UMPG Signs Shane McAnally

Universal Music Publishing Group has signed Nashville hitmaker, Shane McAnally and Smack Ink (ASCAP), to an exclusive, worldwide administration agreement.

McAnally has written hits for Kenny ChesneyLee Ann WomackReba McEntireChris YoungMiranda Lambert, and Luke Bryan, to name a few. McAnally first gained recognition on the songwriting scene for co-writing Womack’s Top 20 single “Last Call.” Since then, he has used his talents to pen the No. 1 singles “Somewhere With You,” recorded by Chesney, and “Alone with You” recorded by Jake Owen.

Other tracks Shane McAnally has collaborated on include: “Neon” (Young), “Mama’s Broken Heart” (Lambert), “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” (Bryan), and Chesney’s current single “Come Over.”

McAnally also recently completed production on the debut album for Universal Music Nashville recording artist Kacey Musgraves (co-produced with Musgraves and UMPG writer Luke Laird).

(L-R): (front): Smack Ink's Robin Palmer, Shane McAnally, attorney Jason Turner; (back): UMPG Nashville VP Creative Cyndi Forman and UMPG Nashville Exec. VP/GM Kent Earls

Kip Moore Earns First Platinum Plaque

Kip Moore’s single “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck,” which was a two-week No. 1 hit, has been certified platinum for sales of 1 million units.

“I can’t wrap my head around platinum,” Moore says. “I had a hard enough time wrapping my head around gold, so there’s no way I can wrap my head around platinum. It’s something that every writer and artist dreams to be a part of, something that is working like this.”

Earlier this month, Moore released his new single “Beer Money.” He is scheduled to perform its national television debut today (7/17) on TBS’ Conan.

Conan is so special for me because when my sister was in her car accident and in the hospital for seven months, Conan was one of the few people who could make her smile,” he says. “She thinks he is so funny and so do I. I have always been such a fan of the show and him as a person. It’s definitely amazing to get to play on national TV with that many people watching, and I am so glad that this is the first late-night show I am playing.”

Moore has been touring extensively, performing his own shows and opening for Billy Currington and David Nail. He will join Eric Church’s The Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour this fall.

Swift to be Honored with Ripple of Hope Award

Taylor Swift will be honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Center with the Ripple of Hope award on Dec. 3. The black tie event, hosted by Alec Baldwin, will be held in New York and will recognize Swift for her commitment to social change.

“Taylor Swift’s dedication to advocacy at such a young age continues to inspire me, and I’m delighted to honor her as one of our 2012 Ripple of Hope Award recipients,” said the center’s president Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Robert Kennedy.

Kennedy noted Swift’s support for arts education, disaster-stricken communities, and her fight against bullying and LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) discrimination.

Past award honorees include President Bill Clinton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bono, George Clooney and Vice President Al Gore.

Details on the event here.

Bassist Bob Babbitt Passes

Babbitt performs on "American Idol."

Renowned bass player Bob Babbitt died yesterday, July 16, in Nashville. His session work can be heard on countless classic recordings, including many as a member of revered group the Funk Brothers. He was 74 and had been battling brain cancer.

He was born Robert Kreinar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and went on to become a member of the Motown Records studio band the Funk Brothers from 1966-1972. During this time Babbitt’s bass licks contributed to seminal hits “My Girl,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone,” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

During his career Babbitt played on over 100 million recordings, including the landmark songs “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” by Stevie Wonder, “Mercy Mercy Me” and “Inner City Blues” by Marvin Gaye, and “Midnight Train to Georgia” by Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Babbitt moved to Nashville in the mid 80s and continued working here and elsewhere.

When The Funk Brothers were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007, Musicians Hall Pres. Joe Chambers stated, “The records that Bob played on have not only become hit records; they have become their own genre. Much like the music of the A Team became known as the Nashville Sound, the music of the Funk Brothers became the sound of Motown. There are very few musicians whose music has impacted so many generations with no signs of slowing down. Bob Babbitt and the Funk Brothers have done just that.”

