Artist Updates: Miranda Lambert, David Nail, Vince Gill, Robby Johnson

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Miranda Lambert Contributes To Hot Pursuit Soundtrack

Hot PursuitMiranda Lambert revealed live on Ryan Seacrest ON AIR that she wrote a song, “Two of a Crime,” after being asked by Reese Witherspoon to contribute a track for the upcoming Warner Bros. comedy, Hot Pursuit. Lambert wrote the song with frequent collaborators Natalie Hemby and Nicolle Galyon. 

Lambert’s recording of “Two of a Crime” will be available at iTunes on April 28. Hot Pursuit will be in theaters May 8.

David Nail Partners with Uber

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David Nail

MCA Nashville artist David Nail is the first country artist to partner with Uber as part of the company’s #UberCOUNTRY Powered by Ram Trucks promotion. Uber is offering riders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area the chance to win an invite to an exclusive post-ACM Awards show concert on Sunday, April 19 with David Nail. Location and details will be revealed only to Uber fans who win tickets.

Beginning Friday, April 17 through Saturday at Noon CT, fans who enter promocode “UBERCOUNTRY” into the promotions section of the Uber app will be eligible to win free tickets to Nail’s show. Winners will be notified by Saturday at 5 p.m., and will then be given details including the location of the show. Must be at least 21 to enter. Uber riders who do not win tickets with the promo code will have a second chance to win tickets beginning Sunday at 10:30 p.m.

Vince Gill To Be Highlighted on Dan Rather’s The Big Interview

Vince Gill will spend an hour in conversation with newsman Dan Rather on Tuesday, April 21, on The Big Interview. Broadcast on AXS TV, The Big Interview provides an in-depth look into the lives and careers of influential entertainers.

Rather converses with the singer-songwriter in his home studio amidst his extensive guitar collection, accompanies him to The Judge’s Court at Golf House Tennessee to view a statue of his father and learn about The Vinny golfing charity Gill founded, and stands with him on the hallowed stage of the Ryman Auditorium, long-time home of the Grand Ole Opry, of which Gill has been a member since 1991.

Vince Gill (L) with Dan Rather. Photo: Zito Zito

Vince Gill (L) with Dan Rather. Photo: Zito Zito

Robby Johnson Preps James Stroud-Produced Release

Country entertainer Robby Johnson has finished his full-length debut album, Don’t Look Back. The independently released album is due this summer via Sony/RED Distribution. The project features guitar work from Vince Gill on “I Ain’t The Guy,” which Johnson co-wrote with Kellys Collins and Juliana Cole. Along with “I Ain’t The Guy,” Johnson co-wrote many of the album’s 13 tracks with songwriters and artists including Rhett Akins, Sam Hunt, Frank Myers, Luke Laird, and Shane McAnally. The project was helmed by James Stroud.

James Stroud (L) and Robby Johnson in the studio.

James Stroud (L) and Robby Johnson in the studio.

Chris Young Holds Intimate “ACM Sessions” Performance at Bluebird Cafe

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Chris Young

Chris Young recently offered a performance to a lucky crowd that packed into Nashville’s Bluebird Café, as part of the “ACM Sessions.” The “ACM Sessions” is an online concert series featuring artist performances and interviews.

Young’s “ACM Sessions” performance is now live and available for streaming on CBS.com. Among the songs that Young treated fans to were three of his six chart-topping singles; “You,” “Tomorrow” and “Gettin’ You Home,” as well as his fan-favorite hit “Aw Naw” and his current Top 5, “Lonely Eyes.”

Past “ACM Sessions” performers include Luke Bryan, Brett Eldredge, Hunter Hayes, Justin Moore and Jerrod Niemann.

The upcoming 50th Academy of Country Music Awards will be broadcast live from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday, April 19 (8:00-11:30 p.m., live ET/delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network. Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton will host.

CMHoF To Reveal Updated ACM Gallery

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countrymusichalloffameThe Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s ACM Gallery is getting an update. Beginning Friday, April 24, visitors can view items representing the latest chapter in country music’s evolution by visiting the CMHoF’s ACM Gallery, which will include memorabilia from artists including David Nail, Maddie & Tae, Hunter Hayes, Brett Eldredge, Jason Isbell, Justin Moore, Jack White, and more.

