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Romeo To Receive CRS President's Award

January 24, 2013/by Sarah Skates

Bob Romeo

Academy of Country Music CEO Bob Romeo will be honored with the 2013 CRS President’s Award. The presentation will take place during the Country Radio Hall of Fame Dinner and Awards on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. CT in the Nashville Convention Center Ballroom.

The President’s Award is presented to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the marketing, production, growth and development of the Country Radio Seminar and the multiple services that Country Radio Broadcasters provides to the Country radio and music communities.

Romeo’s 30 year career began in talent buying and concert promotion. He owns and operates Romeo Entertainment Group, an award-winning full-service talent buying agency that has worked with many country music superstars including Kenny Chesney. His accolades include two ACM Awards for Talent Buyer/Promoter of the Year and the CMA Talent Buyer/SRO Award. He has served as CEO for the Academy of Country Music for nearly 10 years, where his television producing credits include the Academy of Country Music Awards, and numerous ACM television concert specials.

“Bob Romeo truly represents the spirit of the President’s Award,” said CRS President Mike Culotta. “As well as having a great deal of passion for the music, he has proven himself to be a great friend to Country radio in general and the Country Radio Seminar in particular. It’s an honor to announce him as our 2013 President’s Award recipient.”

As previously announced, the 2013 Country Radio Hall of Fame inductees are Gaylon Christie in the Radio category, and Dr. Don Carpenter, Crook & Chase, Eddie Edwards and Bill “Dex” Poindexter in the On-Air category.

The Country Radio Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony unofficially kicks off Country Radio Seminar each year. CRS 2013 will be held Feb. 27-March 1, 2013. For information about Hall of Fame Tickets, contact the CRS offices at 615-327-4487.

Chesney To Release First Single From Next Album

January 23, 2013/by Sarah Skates

Kenny Chesney will release “Pirate Flag,” the first single from his upcoming album, to radio on Jan. 31. The song was written by David Lee Murphy and Ross Copperman. Chesney’s as-yet-untitled album will be released April 30.
His No Shoes Nation tour kicks off March 16 in Tampa, Fla. with tourmates Eric Church, Eli Young Band and Kacey Musgraves, as well as Zac Brown Band on select dates.
Of “Pirate Flag,” Chesney explains: “No matter where you are, no matter how you live, there is that part of you that yearns to be free, to say, ‘What the hell…’ and just do what you want to do! That’s the beauty of this song: You can fly your pirate flag in your head, tack it up behind your computer at work, tattoo it under your skin – and no one has to know. Except you and your friends, the people who really matter!”

Tim McGraw to Tape ACM TV Special

January 23, 2013/by Eric T. Parker

Tim McGraw

The Academy of Country Music and dick clark productions have announced the taping of an all-star concert special, ACM Presents: Tim McGraw’s Superstar Summer Night, on April 8 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena, where the ACM Awards will air the day prior (April 7).
The two-hour special, to be broadcast at a later date on CBS, will feature handpicked artists and friends of the fifteen time ACM Award winner across country, pop, and rock genres in addition to a few surprise special guests from the worlds of film and television.
“I hope I can help turn the fans on to some of the best live music that will be on the road this summer and really put a spotlight on the ones I know they won’t want to miss,” said McGraw. “I also feel a responsibility to help raise some money and awareness for ACM Lifting Lives. They supported me last summer with our HomeFront program and helped me give away a house to a Veteran in need in every market we played in, so I’m excited to get some of my friends together and repay the favor.”
Designed to kick off the 2013 touring season, all proceeds of the show will benefit ACM Lifting Lives, the charitable arm of the Academy.
Tickets will be available to ACM Professional members and A-List Members first, on Wednesday, Jan. 23. General public tickets will be available Friday, Jan. 25 at the ACM’s official website.

