Taylor Hicks Joins Johnstone Entertainment

Pictured (L-R): Taylor Hicks and Cole Johnstone

American Idol winner Taylor Hicks has joined Johnstone Entertainment for management. Hicks will be represented by Cole Johnstone.

Nashville-based Johnstone Entertainment was launched earlier this year and currently manages The Farm and Annie Bosko. Prior to forming Johnstone Entertainment, Johnstone managed acts including Randy Owen, Gretchen Wilson and Big & Rich, alongside Marc Oswald and Dale Morris.

Johnstone can be reached at [email protected].

Susan Nadler Releases Children’s Book

Industry executive Susan Nadler has released the children’s book Silfa: A Fairy Tale. The book follows as Silfa, a fairy, travels to the future and strikes up a friendship with a troubled boy named Willie. Silfa battles through her own personal struggles to help her new friend.

Nadler served as a publicist for Tammy Wynette, The Highwaymen and Clint Black, before teaming with Evelyn Shriver to lead Asylum Records from 1998-2001. That year, Nadler and Shriver started Bandit Records and later released Jones’ Grammy-winning album Cold Hard Truth. She currently works as a talent manager for the TV show Soundstage.

The book is available at amazon.com.

Women’s Jeans Company Coming To Edgehill Village

A South Carolina-based women’s premium jeans company plans to open a store in Edgehill Village this fall, according to the Nashville Post. Beija Flor Jeans was founded in 2005 by Emilie Whitaker. Beija-Flor jeans are available at more than 400 boutiques nationwide.

Beija-Flor Jeans will open a shop at 1201 Villa Place, below the local offices of LiveNation.

The Americana Music Association reveals the initial presenter and performer lineup for its 14th annual Honors & Awards Show, to be held at the Ryman Auditorium on Wednesday, Sept. 16. The show will feature performances by Ry Cooder and Sharon White, Shakey Graves with Esme Patterson, Rhiannon Giddens, John Hiatt, Houndmouth, Jason Isbell, Nikki Lane, Jim Lauderdale, The Lone Bellow, Mavericks, Buddy Miller with Marc Ribot, Keb Mo, Robert Randolph with the Fairfield Four and the McCrary Sisters, Doug Seegers, Lucinda Williams and Lee Ann Womack. They join previously announced performances by Lifetime Achievement Award honorees Buffy Sainte-Marie, Don Henley, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Ricky Skaggs and Los Lobos.

Hosted by Jim Lauderdale, this year’s presenters include Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale of the Milk Carton Kids, Rosanne Cash, Marc Ribot, Rob Bleetstein and John Grimson, Abigail Washburn and Noam Pikelny, Ron Sexsmith and Mary Gauthier, Ry Cooder, Rodney Crowell, Sara and Sean Watkins, John Kay and Ken Paulson, and Robyn Hitchcock.

The all-star house band will be led by Buddy Miller and includes Don Was, Chad Cromwell, Fats Kaplin, Ian Fitchuk, The McCrary Sisters and Bill Payne, legendary founding member of Little Feat.

The awards will be recorded and air on PBS television Saturday, Nov. 21.

The ceremony is part of the 16th Annual Americana Music Festival & Conference, presented by Nissan, running Sept. 15-20, 2015 at the Hutton Hotel. This year’s Music Business Conference will feature more than 60 panels and workshops with approximately 200 experts.

The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum continues their partnership with the AMA, presenting events in the museum’s Ford Theater and CMA Theater. The keynote on Thursday, Sept. 17, 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. will feature Don Henley interviewed by Warren Zanes. Also on the agenda: Dylan Disc By Disc: The Nashville Recordings with Author Jon Bream; Songwriter Session: Mary Gauthier; and Mac Wiseman: Conversation, Performance and Signing. These programs will be streamed live at countrymusichalloffame.org, and are included with museum admission, and free to museum members and AMA badge holders. Limited seating. Program pass required.

Pandora is hosting an event on Friday, Sept. 18, 6:30 p.m., at The Cannery Ballroom. Pandora Presents: Americana—Featuring Performances by Glen Hansard, Josh Ritter, JD McPherson, and Madisen Ward And The Mama Bear Live in Nashville will be Hansard’s album release show. It is free to AMA badge holders and an intimate audience of Pandora listeners. Details here.

Among the highlights of the business conference:

• Songs We Love: Americana Edition at RCA Grand Victor Studio A, Presented by NPR Music and featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Patty Griffin, and Shakey Graves performing their favorite songs by others, with moderator Ann Powers of NPR Music.

• Alternatives To Traditional Label Structures for Indie Musicians featuring Paul W Brown, Founder & CEO, Red Hat 22; Jim Flammia, President, All Eyes Media; Arthur Penhallow, Artist Manager, Punch Enterprises; Traci Thomas, Artist Manager, Thirty Tigers; and moderator John Strohm, Attorney, Loeb & Loeb.

• “I Want It Back”—Termination of Grants of Copyright featuring Duff Berschback, Esq., Senior Vice President, Sony/ATV Music Publishing; Richard Busch, Esq., King & Ballow Law; Dennis Lord, Esq., Executive Vice President, SESAC; Denise Stevens, Esq., Loeb & Loeb LLP, and moderator Lisa Alter, Esq., Alter, Kendrick & Baron, LLP.

• Manage This! featuring John Beiter, Esq., Shackelford, Bowen, Zumwalt & Hayes, LLP; Hillel Frankel, Esq., Leavens, Strand & Glover, LLC; Anasa Troutman, CEO, Eloveate; and moderator Judy Tint, Esq., Judy Tint, Counselor At Law.

There will also be panels about SoundExchange, terrestrial radio, artist websites, music for film and TV, music and neuroscience, and The Artist and the Music Business Economy featuring Rosanne Cash.

Online registration and the early bird rate ends at midnight tonight (Sept. 8). Onsite registration opens at the Hutton Hotel on Wednesday, Sept. 16.

Stoney LaRue will release a new album Oct. 16 via eOne Music. Us Time is a shout out to his loyal fans aka, The LaRue Crue, offering recordings of some of the most requested songs at his popular live shows. Included are covers such as Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic,” and Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman,” as well as LaRue never-before-recorded originals “Us Time” and “Easy She Comes.” The project is available for pre-order now.

“I am excited, honored, blessed and extremely elated that I get this opportunity to work with the people I do and that the fans gave me their ideas on what they wanted to see from me on this record. It is their record and I am honored to be the voice,” says LaRue. “There is so much that went into this project and I am very proud of it. I mean, how often do you also get to have your fans on the cover of your project!”

According to LaRue’s team, he has independently sold over 900,000 albums and tracks, and his last two releases hit the Top 15 on the Billboard Country Music Chart.

Us Time Track Listing:
1. Box #10— Jim Croce
2. Into The Mystic— Van Morrison
3. Feet Don’t Touch The Ground— Brandon Jenkins
4. Us Time— Stoney LaRue and Dean Dillon
5. Oklahoma Breakdown— Mike Hosty
6. Empty Glass— Dean Dillon and Gary Stewart
7. Til the Morning Comes— Stoney LaRue and Brandon Jenkins
8. Easy She Comes— Stoney LaRue and Mando Saenz
9. Seven Spanish Angels (with Cody Canada)— originally recorded by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles, written by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser
10. Train to Birmingham— John Hiatt
11. Wichita Lineman—originally recorded by Glen Campbell, written by Jimmy Webb