Babbitt was honored with a star on the Music City Walk of Fame on June 5, 2012.

Bucky Covington Teams With Shooter Jennings, Kellie Pickler

Shooter Jennings and Bucky Covington

Bucky Covington tapped Shooter Jennings for his new self-produced single “Drinking Side of Country,” and recruited Kellie Pickler for the video. Now at radio, it is the first music available from his Sept. 11 sophomore release Good Guys.

The up-tempo party song, written by Covington, twin brother Rocky Covington, and friend Donald Medlock, was first recorded after it was written in 2010. Covington wanted to add Shooter Jennings to the track so he waited to release it. “Getting to produce your own music rocks, but being able to say you produced Shooter Jennings just takes it to a whole other level,” Covington said.

Covington and Jennings recently shot a video for the song in Greensburg, KY. The video will feature appearances by Pickler, TNA Wrestler Mickie James, and Motocross Freestyler and X Games medalist Cowboy Kenny Bartram.

Snapshots: Craig Morgan, Little Big Town, HER & Kings County

(L-R): Sasha Alexander, Craig Morgan, and Angie Harmon. Photo: TNT/Doug Hyun

Craig Morgan will celebrate his birthday and make his scripted acting debut tomorrow (7/17), when he appears on TNT’s drama Rizzoli & Isles. Morgan makes a guest appearance as Dr. Billy Ray Higgins, a medical examiner who comes to Boston for the Bullet and Blast Injuries Symposium. While visiting, he helps Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) and Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) with a murder case. Tune in to TNT to catch the premiere at 9:00pm ET. Learn more about the show and the episode here.

• • • •

(L-R): Jimi Westbrook; President Sandbox Entertainment & Little Big Town manager, Jason Owen; Karen Fairchild; Capitol Records Nashville SVP of Marketing, Cindy Mabe; Kimberly Schlapman; Creative Director, Raj Kapoor; Phillip Sweet

Little Big Town performed at the Rascal Flatts Changed tour stop on Friday night (7/13) at Dallas’ Gexa Energy Pavilion. Label and management team members joined them at the show.

• • • •

John Esposito leads the charge at the Highline Ballroom in New York City recently, partying with HER & Kings County, radio PDs from across the country and Warner Music Nashville staffers.

Florida Georgia Line Signs to Republic Nashville/BMLG


Pictured (L-R): Front Row–Big Machine Label Group Pres./CEO Scott Borchetta, FGL’s Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard, Republic Nashville Pres./BMLG EVP Jimmy Harnen; Back Row – BMLG GM Andrew Kautz, Big Loud Mountain Partner/Florida Georgia Line Manager Kevin “Chief” Zaruk, Big Loud Mountain/Florida Georgia Line Manager Seth England, Big Loud Mountain Partner Craig Wiseman, BMLG VP A&R Allison Jones, and Big Loud Mountain Partner/Florida Georgia Line Producer Joey Moi. Photo: Ivan Clow

Earlier today (7/16), Florida Georgia Line inked its first major record deal with Republic Nashville/BMLG.

Monroe, Georgia’s Tyler Hubbard and Ormond Beach, Florida’s Brian Kelley recently released a digital EP, It’z Just What We Do on Big Loud Mountain, a partnership between Craig Wiseman, Joey Moi, and Kevin “Chief” Zaruk. The debut single, “Cruise,” has sold over 100,000 downloads to date. Republic Nashville will amp up promotion efforts for the title.

“Florida Georgia Line has built a gigantic army of loyal fans, one by one all across the USA and Canada! Their talent, energy and work ethic are second to none,” said Republic Nashville President and Big Machine Label Group EVP Jimmy Harnen.

The duo will maintain existing commitments on Jake Owen’s and Brantley Gilbert’s tours, and recently appeared on the Country Throwdown Tour.

