MusicRowPics: Michaelis

Sibling trio Michaelis (their surname is also their band name)–comprised of sisters Meagan, Mallory and Madeline–visited MusicRow‘s offices on Friday (Aug. 23). The Sugar Land, Texas natives first learned to play instruments and sing from their grandfather; they’ve been performing together since Madeline (the youngest) was five years old. During their visit, the trio performed their debut single, “Shoot Straight,” penned by Michaelis, their producer Dave Brainard, and John Goodwin. The song’s memorable groove highlighted the sisters’ superbly blended harmonies.
The youthful trio followed “Shoot Straight” with “22 Red Flags,” inspired by a botched date. “It’s a cautionary tale,” said Meagan. They wrapped their three-song performance with “Leaver.”
Michaelis has been hard at work writing for their forthcoming album. “We probably have three albums’ worth of material,” said Meagan.
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CMA Adds Staffers, Promotes Two

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Lindsey Jones


The CMA has announced some additions and promotions among its staff.
Lindsey Jones has joined the company as receptionist. She comes to CMA from HK Management, where she worked as an executive assistant to management teams for Lenny Kravitz, Boz Skaggs, and more. She reports to Melissa Maynard, Operations Manager.
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Natalie Wilson


Natalie Wilson joins the staff as marketing research coordinator. Wilson previously worked for four years for Taylor Global, a public relations and marketing agency based in New York, as a Senior Consumer Insights Strategist for category leading brands including Diageo, P&G, Taco Bell and Nestlé. She reports to Karen Stump, Director of Market Research.
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Lauren Klausing


 
Lauren Klausing has been promoted to Strategic Partnerships Assistant. Klausing worked as a temporary assistant to Sheri Warnke, CMA Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, during her senior year at Belmont University.
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Sarah McGrady


 
Sarah McGrady has been upped to Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships. She joined CMA in 2009 as Senior Coordinator of Strategic Partnerships and was named Manager of Strategic Partnerships in 2011. McGrady reports to Tawni Fite, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships.

No. 1 Celebration: The Band Perry’s “DONE.”

Pictured (L-R): First Row: Neil Perry, Kimberly Perry, Reid Perry, Jacob Bryant, John Davidson. Second Row: Jimmy Harnen (Republic Nashville President/BMLG EVP), Clay Bradley ( BMI’s Assistant VP of Writer/Publisher Relations), Mike Doyle (VP Creative/GM -Major Bob Music), Dann Huff (Producer), Tim Fink (VP Writer/Publisher Relations/SESAC), and Jesse Frasure (Director of A&R -Major Bob Music). Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Pictured (L-R): First Row: Neil Perry, Kimberly Perry, Reid Perry, Jacob Bryant, John Davidson. Second Row: Jimmy Harnen (Republic Nashville President/BMLG EVP), Clay Bradley (BMI’s Assistant VP of Writer/Publisher Relations), Mike Doyle (VP Creative/GM -Major Bob Music), Dann Huff (Producer), Tim Fink (VP Writer/Publisher Relations/SESAC), and Jesse Frasure (Director of A&R -Major Bob Music). Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images


Monday evening (Aug. 26), hundreds of music industry representatives gathered at Nashville’s sleek venue The Bridge Building to celebrate the success of The Band Perry’s fourth No. 1 single “DONE.” Written by band members Neil and Reid Perry, along with singer-songwriters John Davidson and Jacob Bryant, “Done” soared to No. 1 on the MusicRow, Billboard and Mediabase charts.
BMI’s Clay Bradley welcomed the crowd and congratulated the four writers, saying, “Today is a special day of firsts as Neil, Reid, John and Jacob celebrate their first No. 1 song.” Bradley awarded the writers with commemorative cups, the first of many accolades they would receive that evening.
The song’s producer Dann Huff joined them onstage stage, saying, “I’m really one of the luckiest people I know at this point, it’s always a joy to get to work with people you respect.” Drawing laughter from the crowd, Huff imitated the now famous grunt uttered by lead singer Kimberly Perry, and said he knew the song was changing country music.
The writers received further congratulations from Country Radio Broadcasters’ Bill Mayne, Major Bob Music’s Mike Doyle and CMA’s Brandi Simms, who presented them with No. 1 medallions. Republic Nashville’s Jimmy Harnen distributed more awards and listed several of the band’s achievements, including back to back No. 1 singles with “Better Dig Two” and “Done,” sales of two million albums and more than ten million tracks. He fittingly ended his speech with “Done and done!”
SESAC’s Tim Fink introduced up-and-coming writers Davidson and Bryant, for whom “Done” was their first No. 1. “These guys, John and Jacob, we’re so happy to have them…I have yet to meet someone [who has seen them] that hasn’t just gone ‘Damn!’ They’re amazing.” The four dapper writers, who met when John and Jacob opened for The Band Perry during their UK tour last year, offered thanks to their peers and the Nashville community. “Who would have thought six months ago when we met in Europe it would have led to today celebrating a No. 1,” said Reid.
Finally, Kimberly strutted on stage and joked, “I never miss an opportunity to speak,” before commending the writers and adding, “I don’t think any other genre celebrates music as much as country does.”
The Band Perry will launch their We Are Pioneers World Tour in November.