A few of the items to be showcased include:
Blake Shelton’s 2014 CMA award for Male Vocalist of the Year
Craig Wayne Boyd’s trophy for The Voice competition
David Nail’s chord chart, used when Nail recorded Glen Campbell’s 1969 hit “Galveston”
Hunter Hayes’s Guinness World Record plaque for most concerts in different cities within 24 hours
Jack White’s western outfit with fringe, worn when he performed with Loretta Lynn for the first time
Jason Isbell’s custom electric guitar
Maddie & Tae’s outfits from the music video for “Girl in a Country Song”

“History is being made each and every day in music, and the music changes constantly. At the museum we share the history of this art form with our visitors. The journey starts where country music began and it progresses as the music evolves,” said Museum CEO Kyle Young. “The ACM Gallery allows us to fulfill our mission of educating audiences by reporting on the state of country music today.”

Will Hoge Hits Road, Chasing ‘Small Town Dreams’

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Will Hoge at grimeys

On April 8, Will Hoge celebrated his latest album release with a performance in front of a packed house at Grimey’s Too in Nashville. Photo: John Hitch

Nashville mainstay Will Hoge recently released his 10th studio album, Small Town Dreams, (Cumberland Recordings/Thirty Tigers) and is touring in support of the project. The singer-songwriter is scheduled for dates next week in Birmingham, Ala. (4/21), Charlotte, N.C. (4/22), Asheville, N.C. (4/23) and Columbia, S.C (4/24). In September he will head overseas for his first-ever full band trek to the United Kingdom for seven headlining dates across Scotland and England.

After producing several albums on his own, Hoge handed the reins to producer Marshall Altman (Frankie Ballard, Eric Paslay, Matt Nathanson). They recorded driving lead single “Middle Of America” in Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A.

Small Town Dreams follows Hoge’s other notable projects. “Strong,” a single from his previous album, has sold nearly 200,000 copies and was featured in the 2014 Chevy Silverado ad campaign. Hoge penned Lady Antebellum’s “Better Off Now (That You’re Gone),” and co-wrote the Platinum-selling No. 1 smash “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” recorded by the Eli Young Band. The latter song earned nominations for the 2013 Grammy Country Song of the Year, 2013 ACM Song of the Year and 2012 CMA Song of the Year.

LifeNotes: “Golden Age” Arranger Chuck Sagle Passes

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candle lifenotes11A producer, arranger and conductor from the “golden age” of rock ’n’ roll passed away in Nashville this week.

Chuck Sagle, whose career touched such talents as Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Tony Orlando and Bobby Darin, died at age 87 on Monday, April 13 from complications following a stroke. He worked in four of the nation’s key music centers — Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Nashville — and for such top record labels as Mercury, Epic, Reprise, Motown and ABC-Dot.
He excelled at trumpet and keyboards as a high-school student and entered the University of Illinois at age 16. He served in the Navy during World War II, entertaining the troops in the Pacific as a musician and bandleader.

Sagle graduated from college in 1950 and took a job in the A&R Department of Mercury Records, first in Chicago, then in New York. While with the company, he produced such “doo-wop” groups as The Dell-Vikings, The Danleers and The Diamonds (the 1957 No. 1 hit “Little Darlin’”). He also worked as a conductor for pop balladeer Joni James and r&b star Clyde McPhatter.

In 1958-59, he was the musical director for Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music. While there, he worked with Bobby Darin, Jack Keller and Barry Mann, among others. He arranged and conducted for Neil Sedaka (1959’s “Oh Carol” etc.) and discovered 17-year-old Carole King.

He next worked in A&R at Epic Records in New York. He signed King to the label and arranged and/or produced records for her, Roy Hamilton, Jack Jones, Link Wray, Sal Mineo, Ersel Hickey, Lenny Welch and Tony Orlando.

He also arranged and conducted on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. Sagle recorded his first solo LP, Ping Pong Percussion, in 1961.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1962, he joined Reprise Records as musical director. There, he arranged and/or produced records for the label’s Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney, Ethel Merman, Frank Sinatra, Soupy Sales, The Hi-Lo’s and Les Baxter. He also recorded two more solo LPs, 1962’s Splendor in the Brass and Contrasts.

He produced jazz great Chico Hamilton in 1963 and later did arrangements for pop legend Gene Pitney and r&b queen LaVern Baker.

