Republic Nashville and Big Machine Label Group have promoted Angie Coonrod to Director of Northeast Promotion. Coonrod previously served as Republic Nashville president and BMLG Exec. VP Jimmy Harnen‘s Executive Assistant. She spent more than 14 years in the pharmaceutical field and management prior to joining Republic Nashville. Coonrod can be reached at angie.coonrod@republicnashville.com or at 615-324-7904.
Coonrod replaces Cliff Blake, beginning Sept. 30. Blake will be leaving to pursue other opportunities, and is available at cliffblake@comcast.net or 603-781-1818.
 

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A2IM has undergone a round of staff hirings and promotions. Molly Newman, previously of eMusic, has been named VP of the company. Newman replaces former VP Jim Mahoney. Newman served on the board from 2004-2011, and rejoins the company from Rhapsody International. She previously worked at eMusic.com, where she spent seven years as VP, Label Relations.
Other hirings/promotions include Jen Masset, who has been promoted from Director, Membership Services to Sr. Director of Membership Services. Fawn Goodman joins as Director of Industry Relations, after spending eight years with Warner Music. Marcus Assenmacher joins as Operations Manager; he previously worked as Director, A&R at Robot of the Century.

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Unsigned Only Music Competition has announced its 2014 winners. The overall grand prize was awarded to Nashville band Goodbye June, with the song “Daisy.” The Grand Prize winner will receive $10,000 and the opportunity to be mentored by industry professionals. The contestants were judged by a panel including artists Of Monsters and Men, Rosanne Cash, Mike Posner, John Oates, Dustin Lynch, Rolling Stone‘s Anthony DeCurtis and others.
For a full list of winners in various categories, visit unsignedonly.com/winners.

Garth Brooks has added shows in Lexington, Ky., to his Garth Brooks World Tour with Trisha Yearwood. Brooks and Yearwood will play Lexington on Friday, Oct. 31 at 6:30 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Rupp Arena.

Tickets will go on sale Friday, Sept. 26 at 10 a.m. ET, with an eight ticket limit per purchase. Tickets can be purchased at ticketmaster.com, at 1-800-745-3000, or Ticketmaster Express at 1-866-448-7849. There will be no sales at the venue box office or Ticketmaster outlets on Sept. 26.

Tickets will cost $57.55 plus $3.45 tax, a $2.00 facility fee and a $6.00 service charge, totaling $69.00.
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Florida Georgia Line has partnered with Target for an exclusive deluxe edition of their upcoming album, Anything Goes. The deluxe edition will include exclusive cover art and three bonus tracks: “Girl on the Radio,” “Dance For Me,” and “That’s What’s Up.”

The deluxe edition is available now for pre-order and will release Oct. 14.

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Emmylou Harris will join Sting, India.Arie and Berry Gordy as the initial group of presenter-performers slated for the Nov. 17 ASCAP Centennial Awards Gala. The once-in-a-century ASCAP Centennial Award will be presented to ASCAP members Joan Baez, Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, Stephen Sondheim and Stevie Wonder.

Honorary Chairs include Gordy, Julie Andrews, Tony Bennett and Susan Bennedetto, and Quincy Jones. The presentations will take place Monday, Nov. 17 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, during a gala event honoring ASCAP’s 100th anniversary.

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Provident Label Group’s Tenth Avenue North will release its fourth studio album on Reunion Records on Nov. 10. The project, titled Cathedrals, will also be available as a deluxe version, including four bonus tracks.
Cathedrals was produced by John Fields (Switchfoot, Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato). The band will embark on a headlining tour on Oct. 3.

