Country Music Association Celebrates 60th Anniversary

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Lee Brice performs at CMA’s 60th Anniversary Celebration at Wildhorse Saloon Wednesday, Sept. 26 in Nashville. Photo: Caitlin Harris/CMA

The Country Music Association (CMA) celebrated its 60th anniversary Wednesday evening (Sept. 26) with an invite-only industry party at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville. Throughout the night, more than 20 acts performed 60 years of country hits, backed by Joe Denim and an All-Star Band.

After welcoming remarks from CMA Chief Executive Officer Sarah Trahern, Jeannie Seely kicked off the evening with a stunning performance of “Who Needs You.” Michael Ray and Craig Wayne Boyd performed back-to-back Merle Haggard classics, with Ray singing “Okie from Muskogee” and Boyd singing “The Fighting Side of Me.”

Halfway to Hazard performed Montgomery Gentry’s “My Town” in a moving tribute to Troy Gentry, while Hilary Williams, daughter of Hank Williams Jr., performed her father’s “Old Habits.” Backstage, Lee Greenwood and Larry, Steve & Rudy, The Gatlin Brothers, sang an impromptu version of Greenwood’s hit “God Bless The U.S.A.,” which the Gatlin Brothers provided background vocals for on the original 1984 recording.

Artists joined Trahern and CMA staff on stage for a birthday toast and sing-a-long rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Lee Brice closed the evening with a performance of Hank Williams Jr.’s “Family Tradition.”

Pictured: Jamie O’Neal and Julie Roberts perform at CMA’s 60th Anniversary Celebration at Wildhorse Saloon Wednesday, Sept. 26 in Nashville. Photo: Jamie Schramm/CMA

RaeLynn and Michael Ray perform at CMA’s 60th Anniversary Celebration at Wildhorse Saloon Wednesday, Sept. 26 in Nashville. Photo: Caitlin Harris/CMA

Country artists and Joe Denim and the All-Star Band join CMA Chief Executive Officer Sarah Trahern and CMA Senior Director of Awards and Industry Relations Brandi Simms to toast CMA’s 60th Anniversary at the Wildhorse Saloon Wednesday, Sept. 26 in Nashville. Photo: Tammie Arroyo/Shutterstock

Pictured: Steve Gatlin, WME Co Head and CMA Board President Elect Rob Beckham, The Fitzgerald Hartley Co., Partner and CMA Board Chair Bill Simmons, Larry Gatlin, Jeannie Seely, CMA Chief Executive Officer Sarah Trahern, Rudy Gatlin, and Craig Wayne Boyd attend CMA’s 60th Anniversary Celebration at Wildhorse Saloon Wednesday, Sept. 26 in Nashville. Photo: Jamie Schramm/CMA

The Last Bandoleros To Launch October Residency

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Warner Bros./Warner Music Nashville band The Last Bandoleros will launch a Nashville residency at Layman Drug Company every Tuesday of October. Along with an offer of free tacos and beer, “Taco Tuesdays with The Last Bandoleros” will feature new music, special guests and more. Sponsors include Nada Tacos, Codigo Tequila and Topo Chico.

“We’ve finally all settled at home here in Nashville after being on the road for the past two years,” said guitarist/vocalist Derek James. “We thought having a free weekly residency would be a great way for some of the local community who don’t yet know us to hear our music for the first time.”

“We also wanted to bring a taste of our culture to these shows,” added bassist/vocalist Diego Navaira. “So we thought… Bandos, tacos and tequila!”

The Last Bandoleros (James, Navaira, guitarist/vocalist Jerry Fuentes and percussion/vocalist Emilio Navaira) have spent much of the past few years on the road. Music icon Sting handpicked them to join his 57th and 9th World Tour before heading out on their own headlining dates across the country and abroad.

Fans can RSVP at thelastbandoleros.com.

Keith Urban Returns For Third Year Headlining Nashville’s New Year’s Eve

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Keith Urban. Photo: Mark Seliger

Keith Urban will headline Jack Daniel’s Music City Midnight: New Year’s Eve in Nashville for a third year in a row, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp announced today. The tenth annual event will take place at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park and is free and open to the public.

Additional artists in the lineup includes Peter Frampton, genre-bending rock/pop band Judah & the Lion, critically acclaimed pop rock singer/songwriter Caitlyn Smith, contemporary soul and rock artist Devon Gilfillian and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Sirius XM host Storme Warren and Today In Nashville personality Kelly Sutton will serve as emcees. The event will include the traditional Music Note Drop and accompanying fireworks display to ring in the New Year.

