Kennard Joins Full Circle Music

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Brad Kennard has joined the staff at Full Circle Music Publishing as Vice President.

Some of Full Circle’s recent hits include Jason Aldean’s “Fly Over States,” Brad Paisley’s “Old Alabama” and “Anything Like Me,” Kenny Chesney’s “The Boys of Fall,” and Craig Morgan’s “This Ain’t Nothin.’”

Kennard’s noted career includes six years with hit producer Byron Gallimore at Violator Nashville Artist Management and Red Vinyl Music, as well as four years as General Manager for Song Garden Publishing. He also spent three years as the Creative Director at Frank Liddell’s Carnival Music Publishing, and nearly seven years at Curb Music Publishing.

Kennard has helped cultivate No. 1 hits including Rodney Atkins’ “If You’re Goin’ Through Hell,” and Reba McEntire’s “Somebody.” He’s also played a role in other hits/award nominated tracks including George Strait’s “Desperately,” Rascal Flatts’ “Unstoppable,” and Jamey Johnson’s “High Cost of Livin.”

Internet Magazine To Debut at CRS

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A new Digital Content Syndication (DSC) publication called Living Country will debut next week at Country Radio Seminar.

Living Country, a product of DSC, was created by Dan Swensson and Stewart Day as a way to connect broadcasters and consumers with exclusive content. The monthly publication is available to broadcasters for free.

Swensson was a broadcaster in Cincinnati during the early 1980s and GSM of WYHY Nashville. Day founded Nashville Parent Magazine for Middle Tennessee and was the former president of Parenting Publications of America. Together, Day and Swensson created teen lifestyle publication Blast Magazine, and Warm 98 Family Magazine.

For a sample of Living Country in action, click here.

SESAC Up For Sale?

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The owners of Nashville-based performing rights organization SESAC are looking for a buyer, according to a New York Post article.

Current owners of SESAC include investment bank Allen & Co. and hedge fund Och-Ziff, who are seeking close to $500 million in the sale. The company has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to scout for potential purchasers.

Current SESAC songwriters include Bob Dylan, Jim Lauderdale, Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott, and Gary Burr among many others.

SESAC representatives could not be immediately reached for comment.

2011 Charttoppers: Who Made It And How

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by Ralph Murphy

The one thing that you can count on in the music business, as in life, is change. And change was certainly the theme for 2011. The number of country songs reaching No. 1 was at an all-time high of 34 and the number of writers matched that all-time high climbing to 80.

Again this year, 50% of the singles that reached No. 1 (17) were written in whole or in part by the artist. This is good news for the publishers who are investing their money and efforts in artist/writers, not so good for standalone writers and their publishers. In speaking to publishers about what they look for in a writer, the “artist” tag seems to carry a lot of weight and apparently justifiably so.

The only downside to what happened in 2011 is that although more writers had a song go to No. 1, more writers and publishers will have to share the yearly performance money, or “split the blanket” to quote my old pal Harlan Howard. The financial reward may not be as great in some cases, but you had a No. 1 record.

Among songs that raced to the top, the pack leader was Blake Shelton’s “Honey Bee” which made it from zero to No. 1 in 10 weeks. About one-third of the records sprinted up the charts in 11-15 weeks. Fifty percent took the 16-25 week trip. Only five lasted 30-plus weeks: “A Little Bit Stronger,” Sara Evans (33 weeks); “Country Must Be Country Wide,” Brantley Gilbert (33 weeks); “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not,” Thompson Square (36 weeks); and “Crazy Girl,” Eli Young Band (38 weeks). The 800-pound gorilla was Chris Young with “Voices,” which took 51 weeks to get there and made it over a year (53 weeks) on the charts.

As you would expect, because of the amount of No. 1s, 21 of the 34 only had one week at No. 1. “Honey Bee” and Zac Brown Band’s “Keep Me In Mind” both had 4 weeks at the top. Tim McGraw’s “Felt Good On My Lips,” Kenny Chesney’s “Somewhere With You,” Jason Aldean’s duet with Kelly Carkson “Don’t You Wanna Stay,” Blake Shelton’s “God Gave Me You,” and Lady Antebellum’s “We Owned The Night” all stayed No. 1 for three weeks. Residency after leaving No. 1 was generally confined to 0 to 3 weeks.

