Mark Your Calendar – May 2013
Single Releases
May 6
Scotty McCreery/See You Tonight/Mercury-19-Interscope
Chuck Wicks/Salt Life/McGhee
Thomas Rhett/It Goes Like This/Valory
Amber Hayes/Any Day is a Good Day/A OK
May 13
Joe Nichols/Sunny and 75/Red Bow
Chris Young/Aw Naw/RCA
Trace Adkins (feat. Colbie Caillat)/Watch The World End/Show Dog–Universal-New Revolution
Frank Ortega/Two Places at Once/Villa One Records
Lee Brice/Parking Lot Party/Curb
Mark Chesnutt/When The Lights Go Out (Tracie’s Song)/Nada Dinero
Adam Fears/There’s A Girl Out There/LandStar-Flying Island
May 20
Adrianna Freeman/Just a Girl/AFM Entertainment
May 27
Ali Dee/It Ain’t/Diamond Dee
Alexandra Lee/Dancin’ Round the Fire/Wild Blue Records
Album Releases
May 7
Lady Antebellum/Golden/Capitol Nashville
Natalie Maines/Mother/Columbia Records
Pistol Annies/Annie Up/RCA
Craig Campbell/Never Regret/Bigger Picture
Various/The Music of Nashville (Season 1, Volume 2)/Big Machine Records
Various/NOW That’s What I Call A Country Party/Universal Music Group-Sony Music Entertainment
Patty Griffin/American Kid/New West Records
Courtney Jaye/Love and Forgiveness
Mickie James/Somebody’s Gonna Pay/eOne
May 14
George Strait/Love Is Everything/MCA Nashville
Trace Adkins/Love Will.../Show Dog-Universal
Amy Grant/How Mercy Looks From Here
Various/You Don’t Know Me: Rediscovering Eddy Arnold/Plowboy Records
Various/Everybody Has A Story/Thirty Tigers
May 21
Darius Rucker/True Believers/Capitol
Angie James/Sing For You [EP]/Sony
Restless Heart/Playlist: The Very Best of Restless Heart/RCA-Legacy
May 28
Gretchen Wilson/Under The Covers/Redneck Records
Aaron Tippin, Joe Diffie, Sammy Kershaw/All In The Same Boat/Big Hit Records
John Fogerty/Wrote A Song For Everyone/Vanguard Records
Claire Lynch/Dear Sister/Compass Records
Rebecca Frazier/When We Fall/Compass Records
Industry Events
May 1-5
Key West Songwriters Festival
May 2
George Jones’ funeral at The Grand Ole Opry House at 10 a.m.
May 4
Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame inductions at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Murfreesboro
May 6
ASCAP Golden Note Award, during the invitation-only 35th Annual ASCAP Christian Music Awards at The Franklin Theatre
May 14
The Nashville Chapter of The Recording Academy’s annual Grammy Block Party from 4:30-10 p.m. at Owen Bradley Park
May 18
- Poets and Prophets: Legendary Country Songswriters series with Tom Douglas, at 1:30 p.m. in the museum’s Ford Theater
- Green Hills Music Group seminar to help songwriters navigate the industry. 10 a.m.–1 p.m. at The Actor’s School in Franklin
- ‘That A Fly Digital’ workshop at the Timothy Demonbreun House in Nashville, from 10 a.m.- 5:30 p.m.
May 19
2013 Billboard Music Awards, 7 p.m. CT on ABC from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas
May 19-20
Grand opening for Nashville’s Music City Center
May 30-June 2
- 11th Annual Nashville SongWriters Festival
- The 15th Annual Nashville Screenwriters Conference at the Union Station Hotel
We have no superstar product this week, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of fine listening. Doing worthy work in this stack of platters are Thomas Rhett, Royal Wade Kimes, Dakota Bradley, Sleepy LaBeef and Chance Cody & Spur 503. In various ways, all of them perked up my ears. Our Disc of the Day award goes to incoming Country Music Hall of Famer Bobby Bare. His entire Darker Than Light album is essential listening. We turn our gaze toward the Lone Star State to find the identically talented Rankin Twins. They more than earned a DisCovery Award. Their record is the first of what will surely be many albums to come.
The 2013-2014 Country Radio Seminar Agenda Committee includes eight new members. The committee is made up of volunteers from all areas of the Country radio and record industries and gathers each year to plan events for Country Radio Seminar. This year’s Agenda Committee will meet June 19-20 in Nashville to brainstorm and develop a list of hot topics to be covered at CRS 2014, held Feb. 19-21, 2014.