Kip Moore To Perform At Grimey’s In Support Of Record Store Day

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Kip Moore is supporting independent record stores with a special live performance celebrating Record Store Day this weekend. Kip Moore: Live At Grimey’s Nashville will air this Saturday, Oct. 24 at 4 p.m. CT on Record Store Day’s Facebook, Moore’s YouTube and Facebook platforms. Independent stores across the country will be also be broadcasting the performance.

Performing new takes on tracks from his album Wild World, Moore’s set spotlights much-beloved independent Nashville record store Grimey’s, and joins Record Store Day’s campaign to raise awareness and highlight the importance of locally-owned stores around the world.

“There is nothing like that feeling of going to your local record store and hand-picking out vinyls for your collection,” shared Moore. “It’s really important that we preserve the local independent record stores in our communities and Record Store Day is a really great way to help continue to raise awareness, even more so during these times. Grimey’s is a Nashville staple and to get to perform some songs from the new record there is something I’m looking forward to sharing.”

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville Signs Duo After Midtown

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Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville has signed duo After Midtown (which includes singer-songwriters Adam Ernst and Michael Rotundo) to a global publishing agreement.

The duo releases their debut single “Boys Like Us” today, and are readying their first EP. They are managed by a strategic partnership between The Core Ent’s Kevin “Chief” Zaruk, Simon Tikhman, and 10th Street Ent’s Scott Frazier and Chris Nilsson.

“Finding an atmosphere where our creativity is understood and appreciated was important to us,” After Midtown said, “and we know we found that with Rusty and Anna at Sony/ATV. We feel blessed to be surrounded by such an amazing team all the way around.”

Sony/ATV Nashville CEO Rusty Gaston said, “Adam and Michael have a way of weaving their broad influences into a country/alternative rock gumbo that results into infectious, sing-a-long choruses with all the heart of what makes country music so special. On behalf of all of us at Sony/ATV, we are fired up to welcome After Midtown to the team, and we look forward to spreading the gospel music.”

Pictured (L-R): Rusty Gaston; Sony/ATV; Scott Frazier, 10th Street; Nick Ferrara, attorney; Chief Zaruk, the Core; Adam Ernst; Michael Rotundo; Anna Weisband, Sony/ATV; Simon Tikhman, the Core.

BMI Appoints Caroline Beasley To Board, Extends President/CEO Mike O’Neill’s Contract

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Caroline Beasley

BMI has appointed Caroline Beasley, CEO, Beasley Media Group, as Chairman of the BMI Board of Directors, effective immediately. Beasley joined the board in 2014 and most recently served as Vice Chairman of the BMI Board.

Beasley was named Chief Executive Officer of Beasley Media Group, LLC in January 2017. Previously, she held several senior-level positions within the company since 1994, including Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary. In addition, she has served as a Director of Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc. since she joined the company in 1983.

“It is truly an honor to have the privilege of serving as Chair of the BMI Board of Directors,” said Beasley. “Many thanks to Michael Fiorile for his innovative vision, tireless collaboration and insightful leadership over the past several years in his role as Chairman of the organization. I look forward to working together with the Board, Mike O’Neill and the outstanding BMI team to continue to serve the evolving needs of music creators, publishers and licensees in today’s dynamic marketplace.”

Additionally, the performing rights organization’s Board of Directors has extended its contract with President/CEO Mike O’Neill, through the end of 2026.

Under O’Neill’s leadership, BMI has reported its highest-ever revenue and distributions to its affiliate songwriters, composers and publishers. Notably, BMI became the first music rights organization in the world to deliver more than $1 billion in public performance royalties to its affiliates. Additionally, O’Neill spearheaded BMI’s historic victory over the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure the continued practice of fractional licensing. He has also overseen exponential growth year-over-year in both signing up tens of thousands of new songwriters and composers to the company and processing trillions of performances, adapting to the seismic digital shift in how music is consumed. Most recently, O’Neill has successfully steered the Company during the global COVID-19 pandemic, prioritizing the health and safety of BMI team members while ensuring seamless service to affiliates and licensees and driving historic revenue and royalty distributions.