Industry Ink (8-28-13)

Jake Owen stopped by the CMA offices yesterday (Aug. 27) to thank the staff for their support and present them with a commemorative plaque for sales of over one million career albums. He recently celebrated his fourth No. 1 single, “Anywhere With You,” with a free Nashville concert for a crowd of 20,000.

Pictured (L-R):Jennifer Vessio, Sony Music Nashville Director, Media; Brandon Gill, Morris Artists Management Vice President; Brandi Simms, CMA Director of Membership and Balloting; Owen; Betsy Walker, CMA Manager of Membership and Balloting; Brenden Oliver, CMA Coordinator of Membership and Balloting; Jensen Arrowsmith, Sweet Talk Publicity owner and President. Photo Credit: Christian Bottorff / CMA

Pictured (L-R):Jennifer Vessio, Sony Music Nashville Director, Media; Brandon Gill, Morris Artists Management Vice President; Brandi Simms, CMA Director of Membership and Balloting; Owen; Betsy Walker, CMA Manager of Membership and Balloting; Brenden Oliver, CMA Coordinator of Membership and Balloting; Jensen Arrowsmith, Sweet Talk Publicity owner and President. Photo Credit: Christian Bottorff / CMA


Jake Owen visits with the staff of the Country Music Association.

Jake Owen visits with the staff of the Country Music Association.


Young Entertainment ProfessionalsYoung Entertainment Professionals and the Country Music Hall of Fame have teamed up to present the 2nd Annual Troubadour Society’s  “Nightfall At The Hall” on Sept. 12, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. The event, held at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, will include free food and drinks, entertainment, and after-hours access to the exhibit galleries. The Troubadour Society members’ donations go to help support the museum’s educational mission.
BlackbirdBlackbird Studios’ Blackbird Academy will present a “Beats and Business” Seminar on Sept. 6-8 with Willpower, the producer behind Eminem, Wiz Khalifa, Yelawolf and others, with new pricing, at $750 for the entire seminar. The event will take place in the new 30-seat classroom at Blackbird and each attendee will work on a digital audio workstation powered by an Apple Mac Mini running Logic, Pro Tools, and a Universal Audio Apollo Interface.
Owned by Martina and John McBride, Blackbird Studios’ Blackbird Academy was founded by John out of his love for the audio world to provide a post-secondary education environment. Blackbird Academy offers two programs, Studio Engineering and Live Sound Engineering.

Weekly Register: Luke Bryan Stays On Top

luke bryan crash my party album cover1111Luke Bryan‘s album Crash My Party, which debuted to impressive sales last week, sells another 159k in its second week for a total of 687k and sits atop both the Country and Top Albums charts. Crash My Party is Byran’s fourth studio album from Capitol Records Nashville, which follows his double-Platinum 2011 album Tailgates & Tanlines. Prior to Bryan’s release, Country albums were down 3.1 percent compared to last year. That number has improved over the last two weeks netting a shortfall of less than 1 percent over prior year. On the pop side, John Mayer‘s Paradise Valley debuts in the No. 2 position selling 144k units this week.
The top Country album debut this week comes from Average Joes with the LACSKeep It Redneck sitting in the No. 3 spot on the Country chart, with 14k albums sold. Other noteworthy album debuts this week on the Country chart include Charlie Worsham, Rubberband, with 6k in sales this week at No. 12 and Tracy Lawrence, Headlights, Tailights and Radios at No. 26 with 3k units sold.
Bryan’s “That’s My Kind Of Night” sits in the top position of the Country tracks with 125k sold this week (290k RTD) and Florida Georgia Line‘s “Cruise” continues strong with 68k sold (5.7 million RTD) at No. 2. Debuting this week, Jennifer Nettles’ “That Girl” arrives at No. 23 with 19k units sold while Keith Urban‘s “Even The Stars Fall 4 U” debuts at No. 36 with 12k in sales.

