Save The Date: 28th Annual MusicRow Awards
MusicRow will present its 28th Annual MusicRow Awards on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. at BMI.
The invitation-only event will feature award presentations for Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Producer of the Year and Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year. Winners of these categories will be determined by the votes of subscribed members to MusicRow.
In addition, the publication will announce recipients of the 2016 Top 10 Album All-Star Musician Awards. These honors are determined by tabulating the work of Nashville’s session players. Each player earns one credit for each instrument played on any qualifying album. (To qualify, the album had to chart in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Country Album Chart during MusicRow‘s eligibly period.)
Invitations to the 28th Annual MusicRow Awards will be sent in May. To ensure you receive an invitation and ballot for the 2016 event, join MusicRow today.
Hillary Scott Announces Gospel Project ‘Love Remains’
Hillary Scott. Photo: Joseph Llanes
Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott is working on a gospel project. She revealed the news to fans via social media on Friday morning (April 22).
The album, titled Love Remains, is a family affair, including co-writes with her mother Linda Davis and father Lang Scott, and contributions from younger sister Rylee Scott. With Lady Antebellum taking a break, Love Remains follows bandmate Charles Kelley‘s solo album, The Driver, which was released to critical acclaim in February.
The first single from Love Remains is a song Scott co-wrote titled “Thy Will.” It is being released to country and Christian radio and credited to Hillary Scott & The Scott Family. The track is now available at iTunes and Spotify. No release date for Love Remains has been announced.
Scott says what began as a hymns album crafted to thank supporters who rallied around the family during her grandfather’s battle with cancer, blossomed into a full-fledged album of mostly original material from some of Nashville’s top Contemporary Christian songwriters, as well as three songs that Scott co-wrote.
“I didn’t think I was going to write, and then life happens and you realize, ‘Oh, I do have something to say,” Scott told reporters during a press conference on Thursday. “I was very insecure to write in Contemporary Christian music. I felt very unprepared and thought honestly, in a lot of ways, it would be too hard. Ironically, I co-wrote a song that is faith-based and is one of the most personal songs ever and now it’s the first single.”
Love Remains includes a duet with Linda Davis, and appearances from other artists. “It reminds me of O Brother, Where Art Thou, and I’m giving a little bit of a teaser because there is a song in that movie that makes its way into this song and it’s an old traditional gospel song.”
Ricky Skaggs, who also provided vocals and instrumental parts to the album, produced the project.
“Every time I would dream about this project, all I saw as captain of the ship was him,” Scott says. “He’s not only the producer for this record, he’s the ‘pastor of this record,’ is what I told him. Every morning at the studio he had an encouraging word, or he would open with a prayer.”
Scott profoundly considered the influence that her work in Lady Antebellum has afforded her. She recalled a conversation with her father about the project, as she told him, “I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to help build a career for almost a decade, and a lot of people pay attention to what we sing and what we say and who we are. This is something that is such a huge part of me, and wanting to share more of who I am with our fans, let’s just do this as big as we possibly can.”
Excited that my new single, #ThyWill is available now!! https://t.co/sZ7SYfmDyY pic.twitter.com/oWzhAMzFTq
— Hillary Scott (@HillaryScottLA) April 22, 2016
The next people on board to offer their support were her Lady Antebellum bandmates Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley, as well as the group’s manager.
“I told them what was in my heart to do, and come to find out, so was Charles. He was in a place of wanting to explore creatively, and stretch himself, and [so is] Dave in his own way, with producing other artists. We hit that point, which I think is natural.
“I think what confuses a lot of people on the outside looking in, is that there wasn’t a problem. The three of us are closer than we’ve ever been. We are more solid; we are healthy in our friendship. It’s like, ‘Why would you walk away, even for a second, if there is not a problem?’ But we’ve all sensed this stirring in ourselves to kind of separate for a short amount of time, explore our own individual creativity, whatever that may be, how we want to manage that time, then reemerge stronger then we’ve ever been, and I can honestly say that’s exactly what happened.
“This is how I have chosen to look inward, dig down deep, and grow,” says Scott. “And really just wanting to live well and love well, and record music that will bring comfort to my daughter, to my family, our fans, it carries over into every area of my life of how I want to live. You can’t help but think about when it’s big subjects and heart matters, about your legacy, and for my dad and my mom being grandparents now.
“You want to leave a legacy that you are proud of, and how you want to be remembered. It’s weird to say that because I just turned 30, but I do think about that.”
