Robbins Closes Nashville Offices; Stark Departs
Phyllis Stark
[updated 4/13/2009]
“Details about our next release, Ward Davis’ ‘Don’t Open That Door,’ will be announced in the coming weeks.”
Robbins Nashville will close its Music City office at the end of April and VP A&R Phyllis Stark will exit her position. About one month ago the label’s decision to outsource its promotion department resulted in the departure (3/11) of promo executives VP Tony Benken and Dir. National Promotion Joe Redmond. Label President Cory Robbins was in Nashville during CRS, (3/5) meeting with independent promotion companies and announced the label had signed artist Ward Davis. The New York-based label intends to release another country single during this quarter.
Stark will continue to work with Robbins Nashville as a part time consultant, but is searching for her next career opportunity and freelance writing work. (p.stark@comcast.net). She joined the label in April 2007 and previously serving as Billboard Nashville Bureau Chief.
Headliner Darryl Worley will be joined by fellow country artists Marty Raybon, Billy Yates, Ken Mellons, Randy Kohrs and Billy Ryan at 6 PM on Friday, April 24 for the Erica Carmen Droze Memorial Benefit Concert at the Boaz VFW Fairgrounds in Boaz, Alabama. For up-and-coming country artist Ryan, the benefit concert has a very personal meaning. Boaz native Ryan, whom locals know as Billy Ryan Droze, lost his sister, Erica Carmen Droze, age 24, earlier this year to a domestic homicide when her husband shot her to death in front of their two children and Ryan himself, who was in his hometown visiting her. Heroically, Ryan grabbed the children and ran with them to safety. Overwhelming support from several members of the Nashville music community, especially the aforementioned artists, led to the upcoming benefit. All proceeds from the concert will go into a special fund for the two children who were left with no financial security after the funeral costs. Tickets for the event are $15.00 and may be purchased by clicking 
Big Machine artist Jack Ingram has returned from a four-day, three-show USO tour of Cuba. The tall Texan chose to visit the isolated island nation to spend time with soldiers stationed at Guantanamo Bay, because, he said, he wanted to sing for the soldiers serving our country that maybe nobody notices. The singer/songwriter spent hours signing autographs after playing various military venues including the “Goat Locker,” a sort of makeshift officer’s club and an intimate venue for Ingram and his three-piece band. On his final night in Cuba, Ingram played for the general population at Guantanamo Bay’s community center with a raucous set that saw people up and dancing. “It felt like any Friday night in Anytown, U.S.A. with a bunch of kids and people looking for an escape from their everyday problems,” Ingram said. “It was certainly fun to play for them – it’s always fun, especially with audiences like those – but this was a special kind of honor, too.”
Opry Originals: The Shop On Broadway, a Grand Ole Opry-themed retail store, is set to open on Nashville’s Lower Broadway area at 300 Broadway on Thursday, April 16. A rhinestone-studded ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Monday, April 20 followed by a week of grand opening events. With a design sensibility dubbed “Country Archeology,” the free-standing, 5,000 square-foot store will bring together the roots of the Grand Ole Opry and country music’s contemporary culture in a collection of old and new, brought to life through media, graphic imagery, and re-claimed materials and finishes. Reminiscent of a market, the space will encourage hands-on interaction and invite guests to discover and take home their own piece of the Opry lifestyle. The store will showcase an extensive line of lifestyle products including Opry-branded clothing; local artisan merchandise; a new Opry Country Kitchen line of food products; dinnerware and home furnishings. The store will also feature artist appearances and book/record signings as well as listening stations, photo opportunities, and food and beverage offerings. Included among the store’s apparel offerings will be an “Opry by Manuel” collection of jackets, shirts, and jeans designed exclusively for the Opry by legendary clothier Manuel. The 300 Broadway structure was built circa 1911 as the home of the Broadway National Bank. It housed banking institutions until 1987 and has been occupied by R.C. Mathews and The Mathews Co. since 1991.
A new class of inductees to the Music City Walk of Fame has been announced. The new inductees include National Baptist Publishing Board founder Dr. Richard Henry (R.H.) Boyd, pioneering producer/songwriter/performer “Cowboy” Jack Clement, record executive and songwriter Mike Curb, and performers Marty Stuart, Josh Turner and CeCe Winans. The inductees, the sixth class to be named, will be honored April 19 at 2:30 PM in the Hall of Fame Park in downtown Nashville. The ceremony, which is sponsored by Great American Country (GAC), is free and open to the public. The Music City Walk of Fame is an official project of Music City, Inc., the charitable foundation of the Nashville Convention & Visitor Bureau. The April 19 inductions bring the total number of Walk of Fame honorees to 37.
CISAC (the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) has announced the second World Copyright Summit for June 9 and 10 in Washington, DC. The Summit will provide a forum for influential creators, rights organizations and guilds, content service providers, broadcasters, telecommunications operators, hardware manufacturers, legal experts and policy-makers to exchange ideas and discuss issues linked to intellectual property and creative content online. More than 100 speakers will emphasize the need for constructive dialogue about the importance of copyright protection and the distribution of creative works in the digital era. CISAC President Robin Gibb will be joined at the Summit by artists including world renowned painter and sculptor Frank Stella, Motown songwriting legend Lamont Dozier, French visual artist Hervé Di Rosa, and Mexican composer Armando Manzanero. The slogan for the World Copyright Summit, “New Frontiers for Creators in the Marketplace,” reflects the four main themes to be addressed during this two-day conference: New Visions for Creative Industries; Challenges for Creators and Rights-Owners in the Digital Era; Weather Forecast on Copyright Climate; and Valuing the Creative Eco-System.
The Washington Post is reporting that Universal Music Group and Google have finalized a deal to create a new music video service called Vevo, a site billed as a “premium online music hub built for consumers, advertisers, and content owners,” which is expected to launch before the end of the year. The two companies will share advertising revenue generated by the site. Under the agreement, Vevo will exist as a central repository of all UMG video content, including music videos, interviews, concert footage and so on, with YouTube providing the technology behind it. The two companies say that at launch the site will have more traffic than any other music video site on the web. Users will be able to access the content through the main hub at VEVO.com or through a VEVO channel on YouTube through a VEVO branded player. Vevo will service the 
content to other streaming video services online, starting with YouTube. As its existing licensing deals with others such as Yahoo, MTV and AOL expire, those too will syndicate their content from Vevo. UMG CEO and chairman Doug Morris is charged with bringing the other major and independent labels on board.
We always knew that, underneath that tough exterior, Miranda Lambert was a softie. And now the hit Columbia artist is a softie on the outside as well. Lambert is one of three artists (R&B songstress Jazmine Sullivan and indie rocker/actress Zooey Deschanel are the others) who will offer their interpretations of the familiar “the touch, the feel of cotton” music in a new advertising campaign for Cotton Incorporated, the research and promotion company for U.S. cotton growers. The melody for the well-known jingle, which was retired in 2001, was revived because “It’s the right message at the right time,” says Glenn Sciachitano, Director of Consumer Advertising at Cotton Incorporated. The television commercials, created by DDB New York, began airing on April 5 as part of a The Fabric of My Life advertising campaign that also includes print and Internet components. The print campaign shows stills from the commercial shoot and highlights cotton wardrobe worn by the vocalists, along with notes from the singers about what that garment means to them. Internet components are slated to roll out in late May and will include an interactive look inside Lambert’s closet. “My style in three words is comfortable, funky, my own,” Lambert said. “Cotton is a big part of that style so I was very excited to be part of this campaign.”