The company also announced that the following six BMI Board members have been re-elected to three-year terms, expiring in 2023: Greg Ashlock, President, iHeartMedia Markets Group; Rebecca Campbell, Chairman, Direct to Consumer and International, The Walt Disney Company; Dave Lougee, President and CEO, TEGNA, Inc.; Mike O’Neill, President and CEO, BMI; Mark Pedowitz, Chairman and CEO, The CW Network; and Perry Sook, Chairman, President and CEO, Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

Continuing in their terms on the BMI Board of Directors are: Susan Davenport Austin, CFO, Grace Church School; Amador Bustos, President and CEO, Bustos Media Holdings, LLC; Bill Hoffman, President, Hoffman Communications, Inc. and Retired President, Cox Media Group; Catherine Hughes, Founder and Chairperson, Urban One, Inc.; Phil Jones, Retired President, Meredith Corporation Broadcast Group; Jerry Kersting, Former President, Tribune Broadcasting and past EVP/CFO, Clear Channel Radio; Paul Karpowicz, Retired President, Meredith Local Media Group; Ginny Morris, Vice President, Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. and Chair and CEO, Hubbard Radio, LLC; and Neil Smith, President, GNS Media, LLC.

Ray Stevens Returns To Curb Records

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Country Music Hall of Fame member Ray Stevens has returned to Curb Records for upcoming projects. His first release under the deal is a 50th anniversary edition of his signature hit “Everything Is Beautiful,” out Oct. 30.

Stevens noted, “I’m excited to be back on Curb and look forward to having the help of a great team in my corner,” he says, adding, “You know it doesn’t seem possible, but I first recorded this song 50 years ago. We’ve come a long way since then and still have a lot of miles left to go, so let’s not fall apart now. Let’s come together and show the world that everything really is… beautiful.”

“Everything Is Beautiful,” written and recorded by Stevens, earned a Grammy for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male in 1970. That year, it was also nominated for Grammy honors for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, among others. Stevens’s rendition of “Everything Is Beautiful” also spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Two versions of “Everything Is Beautiful” will be released later this month, including a traditional recording as well as a second version that incorporates the patriotic classic “United We Stand.”

Weekly Radio Report (10/23/20)

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Click here or above to access MusicRow’s weekly CountryBreakout Radio Report.

The Cadillac Three Expand Their Palate With ‘Tabasco & Sweet Tea’ [Interview]

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The Cadillac Three. Photo: Nick Rau

Mere months after releasing Country Fuzz, The Cadillac Three are back with another eclectic musical offering, Tabasco & Sweet Tea. The trio’s Jaren Johnston, Neil Mason, and Kelby Rae wrote and produced the project, out today (Oct. 23) via Big Machine Records.

Johnston and Mason’s specific, wily writing litters Tabasco & Sweet Tea, with southern fried idioms including lyrics like “Such a southern little sizzle you could fry an egg on her” and “Daddy musta been a fisherman, Mama must a been a cook / Cause that lady and gentleman made a girl that made a bass a put a lip on the hook.”  Fans of “The Jam” and “Blue El Camino” on Country Fuzz will find the album further exploring those musical nuances, building The Cadillac Three’s musical palate while still remaining true to the trio’s hard-earned sound. As a British radio DJ put it, The Cadillac Three are “Sabbath On Cornbread.” They’ve included a song of the same title on Tabasco & Sweet Tea to prove it.

“[That came from] one of our first trips over to the U.K. and somebody was like ‘You guys remind me of Sabbath on cornbread,’ which I think was just his way of saying heavy-metal, but country,” said TC3 drummer Mason. We’ve always called ourselves ‘Country Fuzz,’ that’s the term we always used to describe our sound. We felt like we should write an ode to that guy because he really, just in a couple words, described us better than anybody had until that point, and probably still really has. It felt like if we’re going to talk about this, we should probably give this guy a shout out.”

The project was written on the heels of Country Fuzz, when the trio was listening to records they deem as early influences. “My favorite records growing up were records that took me into another world. They took me to another place in my head and helped me forget about whatever I was thinking about. This record was written from a place that was inspired by what those records were for us,” Mason said.

Records that inspired The Cadillac Three were everything from Beck’s Midnite Vultures to instrumental album Medeski Martin & Wood, along with music from The Meters, Bill Withers, the Eagles, The Allman Brothers Band, James Brown, Waylon Jennings, and Queens of the Stone Age.

“We were finishing the Country Fuzz record and the last few songs that we were recording were songs like ‘The Jam’ and ‘Blue El Camino,’ and they were just leaning into some different grooves and were a little bit funkier than some of the things we’ve done in the past. It just felt like there was a whole lot of untapped inspiration there,” Mason said. “So coming out of finishing that record, we really just jumped straight into the writing of this new record which led further and further down the rabbit hole, the further we went.”

“I think the road is one of the things that made this get so experimental. Your days out there are kind of the same. It’s like 23 hours a day of waiting to play the show. We’d get up in the mornings and just try to do something different, kind of inspire ourselves and be excited,” Mason continued. “Jaren had written ‘Tabasco & Sweet Tea’ here in Nashville, and that was the thesis statement, if you will, for what this record became. As we just went further down the rabbit hole, things just kept getting more experimental as we got through songs like ‘Devil’s Lettuce’ all the way down to ‘Sabbath On Cornbread.'”