This news follows last week’s signing of RaeLynn to the Republic imprint.

Kitty Wells, The Queen of Country Music, Passes

Kitty Wells

Kitty Wells, the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee best known for the classic “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” died peacefully at her Nashville home today, July 16, 2012. She passed away from complications of a stroke.

The last year had been hard on Wells. Her husband, country singer Johnnie Wright died Sept. 27, 2011 at age 97 following a lengthy illness. He was part of the duo Johnnie & Jack and a lifelong booster of his wife’s career.

Between 1952 and 1966, Wells ruled the country popularity charts with a string of hits that defined female country music of that era. She introduced such standards as “Release Me,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Makin’ Believe” and, unforgettably, the iconic “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”

She was Nashville’s first female country superstar. Kitty Wells influenced a generation of stylists, including Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Jan Howard, Norma Jean, Pam Tillis, Connie Smith and Patty Loveless.

Born Muriel Ellen Deason on August 30, 1919, Kitty Wells was a Nashville native. Her father was a guitarist, her uncle was a fiddler and her mother a gospel singer. She grew up hearing folk songs in her Nashville living room, learned guitar chords from a neighbor, sang hymns in church and listened to broadcasts of country music on The Grand Ole Opry.

She left school at age 15 and went to work at the Washington Manufacturing Company, ironing new shirts for nine dollars a week. She formed a duo with her cousin Bessie Choate. As The Deason Sisters, they had their own, 15-minute, morning radio show on WSIX in 1936.

Cabinet maker Johnnie Wright (1914-2011) had a sister who lived next door to the Deasons. She told him about her musical neighbor, and soon Kitty and Johnnie were swapping songs. They married in 1937. He formed the Johnnie & Jack duo with Jack Anglin, and she dutifully followed the team as they moved from radio station to radio station throughout the south.

They landed at KWKH and The Louisiana Hayride after World War II, and this is when she began singing again, using her new stage name, Kitty Wells. She also worked as a KWKH disc jockey billed as “Rag Doll,” because she sold quilting supplies on her show. She recorded some gospel tunes for RCA in 1949-50, but these were not successful.

In 1952, Johnnie & Jack’s hit “Poison Love” brought them to the Opry cast. She’d pretty much decided to retire from music in Nashville when she was persuaded to record an “answer” song to the Hank Thompson hit “The Wild Side of Life.” By the fall of 1952, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” was a sensation. It was considered controversial at the time because it spoke up for wronged women.

Kitty Wells followed the blockbuster with a string of hits sung from a female point of view: “Paying For That Back Street Affair” (1953), “Cheatin’s a Sin” (1954), “There’s Poison in Your Heart” (1955), “Searching” (1956), “Repenting” (1957), “Jealousy” (1958), “Your Wild Life’s Gonna Get You Down” (1959), “Heartbreak U.S.A.” (1961), “Will Your Lawyer Talk to God” (1962) and more. She sang memorable duets with fellow superstars Red Foley, Roy Acuff and Webb Pierce, as well as her husband.

Johnnie Wright was by her side throughout it all. He helped choose the songs that defined her image. They formed a family touring show with children Ruby, Carol Sue and Bobby. Beginning in 1968, they starred in their own nationally syndicated television show. One of Nashville’s best country chefs, she published a series of down-home cookbooks. The family opened a career museum in Madison in 1983.

During her career, Kitty Wells placed 81 titles on the country popularity charts and had 35 top-10 hits. These accomplishments made her one of the biggest female country stars in history.

Kitty Wells was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976 and won a Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music in 1986. In 1989, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for “Honky Tonk Angels Medley,” recorded with Loretta Lynn, k.d. lang and Brenda Lee. She was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1991. Even into the 1990s, Johnnie and Kitty performed more than 150 shows a year. They retired from the road after a performance on New Year’s Eve, 2000.

