‘Coat of Many Colors’ Will Air Christmas Day on NBC

Photo: Jeff Lipsky/NBC

An encore presentation of Dolly Parton’s ‘Coat of Many Colors’ television movie will air on Christmas Day on NBC at 9/8c. The project ranks as the most-watched film on the four broadcast networks in more than six years, with 13 million viewers during the initial Dec. 10 broadcast. With DVR viewing taken into account, the film reached 15.6 million viewers.

“I hoped to bring some families together so they could sit and watch a movie like this. I really wanted to celebrate the people, my whole family, who made me who and what I am today. I’m so blessed and thankful for everyone who watched and I hope this story reaches many, many more when NBC shows it Christmas night,” said Parton.

BMI Maui Songwriter Festival Concludes

BMI songwriters Kacey Musgraves and Willie Nelson. Photo: Rebecca Adler Rotenberg

The inaugural BMI Maui Songwriters Festival attracted listeners to multiple island venues earlier this month. Held Dec. 8-13, the festival featured in-the-round performances, full-band sets and stories behind the songs. Willie Nelson and Kacey Musgraves shared the stage at the event’s kickoff party. Participating venues included Charley’s Saloon, the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, and the Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort.

ACM Hires Three Staffers

Pictured (L-R) Brandon Campbell, Bree Lutjens, Melissa Moldovan

The Academy of Country Music has announced new hires in two departments: videographer/editor Brandon Campbell, assistant Bree Lutjens, and junior publicist Melissa Moldovan. All positions are based out the Academy’s headquarters in Encino, California.

Brandon Campbell joins the Creative & Content Production team as Videographer/Editor. Atlanta-born and Tennessee-raised, Campbell graduated from Middle Tennessee State University, where he studied Electronic Media Communications with a focus on single-camera production. Prior to joining the Academy, Campbell spent six years freelancing in Nashville, where he worked with various awards shows and artists—including Keith Urban, Mutemath and many more. Most recently, he was a full-time videographer for Hunter Hayes, a position he held for three years. He reports to Lisa Lee, Senior Vice President, Creative & Content Production.

Bree Lutjens graduated in May from San Diego State University, where she studied public relations and economics. During that time, she served as an ambassador to incoming university students each summer. In addition to her involvement within the SDSU campus, Lutjens also spent more than two years working for San Diego County’s local PBS station KPBS and spent three months working at a financial investment firm. Lutjens will assist and report dually to Lee and Brooke Primero, Senior Vice President, PR & Marketing.

Melissa Moldovan moved to California in 2001 and has spent the past three-and-a-half years working for the nationally-syndicated radio show The Big Time with Whitney Allen. A Chicago native, Moldovan worked as an assistant producer and fill-in co-host while simultaneously developing the show’s social media platforms. Her work eventually led to the creation of a social media coordinator position, which she undertook in addition to her other roles. Moldovan will report to Primero.

Ashley Wilson Promoted at UMG Nashville

UMG Nashville has promoted Ashley Wilson to Coordinator, Media Marketing. Wilson interned in UMG’s media marketing department while completing her Bachelor’s degree at Nashville’s Belmont University, and was hired full-time as an administrative employee following her graduation this year.

“I’m thrilled to welcome Ashley into our Media Marketing department,” said Lori Christian, VP Media Marketing. “Since she interned with our department, I have been impressed with her work ethic, go-getter attitude and her graciousness. She is a perfect addition to our team and I can’t wait to watch her continue to grow and shine.”

Drawing on popular music’s relationship with history and free speech, The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will offer two new educational programs to students in 2016 through a partnership with the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center.

On February 22 and 29, the museum will host a performance of Freedom Sings, the story of free speech in America as told through rock, pop, hip-hop, and country music. The cast revisits turning points in five decades of contemporary history, with songs from Loretta Lynn and the Beatles to today’s top hits. Freedom Sings is in its fifteenth year of touring American colleges and communities. For the museum performance, Freedom Sings will be presented to grades 9 to 12.

In addition, a new program titled Music Matters: The Songs That Shaped America, is being developed for grades 6 to 8. The presentation will feature a band of Nashville musicians telling the stories of some of America’s most powerful songs and the events that inspired them. Aligned with middle school social studies curriculum, the program explores the ways in which music has reflected society and changed the way Americans see the world. Through an interactive and educational concert experience, students are better able to understand historical events and challenging subject matter. Music Matters will be presented on April 8 and the program is 75 minutes long.

Both programs are free to Title I schools, and transportation subsidies may be available to qualifying schools.

“The late Mr. John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center, famously spent his life fighting for freedom and justice. As a board member and champion of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, he understood the vital role that music plays in ongoing dialogue about the social issues of our day. Without his unparalleled support, the museum would not be what it is today,” said museum CEO Kyle Young. “We’re thrilled to partner with the First Amendment Center to offer these important programs as an extension of the museum experience and to further support the great work Mr. Seigenthaler initiated years ago.”

