Alliance Partners HSP LLC and Musicians Corner have partnered to bring free, mid-day music to downtown Nashville with the ‘Music with a Mission’ Concert Series at the Nashville City Center. Held every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. beginning July 12 through Nov. 15, Music with a Mission will be an opportunity for downtown tenants, employees and visitors to enjoy performances while giving back to local charities.

Carey Ott and Emily Earle will kick off the inaugural concert series on the plaza of Nashville City Center on Thursday, July 12. Ott has played at Nashville’s Live On The Green and receives regular spins on Lightning 100, and Earle – the niece of country legend Steve Earle and cousin of Justin Townes Earle –was a top 25 finalist on NBC’s The Voice. These performances on July 12 will benefit Room In The Inn, a local nonprofit addressing homelessness in Nashville.

On July 19, Scott Mulvahill and Baylor Wilson will perform at the downtown concert series. Mulvahill recently left his gig in Ricky Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder, to focus on his solo career, and Wilson is pursuing music through his publishing deal with Station West/Sea Gayle
Music Publishing.

The July 26 installment will include music from Tony Lucca and Parker McKay.

Since its inception in 2010, Musicians Corner has showcased more than 1,000 artists in Centennial Park.

The Wild Feathers band members hail from Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia, but their shared rock, Americana and country influences brought them to Nashville. Following the release of their self-titled album in 2013, the band has spent the past five years on the road.

“Wildfire,” a track from the band’s June 29 release, Greetings From The Neon Frontier, captures the feeling of riding hundreds of miles between their music destinations.

Moving from town to town like a wildfire, nothing feels better than being free, the band’s tightly blended harmonies chime on the track, one of the many songs built from the band’s real-life experiences.

The band’s previous album, Lonely Is A Lifetime, which relished in harder rhythms and more electric guitar work, while Greetings leans more toward the country side of the band’s many influences.

The band returned to work on the new album with veteran producer Jay Joyce, who also produced the band’s previous two projects with Warner Bros. Records, including their 2016 album Lonely Is A Lifetime.

“He’s almost like part of the band now. He chain-smokes cigarettes all day and just grunts,” member Ricky Young says jokingly during a recent visit to the MusicRow offices.

The album’s 10 tracks of spacious, free-wheeling acoustics offers a fitting contrast to the signature harmonies from Young, Taylor Burns, and Joel King. Drummer Ben Dumas rounds out the band.

Over the past few years, The Wild Feathers underwent a series of label shifts, ultimately releasing Greetings with Warner Music Nashville, an easy transition from their Warner Bros. Records days in Los Angeles.

“We were getting interest from Interscope. Then Jeff Sosnow went from Interscope to Warner Burbank, and he took us under his wing there,” King says.

While still working with Interscope, they decamped to Los Angeles for three or four months at a time. “We felt like we lived in like Hollywood and Vine. You would see like Spiderman smoking a cigarette with his mask off,” says Young.

“It’s been a natural progression,” Young continues. “This feels good because Warner Nashville was right here in our backyard.”

Making music and recording on the West Coast was a welcomed location for The Wild Feathers, whose distinct harmonies on tracks including “Wildfire” have drawn comparisons to The Eagles.

“We always loved California country, like Gram Parsons and The Byrds,” says King. “We lived out there and would go to Joshua Tree all the time and that kind of stuff, so it made a lot of sense. There is a lot of West Coast influence.”

Craig Morgan was awarded the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Medal last weekend in honor of his dedication to entertaining troops and their families around the world. The presentation took place during the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of the United States Army annual Army Ball on Saturday, June 23 in Huntington Beach, California.

Morgan, who served in the Army for nearly two decades, has done 15 overseas tours for the troops and performed for more than 37,000 service members and their families in all four corners of the world. He just returned to the U.S. after completing his 10th USO Tour to entertain U.S. military members stationed overseas. The eight-day tour, his third with the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited seven countries and included stops in western Tokyo, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq and Spain as well as the Korean Peninsula where the U.S. Army veteran was once stationed.

The Outstanding Civilian Service Medal is one of the highest awards that the Department of the Army can bestow upon a civilian.