In anticipation of the upcoming 16-hour Country Music documentary from Ken Burns, which will premiere in fall 2019 on PBS, the Ryman Auditorium will present “Country Music: Live at the Ryman, a Concert Celebrating The Film By Ken Burns.” The concert will take place Wednesday, March 27.

Burns will host the evening, which will be filled with performances from Dierks Bentley, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Rhiannon Giddens, Vince Gill, Brenda Lee, Kathy Mattea, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, Asleep at the Wheel, Holly Williams and Dwight Yoakam. “Country Music: Live at the Ryman” will be recorded for broadcast on PBS at a later date. In addition to live performances, the event will show select clips from the film, and be produced by Opry Entertainment, PBS and Florentine Films.

“In country music we found a love for storytelling that translates everyday experiences into universal truths that we can all identify with,” Burns said. “We’re very excited to share this film with the country, in towns large and small, from one coast to the other. But we are most excited to share it in those areas that gave birth to this most American of art forms. Bringing our film to Ryman Auditorium, the Mother Church of Country Music, and a character itself in our film, is a dream for us.”

The Country Music documentary was directed by Burns and produced by Burns, Dayton Duncan and Julie Dunfey. The three filmmakers spent eight years researching and producing the project, conducting interviews with more than 100 people, including 40 members of the Country Music Hall of Fame (17 of those interviewed have since passed on). Among those storytellers are historian Bill Malone and a wide range of country artists such as Marty Stuart, Rosanne Cash, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Naomi and Wynonna Judd, as well as studio musicians, record producers and others. The film uses more than 3,200 photographs and over two hours of archival footage, including rare and never-before-seen photos and footage of Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash and others.

“Ken Burns and his team shine a bright spotlight on the remarkable people, places, songs and stories that make country music so powerful and inspirational,” shares Sally Williams, Senior Vice President of Programming and Artist Relations for Opry Entertainment and General Manager of the Grand Ole Opry. “The Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium have been central to those stories for nearly a century, so it’s only fitting to celebrate the film at the Mother Church. On March 27, we’ll welcome Ken and some of the biggest stars in country music for a once-in-a-lifetime night of stories and songs.”

“PBS and our local stations are pulling out all the stops to make Ken Burns’ Country Music the big event for the fall season,” said Perry Simon. “We are thrilled to kick off this effort with a bus tour through TN and to partner with Opry Entertainment and Florentine Films, Ken’s company, to produce this wonderful concert and make it available to people throughout the country on PBS later this year.”

Tickets to “Country Music: Live at the Ryman, a Concert Celebrating the Film by Ken Burns” will go on sale Feb. 8 at 10 a.m. CT via ticketmaster.com, ryman.com or by phone at 800-745-3000.

Single Add Dates

February 4
Tim McGraw/Thought About You/Columbia
Aaron Watson/Kiss That Girl Goodbye/BIG Label Records
Shane Owens/Love To Try Them On/AmeriMonte Records
Logan Mize/Better Off Gone/Big Yellow Dog Music
Smithfield/Our World/Deluge/in2une
Mags/Run/Emerald Fields Productions
Joseph St. John/Shaky Ground/711 Records

February 8
Chris Janson/Good Vibes/Warner Bros.-Warner Music Nashville

February 11
Dan + Shay/All To Myself/Warner Bros./WAR
Mitchell Tenpenny/Alcohol You Later/Riser House/Columbia
Stephanie Quayle/If I Was a Cowboy/Rebel Engine
DuShane Band/Jody/Turtle Bay/KES Music
Jessie Chris & Danny Wood/Bodyguard/Gulko Group

February 18
Ryan Hurd/To a T/RCA Nashville
Chloe Collins/The Last Time/Collins House Music
Corinne Cook/One Box of Tissues/CCM Records
Michael Johnathon/The Statue/PoetMan Records

February 25
William Shatner and Jeff Cook feat. Neal McCoy, Home Free/Why Not Me/Heartland Records Nashville
Dave McElroy/Bullet Proof/Nine North Label Group
The Ashley Sisters/Sweet on You/GKM Records
Kree Harrison/I Love The Lie/Visionary Records

February 26
Alexis Ebert/Ride Or Die/Smashville Entertainment

February 28
Lockeland/Til The Cows Come Home/Lockeland Entertainment

Album Release Dates

February 1
Cassadee Pope/Stages

February 8
Sister Hazel/Fire [EP is Volume III of Elements]

February 15
Florida Georgia Line/Can’t Say I Ain’t Country/BMLG Records
Bellamy Brothers/Over The Moon/Bellamy Brothers Records

Industry Events

February 8
2019 MusiCares Person of the Year tribute at the Los Angeles Convention Center

February 10
61st Annual Grammy Awards at Los Angeles’ STAPLES Center

February 11
Second round voting closes for 2019 ACM Awards

February 11-13
Pollstar Live! conference at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton Hotel

February 13

• MusicRow Meet & Greet and CountryBreakout Awards [invitation only]
• 30th annual Pollstar Awards at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton Hotel

February 13-15
Country Radio Seminar 2019 (CRS) at the Omni Nashville

February 19
10th annual CMA Triple Play Awards presentation at a private industry-only luncheon

Leadership Music is now accepting applications from established music industry leaders for its Class of 2020. Applications will be accepted online only throughout the month of February. When the current class graduates in May, they will be the 30^th class, bringing the total number of industry alums to more than 1,200. In September, the Class of 2020 marks the beginning of Leadership Music’s next 30 years.