DISClaimer: Summer Turns Up The Sizzle

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Hunter Hayes


Hot enough for you? This week’s stack of platters contains a few that turn up the temperature even more. The Jennifer Nettles solo single is one of them. Steve Holy’s is another. Newcomers Dave Hangley, Colby Dee and Danielle Bradbery have three more. Snappiest of all is our Disc of the Day by firecracker Hunter Hayes. The free-spirited singing style of pop Grammy nominee Jason Mraz compliments Hunter’s perfectly on their collaboration. The DisCovery Award goes to a female band comprised of Texas sisters Meagan, Madeline and Mallory Michaelis. I haven’t seen the group live yet, but I’m told that Michaelis is just as cool on stage as it is on CD.
MORGAN FRAZIER/Hey Bully
Writers: Morgan Frazier/Tiffany Coss/Sherrie Veronica Austin; Producers: Buddy Cannon, Bill McDermott; Publishers: Curb/Curb Congregation/Magic Mustang/Big Loud Bucks, ASCAP/SESAC/BMI; Sidewalk
-Her plaintive, heart-in-throat, emotive delivery of the timely lyric is so effective that it sounds like she’s lived it. Give this one a shot.
STEVE HOLY/Radio Up
Writers: Bruce Wallace/Ben Glover/Brian White; Producers: Matt McClure, Kyle Jacobs; Publishers: ole Purple Cape/ole 9t One/Ariose/Capitol CMG/Universal/Brentwood Benson/Songs From the White House, BMI/ASCAP/SESAC; MCC/Curb
-She’s going to leave him, so he goes into denial by turning up the music. Holy’s vocal delivery of the melody ranges from hushed and private to full-throated and piercing. The bonus is that the track is crisply and expertly produced. Nice job.
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Michaelis


MICHAELIS/Shoot Straight
Writers:Michaelis/Dave Brainard/John Goodwin; Producers: Dave Brainard; Publisher: ASCAMP/Lucky 21 Publishing/SECAMP/Mallory Michaelis Music/Universal Music Corporation/Dave Brainard Songs/Queen’s Knight Music; ASCAP/SESAC/BMI; AMP
-This sister trio debuts with a bluesy, groove-soaked number that worms its way right into your brain. Hooky in the extreme, this is a fabulous listening experience. Play, play, play it. Again, again, again.
LYNN ANDERSON/Sweet Memories
Writers: Betty Swain/Jim Paul; Producers: Craig Brandwynne, Timothy Daher, Robin Ruddy; Publishers: Center Sound/Sure Babe, ASCAP; Center Sound
-The back story is that Betty Swain was an 85-year-old, part-time North Carolina country performer in 2010 with a batch of lyrics she’d written years before. Her relatives got together and hired a group of local musicians to turn them into songs. She died not long after hearing the result. Two years later, a group of Nashville artists was assembled to make a professional CD of the songs for Betty’s cancer-stricken daughter. Legendary Lynn Anderson kicks it off with a lively reading of the late Swain’s live-for-today lyric and Jim Paul’s toe-tapping tune.
ANN MARIE/Cowboy Up
Writers: Danny Myrick/Ann Marie; Producer: Danny Myrick; Publishers: none listed; AM
-Rocking and danceable. She’s looking for a real stud: “I need a man, man enough to handle my love.” Step right up if you think you can fill the bill.
HUNTER HAYES & JASON MRAZ/Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me
Writers: Hunter Hayes/Dave Brainard/Jennifer Zuffineti; Producers: Dann Huff and Hunter Hayes; Publishers: Songs of Universal/Happy Little Man/Dave Brainard/Big Red Tractor/Big Loud Bucks; BMI/ASCAP; Alantic (track)
-Lovely, lilting, youthful and delightfully bopping. Audio enchantment.
DAVE HANGLEY/Runaway Angel
Writers: Jim Allison, Todd O’Neill; Producer: Jim Allison; Publisher: NNS Publishing, BMI; NNS
-Nashville songwriter Jim Allison has relocated to Linwood, NJ (near Atlantic City) and established his Nashville North studio and label. Hangley is his first project, and he’s a worthy one. The uptempo song is superbly melodic, the production is taut, and the confident, hearty tenor vocal is right on the money. Well worth spinning.
DANIELLE BRADBERY/The Heart of Dixie
Writers: Caitlyn Smith/Brett James/Troy Verges; Producer: Brett James; Publishers: Music of Stage Three/Songs of Cornman/WB/Songs of Brett/External Combustion/Songs of Universal/Songs From the Engine Room, BMI/ASCAP; Republic Nashville
-She has a dead-end job and a dead-beat husband. So she hits the road and finds out that she’s a lot tougher than she thought she was. Bradbery’s soprano has just enough fire and spunk to sell this thumping female-empowerment ditty.
JENNIFER NETTLES/That Girl
Writers: Jennifer Nettles/Butch Walker; Producer: Rick Rubin; Publishers: Jennifer Nettles/EMI April/I Eat Pub For Breakfast, ASCAP; Mercury (CDX)
-Moody and kinda nervous sounding, it’s a darkly confessional tale of an attempt at man stealing. Nettles emotes well, and the production is refreshingly distinctive, although I could have done without the jarring, irritating studio applause in the finale.
COLBY DEE/He Don’t Know
Writers: Colby Dee/Karleen Watt/Lisa Torres; Producer: Daniel Dennis; Publisher: none listed; CD
-It’s a ringing, jingle-jangle country rocker with plenty of vim. Her vocal sparkles. The thinly written, barely-there song is quite repetitive, not to mention grammatically incorrect.

