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Stokes Nielson of The Lost Trailers is launching Stokes Tunes, an entertainment brand marketing and management company. Among his first clients are artists Corbette Jackson, McKenzie Comer, and Lighter Ray. The Stokes Tunes offices are located at 35 Music Square East.
Meanwhile, The Lost Trailers are working with famed producer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin) in his first voyage into mainstream country music.
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CAA recently promoted staffer Jim Butler to Agent.
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Congrats to Lori Genes Christian, Senior Director of Media & Public Relations for Capitol Records Nashville and husband Augie Christian on the birth of Augustine Jackson Christian. He was born April 24, 2011 at 4:04 PM, and weighted 7 lb, 12 1/2 oz  and measured 20 1/2 inches long.
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Latocki Team Creative (LTC) is expanding its web-based services, and has hired Brett Shumaker as Web Developer & Designer. Luellyn Latocki Hensley, owner and creative director, explains, “Brett proved himself as an outstanding designer and programmer while we were developing LoriMcKenna.com, so we know he will be able to provide custom web solutions that will meet the needs of our clients, keeping their websites consistent with their brands.” Shumaker most recently worked at Thrive Creative Group.

Renowned Appalachian vocal stylist Hazel Dickens has died at age 75.
The West Virginia native was noted for her strongly feminist song lyrics, support of coal miners and participation in bluegrass and folk-music groups such as The Strange Creek Singers and Hazel & Alice. She recorded for the Rounder, Folkways and Arhoolie record labels.
The Hazel & Alice arrangement of The Carter Family’s “Hello Stranger” served as the template for Emmylou Harris’s recording of the song. The duo’s recording of “The Sweetest Gift (A Mother’s Smile)” inspired Naomi & Wynonna Judd to form their musical partnership. Dickens appeared with The Judds during one Fan Fair concert in the 1990s.
Her songs were featured in the Oscar-winning 1976 documentary Harlan County U.S.A., and she appeared in the 1987 coal-mining movie Matewan.
Raised as one of 11 children in rural West Virginia, Hazel Dickens was the daughter of a preacher. Her brothers were coal miners. Seeking a better life, Dickens moved to Baltimore in 1954. She worked in factories, but via her performances in the bluegrass bands The Pike County Boys and The Greenbriar Boys, she came to the attention of singer and folklorist Mike Seeger.
She played bass and sang in Seeger’s Strange Creek Singers bluegrass band, which also included Alice Gerrard on guitar and vocals. The group began recording in the mid-1960s.
The two women formed a bluegrass/folk duo and began recording for Folkways around this same time. A shift to Rounder resulted in their best known LPs, 1973’s Hazel & Alice and 1975’s Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard. These included the feisty Dickens “signature” songs “Working Girl Blues,” “My Better Years” and “Don’t Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There.”
Dickens launched her solo recording career with 1980’s Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People, also on Rounder. It featured her blue-collar anthem “They’ll Never Keep Us Down,” which was one of the songs featured in Harlan County U.S.A. The 1982 LP It’s Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song included her striking composition “Will Jesus Wash the Bloodstains From Your Hands.” The punk band X subsequently revived this tune.
The Hazel Dickens song “Won’t You Come and Sing for Me” has been recorded by Hot Rize, Delia Bell, Kate Brislin, High Atmosphere and other bluegrass acts. Cherryholmes and The Burns Sisters have recorded “Working Girl Blues.” The Johnson Mountain Boys repopularized “My Better Years,” and New Riders of the Purple Sage recorded “Don’t Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There.” Laurie Lewis, The Lynn Morris Band, Bobby Osborne, James King, Dolly Parton, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Kathy Mattea and Cathy Fink are among the others who have recorded Hazel Dickens songs.
In 1994, Dickens became the first woman to receive the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Award of Merit. In 2008, The National Endowment for the Arts presented her with its National Heritage Award, and Alison Krauss inducted her into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. Her autobiography, Working Girl Blues, was published by the University of Illinois Press later that same year.
Hazel Dickens died at a Washington D.C. hospice on Friday, April 22. from complications of pneumonia.

 

Darren Briggs has been appointed Vice President, Technology Innovation for BMI. Briggs will be based in BMI’s Nashville office and will report to James King, Senior Vice President of Business Technology for BMI. Briggs was previously Vice President & Chief Technology Officer for BMI’s Landmark division.
In his new role he will be responsible for leading technological change and new processes including new business platforms and technological innovations that allow the company to advance its core business.
“Darren has been an innovator at BMI and his technological vision has strengthened BMI’s services to our affiliates and licensees,” said King. “He was a leader at Landmark and helped spearhead and activate the company’s recognition technology, as well as its integration into BMI’s distribution systems. His knack for identifying new processes and services that support BMI’s mission of providing the most accurate, reliable and customer-focused technology solutions and systems makes this promotion well-deserved. His work behind the scenes for our affiliates and licensees has made BMI a leader in technology advancement in copyright management, and I know he will continue to contribute towards this in this position.”
Briggs, who worked briefly at BMI in 1988 as an assistant in the Publisher Relations department, rejoined the copyright organization in 2001 as Director of Strategic Development, where he was responsible for investigating and projecting new technology trends in the music industry. He was named Senior Director in 2003 and Project Leader for Landmark Digital Services, LLC in 2004, and Vice President & Chief Technology Officer in 2006. Prior to BMI, he worked at music publishers Tree, Sony and Sony/ATV International in London as Director of Global Systems Development, and in 2000, co-founded the San Francisco-based start-up, Fatbubble, Inc. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a B.S. in Mathematics.