Performers Announced for Taste of Country Music Festival

January 23, 2013/by Caitlin Rantala

toc Townsquare Media Group and Chet-5 Festivals are pleased to announce the inaugural Taste of Country Music Festival featuring Lady Antebellum, Willie Nelson & Family, Trace Adkins, Billy Currington, Hunter Hayes, Montgomery Gentry, Joe Nichols, Gloriana, Justin Moore, Dustin Lynch, Blackberry Smoke and more. The event will take place June 13-15 at Hunter Mountain Resort in the scenic Catskills Mountains.
Ticket packages begin at just $120 and afford fans three days of live music in a picturesque locale less than two hours from New York City. Early bird discounted tickets will be available for purchase beginning Friday, Feb. 1 at 10 AM/ET. VIP ticket options, mountainside camping, resort accommodations and more are available online.
“TasteofCountry.com and our partners at Chet-5 Festivals are delighted to bring the Northeast’s first large-scale multi-day country music festival to Hunter Mountain,” shared Dhruv Prasad, Executive VP, Live Events of Townsquare Media Group. “We are focused on the audience experience – delivering our folks the artists and music they love in a beautiful setting that delivers world-class resort and camping accommodations, outdoor recreation and top-notch food and beverage service.”
“We are very excited about our new partnership with the Townsquare Media Group,” said Gary Chetkof, founder of the Mountain Jam Music Festival. “Combining our experience producing the Mountain Jam Music Festival along with Townsquare Media Group’s assets makes for a powerful partnership that will produce a world-class country music event for many years to come.”
More information can be found online by visiting www.tasteofcountryfestival.com.

Kobalt Debuts Label Services Division

January 23, 2013/by Sarah Skates

‪ kobalt Publishing giant Kobalt has officially launched a label services division. One of the first noteworthy releases will be Push the Sky Away, the fifteenth studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Releases from the company’s Nashville office could follow.
Kobalt Label Services (KLS) is designed to be a full-service solution for releasing and marketing records while letting artists maintain ownership of the masters. The division is providing a full spectrum of services including global distribution via digital retail, D2C, physical retail and subscription services, as well as marketing and promotion, advanced data analytics and royalty tracking, and synch licensing.
KLS worked closely with Cave and his management on all aspects of the release, which will be available Feb. 18 via KLS and Cave’s Bad Seed Ltd. Push the Sky Away will be released on CD, Limited CD-DVD, vinyl and digital formats.
“We look forward to unveiling a wide range of promotional activity in support of the release this year,” said Paul Hitchman, MD of Kobalt Label Services.
Two tracks from the album, “We No Who U R” and “Jubilee Street,” are available via all digital retailers, and album pre-orders are being accepted at nickcave.com.
As previously reported, BMG Rights Management is among the other major publishing companies offering label services.

Industry Pics (1/23/13)

January 23, 2013/by Jessica Nicholson

Chris Janson visited the CMA offices on Jan. 22 to visit with staff and perform his new single, “Better I Don’t.”

Pictured (L-R): CMA Senior Coordinator of Member Relations & Services, Betsy Walker; Bigger Picture Group Executive Vice President and General Manager, Bob Cahill; Bigger Picture Group President, Michael Powers; Janson’s wife, Kelly Lynn; Janson; CMA Senior Manager of Membership & Balloting, Brandi Simms; CMA Chief Executive Officer, Steve Moore; and CMA Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Sheri Warnke.

• • •

Hunter Hayes celebrated the double-platinum success of his single, “Wanted,” after a performance onstage at Ryman at the Opry.

Pictured (L-R): Dan Huff-Producer, John Esposito-President & CEO WMN, Betsy McHugh-Martingale Ent, Ansel Davis-Martingale Ent, Hunter Hayes, Scott Hendricks-Sr. VP A&R WMN, Peter Strickland-Sr. VP Sales & Marketing WMN, Justin Luffman-VP Brand Management, Chris Stacey-Sr. VP Promotion WMN

• • •

The ASCAP We Create Music Series kicked off 2013 with a showcase on Jan. 16 featuring songwriter-artists John Martin, Jonathan Capeci and Joey Beretta (of Dinner and a Suit), Lisa Carver, Austin Jenckes, Matthew Perryman Jones and Jeffrey James, who performed to an industry-filled crowd at The Basement in Nashville. ASCAP’s popular monthly showcase series was designed to highlight ASCAP’s “Best of the Best” within the Nashville songwriting community.