The eight-month, Nashville-based nationwide program is designed to expose participants to every phase of the music industry, as well as foster communication and cooperation among industry leaders and explore the challenges facing the music business.

“One of the added bonuses for participants,” said LM Executive Director, Debbie Schwartz Linn, “is their exposure to executives from virtually every segment of the industry. A talent buyer from a venue in Texas might be in the same class with a Congressional aide from DC but would never have connected except through Leadership Music. Or a musician and a booking agent working just blocks from each other in Nashville for years might never have met. We are fond of saying that at the end of their program year, a participant leaves with 44 new friends and connections. Many times, these encounters become friendships that lasts a lifetime.”

Class participants first attend an orientation and alumni welcome reception in September, then Opening Retreat in October, followed by six all-day sessions once a month, ending in May with graduation at Closing Retreat. Application forms, program dates, policies and FAQs are available at leadershipmusic.org/apply/.

Applications must be submitted via the online process no later than midnight, Feb. 28, 2019.

Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Little Big Town, Dierks Bentley, Kacey Musgraves, Kassi Ashton, Kelsea Ballerini, Brothers Osborne, Maren Morris, Old Dominion, Lady Gaga, John Legend, and Shawn Mendes are a few of over 200 other artists, producers, labels, management companies, and other industry members have signed on to a new task force initiative on Diversity and Inclusion started by the Recording Academy. The unprecedented new initiative aims to expand opportunities for female music producers and engineers in the industry, and is the first step in a broader effort to increase the number of women in those fields. According to a 2018 USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study, only two percent of music producers and three percent of engineers/mixers across popular music are women.

The initiative is the first step in a broader effort to improve those numbers and increase diversity and inclusion for all in the music industry, and calls on any entity or individual responsible for or involved in selecting and hiring producers and engineers to commit to making hiring decisions only after considering a slate of candidates that includes at least two women. It also asks working producers to take gender diversity challenges in music’s technical fields into account when determining who to mentor and prepare for development and advancement opportunities.

“The music industry is at a crossroads and progress won’t happen on its own. There is no magic bullet to shift a status quo that has existed for centuries, but we see this initiative as an important step,” said Tina Tchen, Chair of the Recording Academy’s Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion and Partner at Buckley LLP, who previously served as chief of staff to former First Lady, Michelle Obama. “We know that change requires real commitment to intentional hiring and to providing young women with consistent training and mentorship. We aren’t here to tell anyone who to hire, but we have seen repeatedly that the simple act of making sure diverse candidates are always seen and considered makes it more likely that women will get the opportunities they previously have been denied.  It’s one step everyone can take that could go a long way to catalyzing important change that is overdue in this industry.”

To assist in ensuring the success of this initiative, the Recording Academy is creating and hosting a webpage dedicated solely to facilitating the process of identifying working female producers and engineers. The site will enable anyone seeking to consider and hire a woman for a position to quickly access relevant resources, including tools provided by She Is The Music and Women’s Audio Mission, organizations that help connect decision-makers with female producers and engineers.

“As an artist and member of the Recording Academy, I’m proud to join this pledge and appreciate the work of the Task Force to bring this forward. Women deserve as much opportunity as men, and we know this industry has not always been fair. The only way to change these inequities is for us to face it directly and commit to do more,” said artist and Task Force member, Common.

The Inclusion Initiative gives employers and creative decision-makers the continued ability to make the right choice for their music, while simultaneously providing visibility and opportunity for female producers and engineers. Bringing visibility to these issues will not only expand opportunities for women today, but it will also inspire more young women and girls to pursue technical careers in the music industry going forward, which could help shrink the gender gap.

A full list of artist, label and producer pledges is available here.

 

Penske Media Corporation has finalized the purchase of the remaining 49 percent stake in Rolling Stone from BandLab Technologies, MusicRow has confirmed. The purchase includes all event and licensing rights as well as the parallel entity Rolling Stone International. The acquisition makes Penske Media the full owner, after Penske gained a 51 percent stake in December 2017, when it purchased those shares from Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner.

A Penske Media rep says the company expects to add a 15-20 percent increase in editorial as part of its growth strategy for the publication.

According to Vanity Fair, Penske’s initial 2017 investment in the publication cost approximately $50 million. Following the 2017 investment, Wenner had continued to be involved with the publication, while his son Gus Wenner was named president and COO.

Penske Media Corporation also owns titles including Variety, Deadline, Hollywood Life, WWD, IndieWire, and more.