come See Me***
4. Right Now**
5. Every One Of You**
6. The Altar Of Your Love***
7. Kiss You All Over (Featuring Exile)***
8. If The Sun Comes Up***
9. Say No To A Woman
10. Watch The World End (Featuring Colbie Caillat)
11. Love Will (Featuring Harlem Gospel Choir)
Produced by Frank Rogers
*Produced by Tony Brown & Mickey Jack Cones
**Produced by Mark Wright, Kenny Beard & Mickey Jack Cones
***Produced by Kenny Beard & Mickey Jack Cones

Big Deal Music Signs Administration Agreement with BMG

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big deal musicBig Deal Music, the newly formed publishing company reuniting longtime Chrysalis Music colleagues Kenny MacPherson, Dave Ayers and Jamie Cerreta with Michael McDonald and Pete Robinson, have signed an expansive administration agreement with BMG.
Under the agreement, BMG will provide global state-of-the-art administration and pro-active exploitation services to the Big Deal catalog in North America, Germany, UK, Scandinavia, France, Benelux, Spain & Italy. The deal further provides a framework, when appropriate, for the two companies to sign talent jointly.
Big Deal will continue in its mission of finding and nurturing unique talent. Artists already signed to the Big Deal roster include My Morning Jacket, Jim James, The Black Angels, Ethan Johns, Missy Higgins, FIDLAR, The Walkmen, Korey Dane and songwriters Brad Tursi and Lee Anna McCollum.
“We’re all very happy to be in business with BMG,” MacPherson commented. “Several of us have a long history with Chrysalis Music so there’s a comfort level here knowing we’ll be working alongside many of our friends. We look forward to growing our business along with them.”
Hartwig Masuch, CEO of BMG Rights Management, said: “I am absolutely excited to be working closely with Kenny again, one of the most credible people in the music industry and somebody I’ve known since our days at Warner Chappell in the late ’80s.”
Laurent Hubert, president Creative & Marketing at BMG Chrysalis US, added, “Kenny, Dave and Jamie at Big Deal are proven A&R aces. We are thrilled to pair our creative visions and administer a company focused on maximizing opportunities for exceptional songwriters.”