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announced today (Sept. 17) the nominees for this year’s Momentum Awards.
The Momentum Awards were instituted in 2012 to recognize both musicians and bluegrass industry professionals who, while in the early stages of their careers, have contributed to, or had an influence on, bluegrass music. These contributions can be to bluegrass music in general, or done in a specific part of the industry.
“One of the distinctive features of the bluegrass world is that the peak years of careers are often measured in decades, even as we welcome an abundance of new artists and industry professionals into the ranks,” said Jon Weisberger, IBMA Board chair. “So as our top artists and professionals continue to enjoy recognition from their peers through its annual awards, the IBMA’s Board of Directors saw a need to salute some of the best and brightest among those who are closer to the beginnings of their careers, and created the Momentum Awards—noteworthy for including not just singers, pickers and bands, but events or venues and professionals—as a vehicle for drawing attention to their achievements.”
Performance Award nominees, Instrumentalists (final committee will select three)
Mike Barnett (fiddle)
Casey Campbell (mandolin)
Dominick Leslie (mandolin)
Janice Martin (banjo)
Cory Piatt (mandolin)
Andrew Rigney (guitar)
Zeb Snyder (guitar)
Jake Stargel (guitar)
Cory Walker (banjo)
Performance Award nominees, Vocalist (final committee to select one)
Savannah Church (The Church Sisters)
Jesse Gregory (Jesse Gregory & Faultline)
Sarah Harris (Trinity River Band)
Mo Pitney
Molly Tuttle (Molly Tuttle Trio)
Performance Award nominees, Band (final Committee to select one):
Barefoot Movement
The Lil’ Smokies
Meyerband
The Snyder Family
Vickie Vaughn Band
Industry Involvement Award nominees, Media/Artisan/Business/General
Jamie Deering – Deering Banjos
Cory Hemilright – Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival
Megan McNair – Sugar Hill Records
Ashlee Jean Trott – Music City Roots/Bluegrass Underground
Aaron Youngberg – Swing Fingers Studio
Nominees for Festival/Event/Venue
Bluegrass Situation showcases at Bonaroo & Americana Music Association
Colonial Theater, Balsam Range monthly concert series – Canton, NC
ISIS Music Hall – Asheville, NC
Redwing Roots – Mount Solon, VA
The Festy – Roseland, VA
Mentor Award (given to a bluegrass professional who has made a significant impact on the lives and careers of newcomers to the bluegrass industry):
Jim Lauderdale
Stephen Mougin
Ricky Skaggs
Tim Surrett
Pete Wernick
The winners will be presented with their awards at a luncheon on Wednesday, Oct. 1 in Raleigh, North Carolina, as part of IBMA’s World of Bluegrass event, Sept. 30-Oct. 4.

Americana music fans are making their way to Nashville for the 15th Annual Americana Music Festival and Conference, which runs Sept. 17 through Sept. 21. An impressive lineup of approximately 180 artists, including Sturgill Simpson, Angaleena Presley, Lee Ann Womack, The Avett Brothers, Marty Stuart, Buddy Miller, Allison Moorer, Suzy Bogguss and Billy Joe Shaver, will perform at venues dotting the Nashville area.
The 13th annual Americana Music Honors and Awards, which will be held Wednesday, Sept. 17, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, anchors the festival.
Jed Hilly, Executive Director of the Americana Music Association, spoke to MusicRow about the festival’s continued growth. According to Hilly, in 2013, the conference brought in 1,500 music industry professionals, and it is slated to bring in between 1800-1900 industry members this year. Total attendance was 12,000 last year, with an estimated 15,000 attendees slated for this year.
What makes the Americana Music Festival unique?
You can walk into any venue at any time and hear something that will knock your socks off. To me, it’s about discovery. There are so many artists we bring in—180 this year. There are the hot buzz artists like Sturgill Simpson, who is on fire right now. There are legendary artists like Rodney Crowell and big name acts like The Avett Brothers, but by and large our festival is unique because it’s about discovery.
Talk about the process of booking artists for the festival.
The acts that perform are handpicked out of about 900 submissions. We are not like other festivals in town where the labels are doing a showcase for their new acts. They don’t decide, we decide. There’s a bit of a Good Housekeeping-style seal of approval that we’ve acquired over the years. The AMA supports the label’s artists, not necessarily the label, but we support the label through supporting the artists.
We are really lucky that Michelle Aquilato, is our Director of Marketing and Artist Relations, and really the festival producer. She has the best ears in Nashville, if not the country. In 2007, we had 56 artists. We added another night to the festival, then jumped to about 76 artists, then to around 92 artists. Last year we had 120 artists. That was a big jump and we added a venue, The High Watt, which gave us another 18 acts.
This year, we’ve added The Listening Room. Jack White agreed to host two nights at Third Man Records. We put together shows that Third Man would be proud of. We actually did that in every venue. We take the time to think about every single artist performance, every hour of every night in every venue, to make sure that the venue is appropriate for the music that is being played. There’s a difference in the style of artists that we will put into Station Inn than The Basement. We are very cognizant of that. I think it’s that attention to detail that makes it really an extraordinary event.
The business conference portion of the event has also seen growth.
I think that the proof of that is more members of the music biz in America and globally are attending. The word on the street is Americana is what SXSW was 20 years ago. You can get work done, and it’s not madness. We even have shuttle buses that can take you from one club to another.
It took a while to gain that industry respect and recognition. Ian Rogers, CEO of Beats is coming this year. Rich Bengloff, president of A2IM is coming. These are important people and they are coming from different disciplines of the industry.
The festival has seen a lot of growth, particularly in the last few years.
We moved hotels and we’ve already grown out of them. I think we will be at the Hutton Hotel again next year. We saw our business conference sales spike this year more dramatically than anticipated. We went up another 20-25 percent this year, after going up 25 percent last year. We were running on an 8-12 percent increase in the years between 2010 and 2013, and then in 2013 it just popped. This year, it’s popped again. There are only five of us on staff to make it run, and we laugh. It’s a good problem to have. We have lots of those good problems.