Photo Friday (2/03/12)

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Lawrence Music Group celebrated its one-year anniversary Wednesday (2/1) by entertaining a packed house at Nashville’s famous Bluebird Café for an evening of words and music presented by ASCAP. The round featured artists and writers who have joined forces with Tracy Lawrence’s record label, publishing and artist management company during the year such as American Idol’s Lacey Brown, Rick Huckaby, Jonny Houlihan, and producer/songwriter Flip Anderson. “It’s been an exciting year for us,” said Tracy Lawrence. “We founded the company on the core principal that music would be the foundation for everything we do. It’s important even in this digital age we continue to provide opportunities for artists and songwriters to create music, which is the cornerstone to the Nashville music community.”

(L-R) ASCAP’s Mike Sistad, Rick Huckaby, Lacey Brown, Tracy Lawrence, Flip Anderson, Jonny Houlihan, LMG V.P. Business Relations, Alex Torrez

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The Valory Music Co’s Thomas Rhett showcased his singing and songwriting talents to an industry crowd recently in Las Vegas at the House of Blues Foundation Room. Rhett performed several songs including his new single “Something To Do With My Hands,” which impacts Country Radio on February 21. The Band Perry, who were in Las Vegas on Brad Paisley’s Virtual Reality World Tour 2012, also stopped by to show Rhett some love.

Back Row: L-R Tina Ferguson (KRTY/San Jose), George Briner, Brooke Yancey, Joel Burke (KASE/Austin), John Zarling, Shari Roth, Brandon O'Brien (WUSH/Norfolk), Scott Mahalick (KUPL/Portland), Candice Chase, Justin Chase (KCYE/Las Vegas), Nate Deaton (KRTY/San Jose), Jake Basden FRONT ROW: L-R Virginia Davis (B.A.D. Management), Scott Borchetta, Neil Perry (TBP), Kimberly Perry (TBP), Thomas Rhett, Reid Perry (TBP), Mandy McCormick, JoJamie Hahr, Sue Wilson (WQMX/Akron)

Music City Goes Back to its Roots at Loveless

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Missy Werner joins Chris Jones & the Night Drivers for "Hero in Harlam"

Not even a thunderstorm could keep crowds from gathering at Loveless Cafe’s Music City Roots last night (2/1). Consequently, there wasn’t a free parking space to spare, as bluegrass lovers made their way into the barn, eager to hear the Lonesome River Band, Darin and Brooke Aldridge, Chris Jones & the Night Drivers, Special Consensus and Darrell Scott.

A Roots Crew member films the show

Hosted by Jim Lauderdale, the show kicked off with the Lonesome River Band who were followed by husband and wife duo Darin and Brooke Aldridge. Both acts treated the audience with authentic bluegrass soul and talent.

Sammy Shelor of the Lonesome River band is nominated for SPBGMA Banjo Performer of the year. Meanwhile, “Sweethearts of Bluegrass,” Darin and Brooke, boast five SPBGMA Bluegrass Award nominations including album of the year, gospel group of the year, vocal group of the year, guitar player of the year (Darin) and contemporary female vocalist (Brooke).

Chris Jones & the Night Drivers wooed the audience with tracks off their forthcoming compilation album, Lost Souls and Free Spirits. At the closing of their segment they surprised the crowd by inviting Missy Werner to the stage. Greeted with warm applause, Werner joined the group to sing, “Hero of Harlan,” a moving song about a young man who lost his life during war.

Members of Special Consensus sit down for an interview in between sets

Special Consensus sped things back up, shifting the mood with their foot-tapping rhythms. The group also has two SPBGMA nominees: David Thomas and Greg Cahill. Thomas is nominated for Bass Player of the Year, while Cahill has been tapped for Banjo Player of the year. After their high energy performance, Greg talked a little about their upcoming album Scratch Gravel Road. He shared the key to making the album was “good songs from good friends.”

Darrell Scott performs

As the evening dwindled down, the audience welcomed the final act of the night, Darrell Scott, with wild applause. Scott kept the excitement up with a high energy number before slowing it down with a performance of “Someday.” The highlight of the evening though was Scott’s performance of the hit, “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive.” A number of audience members joined in, singing along to the words Scott penned years ago. The song was made popular in 2000 by Travis Tritt.

Music City Roots, which was worth braving the rain for, takes place every Wednesday at 7 PM back in the Loveless’ Barn. Next week’s acts include Henry Wagons, Kindling Stone, Chatham County Line, The Mosier Brothers and Lilly Winwood. Lightning 100 also broadcasts the show live every week. More information on upcoming shows can be be found here.

“Stars Go Blue” Benefit Performers Announced

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(L-R) Exile’s Sonny Lemaire, J.P. Pennington, Marlon Hargis, Les Taylor; Trace Adkins; and Steve Goetzman

The 4th Annual “Stars Go Blue” benefit concert for colon cancer will feature pop/country band Exile and a special appearance by Trace Adkins. The fundraising event takes place at the Country Music Hall of Fame scheduled for March 6.

