Industry Ink: ‘Nashville’ Soundtrack, John McEuen, Towne

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‘Nashville’ Releases Third Volume Soundtrack From Season Five

Another volume of Nashville soundtrack music is set for release Aug. 10. 

The Music of NASHVILLE, Season 5 VOLUME 3 marks the first-ever third volume soundtrack in the history of the series and includes 17 tracks. Since Nashville debuted in 2012, Big Machine Records has released 10 soundtracks as viewers created a community around the cast’s musical journey, and more than one million albums and five million single-track downloads have been sold with over 200 million streams to date.

John McEuen’s Acoustic Traveler Coming To Sirius XM

John McEuen‘s Acoustic Traveler Show will broadcast on SiriusXM The Village channel 741 from July 31-Aug. 5. The shows will also be available for two weeks on demand at siriusxm.com/streaming. McEuen and the String Wizards will also be performing live in select cities in August. The shows will share the music and memories of the landmark Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album Will the Circle Be Unbroken in multi-media format, including archival photographs, 8mm film from 1967, Circle session photos, narratives and music.  Classic songs from the album will be woven in with Dirt Band favorites, hot bluegrass and rare early NGDB music. 

Towne Signs With Patriot Artists Agency

Nashville duo Towne has signed with Patriot Artists Agency for talent booking.

“Stephen Brush and Terry Rhodes have built a company that offers big agency representation with a boutique approach that is the perfect fit for who we are as a touring act,” said Steevie Steeves and Jon Decious of Towne. “They have deep roots in the touring industry, a proven track record, and a diverse roster that was really appealing to us.”
Rhodes is the former head of East Coast Music for ICM. Brush also worked at ICM prior to launching International Artists Agency (IAA) in 2004.

Nichole Nordeman Recounts The Miles Of Her Journey On Latest Album

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Nichole Nordeman has released her fifth full-length studio record, Every Mile Mattered. The album features tracks like “Sound of Surviving,” You’re Here,” and the vulnerable, introspective “Dear Me,” songs that muse on the journey and ups and downs of life and living with gratitude instead of regret.

The project also includes a newly recorded-version of “Slow Down” featuring Nichole singing with her daughter, Pepper Ingram. The viral hit from her 2015 EP, The Unmaking, garnered over 23 million views.

The popularity of that song inspired another project from Nordeman, a new parenting book, Slow Down, which will be released on Aug. 22 via Thomas Nelson. The book includes intimate essays from Nichole herself, along with testimonies and stories from listeners, practical help and wisdom on slowing down, and tangible tools that will inspire readers to savor daily parenting moments.

Every Mile Mattered Track Listing:
1. Every Mile Mattered
2. You’re Here
3. Dear Me
4. No Longer
5. Lean
6. Hush, Hush
7. Listen To Your Life
8. Beautiful Day
9. Sound of Surviving
10. Anywhere We Are
11. Slow Down (feat. Pepper Ingram)

Discovery Communications Acquires GAC Parent Company Scripps Networks

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Discovery Communications, Inc. has inked a deal to acquire Great American Country parent company Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at $14.6 billion. The transaction is expected to close by early 2018.

Scripps Chairman, President and CEO Kenneth Lowe is expected to join Discovery’s board of directors following the close of the transaction.

Discovery and Scripps combined company will produce an estimated 8,000 hours of original programming each year, and will be home to 300,000 hours of library content. Combined Discovery and Scripps will hold a nearly 20 percent share of ad-supported pay-TV audiences in the U.S.

The combined company’s portfolio of brands will include Discovery Channel, HGTV, Great American Country, TLC, Animal Planet, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network, and more.

The deal’s $90 per-share cost, based on Discovery’s Friday closing price, represents a premium of 34 percent to Scripps’ unaffected share price as of Tuesday, July 18, before deal talks were first reported. Discovery is paying $63 per share in cash and $27 per share in stock. Scripps shareholders will own 20 percent of Discovery, which will also take on Scripps’ net debt of approximately $2.7 billion in the deal.

“This is an exciting new chapter for Discovery. Scripps is one of the best run media companies in the world with terrific assets, strong brands and popular talent and formats. Our business is about great storytelling, authentic characters and passionate super fans. We believe that by coming together with Scripps, we will create a stronger, more flexible and more dynamic media company with a global content engine that can be fully optimized and monetized across our combined networks, products and services in every country around the world,” said David Zaslav, President and CEO, Discovery Communications.

