Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Poets and Prophets Series To Honor Sharon Vaughn

The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will feature Sharon Vaughn in the next installment of the museum’s special songwriter series, Poets and Prophets, to take place Saturday, Aug. 5, at 2 p.m. in the museum’s Ford Theater. Vaughn will perform briefly during the program. Following the program, she will sign commemorative posters from Hatch Show Print.

After moving to Nashville in 1969, she released a series of singles on labels including ABC/Dot.

Vaughn’s songwriting successes including “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” recorded by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, “Y’all Come Back Saloon” (the Oak Ridge Boys), “I’m Not That Lonely Yet” (Reba), “‘Til A Tear Becomes A Rose” (Lorrie Morgan/Keith Whitley), “Out Of My Bones” (Randy Travis) and more. In 2009, her song “Release Me,” recorded by Swedish singer Agnes, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart.

Poets and Prophets is included with museum admission and free to museum members. Seating is limited, and passes are required for admittance. Museum members can reserve program passes by phone (615-416-2050) or via e-mail (reservations@countrymusichalloffame.org). The program will be streamed live at www.countrymusichalloffame.org/.

 

Global Entry TSA Precheck Event Set For August

A Global Entry TSA Precheck event will be held Aug. 29-30 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Thompson Nashville, located at 401 11th Ave. S. in Nashville. To RSVP, contact 615-928-5980 or contact [email protected].

 

ASCAP Showcases Songwriters At Forecastle Festival

This year’s ASCAP Hours at Forecastle Festival, held July 14-16 in Louisville, Kentucky, showcased new Nashville rock bands *repeat repeat, Jeffrey James, and FARRO. The event, which marked ASCAP’s 4th annual sponsorship, was curated by ASCAP Associate Creative Director Evyn Mustoe.

Shania Twain Releases “Poor Me” Today

Shania Twain has released a new single, “Poor Me,” today (July 21), a new track from her upcoming album, NOW. Shania recently released the full deluxe track listing for the upcoming Sep. 29 release to fans. An accompanying lyric video for “Poor Me” has also been released and can be viewed here.

 

Old Dominion Goes “Shoe Shopping”

Old Dominion is offering up an instant grat track, “Shoe Shopping,” today for those who pre-order the band’s anticipated sophomore outing, Happy Endings, which will release on Aug. 25. “Shoe Shopping” is Old Dominion’s third instant download available with pre-order of the album, along with “Written in the Sand” and “No Such Thing as a Broken Heart.” “Shoe Shopping” is now available to stream with “Written in the Sand” on Amazon Music Unlimited, while “No Such Thing as a Broken Heart” is available on both Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music. The band has given their fans an unexpected music video for “Shoe Shopping” premiering worldwide today, and for the next 48 hours, exclusively on Amazon Music.

 

Kip Moore Unveils ‘SLOWHEART’ Cover

Kip Moore has revealed the cover for his upcoming third studio album SLOWHEART, available Sept. 8.  Moore was inspired to name the release after his fiercely loyal fans who have adopted the name SLOWHEART themselves, and revealed the new cover image, which was taken in Costa Rica during Kip’s extended break earlier this year, on social media.

“My former guitar player called me a ‘slowheart’ many years ago, claiming I don’t just jump the gun and show all my cards or my emotions on what I truly feel,” said Moore. “He always said ‘you’re a slowheart, man…you observe before you act.’ I eventually named the band the slowhearts, and my fans are the slowhearts too. And so, its only fitting that the record I’ve been waiting to make, was named SLOWHEART.”

 

Carly Pearce Releases ‘Every Little Thing’ Video

Carly Pearce has just released a new video for her song “Every Little Thing.” She is the only solo female in the Top 20 on the country charts for the second week in a row, and “Every Little Thing” went No. 1 on SiriusXM The Highway and has over 4.4 million Spotify streams.

California native and Warner Music Nashville/Atlantic Records recording artist Devin Dawson is a songwriter at heart, infusing songs on his upcoming debut album with passionate vocals and carefully considered words.