In 1968, he arranged and conducted “Valley of the Dolls” for the close-harmony quartet The Arbors.

He was an arranger in 1971-72 for the stellar r&b vocal group The Manhattans, notably on their LPs With These Hands and A Million to One and the top-10 r&b hit “One Life to Live.” During the same period, he served a brief stint as an arranger for Motown Records.

Sagle moved to Nashville in 1972. He arranged music for ABC-Dot (Brian Collins, etc.) and for Starday-King Records and other labels. His first love was big-band music, and he returned to that in Music City by doing arrangements for The Establishment orchestra and Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band. He returned to college around 1984 to study computer programming. Sagle worked in this field for the next decade, but also taught a class on Jewish music at the West End Synagogue and composed a musical for its choir. He retired in 1994.

Charles H.”Chuck” Sagle is survived by his wife Sarah Stein, by sons Jacob and Christopher and by two grandchildren.

Services were held on Thursday, April 16, and he is buried in Middle Tennessee Veterans Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Sherith Israel Congregation, 3600 West End Ave., Nashville 37205 or to Disabled Veterans of America.

Weekly Chart Report (4/17/15)

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[Updated]: LifeNotes: Contemporary Christian Music Innovator Billy Ray Hearn Dies

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Billy Ray Hearn

Billy Ray Hearn

[Update]:

Visitation for Billy Ray Hearn will take place Friday, April 24 from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. at BMI, located at 10 Music Sq. E.

Funeral services will take place Saturday, April 25 at 11 a.m., at Brentwood Baptist Church, located at 7777 Concord Road, Brentwood, TN.

 

[Original post, Thursday, April 16, 2015]:

Billy Ray Hearn, an innovator in the Contemporary Christian music industry, has died. He was 85.

Hearn began one of Contemporary Christian Music’s first record labels, Myrrh Records (part of Word Record Co.) in the 1970s. Myrrh released the early albums from Christian star Amy Grant, among others. Hearn was the director of music promotion and music publishing for Word until 1976, when he founded Sparrow Records. The company opened a Nashville office in 1986, and in 1991, Hearn moved the entire operation to Nashville. In 1992, Hearn sold Sparrow to EMI Music.

Today, Billy Ray’s son Bill Hearn continues as president/CEO of Capitol Christian Music Group, home to Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, tobyMac, David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, and more. A division of Universal Music Group, Capitol CMG includes Capitol CMG Label Group (Sparrow Records, ForeFront Records, sixstepsrecords, and Hillsong), Capitol CMG Publishing, Motown Gospel, and Capitol Christian Distribution.

Billy Ray Hearn was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1997, and has been honored with the Gospel Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Hearns created the Martell Best Cellars Dinner, which has raised more than $2 million for the Frances Preston Labs at Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. They also created the Sparrow Foundation, which has donated to institutions including Baylor University and New Hope Academy.

Earlier this year, Billy Ray Hearn and Bill Hearn were honored with the Frances Preston Lifetime Music Industry Achievement Award from the T.J. Martell Foundation, which battles life-threatening illnesses. He was also the founder of T.J. Martell’s Best Cellars Dinner that has raised millions of dollars across the country in support of leukemia, cancer and AIDS research.  

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Billy Ray Hearn accepts his Special Citation of Achievement at the 2010 BMI Christian Awards. Photo: Kay Williams/BMI

Billy Ray Hearn accepts his Special Citation of Achievement at the 2010 BMI Christian Awards. Photo: Kay Williams/BMI

SparrowMusic Publishing Songwriting Achievement Awards presentations to Charlie Peacock, Steven Curtis Chapman, Andrae Crouch, and Michael W. Smith. Billy Ray Hearn is pictured on the right next to his son Bill Hearn.

Sparrow Music Publishing Songwriting Achievement Awards presentations to Charlie Peacock, Steven Curtis Chapman, Andrae Crouch, and Michael W. Smith. Billy Ray Hearn is pictured on the right next to his son Bill Hearn.

CMT To Produce First-Ever Artist Music Video

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Chris Janson at today's announcement.

Chris Janson at today’s announcement.

At an event in Nashville today (April 16), CMT announced it will finance and produce a music video for an artist—a first for the country music and entertainment network.

Leslie Fram.