The “Stars Go Blue” event funds the Colon Cancer Alliance’s “Blue Note Fund,” which was designed by Grammy-nominated musician Charlie Kelley after he was diagnosed with colon cancer. After Kelly was successfully treated he began working to raise awareness and funding for those affected.

Over the past few years, friends and fellow musicians such as Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Hal Ketchum, Jamie O’Neal, Rodney Crowell, Linda Davis, and Wade Hayes have lent their talents to help raise over $125,000 to date.

Tickets are $100.00 per person and include the concert in the Ford Theater, a VIP cocktail reception, and auction after the concert.

Adkins recently got together with Exile to re-record their song, “Kiss You All Over,” for Hit Exchange, a television special created in part by Kelley, which aired on GAC.

HoF’s Poets and Prophets to Feature Songwriter Sonny Curtis

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Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Sonny Curtis will take a seat at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Saturday, Feb. 25, as the latest subject of the quarterly programming series Poets and Prophets: Legendary Country Songwriters. The in-depth interview and performance is included with museum admission and free to museum members. The program will be held at 1:30 PM in the Museum’s Ford Theater and streamed live at www.countrymusichalloffame.org.

The 90-minute program, hosted by Museum Editor Michael Gray, will include recordings, photos and film clips from the museum’s collection and marks the Poets and Prophets series’ fifth anniversary. Immediately following, Curtis will sign autographs in the Museum Store.

Curtis has written a host of country and rock & roll hits in his 50-plus year career. Among them are “I Fought the Law,” “Rock Around with Ollie Vee,” “Walk Right Back,” “I’m No Stranger to the Rain,” “More Than I Can Say” and the theme for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, “Love Is All Around.”

The Poets and Prophets series honors songwriters who have made significant contributions to country music history.  Previous Poets and Prophets honorees include Bill Anderson, Matraca Berg, Bobby Braddock, Wayne Carson, Jerry Chesnut, Hank Cochran, Dean Dillon, Jerry Foster, Dallas Frazier, Red Lane, John D. Loudermilk, Bob McDill, Roger Murrah, Dan Penn, Curly Putman, Don Schlitz, Whitey Shafer, Jeffrey Steele, Norro Wilson and Craig Wiseman.

Performers Named For Post-Marathon Concert

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Rodney Atkins will headline the post-race concert following the 13th annual St. Jude Country Music Marathon & 1/2 Marathon presented by Nissan on April 28. Joining Atkins for the event at Bridgestone Arena will be special guest performer Gloriana.

Each year the popular road race attracts over 30,000 runners, walkers and 6,000 junior racers through ING KiDS ROCK Nashville, to tackle the 26.2 or 13.1 mile courses. Many of Nashville’s best bands help keep the energy level up, performing music for runners every stretch of the route.

“For all these people to come out and push themselves to this great of a length for such a good cause is exciting and definitely something to celebrate,” shared Atkins.  “It will be a fun night and I’m looking forward to being a part of it all.”

In October 2011, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital signed on with Competitor Group as a title partner for the race. Charity partners have raised over $22 million since the race started 12 years ago, making it one of the largest fundraising platforms in Tennessee.

Sales Report: The Quiet Season

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It lacked the pomp and glamour of the Kentucky Derby or the firery roar of the Daytona 500, but the 2012 Sales Year has now officially begun. But I’m not complaining, because it always starts quietly. Actually the year doesn’t get tightly wound until the last 6 weeks of the calendar year when the holidays induce the mouse-click-mania which still accounts for an enormous percentage of country’s annual sales. In fact, during 2011, country music shifted over 25% of its total album sales during the final two months!

But there are some promising signs among this year’s early album data as we carefully look over the wealth of info collected by the venerable folks at Nielsen SoundScan. Most notably, country ends Jan. 2012 with a 4.7% lead in YTD album sales over 2011 and a total of 2.621 million units. Helping to move the needle were No. 1 and No. 2 country album chart debuts this week from Tim McGraw (No. 1; 68k) and Kellie Pickler (No. 2; 27k).

To add a pinch of perspective, we should note that in 2010 Lady Antebellum released Need You Now during the last week of January and debuted with 481k units for a YTD total of 2.770 million. If we use that as a baseline, this year’s sales would be down 5.3%. But however you chose to view things, it remains early in the year and too soon for meaningful projections, except with regard to release schedules, which are also still pretty vague. Next up on our CD country radar is Home from Dierks Bentley which debuts Feb. 7.

The percentage of country albums sold as digital downloads continues to rise. YTD 2012 about 27% of the total albums were purchased as downloads which shows an increase over last year when the digital percentage at this time was about 23.5%. Debut week digital sales are usually higher than the eventual average. For example this week: Tim McGraw’s disc sales were 34% digital, and Kellie Pickler’s were 33%.

Filling out the Top 5 country album sales for the week are Luke Bryan (No. 3; 16k), Lady Antebellum (No. 4; 15k), and Jason Aldean (No. 5; 13k).