The lonely wail of the voice of Kitty Wells endures as the embodiment of post-war female country music. She wept for the honky-tonk angels and downtrodden housewives. As a vocalist, her tight-lipped intensity, keening emotionalism and pent-up fervor created a spine-tingling body of work that more than earned her the title The Queen of Country Music.

Memorial services will be at the Hendersonville Church of Christ. Visitation will be Thu., July 19, 2 – 8 p.m., and the funeral will be Fri., July 20 at 1 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Goodpasture Christian School in Madison, Tenn. by way of the Kitty Wells/Johnnie Wright Scholarship Fund.

k.d. Lang, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn and Brenda Lee perform at the 1988 CMA Awards. Photo: Alan Mayor

Industry Ink Monday (7/16)

The July installment of ASCAP’s popular showcase series at The Bluebird Cafe featured veteran Nashville hitmaker and ASCAP Award-winning songwriter Bob Regan, rising songstress Sarah Sadler, and up-and-coming artist-writers Drennan. Pictured (L-R): ASCAP's Mike Sistad, Sarah Sadler, Bob Regan, Olivia Drennan, Johnny Drennan and ASCAP's Alison Toczylowski. Photo: Julie Meirick

Charlie Peacock, the producer behind Grammy-winning group The Civil Wars, is preparing for the Oct. 2 release of his own album. No Man’s Land marks his ninth solo outing, and his first vocal recording in twelve years. Peacock recorded it at his home studio, The Art House, a restored hundred-year-old church in Nashville.

• Songwriter/artist Patrick Davis is releasing his own versions of some of his biggest cuts, including songs recorded by Lady Antebellum, Casey James, Pat Green, Darius Rucker, Jason Michael Carroll and Josh Kelley. The Cuts – Volume One will be available on iTunes and www.PatrickDavisMusic.com on Friday, July 20. Davis has been a staff writer at EMI Nashville since 2005. In the past decade he has secured nearly 40 cuts by other artists.

• The Law Office of Wayne Halper has relocated to 33 Music Sq. W., Ste. 108B, Nashville, TN 37203. The telephone, fax and e-mail contact info remain the same. Contact Halper at (615) 429-8500 or lawofficeofwaynehalper@comcast.net.

• The application deadline for the ASCAP Plus Awards program has been extended to Sept. 1, 2012. For more information visit www.ascap.com/ascapplus.

Stephanie Silverman has been promoted to executive director of the Belcourt Theatre after five years with the non-profit.

IMMERSE, the Gospel Music Association’s Music Training Experience, will be held July 22-25 at Rocketown in Nashville.

On Saturday (7/14), the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum presented Chet Atkins: Friends and Flame Keepers. The concert highlighted the relationships created and nurtured around Atkins’ music, as well as the artists who are carrying on and expanding Atkins’ guitar style. The program also served as the finale for the Atkins exhibit, which closed July 15. Also, the Museum is currently offering students and young professionals a $10 membership discount. Pictured (L-R): (back row) Director of Education and Public Programs Ali Tonn, Meagan Taylor Anderson, Joe Robinson, John Knowles, Muriel Anderson, Thom Bresh, (front row) Ben Hall, Guy Van Duser and Brooks Robertson. Photo: Larry McCormack

 

CRS Launches Battle of the Bands

Country Radio Seminar has announced its inaugural CRS Battle of the Bands industry event, to be held Thurs., Sept. 27 from 6-9 pm at 3rd & Lindsley.

The friendly competition will pit bands against each other in an effort to raise the most money for the CRS Scholarship Fund and The Country Radio Hall of Fame. To participate, all bands must be comprised of members of Nashville’s country music record label community.

“This fun-filled event is going to be a great excuse to watch our friends and colleagues let their inner Rock Star explode on stage,” said CRS Executive Director Bill Mayne.

This will be a private, industry-only event. Contact the CRS offices at (615) 327-4487 for more information or to submit your band for consideration.

For information on CRS 2013 click here.