The Nashville Film Festival hosted the worldwide premiere of James Keach’s (Director/Producer) and Trevor Albert’s (Producer) latest documentary, Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me, on Friday evening, April 18.
The 104-minute behind-the-scenes, beyond-the-music documentary follows Campbell, family and friends through a public diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in 2011 to his final concert in 2012. Most recently, Campbell was moved into a care facility, which his family references during comments before the showing on the red carpet.
“We knew if we were to produce a film for one of the greatest entertainers, we had to do it the right way,” said Keach, who produced and acted in the the full-length film Walk the Line.
“We were on a tightrope every single performance,” said Albert after expressing initial conservations for taking on the project, which spanned 151 live shows. “But even [some of the shows] at the end of the tour, may have been some of his best.”
The project features a pairing of serious, heavy moments mixed with the comic relief of Campbell himself, as family members’ vulnerably exposing their own progressions of grief, towards acceptance and activism.
Big Machine Label Group will release a soundtrack, including “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” an unreleased studio-produced work from Campbell, featured at the end of the documentary. Additional artists will be featured on the forthcoming release.
Brad Paisley, Kathy Mattea, Bruce Springsteen and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) personally described dealing with the devastating disease in their own families in the film. Guest commentary was additionally featured from Jimmy Webb, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Buddy Jewell, Scott Borchetta, Paul McCartney, Larry Gatlin, Keith Urban, Steve Martin, Blake Shelton, Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.
New titles performed included “A Better Place” and “In My Arms,” in addition to Ashley Campbell’s “I’ll Do The Remembering,” a title written and performed for her father.
Campbell performed covers of “Lovesick Blues” (Hank Williams) and “Nothing But The Whole Wide World” (Jakob Dylan). Signature hits included “Gentle On My Mind,” “Try A Little Kindness,” “Wichita Lineman,” “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress,” “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Rhinestone Cowboy,” and “Southern Nights.”
The 45th Annual Nashville Film Festival takes place through Saturday, April 26 with music-centered projects Béla Fleck: How to Write a Banjo Concerto, The Ballad of Shovels & Rope, and The Winding Stream – The Carters, the Cashes and the Course of Country Music.

Blake Shelton is among the performers added to the lineup of the inaugural iHeartRadio Music Awards, to be aired live from Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium May 1 on NBC. Additional newly announced performers include Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, Pitbull, Shakira and Thirty Seconds to Mars. They will join recently announced entertainers Luke Bryan, Ariana Grande, Arcade Fire and Ed Sheeran.
Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Steven Tyler, Imagine Dragons, Chris Martin, Lorde, Demi Lovato are also set to make appearances on the show.
In addition to performances at the Shrine Auditorium, the event will feature artists playing iconic venues across Los Angeles, including The Roxy and the Hotel Cafe.
Category finalists for the iHeartRadio Music Awards were announced on March 26. Shelton is nominated twice in the Country Song of the Year category, for “Boys ‘Round Here” and “Mine Would Be You.”

Kira Isabella, a petite Ottawa, Canada native with a big, expressive voice, isn’t afraid to grab the attention of U.S. Country radio listeners with her timely HitShop Records debut single.
The haunting, socially conscious “Quarterback” marks a daring first choice to send to radio. The song tackles the aftermath of a date rape in a small town, made public via the internet. The crime threatens the reputations of a “no name” freshman girl and the community’s high school senior football star. 

She always heard that a girl’s first time / Is a memory she’ll never forget / She found out the hard way about love / When she saw those pictures on the internet / Who are you going to blame / the star of the game or the no name girl from the freshman class?

The song’s writers, Rivers Rutherford, Bobby Hamrick and Marti Dodson, were inspired by recent events splashed across media headlines, including situations in Steubenville, Ohio, and Nashville’s Vanderbilt University.
“When I heard it, I immediately realized the subject resonated with people in my generation. It’s a reality that they deal with,” says Isabella. “I’ve had people write to me, thanking me for recording this song because they’ve gone through a very similar situation to what is depicted in the lyrics.”
Isabella may be a newcomer stateside, but she is no stranger to the spotlight. In 2009, she signed with Sony Music Canada and released the project Love Me Like That in 2012. Isabella has had several singles at Canadian Country radio, including the Top 20 hits “Songs About You” and “Blame It On Your Truck.” She earned the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA)’s Rising Star Award in 2012; the next year was named the CCMA’s Female Artist of the Year. That same year, Isabella notched her first Juno Award nomination (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy Awards) for Breakthrough Artist.
“I wanted to bring her on [to the label] when I was at Sony,” says HitShop Records founder Skip Bishop. “She’s such an engaging artist and a strong vocalist.” He made good on the intention by making Isabella one of his first signings at his new HitShop Records label in 2013. She is currently working on tracks for her upcoming debut U.S. project, which will be produced by Mark Liggett and Jerry Lane.
After previewing the single for MusicRow staff, she gave a brief acoustic performance, showcasing her powerful and controlled soprano during “Little White Church,” a tender ballad she co-penned with Jason Phelps, and the bluesy “A Little More Work,” a previous single from her Love Me Like That project.
Isabella has been in Nashville working with various songwriters, in addition to embarking on a recent radio tour to perform her music for radio programmers across the country.
For more information, visit kiraisabella.ca.
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Wendy Newcomer will exit her post as Sr. Editor for GACtv.com on April 30. Newcomer will continue freelancing for GAC and other media outlets.

Prior to her work at GAC, she served as an associate editor at Country Weekly magazine.

She can be contacted at wendynewcomer14@gmail.com

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The 15th Annual Miller Harris Golf Tournament will be held Sept. 8, 2014 at Temple Hills Golf Club in Franklin, Tenn. Registration is available at millerharrisfoundation.org.

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 The American Federation of Musicians recently launched the Listen Up! campaign, aimed at stopping the outsourcing of film scoring work and ensuring that companies treat musicians with professional treatment equal to that of other workers in the motion picture industry.
The campaign currently targets film company Lionsgate (Twilight, The Hunger Games), which the AFM claims offshores film scoring work.
A petition has been set up as part of the Listen Up! campaign.