Artist/Writers
At 50% of the 34 records, it may seem that the artist/writer is the [business] way to go, but the balance that a standalone writer brings to the equation cannot be overemphasized. The artist’s need to put forward a personal view is generally tempered well by the standalone writer, who has a different perspective because he/she is not the performer and doesn’t necessarily shape the song in his/her image.

Seven of the 80 writers involved in creating the No. 1s for 2011 were women. They wrote songs for the nine records that had female artists involved.

Tempo
About 2/3 of the No. 1s were under 100 BPM (Beats Per Minute). Nineteen were 70-90 BPM and only three were under 70 BPM. Although all of 2010’s No. 1s were 4/4, this year Eli Young Band found favor at drive time and waltzed all the way to one of Billboard’s most played country songs.

Intros
Although Kenny Chesney’s “Live A Little” had a 56-second intro and  “Old Alabama” (Brad Paisley) came in second with 33 seconds, if you average all the intros together you get 17 seconds. If you take out Kenny’s intro the average falls to 15 seconds, same as 2010. I guess country radio finds that length handy.

Pronouns
You can love them, hate them, be indifferent to them, but don’t ignore them. They define the situational perception of the listener. Me, you, us, etc.— the first person ruled.

Twenty of the 34 were first person (me, you). Illustrations of this are “so listen Romeo, when you’re feelin’ kinda low, let me tell you where to go” (Reba), “Who are you when I’m not looking” (Blake Shelton) and Billy Currington saying he’s “right on the edge of giving into you” in “Let Me Down Easy.”

The third person (him/her/them) allowed Justin Moore to talk about his “long lost cousin John” and tell him about his daughter and that “she’s a doctor and he’d be proud.” Toby Keith got to talk about his dad buying “nothin’ he can’t fix with WD-40 and a Craftsman wrench.” Those pronouns did their job.

Themes
Romantic Love: “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not?,” “Don’t You Wanna Stay”
Love of Family: “Voices,” “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away”
Love of Country: “Made In America”
Love Lost: “Someone Else Calling You Baby,” “Somewhere With You”
Love Found: “Sparks Fly,” “Let Me Down Easy”
Good Time Party: “Barefoot Blue Jean Night,” “Live A Little,” “Am I The Only One”
Revenge/Satisfaction: “Turn On The Radio”
Life Lessons: “Voices”
Morality: “Country Must Be Countrywide,” “God Gave Me You”

Song Length
Bearing in mind that on-air personalities can use as much or as little fade-time as needed to stretch to a break, 23 records settled comfortably in the three minutes and change length. Eight were over four minutes, two were under three minutes, and only one broke the five-minute barrier.

Song Forms/Shapes/Structures
These are outlines of the way listeners seem to prefer to receive their information at “worst time of day possible.” If you want to find out more about them there is a chapter on them in Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting the book.

Second Form: Verse (Verse Optional), Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Instrumental, Chorus.
Billy Currington’s “Let Me Down Easy,” Jake Owen’s “Barefoot, Blue Jean Night”

Third Form: Verse (Verse Optional), Chorus, Verse, Chorus, (Bridge Middle 8 ) Chorus (with an instrumental before or after the chorus).
Chris Young’s “Tomorrow,” Lady A’s “We Owned The Night”

Fourth Form: Verse, Lift, Chorus, Verse, Lift, Chorus, (Bridge Optional) Lift, Chorus out. ‘Lift’ can also mean Pre-Chorus, Climb, Channel, Ramp, etc.
Taylor Swift’s “Sparks Fly,” Thompson Square’s “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”

Fifth Form: Verse, Verse, Bridge, Verse (It is also called the AABA).
Tim McGraw’s “Felt Good On My Lips” took this structure, added a couple more A, B sections and did very well.

Sixth Form: Traditionally this would have been Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Instrumental, Bridge/Middle 8, Chorus Out and was called rondeau or rondo (to quote W.O. Smith in his book “Sideman”).
Blake Shelton’s “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking” (chorus, verse, chorus, verse, verse, chorus) almost did it; Jason Aldean’s “Dirt Road Anthem” starts with chorus, raps out four small verses, goes back to the chorus, then raps three small verses and goes on to chorus after chorus.

Repetition
One of the major differences between pop and country chart toppers is the number of repetitions of the title. Country has a lot less. Five No. 1s had only three uses of title, setting the minimum standard for repetition.