Alan Jackson to Play Carnegie Hall

alanjacksonAlan Jackson will perform at the world famous Carnegie Hall in New York on Oct. 28 at 8 p.m.
This special night of music will feature songs from Jackson’s The Bluegrass Album, set for release Sept. 24. Jackson wrote eight of the 14 songs on The Bluegrass Album, which will be released on ACR (Alan’s Country Records)/EMI Records Nashville and is produced by Keith Stegall and Jackson’s nephew, Adam Wright.
Jackson last played the renowned venue in 2005 as part of an all-star Grand Ole Opry 80th Anniversary show celebration. For the Oct. 28 performance, he will be joined by the noted bluegrass musicians that are featured on Jackson’s The Bluegrass Album.
Tickets may be purchased starting Monday, Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. and are available via carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800, and the Box Office at 57th and Seventh.

Nashville Symphony and Musicians Union Ratify New Contract

SymphonyLogoThe Nashville Musicians Association AFM Local 257 and the Nashville Symphony have come to an agreement and ratified a new, one-year contract for the orchestra’s musicians. The two have spent the past three months negotiating terms of the new contract, which include a 15 percent pay cut for the musicians. The symphony’s administrative staff recently took a similar cut in pay and benefits as well. The salary concessions are part of a financial restructuring the Symphony has undergone as a result of the economic downturn in 2008 and the flood in 2010. Along with other restructuring efforts, the cuts will allow the Symphony to lower its annual operating budget by six million dollars (29 percent of this year’s budget).
“This one-year contract is a stopgap measure that provides a way to keep the music playing in the Schermerhorn at the high artistic level Nashville has come to expect,” Dave Pomeroy, President of the Nashville Musicians Association, said. “These musicians will be working much more for considerably less money, and their collective sacrifice is a testimony to their ongoing commitment to our community. We look forward to working with the Symphony Association towards a mutual goal of restoring NSO salaries to a level commensurate with their world-class talent as soon as possible.”
The contract will go into effect immediately and run through July 31, 2014. The Nashville Symphony’s 2013/14 season will begin as scheduled on Sept. 5-7 with “Russian Spectacular,” featuring music by Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Carrie Underwood's 'Sunday Night Football' Performance To Feature 13 NFL Players

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Carrie Underwood will perform “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night,” the opening theme for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, alongside 13 NFL players on Sept. 8. Underwood’s debut comes on the first Sunday Night Football broadcast of the season, with the Dallas Cowboys facing off against the New York Giants. Coverage for the game will begin at 7 p.m. ET. Underwood’s theme will continue to usher in each game of the season.
The 13 NFL players joining Underwood’s performance include football heavyweights Terrell Suggs, Patrick Willis, Andrew Luck and brothers Eli and Peyton Manning, among others.
Underwood’s new position was previously held by Faith Hill, who sang the opening theme from 2007-2012. Underwood plans to continue her partnership with NBC, starring in the network’s production of The Sound Of Music later in the fall. The singer will play Maria Von Trapp, while True Blood star Stephen Moyer will play Captain Von Trapp.

Esposito Tapped To Lead Search Committee For CMA Executive Leader

CMA Corporate LogoWarner Bros. Nashville President/CEO and Secretary/Treasurer of the CMA Board of Directors John Esposito has been tapped to lead a 10-member committee responsible for defining the role and launching the search for an executive leader for the Country Music Association.
The committee is comprised of veteran CMA Board members who represent a cross section of CMA’s membership. The group will also screen potential applicants, interview them and present their recommendation to the CMA Board of Directors, according to CMA Board President Ed Hardy, who is serving as the CMA Board liaison with the CMA management team during this transition.
“Country music is stronger than ever, which provides numerous possibilities as we look for our next chief executive officer,” said Hardy. “CMA was created to advance Country music around the globe and represent the business interests of all our constituent groups. This search provides CMA a tremendous opportunity to evaluate our evolving needs, select the ideal leader to address them, and execute the best strategy for continued growth. It’s also an attractive opportunity for a senior level executive with a passion for the industry.”
Resumes from potential candidates can be submitted at CMAsearch@yahoo.com. All applications will be treated with complete discretion and kept in strict confidence during the search process.