Pictured (L-R): Shannon Gursky, Spencer Turney

Webster Public Relations has added Shannon Gursky as Events & Branding Manager, and Spencer Turney as Associate Publicist.

Gursky will work on festival/event clients, including: Ashley for the Arts, Country Jam USA Festival, Country Stampede, Muskogee G Fest, Tree Town Music Festival, Wild West Comedy Festival, 70s Romance Cruise, Country Music Cruising, Country Music Cruise, Helping A Hero, The Journey Home Project, NATD Honors, National Music Council Awards, Charlie Daniels’ Volunteer Jam, APA, Larry’s Country Diner, Country’s Family Reunion and The Joey Canyon Show.

Gursky previously worked at the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) where she oversaw all of the organizations’ marketing and events, and assisted with the Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival. Prior to NSAI, she worked with Kaleidoscope Media’s broad range of clients as well as Capitol Records Nashville where she assisted in spearheading tour publicity for Luke Bryan. She is a graduate of Belmont University.

Turney joins work on Webster PR’s Reviver Records roster, including LOCASH, Blackjack Billy, Michael Tyler, Kayla Adams and Little Anthony. He will also work in tandem with Scott Adkins, Webster PR’s VP of Publicity, on the Bellamy Brothers, Crystal Gayle, Cyndi Lauper, Dolly Parton, Gene Watson, Hank Williams Jr., Jeannie Seely, Johnny Lee, Kiefer Sutherland, Moe Bandy, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ronnie McDowell, Roy Clark and Tanya Tucker.

After spending time in Chicago working for L.C. Williams & Associates, the Memphis native returns to the south and the music industry. Turney studied public relations and journalism at the University of Memphis, where he was part of the PR team for the student-run record label and oversaw publicity for local independent artists.

Gursky can be reached at [email protected] or at 615-777-6995 x229. Turney can be reached at [email protected] 615-777-6995.

Pictured (L-R): Sarah Beatty, Director of Events and Communications, BBBSMT; Carlyle Carroll, CEO, BBBSMT; SOLID’s Ben Boyd, Courtney Kruckeberg, John Huelsman, Basak Kizilisik, Eric Wright and Rachel Cunningham, Chris Buerck, Development & Communications Specialist, BBBSMT; Shelby Huggins, Development and Events Specialist, BBBSMT

SOLID, Nashville’s diverse group of music industry professionals, raised more than $29,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee (BBBSMT) through the fifth annual Music Row Madness—Bowl for Kids’ Sake on March 31.

SOLID added more than $3,000 to 2015’s contribution total. SOLID has raised more than $167,000 for BBBSMT to date with its Music Row Madness.

A total of 23 music-industry teams sign up for the Bowl For Kids’ sake bowling event at the Donelson Plaza Strike and Spare. Sign-up fees from all teams went straight to BBBSMT’s effort to mentor local youth.

APA, CAA, Carvana and Dickinson Wright were the big Bowling Partners of the night, making considerable donations to the cause. Other sponsors included: Beck Oral Surgery, FBMM, Grand Ole Opry, Loeb & Loeb, Sound Emporium Studios and Vector Management.

SOLID also held a raffle and silent auction at the bowling alley, offering items donated by local businesses such as the M Street group, City Winery, Hatch Show Print and more. Concert tickets, merchandise and vouchers for experiences around town were among the prizes up for grabs.

Simultaneously, BBBSMT was able to raise funds through its Charity Buzz online auction that ran until April 7. Thanks to donations from Gruhn Guitars, Iconic Entertainment Group, Morris Higham Management and Red Light Management, the auction included much-desired items such as meet & greet passes and tickets for Sam Hunt, Kelsea Ballerini and Jake Owen; a guitar signed by Ballerini; a guitar signed by Grand Ole Opry members and Gruhn Guitars merchandise.

All proceeds from the event, raffle, silent auction and online bidding directly benefit BBBSMT.

Jen Gunderman

A new online open course will give music fans the opportunity to learn from Jen Gunderman, a veteran Nashville musician and Vanderbilt Blair School of Music professor, about the music industry in the United States.

The course, titled Understanding the Music Business: What Is Music Worth?, is offered through the Coursera platform. All course content is free and open to the public. In addition, the on-demand format allows learners to sample any or all of the material, in any order they wish, on their on time schedule.

Drawing from her extensive experience as a recording and touring musician, Gunderman created and produced the course to provide a broad outline of the various segments of the music industry, which have been evolving quickly during the digital age, and to encourage learners to think critically and entrepreneurially about these changes.

“My whole motivation was to offer free information to musicians and music fans, and to spark discussion about the way that music is valued in the digital age,” she said.

With the help of the Vanderbilt Institute for Digital Learning, Gunderman filmed both traditional lectures and 12 on-location segments featuring interviews with educators, the Nashville musicians’ union president, and entrepreneurs including recording studio and club owners, a radio station owner, an artist services company president, a production/tour manager, and a performing rights organization executive.

Additional highlights from the location shoots include a new cylinder recording created on an original 19th-century mechanical (non-electric) Edison machine, and a behind the scenes look at the home studio recording session for the course theme song titled “What’s It Worth?”, which she composed specifically for the project.

Participants will grapple with questions about art and commerce which are both timeless and crucially important today, and will emerge from this course with tools allowing them to make more informed decisions as creators, promoters, and consumers of music.

Gunderman divides her time between teaching, performing, and recording. She is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School Of Music, specializing in American popular music history courses, but she is also an active studio session musician and producer, and she plays keyboards and sings regularly with several groups based in Nashville, most often with Sheryl Crow.