Jewel Release Date, Benefit At Bluebird

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Jewel welcomed radio guests to the Valory suite at the MGM in Las Vegas recently to preview her new album "Sweet And Wild" during a Sunday morning brunch. Pictured above is Jewel with members of her Valory team (L-R): John Zarling, George Briner, Jon Loba and Chris Loss.

Jewel’s second release on Valory Music Co., Sweet And Wild, will be in stores June 8. She is taking a unique approach with the project, offering fans two different versions of the songs on the album—the full studio version, and the alternate acoustic track which showcases the songs in their original state. The acoustic set will be called Sweet And Mild.

“These are the tracks I cut at my home studio by myself,” she explains. “And these are the tracks I took to Nashville that Nathan [Chapman] and I created the album around. Here they exist in their most pure state, as they were written. They are blank canvases that can still go any which way…Sometimes we really changed the song when we dressed them up, [while] others stayed very similar to what was already there.”

Jewel will perform acoustic concerts tomorrow night (4/28) at The Bluebird Café, with shows at 6 PM and 9 PM to benefit her non-profit organization Project Clean Water. There are three tiers of seating/ticket pricing: $50, $100 and $250. The $250 tier includes a meet and greet before the show. A portion of all ticket sales is tax deductible. www.bluebirdcafe.com.

Power To The Creators

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[Nashville Post by Mark Wheeler] To Tim Smith, confusion is costly — especially when it comes to copyright management in the entertainment sector.

Smith’s MyWerx, which was founded in late 2008, applies aspects of social networking and wiki platforms to allow content creators from the music, video and film worlds to manage the copyright information of their life’s work in real time. MyWerx’s patent-pending technology organizes works by date of creation, location, inspiration, percentage splits and more.

“There are a lot of things in the industry that don’t work for the benefit of the writers. Having an industry that is very transparent in its accounting behooves everyone,” he said.

Smith has enlisted a big-name list of Music Row veterans to help MyWerx grow. Among them are Tim DuBois, who in February was tapped to lead ASCAP’s Nashville office, as well as former echomusic chief Mark Montgomery and Barry Coburn of Ten Ten Music Group.

“Ownership information changes with new deals, splits, deaths, divorces, all on one song or item,” said Smith, who helped run Copyright Management Inc., one of the first copyright administration systems, for much of the 1980s and launched Copyright.net about a decade ago. “So the big problem is, the ownership information is constantly changing. If you had to have an organization full of data-entry clerks keeping up with that information, it would cost an arm and a leg. We leverage the power of community to do the data entry.”

Read the full story…

Wynonna, Taylor Swift, Colt Ford Partner With Big Brands

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Wynonna Judd is releasing a new album through Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® to support the Wounded Warrior Project. The Curb Records artist will release Love Heals, a collection of hit singles and three other previously unavailable tracks. The new CD is available for pre-order and will arrive in all Cracker Barrel locations on May 24th.

Cracker Barrel will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of every Love Heals CD to the Wounded Warrior Project which assists wounded service men and women and their families.

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Sony Electronics has teamed up with Taylor Swift to promote its latest Cyber-shot® digital cameras in an integrated marketing campaign. The ads with Swift focus on the camera’s sleek style and iSweep Panorama feature that captures shots in an easy “press and sweep” motion.

Primetime advertising spots featuring Swift discovering that she can capture the breadth of her audience with the camera are airing on NBC, FOX and CW, accompanied by digital and print ads carried out through June.

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Average Joes Entertainment and Zaxby’s have partnered to offer Colt Ford fans the opportunity to get a free Zax Meal Deal when they purchase a copy of Ford’s latest album, Chicken And Biscuits.

The first 50,000 copies of the album shipped to retail included an offer of a free Zaxby’s Meal Deal upon joining the chicken establishment’s email club.

Katie Armiger In GAC Web Documentary

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Cameras followed rising country singer Katie Armiger for a year, capturing her journey. The result is d’tour to Nashville, a web documentary which is available now exclusively on GAC.com.

Produced by Julie Dove, the movie includes Armiger’s headlining national mall tour last summer, interviews with industry professionals, and lots of behind-the-scenes footage.

Armiger has partnered with GAC several times in recent years. In 2008 the network offered her six-week webseries Kapturing Katie, it also sponsored her mall tour, and paired with her on the 2009 promotion “Kapturing A Love Song with Katie Armiger.”

Armiger’s current single “Kiss Me Now,” from her forthcoming third album on Cold River Records, is in the Top 40 on MusicRow’s Country Breakout Chart, making it her highest charting single to date.

