Free Events Mark Music Festival Opening

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Photo: Erick Anderson

Photo: Erick Anderson

The CMA Music Festival will open with a free Kick-Off Parade and Block Party beginning at 2 PM on Wed., June 10. Hosted by Grand Marshal Rodney Atkins, “The Fifth Annual CMA Music Festival Kick-Off Parade” will feature artists riding in Chevy vehicles, including Deborah Allen, Lynn Anderson, Katie Armiger, Mandy Barnett, Bo Bice, Bomshel, NASCAR driver Jeff Burton, Caitlin & Will, Carter Twins, Jeff Cook, Brad Cotter, Sarah Darling, Due West, The Biggest Loser’s Dan Evans, Colt Ford, The Grascals, Halfway to Hazard, Heartland, Ty Herndon, Steve Holy, Jypsi, Kate & Kacey, Sammy Kershaw, Brenda Lee, LoCash Cowboys, Lonestar, The Lost Trailers, Justin Moore, Megan Munroe, Oak Ridge Boys, One Flew South, Michael Peterson, Collin Raye, NASCAR driver Robert Richardson, Ricochet, Rio Grand, Brady Seals, Sunny Sweeney, Trent Tomlinson, Trent Willmon, and Chris Young.

The parade will begin at the corner of Broadway and Sixth Avenue North and end at the Sommet Center where “The Fourth Annual CMA Music Festival Block Party” will take place on the Sommet Center Plaza Stage with a lineup running from 3:05 until 7:50 and including (in order of appearance) Trent Tomlinson, LoCash Cowboys, Jason Michael Carroll, The Lost Trailers, James Otto, Emerson Drive, Eric Church and Atkins. The Block Party is just the start of four days of live music on the Sommet Center Plaza Stage.

Jackson To Give Free 20th Anniversary Concert

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goodtimecd_lrgAlan Jackson will thrill fans next week with a free concert marking his 20 years in country music. The performance and party is set for Wed., June 10 at Nashville’s Cadillac Ranch, following that afternoon’s parade kicking off the CMA Music Festival. Industry guests are welcome as well. Doors will open at 6:30 PM. Show starts at 8 PM.

Jackson signed his recording deal with Arista Nashville 20 years ago this month and has since amassed albums sales in excess of 50 million. From his debut Here In The Real World (1990), which produced four Top 5 hits, to his most recent album Good Time, which has produced three No. 1 hits, Jackson’s career hasn’t slowed. His latest, “Sissy’s Song,” is still climbing the charts.

Flatts Make Most of Sponsorships

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flattsThe Rascal Flatts American Living Unstoppable Tour opens this weekend with shows in St. Louis, Missouri and Indianapolis, Indiana. The band garnered sponsorship from JCPenney which is promoting its affordable, clothing brand called American Living. An associate sponsorship from Hersheys was also negotiated. Also on the tour are Darius Rucker and Cledus T Judd.

In conjunction with the sponsorship, Rascal Flatts has written a song to be used in American Living commercials and which will be available only on a special version of the band’s new CD Unstoppable sold at JCPenney. Net proceeds from the sale of albums will be donated to the JCPenney Afterschool Fund, which provides children in need with access to life-enriching after school programs.

Bruce Rodgers created the new set for the tour, with lighting design by Bob Peterson. The outing requires 55 crew members traveling in 13 trucks and 10 buses.

Happy Birthday Bluebird Cafe

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The Bluebird Café is celebrating its 27th year in business tonight with a Birthday Bash featuring The Jay Patten Band and special guests Jonell Mosser, Cowboy Jack Clement, Deborah Allen, Shawn Camp, and more. The 9:00 PM event benefits Happy Endings Animal Rescue (H.E.A.R.). The cost is $15.00.

Wilson To Open CMA Music Festival

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Gretchen Wilson will kick off 2009 CMA Music Festival on the Daytime Stage at Riverfront Park ongretchen_wilson_10692 Thursday, June 11 (10:00 AM/CT). The performance by the Sony Nashville recording artist will open the four-day event which runs through Sunday, June 14.

Love and Theft, John Michael Montgomery, and Craig Morgan have also been added to the Riverfront lineup. In addition, One Flew South will sing the national anthem on Thursday, June 11, and Peter McWhirter, winner of Australia’s Telstra competition, will perform on Friday, June 12 as part of his grand prize. Montgomery will close the daytime party as the last performer at Riverfront Park on Sunday, June 14.

Admittance to the Daytime Stage at Riverfront Park is free, but four-day ticket holders have early entrance privileges.

Lambert Hosts Hit Event For Humane Society

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Miranda and Delilah, a Humane Society of East Texas alumnus.

Miranda and Delilah, a Humane Society of East Texas alumnus.

Miranda Lambert’s second annual “Cause for the Paws” event raised $120,000 for the Humane Society of East Texas. Joining her in concert at the Tyler, Texas fundraiser were Blake Shelton, Kasey Musgraves and Adam Hood. The event also included a silent and live auction, food and wine tasting, and a cocktail reception for sponsors.

Lambert is spending the summer on Kenny Chesney’s Sun City Carnival Tour. Her new record is due out in September, with lead single “Dead Flowers” already working its way up the charts.

Martina Poster, Matchless Debuts, Mullins Video, Lyric Advances

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martina2

Photo: Fred Pierson

As CMA Music Festival draws near, workers install the final components of the GAC wrap on the Sommet Center’s glass tower. A 50 foot tall Martina McBride will welcome fans to next week’s event.