Pictured (L-R): ASCAP’s Robert Filhart, Lisa Carver, John Martin, Jeffrey James, Evyn Mustoe, Matthew Perryman Jones, Austin Jenckes (front), and Dinner and a Suit’s Jonathan Capeci, Joey Beretta and Anthony Genca

• • •

Leadership Music alumni teamed with Hands on Nashville (and some help from friends in SOLID) for their MLK Day of Service on Monday, January 21^st. Working in two teams, alums painted Nashville firehouses #13 and #23.

Pictured with Mayor Karl Dean (center), Leadership Music Class of 2010, are (L-R): Tinti Moffat (kneeling), Denise Stiff Sheehan, Leadership Music Executive Director Debbie Linn, Dean, Heather McBee, Cameo Carlson, Justin Levenson, Fire station #23 Captain Caruthers, Tamara Johnson-George and Nashville Assistant Fire Chief Steve Holt. Back Row (L-R): Darin Lashinsky, Brian Jones, Erika Wollam-Nichols and Jamie Cheek. Photo Credit: Andrea Hallgren

Weekly Register: Chilly Sales Set To Warm Up

January 23, 2013/by bossross

The correlation between Nashville’s frigid temps and the music sales charts can’t be escaped this week as both all genre and country fall about two percentage points lower (see grids).
It’s not so much the “weather,” as “whether or not” there’s much new product to draw buyers online or into stores. Katie Armiger provided a bright spot this week however, with her debut effort entering the Current Country list at No. 7 touting an impressive 12k in units (14% digital). But still, the entire Top 75 Country albums chart was shy of 238k, probably a new all-time low on that gauge. In fact, Taylor Swift’s Red (No. 1; 41k) was the only title able to go north of 20k units! FGL (No. 2; 18k), Music of Nashville sndtrk (No. 3; 15k), Little Big Town (No. 4; 15k) and Jason Aldean (No. 5; 14k) filled out the Top 5.
Fortunately there are a few exciting releases on our radar over the coming weeks. For example, next week bins will be stuffed with new music from Randy Houser, Gary Allan and Tim McGraw (Curb)…a few weeks later Faith’s husband will have a second title enter the charts from his new label, Big Machine (2/5). I’m also on pins and needles waiting to hear the new effort from trio Blue Sky Riders (Kenny Loggins, Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman). Complete upcoming releases here.
Hit Tracks
The Band Perry slides up to No. 1 this week with “Better Dig Two” selling over 70k downloads. The trio gently nudged Blake Shelton’s “Sure Be Cool…” out of the top spot as the Voice judge moved to No. 2 with sales of 63k. And with this cold weather, everyone seems to want to go on a “Cruise,” helping to keep FGL in the No. 3 spot again this week with units of about 60k. Also in the coveted Top 10 are Gary Allan (No. 4; 58k) and Hunter Hayes (No. 5; 55k).
Lovely Hayden Panettiere from the series Nashville, debuts this week with “Love Like Mine” at No. 46. While I’ve never been one to enjoy soap operas, I have to say that I do look forward to this show with its sweeping Nashville cityscapes and great new songs each week from some of our city’s finest writers.
Speaking of digital tracks, there’s a comprehensive new report out this week from Columbia University called Copy Culture that reveals file sharing attitudes and behavior in the US and Germany. Read about it here, or see a quick infographic here.
Stay tuned for more Weekly Register, next week…

Songwriters Embark on Inaugural Seaside Retreat

January 23, 2013/by Eric T. Parker

Pictured (L-R): Bob DiPiero, Alex Heddle (Creative Dir. Love Monkey Music/Tom-Leis Music), Denny Carr (Dir.of A&R Roots Three Music), Matt Turner (Creative Mgr. ole), Emily Peacock (Office Mgr. Love Monkey Music/Tom-Leis), Micol Davis, Arthur Buenahora (General Mgr of ole), Ricky Davis, Leslie T. DiPiero (Partner of Tom-Leis), Matt Nolen, Brandon Kinney, Jeff Coplan. Center: Modica Market’s Famous Banana Pudding. (Not pictured Ryan Tyndell)

Writers and staff from Music Row publishing companies Sony/ATV, Love Monkey Music, Tom-Leis Music, ole and Roots Three Music gathered in Seaside, Fla. for the inaugural Seaside Songwriter Retreat, held January 16-20.
The annual retreat plans on inviting additional publishers each year to write songs, and enjoy seafood and the sun.

