Charles, Hillary & Dave (Lady A) respond to their Opry Membership invitation by Opry Member Darius Rucker. Photo: Courtesy Schmidt Relations

Lady A has been invited to join the Grand Ole Opry. The award-winning group was surprised during a performance taping for the upcoming two-hour NBC special, Grand Ole Opry: 95 Years of Country Music, airing Feb. 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Opry member Darius Rucker extended the invitation to Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood on the Opry stage today (Jan. 21) and announced their membership is effective immediately. The invitation and the group’s first performance as an Opry member will be shared with fans and viewers during the television special. Lady A made their Opry debut on Nov. 2, 2007.

“This is the best surprise we could ever ask for,” Hillary Scott said. “I’ve been coming here since I was a little girl so to say we are honored is an understatement. We are so truly grateful to officially be a part of this amazing family.”

“What can you say about three friends of yours who together have become one of the biggest groups in country music history? Well, how about this? This trio are multi-Platinum superstars, seven-time Grammy Award winners and seven-time CMA Award winners too. And I feel so honored to stand here in the Opry House and hope they accept the invitation I am thrilled to be offering them tonight. So, what do you say, Lady A? Would you like to become members of the Opry?” said Rucker when introducing the group.

Devin Dawson. Photo: Tyler Conrad

It’s been three years since Warner Music Nashville/Atlantic Records’ Devin Dawson released his moody and unique debut album, Dark Horse, which spawned his breakout hit “All on Me,” and other fan-favorites like “Asking For A Friend” and “Secondhand Hurt.”

But the ‘Dark Horse’ is back, and with The Pink Slip. Dawson released The Pink Slip EP on Jan. 15, comprised of six new, and noticeably lighter, songs.

In an interview with MusicRow, Dawson talked about the changes in him as a creative and as a person, that led him to make The Pink Slip.

MusicRow: The imaging for this is really different than Dark Horse. The music is more optimistic, and obviously the cover is pink. What do you think has changed in you since you’ve made Dark Horse?

I think my fans know to expect the unexpected from me. I always want to do something out of the box and unexpected. Posting a pink album cover was probably the last thing that anyone expected from me. But more so than that, not just to be flashy or unexpected, it’s more so about serving the music, serving the song and doing what’s right for these songs. Like you said, I have grown a lot since the man I was when I wrote Dark Horse. I keep saying this, but I have had a little success and I’ve seen the world, I’ve fallen in love and gotten married. So many great things have happened and I’m genuinely happy.

This EP is really just an example of me trying to make sense of that and still stay true to my songwriting. I’ll always be a ‘dark horse’ and I’ll always love to play the character of that vulnerable, visceral, introspective guy, but I think my job when I’m putting out an album is to just talk about what I’ve gone through in the last couple of years. And there’s been a lot of great shit that happened, so if this album seems a little bit hopeful and a little bit brighter, that’s why.

I imagine you’ve written more than six songs in the past three years. How did you put this selection together for the EP?

Honestly, it just happened by chance. These are the first ones that we went in to record and we had a plan to do a lot more. Obviously COVID changed that, and then it’s trying to figure out to pivot. I’ve worked with Jay Joyce since Dark Horse, just an absolutely incredible producer, but he’s been smoking for like 35 years and he has diabetes and all that. So it wasn’t necessarily something that we could just get into the studio like normal. As much as we would have loved to go back and tweak things and record more, maybe do a whole album and try to make things right or whatever, these are the first songs that we recorded and, to me, the priority was just to put out music. It had been so long and I’d be damned if I was going to let a quarantine that’s going to last however long, stop me from putting out new music.

You wrote with Ben Rector on “Range Rover.” Had you worked with him before?

“Range Rover” was like maybe the third or fourth song that we wrote. I’ve been a huge fan of him since college, when I first discovered him. I had seen some things he’s done recently and just really connected with it. I’ve had a couple accolades and some things happen publishing-, songwriting-, and artist-wise where I actually had a chance to be like, ‘I want to write with him.’ So I chased him down a little bit and was like, ‘Dude, I really think that we’d do something cool together.’ We both have the same things that make us happy when it comes to songwriting. We want to do something that’s never been done before and never been heard before, but do it in a way that everyone can relate to. That’s really hard, to reinvent the wheel every day, but I think when you get aligned with certain people, to go there and to write those songs, you need to be completely open and ready to fall on your face if it’s not good. So we got in a room and we started writing. We just hit it off.

The idea [for “Range Rover”] came out of conversation in the room when we were starting up. One of my other co-writers on that song, Mark Trussell was talking about him having a Top 20 finally and being able to get paid. He was like, ‘I have to get my wife a car.’ I said, ‘What does she want?’ He said, ‘I think she wants a Range Rover.’ She’s not the stereotypical, trophy wife kind of a girl looking for the Range Rover. She’s a very sweet, wholesome, amazing woman—not that every single person that drives a Range Rover is like that, but there’s that stereotypical thing. We were like, ‘Is there a song there? Can we write that? How do we do that?’ We were really obsessed with the challenge of conquering that idea in the right way. And we did it, it’s just so crazy and fun and different and cheeky and heavy and choppy. It checked all my boxes, and I’m really proud of it, so I’m glad that we wrangled that one.