Shawn Pennington, formerly of Dale Morris & Associates, has launched his own artist management and consulting company called Matchless Management. Details, including the client roster, are pending. The Pittsburgh, PA native spent close to 10 years with Morris, working closely with such artists as John Rich, Big & Rich, Randy Owen, and Cowboy Troy. He can be reached at scpenn@me.com or (615) 491-8285.

mullinMegan Mullins’ new video “Long Past Gone” has been added to GAC, CMT and CMT Pure. The shoot took place on California’s Pacific Coast and was created by Feewill Films in association with Picture Vision Pictures. Directed by Curt Apanovich, produced by William Shockley, David Bennett and executive produced by John Small of Picture Visions, the clip was filmed with the RED camera. Mullins is on Stoney Creek Records, a Broken Bow Records imprint.

LYRIC Financial announces it has begun funding advances for writers and publishers who have agreements with major publishers UMG, Warner Chappell, EMI and Sony. The company is now working with mechanical royalty revenue streams in addition to performance royalties. Lyric founder Eli Ball stated, “While mechanical royalties are not as strong as they once were, they are still a significant source of income to many writers and publishers. We have worked diligently to create the same simple, safe and transparent process as we have for performance royalty advances.” www.lyricfinancial.com

Steve Martin Plays The Opry

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Pete Fisher, McEuen, Martin, Gill and Steve Buchanan

Pete Fisher, McEuen, Martin, Gill and Steve Buchanan

Actor/comedian/writer Steve Martin made his Grand Ole Opry debut Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd. He was greeted with a standing ovation before performing songs from his first music album, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo.

Friend John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), who produced the album and assembled an all-star cast to record with Martin, appeared on the show along with Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Stuart Duncan, and Tim O’Brien, ending with an encore of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”

John McEuen, Steve Martin, Vince Gill 2009 Copyright Grand Ole Opry Photo: Chris Hollo

John McEuen, Steve Martin, Vince Gill

Photos: 2009 Copyright Grand Ole Opry by Chris Hollo

Swift Gets Positive Press On Dateline

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Last night’s Dateline NBC piece on Taylor Swift was undeniably flattering. The hour-long segment followed her through preparations for a headlining tour, portraying her as one of the most hands-on young entertainers in the business. She was shown participating in every aspect of her career—designing the stage, auditioning back-up dancers, decorating her backstage vibe room and tour bus, and leading concert rehearsals—all while posting messages for her Twitter followers.

Her mother and closest confident Andrea Swift told the newsmagazine, “Every single decision that’s made, whether it’s talking about artwork that’s gonna go on the side of the buses for the tour or a script that needs to be read, you know, almost invariably, someone in the room says, ‘Have you checked with Taylor?’”

Swift told NBC’s Hoda Kotb it can be hard to be in charge of people twice her age. “There are times when you get frustrated, but the one thing you always focus on is treating people well. You just cannot storm off and freak out. People don’t take you seriously if you scream, if you raise your voice, especially when you’re a 19-year-old girl.”

Dateline asked promoter Louis Messina about her string of sell-out dates. “Throughout my whole career, I’ve never seen anything like this. I said this to her as Bruce Springsteen was the voice of his generation, Taylor is the voice of her generation.”

With 7 million albums sold, Swift and her team are as driven as ever. Scott Borchetta, President & CEO, Big Machine Records told Dateline, “You have to be careful in this moment. You’re never bigger than the game. The minute you think you’re bigger than the game is the minute that you start to lose the game.”

Also making an appearance on the show was hard working Nashville publicist Paula Erickson, seen rushing Swift off to the red carpet of Hannah Montana: The Movie.

Courtesy: Dateline NBC

Courtesy: Dateline NBC

Rucker Reaches Out via iPhone

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darius13Darius Rucker’s new iPhone/iPod touch app is the first from a country music artist to reach this writers desk. Downloadable for FREE, the nifty 35 MB code works much like a personal web browser dedicated to one site. Navigation is divided into seven categories: Welcome, Latest News, Tour Dates, Music Videos, Song samples/purchase links, Darius TV and Twitter.

Inside the tour dates area are direct links that open mobile Safari and enable fans to purchase tickets. Music Video has both still images and embedded videos that are loaded on the phone and can be viewed with or without a network connection. Darius TV is dedicated to behind-the-scenes humorous video clips and outtakes.

The app’s look and feel is clean and intuitive. Fans will appreciate having a “clubhouse” where they can go at any time to hangout and get the latest news. Like a web site, content can be updated when desired, giving the artist a direct-to-the-fan syndicated information channel. Artist apps have been extremely popular in other music formats and range from the simple, but informative—like Rucker’s version—to collections of bells and whistles with built in contests, social networking access and even the ability for fans and the artist to chat online in the app’s private chat room.

As today’s media landscape continues to fragment, it becomes more difficult to attract a large-scale audience in one place at the same time making social networking and iPhone-type apps more important than ever. Newspapers, network TV and radio are examples of media with shrinking audience. Consumers have now added new on-demand media outlets to their infotainment choices and view that content across a variety of screens—TV, computer and mobile.

“Fans can now access my music, tour stops and stay in touch with me through their devices so it’s my way of saying ‘thanks’ for spreading the word about the music,” says Darius Rucker. Savvy marketers realize that Rucker’s gift is a two way street that will please fans and pay career dividends.