“Keith is the perfect artist to headline this signature Nashville event, and we’re excited to have him back for a third year,” said Ronnie Smith, Head of Corporate Bank, Regions Bank, and chairman of the NCVC board of directors. “Keith’s an incredible performer and an even better partner. He’s a global entertainer who takes Nashville to the world and invites his fans to experience Music City for themselves. His great music includes many different influences and will cap off a lineup of outstanding performers representing many different genres.”

Gates will open at 4 p.m. on Dec. 31.

UMG Nashville’s Royce Risser Rises To EVP, Promotion

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Royce Risser

Universal Music Group Nashville has named Royce Risser Executive Vice President of Promotion for the label group, comprised of Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Records Nashville, Mercury Nashville and MCA Nashville.

Previously Senior Vice President of Promotion, Risser will continue to oversee promotion initiatives for UMG Nashville’s artist roster which includes Alan Jackson, Adam Hambrick, Billy Currington, Brandon Lay, Brothers Osborne, Carrie Underwood, Caylee Hammack, CB30, Chris Stapleton, Clare Dunn, Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Gary Allan, George Strait, Jon Langston, Jon Pardi, Jordan Davis, Josh Turner, Kacey Musgraves, Kassi Ashton, Keith Urban, Kip Moore, Lauren Alaina, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Maddie & Tae, Mickey Guyton, Sam Hunt, Shania Twain, Travis Denning, Tyminski and Vince Gill.

Mike Dungan, Chairman and CEO Universal Music Group Nashville, says, “Royce rides herd on four major label imprints, while landing all the planes, ensuring that each of the singles and the artists receive the best effort possible, and remaining focused on the big picture job that always goes farther than #1 on the charts. Yet he saves just enough energy to occasionally push people into bushes. I am proud of Royce, honored to work beside him, and happy to announce this promotion.”

Risser, a southern California native, was recruited to play football and attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree and his master’s degree. He joined MCA Records in 1991 as an intern before being hired full-time as a promotion assistant. Through the years, Risser climbed the ranks as the Director of Northeast Regional Promotion, Director of National Promotion, and Vice President of Promotion before assuming the role of SVP of Promotion for UMG Nashville in 2007. During his time at UMG, Risser has been a part of over 160 No. 1 singles to date.

Risser shares, “I am always so proud to tell people that UMG has been my only home now for 27 years. I really do still get up in the morning and can’t wait to get to the office to be around wonderful friends and unbelievable artistry. I am also so proud of what this team has accomplished and I’m looking forward to many more years of working with the best in this business. Go Team UMG!”

ACM Elects New Officers

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Pictured (L-R): ACM Secretary Tommy Moore, (incoming) ACM Vice President Lori Badgett, ACM Treasurer Carmen Romano, ACM Chairman Ben Vaughn, ACM President Duane Clark, ACM Parliamentarian Paul Moore and ACM CEO Pete Fisher

The Academy of Country Music has elected new officers for the 2018-2019 term. Newly-elected officers of the board become effective in November.

The ACM has also announced they received a total of $800,000 in contributions to the Lifting Lives program in 2018. The contributions serve Lifting Lives’ ongoing mission to improve lives through the power of music and to fund the Diane Holcomb Emergency Relief Fund.

Chairman of the Board: Duane Clark, FBMM
President: Ed Warm, Joe’s Live
Vice-President: Lori Badgett, City National Bank
Treasurer*: Carmen Romano​, FBMM
Parliamentarian: Paul Moore, PGM Connections
Sergeant-at-Arms: Tim DuBois, Artist Management Partners
Secretary: Tommy Moore, Academy of Country Music

*Treasurer elected in 2016 for a three-year term

Spotify Launches Educational Networking Series Co.Lab

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Spotify has launched Co.Lab, a new Spotify for Artists event series designed to connect artists and their teams with experts in various segments of the music industry, including label reps, tour experts and creative directors. The series aims to help artists build networks and to better understand the modern music industry.

Every Co.Lab event will be organized around a particular theme in the music business today. Experts will draw on their experience, offering practical advice and insider knowledge on the most meaningful topics facing artists.

Our first season of Co.Lab will take place over the coming months in New York and Los Angeles.

Topics will include Collaboration, Release Strategies, Touring, Merch, and Revenue Streams. Featured speakers include Annie Flook (Dir. Touring & Artist Development, Atlantic Records), Malia James (Video Music Director), Jenny Swiatowy (VP, Head of Creative Sync Licensing, Capitol Music Group), Jamal Dauda (Global Head of Music, WeTransfer), Jeff Ellis (Studio Engineer), Christian Coffey (Tour Director), Mitra Khayyam (Creative Director), Loric Sih (Live DJ for Kelela), Alex Gvojic (Lighting Designer), Kacie Lehman (SVP of Partnerships for MAC Presents), Morgan Rhodes (Music Supervisor), Sam Hockley-Smith (Music Editor for Vulture), Laura Escudé (Ableton-Certified Trainer and Live Show Designer), and more. Panels will be moderated by Frosty (Founder of dublab) and Mindy Abovitz-Monk (Founder of Tom Tom Magazine).