In Pictures: NSAI Takes Copyright Reform Concerns to Congress
Leaders of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), including Bart Herbison, Ashley Gorley, and Lee Thomas Miller, were in Washington, D.C. this week for meetings with more than a dozen members of Congress to discuss copyright reform.
Pictured (L-R): Songwriter Ashley Gorley, U.S. Register if Copyrights Maria Pallante, NSAI President Lee Thomas Miller, Copyright Office General Counsel Jacqueline Charlesworth and NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison
Songwriters Ashley Gorley and Lee Thomas Miller play for staff at the U.S. Copyright Office.
Songwriter Ashley Gorley performs for Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA) and staff.
Levi Hummon Celebrates EP Release In Nashville
Levi Hummon celebrated the release of his self-titled EP on The Valory Music Co. Wednesday night (April 20), performing new tunes for his hometown crowd at 12th and Porter. The Nashville native entertained fans, friends and industry members with a 45-minute set. Hummon shared stories about some of the original songs he penned for the project then covered some of his musical influences such as Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban.
Hummon co-wrote Steven Tyler’s current single, “Red, White and You,” and will tour in support of his EP beginning April 25, including markets such as San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, New York, and Seattle. Later this year, he will join Billy Currington’s Summer Forever Tour on select dates.
Levi Hummon EP Tracklisting:
1. “Life’s For Livin’” (Levi Hummon, Matt Jenkins, Jimmy Robbins)
2. “Chain Reaction” (Levi Hummon, Jon Nite, Jimmy Robbins)
3. “Love You Hate You Miss You” (Ryan Hurd, Jimmy Robbins, Laura Veltz)
4. “Guts And Glory” (Levi Hummon, Tom Douglas, Travis Hill)
5. “Window Down Days” (Levi Hummon, Jon Nite, Jimmy Robbins)
Levi Hummon celebrates his EP release at 12th & Porter in Nashville. Photo: The Valory Music Co.
Exclusive: Cole Swindell On Success, Creative Depth, And Sophomore Album
Cole Swindell’s self-titled debut album earned the singer-songwriter considerable early career success, including four No. 1 singles, “Let Me See Ya Girl,” “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight,” “Ain’t Worth The Whiskey” and “Chillin’ It.” The debut project was certified platinum by the RIAA and Swindell’s music has amassed more than 250 million streams, with 4.2 million tracks sold. He took home the Academy of Country Music’s New Artist of the Year trophy in 2015.
This year, Swindell is eager to build on those early stats with his forthcoming sophomore project, You Should Be Here, which releases May 6 on Warner Bros./Warner Music Nashville. The album’s title track and debut single—an intensely personal song that focuses the loss of Swindell’s father in 2013–has already become Swindell’s fifth consecutive No. 1 song.
“It was a title that [songwriter] Ashley Gorley had,” Swindell recalls about writing “You Should Be Here.” “We were up in Foxboro [Massachusetts], playing at Gillette Stadium [as part of Luke Bryan’s That’s My Kind of Night Tour]. Ashley had texted a picture to his daughter of us at the stadium and said, ‘You should be here.’
“I immediately said, ‘Please let me write that with you.’ Because all I could think about was my dad and I hadn’t written about it yet. We wanted it to be where it wasn’t just about me. A lot of other people have obviously been through that. And through things way worse than what I’ve been through. I had chills on my arms the entire time we were writing that. That doesn’t happen at every writing appointment and I don’t think it can be like that, because it was something so personal to me. It didn’t take that long to write, but it was emotional. I knew if it was hitting me like that, that it would hit other people that have been through the same thing. It’s my favorite song I’ve ever written.”
“You Should Be Here” became a quality benchmark as Swindell co-wrote and searched for songs to round out the album. Seven Swindell co-writes made the final project.
“It seems like it takes a while for an artist to release a song that makes a statement like that, maybe not even on a second album. But for me, writing as much as I do, and having so much success off the last album, I had to go somewhere that I hadn’t been. Nothing made more sense to me than [writing about] the most tragic thing I’ve ever been through.”
MusicRow‘s Troy Stephenson presents Cole Swindell with two MusicRow Challenge Coins for co-writing FGL’s “This Is How We Roll” and Luke Bryan’s “Roller Coaster.”
Swindell namechecks tracks like “Broke Down” and “Remember Boys” from the upcoming project that live up to the standard.