“Through the passion and dedication of our incredible employees, and with the support of the Scripps family, we have built a lifestyle content company that touches the lives of consumers every single day,” said Lowe. “This agreement with Discovery presents an unmatched opportunity for Scripps to grow its leading lifestyle brands across the world and on new and emerging channels including short-form, direct-to-consumer and streaming platforms.”

LifeNotes: Music Industry Veteran Tammy Brown Passes

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Tammy Brown at the 2016 SOURCE Awards banquet in Nashville on Aug. 23, 2016. Photo: Moments By Moser Photography

Widely loved music-industry veteran Tammy Brown has passed away following a decade-long battle with cancer.

Brown worked for song publishers, record labels, producers and recording studios. She championed such artists as Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Keith Urban, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood. In 2016, she won a SOURCE Award as a game-changing woman in the Nashville music business.

As a Music Row personality with over 30 years in the industry, Tammy Brown’s resume included stints at Sound Shop Studio, Tree Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music Nashville and ole Publishing. Throughout her career, she always campaigned for musical and songwriting excellence.

Tammy Brown grew up on a small farm in Oklahoma with no indoor plumbing. Her passion for music led her to move to Los Angeles In 1975. She became a production assistant, spending hours at studios attending to recording session details.

Brown moved to Nashville in 1987. She landed a job at Sound Shop studios, owned by Buddy Killen of Tree Publishing. After a year, she moved over to Tree, booking their in-house demo studios. She assisted more than 100 Tree writers, and organized the publishing firm’s No. 1 parties.

Tree Publishing eventually became Sony Music Publishing. There, Brown became producer Paul Worley’s executive assistant for six years. When he moved to Sony Records, so did she.

She began pitching songs to Worley and to the label. In recognition, she was promoted to Sony A&R supervisor. Her ear for talent led her to match songwriters with artists for writing sessions. She paired Marcus Hummon with Richard Marx, Billy Ray Cyrus with Jude Cole, Mac McAnally with Bob Bennett and Travis Tritt with Casey Beathard, plus Rivers Rutherford.

Getting successful songs to Montgomery Gentry, McBride, The Kinleys, Billy Gilman, Tritt, Marty Stuart, Buddy Jewell and Cyrus led her to becoming Sony’s Associate Director of A&R. During this era, Tammy Brown also became a key figure in Leadership Music’s annual Nashville Music Awards balloting procedure.

After she left Sony in 2004, Brown became the Creative Manager for ole Songs. While there, her efforts for the publisher resulted in six hit singles and dozens of album cuts.

She withdrew from the industry when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. Brown conquered leukemia in 2009. At that time, she was honored with a luncheon by the song-plugger collective Chicks With Hits. But by last year, her cancer had returned.

Tammy Brown went into hospice care and then died peacefully on Sunday, July 30.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Sweet Talk Publicity Adds Courtney Beebe, Jodi Dawes

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Sweet Talk Publicity, which represents artists including Florida Georgia Line and Kelsea Ballerini, has hired two new team members, Courtney Beebe and Jodi Dawes.

Beebe – formerly of the Country Music Association – is the firm’s newest Publicist, while Dawes – previously of Webster Public Relations – joins as Junior Publicist. Both will take their posts immediately.

“From the minute I met Courtney and Jodi, I knew there was something special about each of them,” shares Sweet Talk president Jensen Sussman. “They both exude passion for public relations, country music and building an artist’s career while their unique backgrounds and experiences bring a fresh energy to the team and our client roster. I’m absolutely thrilled to have them on board!”

Beebe, who graduated with a B.A. from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at University of North Carolina, moved to Nashville in 2012 and began working as a Content Marketing Specialist at Lotos Nile. In 2013, she joined the CMA team as Communications Assistant before rising to Communications Manager and serving as Managing Editor of CMA Close Up magazine.

Dawes, a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University with a B.A. in Public Relations, began her career as an intern for both WLXX radio and WLEX-TV in Lexington, KY, and also worked in corporate communications for Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex in New York City. At Webster PR, Dawes held the role of Publicity Manager, handling day-to-day activities for Mark Chesnutt, Collin Raye, John Michael Montgomery, and more.

Beebe and Dawes will report directly to Sweet Talk president and founder, Jensen Sussman, joining staff members Julianne Cassidy (Publicist) and Montine Felso (Senior Publicist).