Urban/Mayer Crossroads; Bentley On Leno Tonight

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John Mayer and Keith Urban on "CMT Crossroads."

Grammy winning guitar gods John Mayer and Keith Urban are the latest pairing for CMT Crossroads. The episode, premiering Friday, June 18, was taped before an invitation-only audience in Nashville. Their set includes Urban hits “If Ever Could I Love,” “’Til Summer Comes Around” and “Sweet Thing,” and Mayer favorites such as “Perfectly Lonely” and “Gravity.” They wrap the show with a cover of George Michael’s pop-rock classic “Faith.”

The collaboration of Mayer and Urban marks the first time artists have returned to the CMT Crossroads stage since the series launched in January 2002. Urban and John Fogerty were featured in a 2005 edition, and Mayer paired with Brad Paisley for an episode that premiered in 2004.

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Dierks Bentley will debut the lead and title track from his forthcoming bluegrass-influenced album Up On The Ridge tonight (4/27) on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The song, written by Bentley and Angelo Petraglia, features Petraglia on acoustic guitar, Sam Bush on mandolin and background vocals by Alison Krauss.

Early reviews of the album due June 8 are stellar. MusicRow’s Robert Oermann called it “the first masterpiece country album of 2010.” Get a short video preview of the project here.

Bentley kicked off his Up On The Ridge tour of 24 shows in 30 days this past weekend with sold out crowds in Portland, OR; Boulder, CO; Colorado Springs, CO; and Austin, TX. The run continues through May 22 with a final show at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium.

Mobile Spawns Location-Based Search

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Gowalla

Social networks that revolve around following a user’s geographic location, such as Foursquare and Gowalla may soon become irrelevant, according to a recent Ad Age article (3/22/10 by Kunur Patel) which predicts that location-based marketing will become an integral part of all web sites and critical for advertisers.

Imagine if advertisers knew your location at all given moments, plus had detailed data concerning your likes, dislikes and purchasing decisions. It would only be a matter of time before mobile search could give you local answers and suggestions that matched some of your favorites and might even pop up with suggestions based upon your age, size and style tastes.

Kip Cassino, VP-research at Borrell Associates tells Ad Age, “What used to be called point-of-purchase is now called mobile advertising. Mobile can be an extension of a retailer’s storefront.” Once you begin tracking where consumers are, the barriers between advertising and promotion start fading away.

Mobile ad group product manager for Google, Paul Feng explains, “We think of location as a hugely important signal. Foursquare is really innovating for small businesses and that’s fantastic. But ultimately that’s just one piece of the opportunity.” Feng notes that about one-third of all mobile searches have local intent. With that in mind Google has recently allowed advertisers to add phone numbers to mobile ads so consumers can click to call.

Cassino predicts, “The demand for stationary computers is going to dry up on a consumer level. One quarter of Facebook’s 400 million users access its network from mobile devices and they tend to be almost twice as active as the non-mobile crowd. The article also suggests Facebook will introduce location-based features during April.

Lady A Goes Double Platinum

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The success story continues. Lady Antebellum racked up five trophies at the ACM Awards earlier this month and now comes the news that the band’s latest Need You Now has reached double Platinum certification for shipments of 2 million units. Lady A’s sophomore album is spending its 12th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Country albums chart. Meanwhile, the title track was simultaneously certified triple Platinum.

“We’ve dreamed about these types of milestones, but when it starts to become a reality, it takes a while for it to really settle in,” says Dave Haywood. “We are just trying to take it all in and enjoy the moment and hopefully make our incredible fans really proud.”

The Capitol Records Nashville trio hit another milestone last week, selling out its first headlining show in New York City, set for May 10 at the Nokia Theatre.

Look for the band on Fox’s American Idol on Wed., April 28.

CRS Names Agenda Committee; Newfield Inks With EB Media

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Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc.® has announced its 2010-2011 Agenda Committee for CRS 2011, to be held March 2-4, 2011, at the Nashville Convention Center. The Agenda Committee is made up of volunteers from all areas of the Country radio and record industries and gathers each year to plan events for the upcoming Country Radio Seminar. This year’s committee, which features 11 new members (marked with an asterisk), will meet June 23-25, 2010, to put together the framework and topics for next year’s event. John Paul is serving as Agenda Chair.