“It’s got just an older, classical, gut string guitar and it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve done before,” he says of “Remember Boys.” “Sometimes the production can get in the way of a message that is powerful. With ‘Remember Boys’ I want people to hear every word of that song, and it’s just a stripped-down thing. Just the message of it, it’s where I am personally and in my career.”
One of the highlights on the album, a collaboration with Dierks Bentley titled “Flatliner,” is already receiving plenty of buzz.
“It’s so crazy,” says Swindell. “I wrote that with him in mind four years ago. I wrote it with Jaron Boyer and Matt Bronleewe. It sounded like something Dierks would record. So we recorded it like Dierks would. I sang the demo like Dierks…”
Bentley eventually heard the song, but it took a while for the two to record the track. “He texted me and said, ‘This is a smash,’ and I suggested we should record it together. We would joke about it when we would see each other, but you never know if it will happen. But he was serious about it and we made it happen. He’s a great guy. Just knowing how much his music influenced me, especially his first album, and every album. I’ve got every one of them. For me, Dierks is one of my favorites.”
“I was thankful I wrote ‘You Should Be Here,’ but I had to have 11 other great songs, and there are some subjects I didn’t touch on with the first album,” Swindell sums. “I think they are all great songs. I want to be a guy people will remember for a long time. If you listen to this album, you have a better idea of who I am.”
Nashville Offers Condolences After Prince’s Passing
After the passing of music icon Prince, who died at his suburban Minneapolis home on Thursday, April 21, the Nashville industry offered condolences. Many are compiled below and will continue to be added.
Once again Heaven’s band just got even more incredible. One of my absolute idols #Prince. Thank u for showing me what true GREATNESS is!!
— Darius Rucker (@dariusrucker) April 21, 2016
I still remember being star struck playing 1st ave in Minneapolis because @prince had been on the same stage.#RIP #sosad
— nathan followill (@doctorfollowill) April 21, 2016
Dang it… Truly hate hearing we lost Prince. Sad day..
— Blake Shelton (@blakeshelton) April 21, 2016
I’m stunned & so saddened to hear about the passing of Prince. He changed it all!!!! The true definition of talent!! pic.twitter.com/Ni17GvPu67
— Billy Ray Cyrus (@billyraycyrus) April 21, 2016
Oh no. No no no. Not another! So sad. Rest in peace Prince.
— Brad Paisley (@BradPaisley) April 21, 2016
I don’t want to believe that the death of @prince is for real. An absolute pioneer. Lucky enough to meet once – very kind man. #RIP
— Blair Garner (@blairgarner) April 21, 2016
Prince. Hope you party like its 1999 #RIP
— Laura Bell Bundy (@LauraBellBundy) April 21, 2016
I can’t imagine music or my teenage life without this genius album. May you rest in peace on the wings of doves. pic.twitter.com/SCuGpkuNlj
— Faith Hill (@FaithHill) April 21, 2016
Heart broken. Okay. This one hurts really, really bad. Sad, sad day. ??????????????????????????????PURPLE RAIN. ?
— Sarah Buxton (@sarahbuxton) April 21, 2016
No words. My favorite album in fifth grade. #RIP #Prince pic.twitter.com/VSeJSEnmom
— Marcie Allen Van Mol (@MarcieAllen) April 21, 2016
Just hearing the news about @prince Musical genius, style setter and was a really nice guy to me when I promoted his shows. Very sad day!
— Rob Beckham (@robbeckhamwme) April 21, 2016
I am sad. We have lost a great creator. RIP and Godspeed #Prince. Thank you for teaching me how to play.
— Kristian Bush (@kristianbush) April 21, 2016
My condolences to all the family and friends of the artist known as Prince. One of the greatest talents ever! #RIPPrince
— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 21, 2016
OMG I’m so heartbroken right now. Please tell me it isn’t true Prince is gone. #heartbroken #shocking #prince
— LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (@leannrimes) April 21, 2016
now I know why the sun didn’t come out in Nashville this morning… can’t really comprehend this…
— Scott Borchetta (@scottborchetta) April 21, 2016
“One of my most vivid memories with [Prince’s] music is when we were on the Own The Night Tour with Darius Rucker. Every night, Darius would close his set with “Purple Rain.” This is kind of a light-hearted moment, but during one of the last shows on the tour, Charles [Kelley] went out dressed as Prince. Obviously, with Prince being much smaller in stature than Charles, who is like 6’ 6”, it was one of the most sweet, funny, hilarious moments. I don’t know how you really…there is no one comparable to him. That’s a really sad loss to hear about. So many people even to this day right now are in a room on this block somewhere are trying to emulate what he did. But thankfully we have a lot of really incredible music that we will never have to not have. That’s really sad.” — Hillary Scott, Lady Antebellum
LifeNotes: East Nashville Studio Co-Owner Candice Burnside Ferguson Passes
Photo: bondmemorial.com
The Nashville alternative-music community has lost one of its most enthusiastic champions, Candice Burnside Ferguson.