The maximum number of title repetitions with 19 was “Remind Me” (Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood). I guess they really needed reminding. All the rest fell between 3 and 13 repetitions.

Because the country audience “listens into” a song, multiple repetitions over a 3-6 month period would have a high “burn factor,” so less is more I guess.

Humor/Irony/Detail
If you’re looking for humor, check out Dierks Bentley’s “Am I The Only One” where he calls “wild man Willy” “but Idol was on TV” and went to a “joint looking like a morgue.”

Irony is such a large part of country. One of many examples is Luke Bryan’s “Somebody Else Calling You Baby” when he tells her “you wanted your time and you wanted your space” which is code for “I’m really seeing someone else.”

Details set up some great stories. From “blow the speakers out your Chevy truck,” “paint your toes cause you bite your nails,” “he reminded me of Chris LeDoux,” and “that Copenhagen smile,” detail ruled.

Story/Conversation
Story songs like “Colder Weather” (Zac Brown Band), “Felt Good On My Lips” (Tim McGraw), “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” (Jake Owen), etc. were very conversational. About 15 of the 34 No. 1s were more story than conversational.

Advice/Best Bets
Writing this part of the yearly analysis is always the hardest part about doing these “perspectives” on the previous year.

Aside from the “write with the artist” approach, it is worth noting that every year, two or three artist/writers actually write No. 1s for other artist/writers. Does this mean that artist/writers are better than standalone or non-performing writers? No, it means that they are really writer/artists! This may come as a (pleasant) surprise to some of you whose publishers have mandated that you write with artists. In the best scenario, the writer/artist leaves the artist at the door and concentrates on making the song a living, breathing piece of work with a beginning, middle, and an end.

This article would not be possible without the wonderful assistance of Anna Maki and her research team of Mercedes Davis, Blake Ferguson, Lincoln Faulkner, Gracie Leathers, Lauren Perry, Chelsey Reardon, Rusty Redden, Georgie Sillem, Cami Steger, Kristen Tribble, Renee Urbanc, Kristen Westerbeck and Tania Yegelwel.

Publishing Updates (2/9/12)

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Nettwerk One Music (NW1) and Revelry Music Group have announced the signing of singer-songwriter Neil Mason to an exclusive publishing agreement. Mason is the drummer and one of the primary songwriters for band The Cadillac Black. The group has toured with ZZ Top, and Eric Church and Brantley Gilbert, and will be joining Dierks Bentley’s “Country & Cold Cans” tour in Spring. Additionally, the band’s music has licensed for Fox’s House, the CW’s Vampire Diaries, and CBS’ CSI:Miami.

“Neil’s talents as a multi-instrumentalist who creates tracks and lyrics for various genres is a great addition to the Nettwerk/Revelry team,” says Revelry’s AJ Burton. “And the ability to grow a big beard doesn’t hurt. We are thrilled to be working with Neil as a songwriter and look forward to the continued success of The Cadillac Black.”

(L-R): BMI’s Leslie Roberts, Greg Gallo (Revelry), Greg Beeckman (Revelry), AJ Burton (Revelry), Mason, Mark Jowett (NW1) and BMI’s Bradley Collins

• • •

Audrey Faires

Ten Ten Music Group has announced the addition of Audrey Faires as Catalog Manager. Faires is a graduate of MTSU’s Recording Industry program whose career also includes time working at the SAE Recording Institute. Congratulate her here.

EMI Extends Publishing Agreement With Young

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EMI Music Publishing has announced that it has extended its five year relationship with Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Chris Young.

Young has notched five consecutive No. 1 singles on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart including his self-penned “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song),” “Voices,” and “Tomorrow.” He also co-wrote his current single “You,” which just recently hit No. 1. The new co-publishing agreement allows EMI to continue representing Young’s existing song catalog and future works.

“As we celebrate our fifth No. 1 single together I’m excited to continue my relationship with EMI Music Publishing and look forward to continuing to craft and create great new music,” says Young.

EMI Music Publishing Nashville Exec. VP Ben Vaughn adds, “Chris has such respect for country music’s history, it’s very gratifying to see him play an integral part of writing country’s next chapter. Topping the charts five times in a row shows how fans and radio react to his style of modern day country music and is a real testament to his drive and the team that supports him.”