The 2010-2011 Agenda Committee for CRS 2011:

Brad Austin / Madison, WI
Jackie Campbell* / WUSN / Chicago, IL
Karin Cupit / Nashville, TN
Andy Denemark / United Stations / New York, NY
Dale Desmond / KTHK / Idaho Falls, ID
Jerry Duncan / Jerry Duncan Promotions / Nashville, TN
Shelly Easton* / WXTU / Philadelphia, PA
Keith Gale / RCA / Nashville, TN
Jeff  Green* /Country Aircheck / Nashville, TN
JoJamie Hahr / The Valory Music Co. / Nashville, TN
Gator Harrison* / WGSQ / Cookeville, TN
Chris Huff / KSCS/KTYS / Dallas, TX
Jay Jennings / WYCD / Detroit, MI
Lisa Juillerat*/ WLHK / Indianapolis, IN
John Kijowski* / WIL / St. Louis, MO
George King / WCTO / Allentown, PA
Gene Kuntz / WITZ/WQKZ / Jasper, IN
Kris Lamb / The Disney Music Group / Phoenix, AZ
Bruce Logan / WKKT / Charlotte, NC
Gary Marince* / Arbitron Inc. / Coraopolis, PA
Clint Marsh / WAWC / Warsaw, IN
Mandy McCormack* / Big Machine Records / Nashville, TN
Sharla McCoy / McCoy & Associates / Nashville, TN
Adrian Michaels / Curb / Nashville, TN
Travis Moon / KAJA / San Antonio, TX
Rick Murray / Premiere Radio Networks / Nashville, TN
Mike O’Malley* / Albright & O’Malley / Milltown, NJ
John Paul / Dial Global / Denver, CO
Annie Sandor / Curb Records / Miami, FL
Chad Schultz / Mozes / Nashville, TN
Jenni Smythe / Girlilla Marketing / Nashville, TN
John Trapane* / Capitol Records / Springs, TX
John Windus* / Columbia River Media Grp / Wentcheewa, WA

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Curb Records artist Heidi Newfield has signed with Ebie McFarland’s Essential Broadcast Media for public relations representation.

Newfield is working on her sophomore solo album with producer Blake Chancey and a single is expected later this year. It will be the follow-up to her hit “Johnny & June.” The singer who got her start with the band Trick Pony (“Pour Me” and “It’s A Heartache”) will spend the summer on the Country Throwdown Tour.

Newfield’s team also includes Greg Hill at GHM/Red Light Management and Stan Barnett at Creative Artist Agency.

Essential Broadcast Media also represents Darius Rucker, Randy Houser, Colt Ford and others. McFarland can be reached at ebie@ebmediapr.com or by calling (615) 327-3259.

Aretha Franklin At Ryman; Brentwood-Benson Signs Nathan Barlowe

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Aretha Franklin brought her big show to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium last night (4/25). The Queen of Soul was backed by an orchestra for her performance of four decades worth of classics. The event was promoted by Outback Concerts.

Pictured backstage L-R: Sally Williams, GM, Ryman Auditorium; Aretha Franklin; Darin Lashinsky, Sr. VP, Outback Concerts. Photo: Aaron Crisler/The Judy Nelson Group

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SESAC affiliate Nathan Barlowe has signed with Brentwood-Benson Publishing for exclusive representation. Barlowe, co-founder and lead singer for rock band Luna Halo, is currently on tour with the band as well as working in the studio with a new group, The Honeymoon Thrillers. Barlowe joined Brentwood-Benson publishing executives on a recent visit to SESAC’s Nashville headquarters to mark the occasion.

Pictured (L-R): SESAC’s Tim Fink, Brentwood-Benson Publishing’s Eric Hurt, Nathan Barlowe, Brentwood-Benson Publishing’s Stacey Willbur & SESAC’s John Mullins. Photo: Ed Rode

Film Festival Attendance; Clint Black In “Flicka 2”

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“We’re thrilled to report that overall attendance for the festival stayed steady at just under 22,000,” reports Sallie Mayne, executive director of the Nashville Film Festival, which was held last week. “We had fewer events than last year, but sold more tickets to films, panels and workshops this year. To maintain our attendance in our 41st year, after the anniversary blow-out we hosted last year, is a testament to the quality of our film programming and the strong support of this festival by the community.”

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Clint Black stars in the new straight-to-DVD release Flicka 2. The movie will premiere at Nashville’s Belcourt Theater on Tues., April 27, with the event benefiting The Children’s Miracle Network and The Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. There will be a special presentation of a $500 million check from The Walmart Foundation to Children’s Miracle Network.

Black plays alongside actor Patrick Warburton (“Rules of Engagement,” “Seinfeld”) and Tammin Sursok (“The Young And The Restless”), in the continuation of the popular 2006 Flicka that starred Tim McGraw.

The DVD will be out May 4th from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, and is a available for pre-order exclusively at Walmart.com.