She died at age 37 on Sunday, April 17. Ferguson was the co-owner, studio manager and engineer at Battle Tapes Recording in East Nashville. She was also a friendly fixture at Grimey’s Records.
Battle Tapes Recording’s clients have included such Music City alt-rockers as Turbo Fruits, Lambchop, Hard Working Americans, PUJOL, Forget Cassettes, Thelma & The Sleaze, Tristen, Be Your Own Pet, De Novo Dahl and Umbrella Tree.
She is survived by her husband, studio co-owner Jeremy Ferguson and by their 2-year-old daughter, Exie Elizabeth. Also mourning her loss are her brother Dennis Burnside Jr., sister Amanda Lea Burnside Proctor and her parents-in-law, Tom and Marybeth Ferguson.
Visitation will be 6-9 p.m. on Friday at Bond Memorial Chapel in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, and on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 23, at Bond Memorial Chapel and internment will follow at Mt. Juliet Memorial Gardens.
Memorial contributions can be made to Exie Elizabeth’s college fund, 1424 Greenland Ave., Nashville, TN 37216.
Warner/Chappell Production Music Hosts Las Vegas Concert
Pictured (L-R): Randy Wachtler, President & CEO, Warner/Chappell Production Music; Greg Sowders, Sr. VP of A&R, Warner/Chappell; Jonathan Russell and Matthew Gervais of The Head and the Heart
Randy Wachtler, President and CEO of Warner/Chappell Production Music, hosted a private concert during the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) event in Las Vegas on Monday night (April 18).
Held at The Rockhouse, the show featured Warner Bros. Records artists The Head and the Heart as well as Nashville singer-songwriter Meghan Linsey. NAB is one of the top five conventions by attendance in Las Vegas every year, with 100,000 participants expected in 2016, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Pictured (L-R): Randy Wachtler, President & CEO, Warner/Chappell Production Music; David Epstein, Director of Licensing, Trailers, Warner/Chappell Production Music; Meghan Linsey; Tyler Cain
Industry Ink: BMI, Webster PR, CMT
BMI Launches #MusicMonday
BMI has launched BMI #MusicMonday, a playlist of songs curated by BMI’s Writer/Publisher Relations department, of what they are listening to at BMI each week. The playlist, which includes music from the worlds of pop, hip-hop, country, rock, Latin, R&B and more, will be updated each Monday with a fresh batch of tunes.
To listen each week, visit the #MusicMonday page at bmi.com.
Charley Pride Joins Webster PR
Kirt Webster, President of Webster Public Relations, has announced Charley Pride as the latest artist to join the company for publicity representation. Pride celebrates his 50th anniversary as a recording artist this year.
A native of Sledge, Mississippi, Pride pursued a baseball career first, with stints on minor-league teams before injuring his arm. His musical talent was brought to the attention of Chet Atkins at RCA Victor in Nashville, and Pride’s debut single “The Snakes Crawl At Night” was released in 1966. Between 1966 and 1987, Pride amassed 52 Top 10 country hits, with 29 climbing to the No. 1 spot on Billboard‘s country chart.
CMT Names Courtney Cole As CMT Empowering Education Spokesperson
Courtney Cole
CMT has named Courtney Cole as its newest spokesperson for CMT Empowering Education campaign, which is now in its fourth year. Cole launched the first CMT Empowering Education event at Hazard Community and Technical College in Hazard, Kentucky. Cole, a recent Belmont University graduate, will headline 10 events this year at community colleges around the country, including a first stop at Northeast State Community College in Blountville, Tennessee, on Friday (April 22).
“I’m excited to partner with CMT on their Empowering Education initiative,” said Cole. “Music and education are a powerful combination. Having the opportunity to meet students and hear their stories is something I’m looking forward to!”