Applications are now open for the first five events. Applicants should be at least 21 years old and verified on Spotify for Artists. As each event has a limited capacity, artists with 1,000 or more Spotify followers will be given priority.

 

Pistol Annies Surprise With First Show In Five Years At Lambert’s CMHoF Residency, Reveal Third Album

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Pistol Annies’ Ashley Monroe, Angaleena Presley, Miranda Lambert. Photo: CMHoF/Instagram

The Pistol Annies gave their first show in five years during the second of Miranda Lambert‘s Country Music Hall Of Fame (CMHoF) Artist In Residency slot on Sept. 26.

Designed to give artists a blank canvas to showcase their art, Lambert chose to use her final evening after the week prior to welcome the Annies sisters. Shortly after the evening ended, RCA Nashville released the three tracks previewed during the show, and by morning their third studio album Interstate Gospel had been revealed (below) for release Nov. 2.

“Surprise, y’all,” said Lambert in welcoming the sold-out CMHoF crowd of 800. “This will be the very first Pistol Annies show in five years.” Shortly after the release of their sophomore album in 2013, the Pistol Annies unexpectedly cancelled all tour dates.

The new hoppin’ rocker “Got My Name Changed Back” featured Lambert’s bold annunciations of wily lyrics anticipated after her highly public divorce. The audience reaction to: I don’t let a man get the best of me/Spent an afternoon at the DMV/I got my name changed back, were jogged by an unapologetic, jeering Lambert: “Y’all get it?”

Additional new songs—now on streaming services and available for immediate download with an album pre-order—included the album’s washboard toe-tapper, driving title track and single “Interstate Gospel” and the yearning, “Best Years of My Life,” about numbing dreams of breaking out of a settled relationship.

The Annies joked of reading lyric sheets from “hymnal” music stands in brushing up on lyrics from their catalog. With the cleverness and honesty of Loretta Lynn in “Takin’ Pills,” the crescendoing “Girls Like Us,” and the smoldering and empowering “Hell On Heels,” the Annies are able to perfectly showcase their female-empowered craft in a unique way inside country music. What they may have lacked at times in vocal dynamic or harmony was made up for in charisma and wit.

Songs like “Blue Tick Hounds,” about small town, simple, tender and true life echoed within “Trailer For Rent,” and even family reunion dynamics in “Hush Hush.” The bad girl side was explored with the swampy “I Feel A Sin Coming On,” the feisty “Unhappily Married,” or the steel-driven hula in “Bad Example.” All that eased into less colloquial, heartbreakingly honest titles like “House On Fire”—which Angaleena Presley said Lambert jumped all over because it was about burning something up. Their depth and seriousness continued with “Dear Sobriety” and even the brilliant “Housewife’s Prayer,” before the more gentle, carefree clogger “Damn Thing About It” and whistler, “Lemon Drop.”

Despite two ex-husbands between them, Lambert herself touted her singleness from the stage, echoed in the fervent “Boys From The South.” “I want y’all to love us for our mistakes, and celebrate our victories tonight,” said Lambert.

“Thank you for loving the Annies and welcoming us back to the world,” she summed. “We needed this. We’re just three girlfriends that live a lot of life. We’ve got husbands, and ex-husbands, and babies and family things, and all the things you deal with in life and we sit around write about our lives. Our records are slumber parties on wheels.”

With a pregnant Presley in a black tee shirt standing middle-ground, Annies Ashley Monroe and Lambert flanked with a black flapper and thigh-high boots, and thin suede black fringe dress, respectively.

All with a guitar available, the trio was backed by four during the CMHoF’s 14th residency. Musicians included Jonny Lam (steel), Scotty Wray (guitar), Boo Massey (guitar) and Mike Rinne (bass). Although the evening lacked drums, Lambert brought out a tambourine and washboard to keep tempo at times.

Three similar, intimate concert events will invite fans “into their living room to hang, talk, laugh and commiserate” surrounding the 14-track album’s release, which has also been revealed to fans throughout this week via an old school postcard campaign. Tickets go on sale on Friday, Oct. 5 for three dates: Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Oct. 25, NYC’s The Town Hall on Nov. 2 and Los Angeles’ The Novo on Nov. 7. Additionally, the trio will play at BMI’s Maui songwriter festival between Nov. 29-Dec. 1.