With exclusive “crew” merchandise that helped TC3’s road family with the loss of shows, donating to Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee as a part of their 100,000 meals in 100 Days initiative and highlighting local venues and other artists as COUNTRY FUZZ PRESENTS takes up a livestream residence at The Basement and Exit/In, the band has been doing their part in giving back during this season.

But further still, TC3’s new offering will be priced at $3.99 for the first week so it is more accessible during a time when many are not spending as much on music, but need it now more than ever.

“We were about to play the biggest show of our career when the pandemic came to a head and all the shows got canceled. We were supposed to open for Eric Church at the C2C Festival in London at the O2 Arena. We were really excited about getting to do that. Like so many other people, our jobs just stopped in a 24 hour span. We came back and were kind of in a daze for a few days trying to figure out what was going on and how long everything was going to last. The one thing that we really settled on was ‘Let’s control what we can control and do what we can do.’ And that was making as much music this year as possible… We just wanted to provide a sense of release for our fans and the people who like our band.

“There are so many people out there who are not able to go to work like they want to be able to. Maybe because there’s just not a job there for them or maybe because of health. I want anybody who wants to put their hands on this record to be able to at as cheap of a price as we can make it, and $3.99 was as cheap of a price as we could. We hope that everybody is able to go get it this first week to take advantage of that,” Mason said. “The thing about it is we’ve asked our fans to help us and our career out and they’ve done so, so this record is almost like an early Christmas gift in trying to make the price as low as possible as a way to give back to them.”

 

BMI Foundation Launches 2021 Scholarship Season

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The BMI Foundation is now accepting online applications for its 2021 scholarship season, open to students attending colleges and universities nationwide. The Foundation will administer five distinct songwriting and composing scholarship competitions, judged by panelists of international musical acclaim. These annual programs include the BMI Future Jazz Master Scholarship, BMI Student Composer Awards, John Lennon Scholarship, peermusic Latin Scholarship and the Nashville Songwriting Scholarship. In addition, the Foundation administers two scholarship competitions outside the area of music creation: the BMI Founders Internship Program for broadcasting students, and the Woody Guthrie Fellowship for scholars pursuing topics or themes related to the American folk music progenitor.

““This is an exceptional opportunity for new songwriters and composers to be recognized and supported for their work,” said BMI Foundation President Deirdre Chadwick. “Our programs are designed to provide new writers with opportunities to build a firm foundation from which to launch their careers—and many have done so quite successfully.”

Most program applications must be completed online no later than January 2021, and applicants should visit the company’s website for specific deadlines for each program. Those interested in applying for a scholarship can visit bmifoundation.org/programs.

More details on each scholarship are below:

BMI Founders Internship Program for Radio Broadcasting
Established in 2015, the BMI Founders Award is an annual internship program open to radio broadcasting students nationwide. The award commemorates the group of radio industry leaders who founded Broadcast Music, Inc. in 1939. A 4-6 week paid internship with a major broadcaster is awarded based on merit and the best original essay response submitted to the competition, and recognizes a student with the potential to become an innovator in the rapidly changing field of broadcast radio. bmifoundation.org/broadcast

BMI Future Jazz Master Scholarship
The BMI Future Jazz Master Scholarship will award $5,000 to a rising jazz star pursuing a graduate degree in Jazz Studies, Jazz Performance, or related majors. The award was established in 2015 in honor of the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, a lifetime achievement recognition program of the National Endowment for the Arts. bmifoundation.org/jazzmaster

BMI Student Composer Awards
The 69th annual BMI Student Composer Awards will award $20,000 in prizes to young composers engaged in the study of classical music. Co-sponsored by BMI and the BMI Foundation, the competition is open to all composers studying classical music who are age 27 or younger and citizens of the Western Hemisphere. Classical music luminaries from John Adams to Tonia Ko received their earliest recognition through this program. bmifoundation.org/sca

John Lennon Scholarships
The 24th annual John Lennon Scholarships will award three prizes totaling $20,000 to U.S. college-student songwriters (age 17 to 24) for the best original songs submitted to the competition. Established in 1997 by Yoko Ono in conjunction with the BMI Foundation, this scholarship program honors the memory of one of the preeminent songwriters of the 20th century, John Lennon, and has become one of the nation’s most esteemed accolades for emerging artists. bmifoundation.org/lennon