Track Talk
The world of tracks continues to be a goldmine for the circle of artists with mouse-clicking fans. For example, nestled in the Top 20 tracks of the Digital Genre Country Top 100, we find 17 different artists with total Top 20 sales of 649,914 units or a little in excess of 50% of the entire Top 100 country digital tracks list. Another way to illustrate the space between the haves and have-nots is to show that this week, Toby Keith, Luke Bryan and Taylor Swift account for almost 23.41% of the entire Top 100 country track sales!

So a little like the groundhog who comes out to assess winter and maybe see his shadow, let’s settle back in, because it’s too early for predictions and such. We’ll take a peek in a few weeks to see if we see Dierks’ sales shadow…

Until then–Buy Country!

CountryBreakout No. 1 Song

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Today’s the day. Keith Urban wrapped up 2011 in a less-than-desirable way, having to reschedule shows and appearances for his vocal cord surgery. But tonight (Feb. 3) he returns in style, making his first performance after the operation on the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium.

“I’m really looking forward to being back on stage, and more specifically on the Opry stage,” he says. “When I was told earlier this week that the Ryman was going to start renovation on the stage after our show I thought, ‘you know, when we say we’re really gonna tear it up tonight, maybe they’re worried I mean it literally?”

So it’s a sort of cosmically perfect occurrence that his “You Gonna Fly” has just reached No. 1 on this today’s CountryBreakout Chart. The rhythm-heavy rocker offers words of affirmation and encouragement to a partner who’s had a rough go of it, saying “you better believe you’re gonna fly with me.”

Urban is hitting the ground running in 2012, including headlining the All For The Hall benefit for the Country Music Hall of Fame on April 10. Joining him will be Vince Gill, Alabama, Alison Krauss & Union Station, The Band Perry and many more. Urban will also return to Sydney in his Australian homeland to appear as a mentor on the Aussie version of popular show The Voice.

ANNOUNCING: MusicRow To Honor Rising Women on the Row

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MusicRow announces the launch of the Rising Women on the Row event to salute up-and-coming women who have made substantial contributions to the Nashville music industry early in their careers.

This year’s honorees will be feted at a sit-down breakfast and awards ceremony set for Friday, March 16, 2012 at 8:30 a.m. at Maggiano’s.

Nominations are closed and MusicRow is in the process of selecting Nashville’s top women who are fast becoming visionary leaders in the music industry. This year’s honorees will be revealed by MusicRow prior to the March 16 awards breakfast. In addition, the honorees will receive a congratulatory plaque of recognition and be featured in the Rising Women on the Row event program.

“MusicRow’s Rising Women on the Row is a unique opportunity to acknowledge and profile some of the women in the music industry that are quickly making a name for themselves with contributions early in their careers,” says Publisher/Owner Sherod Robertson. “MusicRow often features talented new artists and songwriters, and this event gives us the opportunity to do the same for the talented women professionals who are quickly rising in our industry.”

The Rising Women on the Row breakfast joins other annual events hosted by MusicRow, including the CRS Meet & Greet and CountryBreakout Awards on Feb. 21, and the reader-voted MusicRow Awards ceremony in June.

Outlaw Country Celebrates Waylon This Weekend

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The music and legacy of Waylon Jennings will be celebrated with a satellite radio special set to air this Saturday, Feb. 4 on SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country (Channel 60).

The hour-long special will honor Jennings, featuring stories about the artist and tribute performances from Hank Williams Jr., Jessi Colter, Shooter Jennings, Jamey Johnson, Josh Thompson and Reggie Young. The program was recorded inside the Bridgestone Arena at the SiriusXM Music City Theatre in Nashville, and will be hosted by Outlaw Country’s Hillbilly Jim.

The SiriusXM special will feature songs from Waylon: The Music Inside, a three-part tribute. The second CD in the series WAYLON: The Music Inside, Vol. II, will be released next Tuesday (Feb. 7) via Average Joe’s Entertainment.

Watch a preview from the performance with Hank Jr. below.

YouTube video

Billy Ray Cyrus To Publish Memoir

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Billy Ray Cyrus plans to release his memoir, Hillbilly Heart [Amazon publishing] in hardcover and ebook formats in the Spring 2013.

“This is my chance to set the record straight,” said Cyrus. “I realized that over the years that there have been untruths and misconceptions about me, my music, my life, my family and our dreams. I’m going to lay out the facts starting from August 25th, 1961 and work my way to the present, even if it stings a little.”

Cyrus will open up about the life-changing success of his first album, the toll that fame has taken on his personal life and family and the challenges of parenting his superstar daughter Miley Cyrus.

The book will chronicle from the age of 5 when Cyrus took the stage with his father’s gospel quartet, The Crownsmen, and by 20, an inner voice told him he would find his life purpose through music if he bought a guitar and started a band. Cyrus found he was “too country” for L.A., and “too rock” for Nashville, but regardless he shot to No. 1 with his breakout smash single, “Achy Breaky Heart.”