“These two programs tell the vibrant story of our nation through the power and passion of music,” said Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center and author of both shows. “From the troubadours of the eighteenth century to contemporary pop, rock and hip-hop, free expression has been at the heart of America’s music.”

The Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center has offices at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and at the John Seigenthaler Center on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free-expression issues through education, information and entertainment.

Larry Gatlin

Christmas Day is always a little extra special for country star Larry Gatlin and his brothers Steve and Rudy. The Gatlin Brothers were inducted as members of the Grand Ole Opry on Dec. 25, 1976. “Next year around this time, we will be celebrating 40 years as Opry members, and it has truly been one of the great honors of my life,” says Larry Gatlin.

The Grand Ole Opry’s radio show has been celebrating its 90th anniversary throughout this year, and the Gatlin Brothers have been proud members, and frequent performers, during many of those decades. “My favorite memory has to be the first time I walked on that Opry stage. It was a Saturday matinee during the heat of August,” recalls Gatlin. “We were singing backup harmony with Dottie West. It had to have been 400 degrees in there because the old Ryman [Auditorium] was not air-conditioned.

“Now, I always enter the Ryman from stage right because I want to walk past the place where we stood. We stood stage right, two little microphones, Dottie was singing and we were singing [West’s 1964 hit], ‘Here Comes My Baby,’ so that is my favorite memory.”

Gatlin says he arrived in Nashville in 1972, with his brothers following around 1975. The brothers had just begun having their first major country chart successes with “Broken Lady” and “Statues Without Hearts” when they were given the honor of becoming members of the Grand Ole Opry. “Mr. Bud Wendell and the folks at the Opry and Dottie West championed our cause. They invested and believed in what we could accomplish. They haven’t kicked us out so far, so I guess we are doing ok.”

In the 1970s, before country entertainers had the plethora of online, television, print, and radio opportunities they have today, performing on the Grand Ole Opry was an even more crucial element of a country entertainer’s career. “At that point in time, country music had not really taken off, and entertainers were not on all the national TV shows. The Opry and the radio show was their lifeline to the people. When Dottie brought me to town to write songs for her company, most of the people I started hanging around–Dottie, Jack Greene, Jeannie Seely—were Opry members.

“The first Saturday night I was in Nashville, I went to the Opry with Dottie, and from that moment, I hoped and prayed I could be a member. A lot of my contemporaries, a lot of musicians, get to be guests on the show, but they will not get to be members of that organization, that family. It is very selective and we are grateful more than I can say.”

Gatlin acknowledges the challenge the Grand Ole Opry, like countless entertainment venues, faces as entertainment options abound. “[Grand Ole Opry VP/GM] Pete Fisher does a wonderful job steering our Opry. Pete has a very difficult job, he really does. It is very hard to keep it relevant but at the same time honor the musicians and singers and the members who have been there in the past. It’s very difficult. People used to sit every Friday and Saturday night and be glued to the WSM radio show and the Opry. Now, they still do that, but they are in competition with this little thing in my hand, the telephone.”

Over the years, Gatlin and his brothers have performed at the Grand Ole Opry, both at the Ryman Auditorium and its current home at the Grand Ole Opry House. Regardless of the location, Gatlin is appreciative of the spirit of the Opry. “The Grand Ole Opry is not a building. It’s the morphing, ever-changing, ever-expanding, living thing of wonderfully talented people, talented musicians and writers, and great singers. Also with the Opry band and the crew members, these are the people who make it work,” Gatlin says, recalling a recent Grand Ole Opry performance. “Last night we had 10 different artists on that show. There was only the 30-second or one-minute interval between acts. For the crew and musicians to do what they do and keep that thing on time, and keep hitting the mark, it’s an amazing thing.”

Gatlin and his brothers keep hitting the mark as well, and have been for 60 years. They recently released the Gospel project The Gospel According To Gatlin (Curb Records), and are offering their trademark sibling harmonies as part of Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Christmas Dinner Show at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville. The Christmas shows feature a split set, including several of their hits including “Houston (Means I’m One Day Closer To You)” and “Broken Lady,” as well as holiday offerings including “White Christmas,” “Jingle Bells,” and Christmas carols.

“The gig at Opryland is really cool. We are used to doing 90 minutes to two hours for shows,” says Gatlin. “Here, we leave about 4 p.m. and drive 20 miles to sing in a wonderful place. They feed us every night and we’ve become friends with the crew and catering, and the waiters, everyone scurrying back and forth. The sound and lights are wonderful so we are grateful for the show. The crowds have been great and they are talking about having us back next year.”

The Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Christmas Dinner Show will run through Dec. 26. They will also celebrate the season (and no doubt the anniversary of their Opry induction) with a performance at the Grand Ole Opry (at the Ryman Auditorium) on Dec. 25.

“Now, it’s a more tempered response when I go in,” Gatlin says of each time he performs as an Opry member. “It’s more comfortable now, like an old pair of boots. I’m still excited, but back then it was total awe. Now it’s total respect and gratitude.”