Sweet Talk Publicity’s current client list includes Florida Georgia Line, Kelsea Ballerini, A Thousand Horses, Craig Campbell, FGL HOUSE, Home Free, Jillian Jacqueline, Chris Lane, Dustin Lynch, Tegan Marie, MINXX, Jerrod Niemann, Dylan Scott and Morgan Wallen.

Beebe can be reached at cbeebe@sweettalkpr.com, while Dawes can be reached at jdawes@sweettalkpr.com.

Industry Ink: Billy Joe Walker Jr., Mickey Guyton, Lee Greenwood

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Memorial Service Set For Billy Joe Walker Jr.

A memorial service for the late music producer Billy Joe Walker, Jr. will be held in Nashville on Tuesday, Aug. 15 at 2 p.m. at Granny White Church of Christ (3805 Granny White Pike).  Visitation with the family will occur after the service at the church.

A full obit for Billy Joe Walker Jr. can be read at musicrow.com.

 

Mickey Guyton Releases New Single “Nice Things”

Singer-songwriter Mickey Guyton has released the new single “Nice Things,” which she wrote with Liz Rose and Stephanie Chapman. To listen, click here.

 

Lee Greenwood Visits CMA Office

Pictured (L-R): Justin Randall, Brandi Simms, Lee Greenwood, Angela Roland, Brenden Oliver

Lee Greenwood treated the Country Music Association staff to a private performance during its first Throwback Thursday series. He performed a medley of No. 1 hits, including “God Bless The USA.”

Lynn Anderson Exhibit To Open At Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum

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Lynn Anderson, known for a string of hit songs including “Rose Garden,” “Keep Me In Mind,” and “How Can I Unlove You,” will be the subject of a new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Lynn Anderson: Keep Me In Mind will open Sept. 15, 2017 and run through June 24, 2018.

“Anderson’s television background and her ability to bring show-business dynamism to recordings and concert performances helped her achieve crossover success,” said museum CEO Kyle Young. “With talent and tenacity, the country music star brought increased visibility to the genre in the 1960s and ’70s, and we are privileged to share her story with our guests.”

Born in North Dakota and raised in northern California, Anderson started performing at age six, and by her teens she was appearing regularly on television. Her parents, Casey and Liz Anderson, were successful songwriters. Together, they wrote “The Fugitive,” a hit for Merle Haggard. The Andersons’ connections, and Lynn’s talent and hard work, led to her signing with Chart Records at age 19, in 1966.

By the late 1960s, Anderson was a regular on television’s Lawrence Welk Show, and from 1966 to early 1970 she notched five Top Ten country singles in Billboard rankings. By then, she was also an award-winning equestrian, taking home trophies and ribbons for riding show horses and cutting horses. In fact, Anderson competed in equestrian events throughout most of her life, winning 16 national and eight world championships, as well as the top trophies at several celebrity competitions.

After marrying songwriter and producer Glenn Sutton, Anderson moved to Nashville in 1969. She signed with Columbia Records in 1970, and Sutton produced her first sixteen albums including Rose Garden, released in December 1970. The album’s title track spent five weeks at No. 1 on the country chart and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. The album was among the first by female country singers to be certified Platinum for sales of more than a million copies.

Anderson had several No. 1s in the 1970s (“Keep Me in Mind” among them) and numerous Top Ten hits. She won a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1971. She was named the Academy of Country Music’s Top Female Vocalist in 1967 and 1970, and the Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year in 1971. In 1974, Anderson was the first female country singer to sell out Madison Square Garden. Anderson continued to perform and record until her death in 2015.

Bandsintown Releases Latest App Update

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Bandsintown, the concert discovery site, is making it easier than ever for artist and fans to connect with the release of Version 6.1 of their app, which is available today (July 28) on iTunes and Google Play.
 