Nashville Songwriting Scholarship
The sixth annual Nashville Songwriting Scholarship will award $5,000 for the best original song in any of the following genres: Americana, blues, bluegrass, contemporary Christian, country, folk, and roots. The contest is open to students between the ages of 17 and 24, who are enrolled in any college or university located in the United States. GRAMMY-winning recording artist and BMI songwriter Kacey Musgraves endorses the competition and serves as a final judge. bmifoundation.org/nashville

peermusic Latin Scholarship
Established by music publisher Ralph Peer II and generously funded by peermusic, the 18th  annual peermusic Latin Scholarship competition will award a $5,000 scholarship for the best original song or instrumental composition in any Latin genre. The contest is open to students between the ages of 17 and 24, who are enrolled in any college or university located in the United States and Puerto Rico. Acclaimed Latin artist and BMI songwriter Gloria Trevi serves as honorary spokesperson for the competition. bmifoundation.org/peer

Woody Guthrie Fellowship
The 15th annual Woody Guthrie Fellowship will award up to $5,000 for scholarly research at the extensive Woody Guthrie Archives, a paper-based research repository located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Applicants must have a research project that leads to the creation of an original scholarly publication or product and requires a minimum of two weeks of research at the Archives. Established in 2005 in cooperation with the Woody Guthrie Center, the Woody Guthrie Fellowship seeks to encourage unique exploration into the life and legacy of one of the most influential folk musicians in American history, Woody Guthrie. bmifoundation.org/guthrie

NIVA’s #SOSFest Raises Nearly $2 Million For Independent Music Venues

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The three-day virtual Save Our Stages festival, held Oct. 16-18 via the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA)’s YouTube channel, featured more than 30 artists, including Reba, Brittany Howard, and Little Big Town, offering live performances from 25 historic indie music venues across the nation.

The festival raised more than $1.8 million to aid independent music venues that have been forced to close their doors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds raised include donations from YouTube Giving’s donate button, #SOSFEST merchandise sales, the Save Our Stages official website and more.

NIVA was launched this year in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown, and now represents more than 2,900 members in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. According to NIVA, 90% of closed venues report that they could be forced to shut down permanently if they do not receive aid, and many have already closed.

NIVA has been aggressively lobbying Congress to pass legislation to help indie venues weather the pandemic and support the Save Our Stages Act, which was authored by Senators Amy Klobuchar and John Cornyn in July. On Oct. 1, the House of Representatives passed the revised HEROES Act stimulus package, a $2.2 trillion package which includes provisions of the Save Our Stages Act.

Grammy Nominees Announcement Set For Nov. 24

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Nominees for the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards will be announced Tuesday, Nov. 24. The hour-long livestream will begin at approximately 12 p.m. ET on grammy.com, with Chair and Interim Recording Academy President/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. reading categories, joined by past Grammy winners, nominees and hopefuls from remote locations across the country.

Immediately following, nominees for all 84 categories will be released via press release, on GRAMMY.com, and the Recording Academy’s social media platforms. The 63rd Grammy Awards will be broadcast on CBS on Sunday, Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. ET.

Dan+Shay To Perform On ‘Every Vote Counts: A Celebration of Democracy’

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Dan + Shay, Alicia Keys, Offset and Shawn Mendes will perform on Every Vote Counts: A Celebration of Democracy, a nationally televised and streamed event airing on CBS that will be streamed via CBS All Access on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 9 p.m. ET. The special will also be available on iHeartMedia radio stations and its app, Apple Music, Apple TV App, Amazon Music, Twitch, NowThis, YouTube, Twitter, TIDAL and Facebook, and more to be announced.

Amy Schumer, Chris Rock, Cobie Smulders, Coldplay, Condoleezza Rice, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Lopez, John Kasich, Kelly Clarkson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Natalie Portman, Shaquille O’Neal, Tan France, Wilmer Valderrama, and more will also appear on the special, which will honor and celebrate the power of voting through music, dance and dialogue.

Hosted by Keys, America Ferrera, and Kerry Washington, the show brings together artists, musicians, performers, and community leaders for a nonpartisan celebration of American democracy, with the goal of uplifting the power of civic action and celebrating the precious value of every single citizen’s right to vote.

“The purpose for this special is to remind and inspire all Americans of the power of their voice and their vote,” said Keys. “It’s a challenging time but we have the opportunity to continue to show up and shape the world we want to live in. In a democracy, every vote counts, so we want to encourage and uplift each other and remember we all have a say in the direction of our country because everyone’s participation matters. Also, for many young people across the country, this is their first time voting so we want to make sure they understand the magnitude of this time and learn why this is one of the most exciting moments in the Democratic process.”