Leslie Fram, SVP of Music Strategy for CMT

This endeavor will yield the music video for Chris Janson’s summer anthem, “Buy Me a Boat,” and includes plans to add the video in heavy rotation. The single shot to No. 1 on iTunes’ Country Songs Chart last month after being featured on the nationally syndicated Bobby Bones Show.

“Music discovery and connecting independent artists with fans is one of our core tenants,” said Leslie Fram, SVP of Music Strategy for CMT. “We’re thrilled that Chris’ talents are being recognized and CMT can bring this song to life in a music video.”

Although unsigned and independent, Janson has earned opening slots for Florida Georgia Line, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Jr., as well as over 60 appearances at the Grand Ole Opry. His prior songwriting credits include Tim McGraw’s “Truck Yeah.”

CMT, a champion of music discovery, also announced last week its first-ever Next Women of Country Tour. Meanwhile, franchises including “CMT Listen Up” and “Live @ CMT” continue to serve as a place where unsigned, indie and emerging acts can connect with new fans.

ChrisJanson

Live On The Green Music Festival Dates Announced

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live on the green

Nashville’s independent radio station, Lightning 100, has announced the return of the Live On The Green Music Festival to Public Square Park in Downtown Nashville. In its seventh year, the free-to-the-public event will take place on Thursday nights, Aug. 20, 27 and Sept. 3. There will be a weekend finale on Sept. 10, 11, and 12.

The official artist lineup will be revealed on June 24. That is also the date that VIP tickets and packages will go on sale.

Fans are promised many improvements to the festival sites and entertainment.

For more information, visit www.liveonthegreen.com.

Industry Ink: Shelia Shipley Biddy, ASCAP, Ocean Way Nashville

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shelia shipley biddy bookNashville Music Exec Shelia Shipley Biddy To Hold Book Signing

Music executive Shelia Shipley Biddy will sign copies of her book The Music In My Rearview Mirror: My 30 Years in Music & More on April 22 from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. The signing will take place at the ASCAP Main Floor Conference Room. ASCAP is located at 2 Music Sq. W. in Nashville.

Books are available for $20 at the signing, and are available online at amazon.com.

 

ASCAP Showcases Track Producers in Nashville

ASCAP hosted the first Nashville “Track Producers in the Round” on Tuesday, April 14 to a standing room only crowd at The Cellar Room at The Sutler. Originally dubbed “track guys and girls in the round,” the event was the brainchild of ASCAP’s LeAnn Phelan and served to highlight Nashville’s ever-growing stable of talented track producers.

Each producer was individually highlighted during the first-of-its-kind event by guest host and DJ Jesse Frasure, aka Telemitry, before a packed house of key Nashville music industry players and songwriters.

Pictured (L-R): Producers Will Weatherly, Sarah Emily Parish and Femke; special guest host and DJ Jesse Frasure; ASCAP's LeAnn Phelan; and producers Andy Albert, Jordan Schmidt and Ian Keaggy.

Pictured (L-R): Producers Will Weatherly, Sarah Emily Parish and Femke; special guest host and DJ Jesse Frasure; ASCAP’s LeAnn Phelan; and producers Andy Albert, Jordan Schmidt and Ian Keaggy.

Belmont’s Ocean Way Studios Records Award-Winning Video Game Scores

Ocean Way Nashville logoBelmont’s Ocean Way Studios is well-known as a recording studio of choice for many artists and producers, but the facility is also behind the helm of an increasing number of video game scores. In recent years, the studio has produced a number of scores for popular games that have gone on to accumulate a number of national recognitions. At the 2014 GANG (Game Audio Network Guild) Awards, “The Last of Us,” a best-selling game with score composed by Gustavo Santaoello and recorded at Ocean Way, won Best Audio. In March 2014, the studio scored “Dragon Age Inquisition” by famed composer Trevor Morris, which went on to win the 2015 D.I.C.E. Awards Game of the Year.

Director of Belmont’s Ocean Way Studios Patrick McMakin says media music is fast becoming a large part of the music business and because of that, Ocean Way has opened its doors to a diverse set of projects. McMakin says media music allows the university to diversify the education it can offer to its students. “It’s made us better, because the scores are fairly large in size, and we’re working with top level composers who work with orchestra all over the world. The knowledge they have brought in our doors has allowed us to improve every aspect of how we operate Studio A technically.”