The new version of Bandsintown is their most significant app update in the past year and is a direct result of specific input and feedback received from artists, managers, and fans. The latest update improves concert discovery through new search functionalities and allows artists to communicate with their most engaged fans, the concert goers.
Bandsintown users have demonstrated an appetite for discovering new concerts, and artists can now use the app both to get fans to shows and to reach new fans. Discovery is key on the platform, as fifty percent of Bandsintown fans attend concerts of artists they had never heard before. The new update also introduces ways for fans to find concerts, including search by genre, location and artist, date filtering, and more. New tiles offer quick access to curated lists of shows or festivals line-ups. Users can view all of their show RSVPs (a way to bookmark upcoming shows they will or may attend) in one handy place via the redesigned concerts tab.
“Our fans rely on Bandsintown not only to track the artists they love today, but also to discover their next favorite performers and live music experiences,” said Bandsintown’s Managing Partner Fabrice Sergent.  “Our new features further empower artists to build upon the connection with their core fans.”

CCM News: Seventh Day Slumber, Crowder, Lecrae, Tori Kelly

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Seventh Day Slumber’s ‘Found’ Out Today

Found, the anticipated new album from Seventh Day Slumber, is out today (July 28). The album’s title-cut and lead single—penned by Seventh Day Slumber’s Joseph Rojas and Jeremy Holderfield with acclaimed singer/songwriter Daniel Dos has been serviced to Christian radio.

Produced by Holderfield, Found (VSR Music Group/Capitol Christian Distribution) features 10 new tracks showcasing the band’s musical breadth, from hard rock anthems to melodic pop ballads. The project was largely inspired following a season of burnout and depression band founder and frontman Rojas faced.

“… four years ago I came to a place where I just got depressed,” Rojas recently told Western New York’s Niagara Frontier Publications. “… I never lost my passion for ministry, or anything like that, but I just couldn’t make myself be happy.… I just decided to write about it. I decided to just put my heart and my soul into these lyrics…. That’s what this record, Found, is about.”

Crowder To Launch ‘American Prodigal’ Tour This Fall

CROWDER is launching a 20-city “American Prodigal Fall Tour,”which will begin on Oct. 24 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and run through mid-November. The tour will feature special guests Jimi Cravity and The Young Escape.  Tickets for the shows go on sale today. The tour will feature live performances from his current chart-topping album, American Prodigal, which debuted at No. 5 on Billboard’s Top Albums chart, and No. 1 on the Christian & Gospel Album chart. The album’s lead single, “Run Devil Run,” was picked up by NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” and hit No. 6 on the Christian Digital Songs chart and yielded Top 10 radio hits with the K-LOVE Fan Award nominated “My Victory” and“Forgiven.”

 

Lecrae And Tori Kelly Support St. Jude With New Video

Rap artist Lecrae has unveiled the official video for his inspiring single “I’ll Find You” featuring Tori Kelly in support of St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Filmed at the Glendale Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, the powerful video was directed by Guerilla Hollywood’s Michael Mihail. Patients from St. Jude appear in the music video and were filmed at a studio in Memphis.
“For me, this video is my heartbeat. It’s me showing my own pain, hope and passion for others. I want people to see there’s hope in the chaos,” says Lecrae.
“I’ll Find You” has over 6 Million total streams and is currently trending top 30 at rhythm radio. The song, as well as the Metro Boomin’ produced track “Hammer Time” featuring 1K Phew and the Top 10 Urban Radio single “Blessings,” will be featured on Lecrae’s upcoming Columbia Records debut album out later this year.

Denny Strickland Is ‘California Dreamin’ On New CD

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Denny Strickland is gearing up for the release of his new album, California Dreamin’ on Aug. 1. Bolstered by the fan-favorite single, “We Don’t Sleep,” which premiered on CMT earlier this summer and was voted into the No. 1 spot on CMT’s 12-Pack Countdown, the project is available for pre-order now. Fans who pre-order the album will receive the title tune as an instant grat track.

Produced by Strickland and Sean Giovanni, California Dreamin’ is a collection of 11 tracks that draw inspiration not just from Strickland’s country influences but also from pop, rap, rock and even acts such as Lana del Rey and Timbaland.

“I am incredibly proud of this album and excited for my fans to get to hear it,” said Strickland about the new release. “Gio and I worked so hard in the studio and I feel like we really nailed down my sound. I wrote so many of the songs featured on this project, a lot of it inspired by the West Coast,” said Strickland. “California was definitely my muse for this project.”

California Dreamin’ Track List:

  • California Dreamin’
  • Whatever
  • SloMo
  • Don’t You Wanna
  • We Don’t Sleep
  • Damn Babe
  • Gimme Some of That
  • Robbed The Bank
  • End Up Like This
  • Close My Eyes
  • Close My Eyes (Acoustic)