Interstate Gospel Track Listing
1. Interstate Prelude
2. Stop Drop and Roll One (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
3. Best Years of My Life (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
4. 5 Acres of Turnips (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
5. When I Was His Wife (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
6. Cheyenne (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
7. Got My Name Changed Back (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
8. Sugar Daddy (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
9. Leavers Lullaby (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
10. Milkman (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
11. Commissary (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
12. Masterpiece (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
13. Interstate Gospel (Lambert, Monroe and Presley)
14. This Too Shall Pass (Monroe and Presley)

Pistol Annies. Photo: Miller Mobley

Canaan Smith To Join Florida Georgia Line’s Las Vegas Residency

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Cannan Smith

Florida Georgia Line will welcome Canaan Smith to join their five-nights-only Las Vegas residency inside Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino this December. Smith is a singer-songwriter signed to FGL’s music publishing company Tree Vibez Music.

The shows are set for Dec. 1, 5, 7, 8 and 11. Each show begins at 8 p.m.

Smith has penned songs recorded by FGL, Jason Aldean and Cole Swindell and is in the studio working on his own music. Smith’s name is also on Big Loud Records and Atlantic Records’ artist Mason Ramsey’s single “Famous,” the lead single off his six-track Famous EP.

“I’ve always wanted to tour with FGL and what better place than America’s playground,” shares Smith. “Seriously, I’m amped, y’all. I’m gonna make the most out of every minute on that stage. These crowds have no idea what’s comin’.”

 

 

Hard Rock Label Eleven Seven Music Launches Nashville Venture With Flagship Artist Cory Marks

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Cory Marks

Cory Marks has signed a multi-album record and publishing deal with newly-launched Eleven Seven Nashville, the Music City office of New York-based rock label Eleven Seven Music. Headed by Allen Kovac, Eleven Seven works with acts including Mötley Crüe, Five Finger Death Punch, All That Remains, Bad Wolves, and Papa Roach.

Marks, a native of North Bay, Ontario, has been writing and recording with rock producer Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Five Finger Death Punch, Disturbed) over the past two years to create a brand of amped-up country music.

“To be the flagship country artist on such a successful label is exciting for me. I’m honored to be working with such a great team from Churko to the whole Eleven Seven team,” Marks said, after the signing in New York.

“Cory Marks is an incredible talent who has made an amazing album,” commented Steve Kline, CEO of Eleven Seven Label Group. “As part of our global expansion into new territories and musical genres, we are excited to launch Eleven Seven Nashville and proud to have Cory as our premier signing.”

Cory Marks, formerly known as Cory Marquardt, grew up playing drums along to songs from Rush, Deep Purple, and Shania Twain on a drum set he built out of paint cans in the basement. When he hit sixth grade and was showing promise on his paint cans, the investment was made to get Cory on a real drum kit. He initially dreamed of becoming a pilot. He enrolled in flight school and obtained his student pilot permit at age 19 and enrolled at the Royal Military College of Canada.

After a night spent at a bar with some buddies playing cover songs of Vince Gill and Merle Haggard hits, Marks was encouraged to pursue music. He began writing songs and performing across Canada and opening for artists including Brantley Gilbert, Marty Stuart, Toby Keith and more. That led to his signing with Eleven Seven Music.

Eleven Seven launched in 2006. The full-service label was named Billboard‘s Rock Label of the Year in 2010. In 2015, Papa Roach’s F.E.A.R. debuted at No. 15 on the Top 200 and the band’s 2017 release, Crooked Teeth, debuted at No. 1 on the Hard Rock album chart, with their single “Help” spending six weeks atop the rock radio chart. In August, another of the label’s artists, Bad Wolves, celebrated their song “Zombie” being certified Platinum by the RIAA.

Cory Marks signing with Eleven Seven Music

 

Mike Farris, The Foxies Sign With Skyline Artists Agency

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Mike Farris and The Foxies have signed with Skyline Artists Agency for booking. Both rock acts are represented by Nashville teams including Skyline Artists’ Nashville-based agent James Leslie.

Farris won the Best Roots Gospel Grammy for his 2015 album Shine for All The People and his new release,  Silver & Stone, on Nashville’s Compass Records is currently No. 7 on the Americana charts.

The Foxies just bested over 150 bands in the Road to Roo competition to win a coveted slot on Bonnaroo 2018, and followed it up with a slot at “Live On The Green.”  Managed by Nashville’s Charles Vergara, the band is working on a new release via ONErpm.