Artist News (1-23-13)

January 23, 2013/by Jessica Nicholson

Miranda Lambert has confirmed that she will perform on the upcoming 55th Annual Grammy Awards. Lambert announced the performance during an appearance on CBS’ The Talk. “It means the world to have a nomination and perform,” she said. “It’s awesome and I’m so thankful to be a part of it.” Lambert’s Four The Record is nominated for Best Country Album.

• • •

The Country Network’s Inside Tracks: Dustin Lynch will air on Thursday (Jan. 23) at 7 p.m. The concert special was filmed in late 2012 at the Sound Kitchen in Franklin, Tenn. before a live studio audience. The special also features footage as TCN traveled to Dustin Lynch‘s hometown of Tullahoma, Tenn. on the day of his homecoming show, where the performer was awarded a key to the city by the mayor of Tullahoma. Over 10,000 people attended the performance.

• • •

Country music took the stage for this weekend’s NFL championship games with two of the leading groups performing the National Anthem. Zac Brown Band performed at the Georgia Dome for the NFC Championship game between the Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers, while Gloriana performed at Gillette Stadium at the AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens.

Gloriana at Gillette Stadium

Bobby Karl Works The Grammy Nominees Party

January 23, 2013/by Bobby Karl

Pictured (L-R): Karen Fairchild, Philip Sweet, Little Big Town; Tamara “Taj” George (SWV), Kimberly Schlapman and Jimi Westbrook of Little Big Town. Photo: The Recording Academy/Frederick Breedon/WireImage

Pictured (L-R): Karen Fairchild and Philip Sweet of Little Big Town; Tamara “Taj” George (SWV); Kimberly Schlapman and Jimi Westbrook of Little Big Town. Photo: The Recording Academy/Frederick Breedon/WireImage

Chapter 415

I know we’ve been staging these things annually for more than 20 years, but this really, really was the best Nashville Grammy nominees party ever. Hosted by Loews Vanderbilt Hotel on a frigid Tuesday evening (Jan. 22), it was truly a blast of a bash.
Let’s start with the nominees, themselves. “The talent that comes out of this town is amazing,” said Recording Academy Nashville prez Jon Randall Stewart. “We have so much diversity in this town.” Added Nashville NARAS director Susan Stewart, “We’re represented in 23 categories with more nominees than ever.” National NARAS board prez George Flanigen stated, “We have seven acts in three of the four overall categories [Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist]. Nashville is well represented.” He also reminded us that the Grammy nominations concert special was broadcast from Music City, the first time this has ever been held outside of L.A.

Carrie Underwood talks with media on the red carpet. Photo: Eric Parker

Okay, the party lacked such top Nashville noms as Jack White, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift and The Black Keys, all of whom are on the road, Susan averred. But look at who did show up – country stars Dierks Bentley, Carrie Underwood, Ronnie Dunn, Little Big Town and Hunter Hayes, plus honorees representing many other genres. Janis Ian (spoken word), TobyMac (contemporary Christian), members of Old Crow Medicine Show (music video), Dailey & Vincent (bluegrass), Shawn Camp & Tamara Saviano (folk), Tamara “Taj” George (traditional r&b as a member of SWV), Matthew West (contemporary Christian), Larry Carlton (jazz), members of The Grascals (bluegrass), Will Hoge & Eric Paslay (country song), Rhett Walker (contemporary Christian), Josh Kear (country song) and such members of The Time Jumpers as Kenny & Dawn Sears, Doug Green, Andy Reiss and Vince Gill (country group) all sashayed down the red carpet.
Best party ever? How about the food? Loews Vanderbilt has been our gracious host for lo these many years, but this year its chefs outdid themselves. The buffet tables held pimento cheese beef sliders, mini brie & fig grilled cheese items, smoked beef tenderloin, duck tater tots, white bean hummus, mini pickled fried chicken biscuits, smoked bacon deviled eggs, southern cured meats & cheddar biscuits and pickles and raw veggies with a variety of delish dips. I ate all of them.

