Six individuals and an esteemed record label were celebrated during the inaugural Celebrate the Soul: Black Music Honors, which feted Pastor Shirley Caesar, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Big Daddy Kane, Dionne Warwick, Clarence Avant, and Stax Records.

Held on Aug. 18 at TPAC’s Jackson hall, the evening was filled musical tributes from Eddie Levert, Tina Campbell, Ann Nesby, Deborah Cox, Andra Day, Chubb Rock, Cherelle, Gerald Alston, Stokley Williams, and more. Presenters included Kirk Franklin, “Big Jim” Wright, Monie Love, Kathy Sledge, Ethiopia Habtemariam and H. Beecher Hicks III (president and CEO of NMAAM), along with several others.

The television taping was co-hosted by Malcom-Jamal Warner and R&B singer Ledisi. Black Music Honors will air in Nashville on WTVF-NewsChannel 5 on Sunday, Sept. 4 at 3 p.m. CT. The show will premiere nationally on the Bounce TV Network on Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. ET and will re-air on Sept. 25 at 11 a.m. ET. The show will run in syndication on Bounce and Aspire between Sept. 23–Oct. 9.

The National Museum of African American Music is slated to open in Nashville in 2018.

Kelly Clarkson will serve as Grand Marshal for the 63rd annual Piedmont Natural Gas Nashville Christmas Parade presented by Tootsie’s.

The parade will be held in downtown Nashville on Saturday, Dec. 3, beginning at 9 a.m. at the intersection of 8th avenue and Broadway. The parade will head east down Broadway to 2nd Ave. N., cross the Cumberland River, and end at the base of the Woodland Street Bridge.

“I love our city of Nashville and couldn’t be more proud to be the Grand Marshal for this year’s Christmas Parade,” Clarkson said. “See y’all there!”

“Piedmont Natural Gas is thrilled to have Kelly Clarkson, the nation’s first American Idol, to be our Nashville Christmas Parade Grand Marshal this year,” said Stephen Francescon, community relations manager for Piedmont Natural Gas. “Our parade is one of Nashville’s favorite holiday traditions. We are working hard to make this year’s event our best one ever, and having an artist with Kelly’s talent and career achievements as our Grand Marshal only adds to the excitement.”

Some of the proceeds from this year’s event will benefit a four-floor expansion of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Additional proceeds will go toward Share the Warmth, Piedmont Natural Gas’ energy assistance program that helps local low-income families pay their energy bills at any point during the year, regardless of their energy source.

 

 

Thomas Rhett will host an acoustic concert on Oct. 4 to benefit the organization 147 Million Orphans. The show will take place at The Old School in northwest Nashville.

The night will offer intimate acoustic performances in an outdoor barn setting by Thomas Rhett and special guests Dierks Bentley, Walker Hayes and Shane McAnally.

A limited number of tickets are available to the event. Tickets will be auctioned off to the public Saturday (Aug. 27) at 11 a.m. CT.

The event will also feature a farm-to-table dinner, specialty cocktails, limited edition merchandise, a post-show s’more roasting and a chance to meet Thomas Rhett and Lauren. More artist and songwriter guests will be announced in the coming weeks.

“If anyone follows my wife Lauren or me on social media, they probably already know how important 147 is to us,” Rhett said. “We’re getting asked all the time by friends and fans about what they can do to help, so we wanted to put something together to help support all the work 147 is doing for orphans around the world. I can’t think of a better group of guys to help kick this off than Dierks, Walker and Shane and am looking forward to a couple other surprises we’re working on for the night.”

147 Million Orphans was established in 2009 to provide food, water, medicine, shelter, and education to vulnerable children in the name of Jesus, so that they may thrive through sustainable care.

WMOT-FM 89.5 is moving from jazz and classical music to Americana music next month, becoming Middle Tennessee’s only radio station devoted to roots music. The switch will take place on Sept. 2 at 11 a.m.

The weekly Americana music program Music City Roots will also be heard on WMOT, which is operated by Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

PBS program and radio show Bluegrass Underground, which is recorded in Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tennessee, will be broadcast on WMOT as well.

Listeners can expect live radio hosts, including veterans of roots music broadcasting, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. Jessie Scott, the first roots music director on satellite radio and a founding board member of the Americana Music Association, will direct the musical programming.

John Walker, an executive producer of Music City Roots will host morning drive. Grand Ole Opry veteran Keith Bilbrey will handle midday, tapping his expertise in country music. Whit “Witness” Hubner will work early afternoons.

Walker and Todd Mayo, also an executive producer of Music City Roots, have partnered with the station to provide a Nashville-centric perspective on Americana.

“This will give our students the opportunity to work and learn in a vibrant professional environment and provide greater interaction with the music industry,” said Ken Paulson, dean of the College of Media and Entertainment, which operates the station. “Among Nashville artists charting with Americana albums in recent months have been Sturgill Simpson, the Mavericks, Elizabeth Cook, Darrell Scott, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell and many more.”

WMOT-FM will continue to serve as a training ground for MTSU students who are integrating audio editing and narration skills into their multimedia portfolios, which include television, social media, print and website management.

WMOT launched in April 1969. Its 100,000 watts reach north to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and to the Alabama border in the south.

In 2009, the station moved to an all-jazz format. MTSU’s jazz station will move to the MTSU Jazz Network on WMOT’s HD channel on Sept. 2, as well as its FM signals 104.9 in Brentwood and 92.3 in Murfreesboro.

The station will remain the flagship for Blue Raider Athletics and will continue to air MTSU On the Record, a 30-minute public affairs interview program highlighting the university community, as well as regular area news updates.

“Imagine, in our neck of the woods, a radio station with real people playing music they actually care about, even love,” said artist Rodney Crowell, recipient of the Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting. “WMOT is bringing Middle Tennessee real music when we need it most. Miracles happen.”

A special public kickoff celebration will be held on Friday, Sept. 2 at 11 a.m. at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Music City Roots also airs nationally on American Public Television; its fourth season will launch Oct. 28.