Which one of these songs are you most excited to play with a full band? I’m sure you’re missing playing live.

“Not On My Watch.” It’s got this certain energy to it. There’s two words that come to mind when I think of this EP: it’s inspirational and it’s helpful. It’s like the dis-track to the devil on your shoulder, that’s what I keep calling it. I also don’t play guitar live when I sing that song, so it’s fun to just get around with no guitar, to walk around and just have that swag that song carries. That one’s just going to be a moment live, and I’m really excited for it.

Chase Martin. Photo: Jason Myers

Chase Martin is a singer-songwriter from Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated from high school early with a 5.0 GPA, and she scored a perfect score (a 36) on the ACT. She was offered a scholarship from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, but that’s not what brought her to Music City.

The impressive 22-year old moved to Nashville at 17 to chase her dream of artistry, after catching the bug at a school talent show. Her parents supported her dream, with her mom traveling back and forth from Tennessee to South Carolina while the teenager hunted down bar gigs and songwriter rounds to play in.

“I was in the fourth grade. There was a talent show at my elementary school, and I signed up for it,” Chase told MusicRow on a recent virtual visit. “I came home from school that day and said ‘Hey mom, I signed up for the talent show at school!’ She was like, ‘Oh okay, what’s your talent?'”

Chase wanted to sing and play guitar, even though she didn’t know how to play the guitar. After finding a Yamaha guitar in their attic, Chase took a few lessons at a guitar shop in her neighborhood.

“I learned ‘Our Song’ by Taylor Swift and I played it two weeks later in our talent show. I was so nervous getting up on stage, I cried to my mom,” Chase said. “Once I went up there they literally had to fishhook me off the stage because I didn’t want to get off… I was hooked.”

Chase then went to an art school, where she was in the band and learned to play the piccolo.

After a few years of grinding through as many gigs as she could play, and building an Instagram following, Chase met RECORDS Nashville / Wide Open Music’s Ash Bowers, who helped her get integrated into Nashville’s music business.

Pictured (L-R, top row): Monarch Publicity’s Heather Conley; MusicRow‘s LB Cantrell, Haley Crow; (L-R, middle row): Wide Open Music’s Lauren Hamrick; Chase Martin; Monarch Publicity’s Cindy Hunt; (L-R, bottom row): MusicRow‘s Sherod Robertson, Alex Parry

“About two and a half years ago, I met Ash [Bowers] and Brendan [Rich] at Wide Open. They have been the greatest thing to happen to me since I moved to town, they’ve really taken me under their wing. They ended up signing me and they got me my first record deal and publishing deal. So 2020 was a pretty good year for me,” Chase joked. “They’ve been a dream to work with.”

Now, five years later, Chase has a record deal with RECORDS Nashville and a publishing deal with Endurance Music Group. She also has her first single out, a song called “Levi Denim,” written by Matt Stell, Allison Veltz-Cruz, and Abby Anderson.

“The first time I heard [‘Levi Denim’] I was like, ‘Man, this sounds like something I would have written, something I should have written!’ I was shocked that I didn’t think of it,” Chase said. “As soon as I heard it, I was like, ‘I have to cut this song. It’s so me.'”

“Levi Denim” is the first single that RECORDS Nashville has released, after the Music City office was launched by RECORDS head Barry Weiss in a joint venture with Sony Music in fall of 2020.

In 2021, the determined Chase Martin is laser-focused on writing, cultivating her social media following, and building off the momentum she’s worked hard for.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Anti-Trust Division head Makan Delrahim addressed today (Jan. 15) the DOJ’s review of the ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees, in a webinar sponsored by Vanderbilt Law School. The DOJ has ended its ASCAP and BMI consent decree review without taking action.

Delrahim said compulsory licenses “are not the answer” and that any future changes Congress may consider should allow songwriters the ability to negotiate in the free market. Delrahim—who submitted his resignation letter on Jan. 13, effective on Jan. 19.—also suggested the DOJ consider reviewing ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees every five years. He applauded ASCAP and BMI for launching their new SONGVIEW database which will allow music users/licensees to more easily find song ownership data.

The consent decrees were put in place to prevent anticompetitive behaviors and determine sensible licensing rates. The ASCAP consent decree was modified in 2001 and the BMI consent decree was modified in 1994. The decrees require ASCAP and BMI to issue licenses covering all works in their repertory upon request from music users. If the parties are unable to agree on an appropriate price for a license, the decrees provide for a “rate court” proceeding in front of a U.S. district judge. Neither decree contains a termination date.

Many publishers, songwriters and other music industry members have criticized the longstanding decrees, stating that they limit the ability of songwriters and publishers to obtain their own licensing agreements that could result in higher revenues in a free marketplace.

Read how the music industry is responding to the issue here.