“That’s my way of coping and communicating,” says Dawson. “It’s just something I’ve done since I was 12 years old. I feel sometimes I hide behind a song a lot with things I need to say and things I need to get out. Sometimes I’m not the best at communicating, but let me write a song…”

Dawson began pouring his soul into music when he was a teenager, listening to ’90s country music and soul songs, while playing bass in a rock band, with his brother on drums. He spent his post-high school years touring with a metal band, before following his musical ambitions to Nashville’s Belmont University in 2012.

In 2014, Dawson and fellow Belmont student Louisa Wendorff lit up the Nashville music industry’s radar after they released a video for their mash-up of two Taylor Swift tracks, “Style” and “Blank Space.” Within a day of its release, Swift had seen the video and praised it to her followers with one word: “Obsessed.”

“It really helped both of us further our paths. It helped put me in the way of publishers and [I had to ask myself who I wanted to become]. The whole idea was for me to develop and put an EP out, get some buzz and maybe get some leverage before I went to labels. Right before I signed a publishing deal.”

Dawson’s post-Swift career boost led to meeting and inking a publishing deal with Nashville super producer Jay Joyce’s Neon Cross, as well as with Warner/Chappell Music. Last year, Dawson signed a recording contract with Warner Music Nashville/Atlantic Records. Joyce signed on to produce the project.

While writing for the album, Dawson continued touring, using his hours of stage time as a testing ground for new material.

“That’s one thing people overlook a lot is playing shows is such a huge part of development. If you are writing every day, you are not out there playing for people and finding out how they react…I feel like it’s important to find the ones that are right for your record.”

During his visit to MusicRow, Dawson performed acoustic takes of four songs that made the cut, including the introspective “Secondhand Hurt,” and his debut single “All On Me.”

“All On Me,” which Dawson co-wrote with his brother Jacob Durrett and guitar player Austin Smith, finds Dawson in the role of a comforter and reassuring soul, ready to offer a safe place amid life’s stresses. Once in the studio, Dawson and his band recorded the track in one take.

“I wrote a lot of love songs for the album. I like writing love songs, which is funny because I usually write love songs about where I want to be, not where I’m at,” Dawson says candidly. “I slipped it on the record and it’s one of my favorites.”

Last month, Dawson shot the stark black-and-white video clip for “All On Me,” evoking elements of old Hollywood film noir. The video was filmed at the Tennessee State Penitentiary, which featured prominently in the 1999 movie The Green Mile, and has become a sought-after spot for music video producers, including those behind Eric Church’s “Homeboy” and “Lightning” clips.

“The whole idea was to take this upbeat, positive love song and insert this aesthetic, this darker vibe that I love, which is really in contrast to this song,” Dawson says of “All On Me.”

Joyce and Dawson agreed to cut the album with the same live band that Dawson had been playing with since his college days at Belmont University. The group spent more than two months in the studio, sometimes for 12 hours per day.

On “Dip,” written with Barry Dean and Luke Laird, Dawson and company recorded the track twice, once with a full electric setup and again with an acoustic vibe. Joyce then set about splicing the two versions together into its own quirky mashup.

“The whole song is about leaving a party and going out the back door, so it cuts to a bluegrass version. It’s the coolest cut. I still hear something new every time I listen to it,” Dawson says.

The moody and confident stunner “Dark Horse” was written after the album was technically completed, but its strength demanded inclusion.

“I didn’t feel like the album was done until that song was done,” Dawson recalls. “It didn’t feel like it was a whole body of work.”

Dawson hopes his meticulous selection of each track on the album reveals part of who he is a musician. “I like to think I’m an album artist. I want to tell a whole story. I can’t just put an EP out and tack some singles on,” he says. “That’s how Jay works, too. He’s not going to do a single, he’s going to do the whole thing.”

Dawson recently opened for Maren Morris’ Hero Tour, and will open shows for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, at the end of July.