Dierks Bentley on the red carpet. Photo: Eric Parker

Best party ever? How about the music? While guests mingled, they were serenaded by the jazz stylings of The Birdsong Trio, led by bass player deluxe John Birdsong.
Best party ever? What about that guest list? The crème de la crème of Music Row attended. The list of babbling fabulons included Randy Scruggs, Steve Scruggs, Steve Gibson, Chris Farren, Chris Keaton, Erin Morris, Ed Morris, Pat Higdon, Pat McMakin, Pete Fisher, power couples Ron & Regina Stuve, David & Carolyn Corlew and Steve & Ree Guyer Buchanan and also the triple named Erika Wollam Nichols and Mary Ann McCready, not to mention Jon Randall Stewart.
They were joined by Jim Myers, Jimmy Carter, Jessie Schmidt, John Ingrassia, Jason Owen, Jody Williams, Jeff Walker, Carla Wallace, Hunter Kelly, Holly Bell, Fletcher Foster, Frank Liddell, Dan Hill, Doug Howard, Dennis Lord, Debbie Carroll, Drew Alexander, Diane Pearson, Denise Stiff, Mike Sisted, Nancy Shapiro, Earle Simmons, Terry Hemmings, Tree Paine, Tim Fink, Tracy Gershon, Gary Overton, Ansel Davis, Autumn House, Allen Brown, Rod Essig, Ronna Rubin, Sherod Robertson, Susan Niles, Garth Fundis, Mark Bright, Lori Badgett and Scott McDaniel.
Politicos working the room included Mayor Karl Dean, Metro Council’s Megan Barry and Court Clerk Howard Gentry. Celebs sprinkled around included Deana Carter. She was a nominee last year and is back in her hometown mixing a new record and co-writing songs. She was staying in the hotel, so she came downstairs to join us. Eddie DeGarmo was there as a CCM exec nowadays, but I’ll never forget his music as a Christian rocker. I kept staring at this one guy I thought I recognized. Then I realized it was “Avery” from the Nashville TV show, a.k.a, singing actor Jonathan Jackson. Stylish Susanne Mumpower, a.k.a. Iodine, was on the arm of her hubby, Grascal Jamie Johnson. Irish singer and recording artist Michael Londra is in town making a record. He was totally starstruck gazing at the nominees, as were we all.
The internationally telecast 55^th annual Grammy Awards will take place in Los Angeles on February 10.

Pictured (l to r): Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Recording Academy, George Flannigen, Sony Nashville chief Gary Overton, Carrie Underwood and Nashville Chapter President Jon Randall Stewart. Photo: The Recording Academy/Ed Rode

Pictured (L-R): George Flannigen (Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Recording Academy), Gary Overton (Sony Nashville), Carrie Underwood and Jon Randall Stewart (Nashville Chapter President). Photo: The Recording Academy/Ed Rode

Pictured (L-R): Jon Randall Stewart, Dierks Bentley, Hunter Hayes, George Flannigen. Photo: The Recording Academy/Ed Rode

Romeo To Receive CRS President's Award

Chesney To Release First Single From Next Album

Tim McGraw to Tape ACM TV Special

Performers Announced for Taste of Country Music Festival

Kobalt Debuts Label Services Division

Industry Pics (1/23/13)

Weekly Register: Chilly Sales Set To Warm Up

Songwriters Embark on Inaugural Seaside Retreat

Artist News (1-23-13)

Bobby Karl Works The Grammy Nominees Party

Chapter 415

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