2011 was a big year for Young, who landed CMA and American Country Awards nominations, in addition to his first Grammy nomination. His sophomore album The Man I Want To Be and single “Tomorrow” (from current album Neon) have both been certified Gold. Starting in January, Young joined up with Miranda Lambert’s On Fire tour.

Songwriting Snapshots (2/08/12)

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BMI and ASCAP celebrated the team behind Jason Aldean’s No. 1 hit “Tattoos On This Town” with a party at Nashville’s Bound’ry last night (Feb. 7). The song was penned by Wendell Mobley, Michael Dulaney and Neil Thrasher and marks Aldean’s eighth No. 1 hit. Thrasher and Dulaney also co-wrote Aldean’s current single “Fly Over States.”

(L-R): ASCAP’s Marc Driskill, producer Michael Knox, co-writer Neil Thrasher, Jason Aldean, co-writers Wendell Mobley and Michael Dulaney, and BMI’s Clay Bradley. Photo: Erika Goldring

• • • • •

SESAC has announced the signing songwriter/producer Jon Stone for representation. As a songwriter, Stone has cuts by Kenny Chesney, Blake Shelton, and Rascal Flatts. He also produced Lee Brice’s upcoming album and co-wrote his current single “A Woman Like You.”

(L-R): SESAC’s Tim Fink, Stone, SESAC’s Shannan Hatch. Photo: Bev Moser

• • • • •

Some of Nashville’s top songwriting and publishing talent came together last night (Feb. 7) at the Singles Only American Heart Association fundraiser. The event, held at 3rd & Lindsley, raised over $1500 for the organization. Performers included Bob DiPiero, Kendell Marvel, Angaleena Presley, Liz Rose, Lori McKenna, and Hillary Lindsey.

(L-R) On Stage: Josh Martin, Neal Carpenter, Dakota Bradley; Back Row: Shane Barrett (Shane Barrett Music), Denny Carr (Roots Three Music), Scott Ponce (Liz Rose Music), Daniel Lee (formerly Ten Ten Music Group), Eric Gallimore (Red Vinyl Music), and Brad Peterson (Fifth-Third Bank); Front Row: Penny Everhard (BMI, formerly of Love Monkey/Tom-Leis Music), Natalie Harker (Cal IV Entertainment), Taylor Lindsey (BMG Chrysalis), American Heart Association spokeswoman Patty Clements.

Big Loud Mountain Partnership Announces First Signing

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Big Loud Shirt Industries, producer/songwriter Joey Moi, and artist manager Kevin “Chief” Zaruk have combined forces to create Big Loud Mountain. The new partnership will offer publishing, production, and management services, and the company’s first signing is country duo Florida Georgia Line.

Comprised of Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, Florida Georgia Line is a hard-touring act with nearly 150 shows booked already for 2012. During touring breaks, they will be writing for their upcoming Joey Moi-produced album, due out in mid-to-late 2012.

(L-R): Big Loud Shirt's Seth England, FGL's Tyler Hubbard, Producer Joey Moi, FGL's Brian Kelley, Big Loud Shirt's Craig Wiseman. (not pictured Kevin ‘Chief’ Zaruk)

Publisher Notes: ole, Parallel

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Johnny Reid Signs Agreement with ole

ole has signed a worldwide administration deal with Canadian songwriter and seven-time CCMA award recipient, Johnny Reid.

“It’s no secret that ole is one of the most successful publishing companies in the world and I’m very excited to be part of it,” says Reid. “I look forward to a successful and lucrative partnership with [CEO] Robert Ott and his entire team.”

Notable copyrights under the deal include Reid’s “Out of the Blue,” “A Woman Like You,” “Dance With Me,” “Old Flame,” “Today I’m Gonna Try and Change the World” and “Let’s Go Higher.”

“Fire It Up” is the first single and title track from Reid’s upcoming self-produced album due March 13, which follows the triple platinum, A Place Called Love. Reid will set out on a 28-date Canadian tour with Carolyn Dawn Johnson beginning April 10 in Victoria, B.C.

••••

Parallel Music Adds Brian Maher

(L-R) Tim Hunze (Parallel Publishing), Maher, Jeremy Stover, C.T. Wyatt (Parallel Talent Management), Denise Stevens (Loeb & Loeb)

Parallel Music Nashville has signed songwriter Brian Maher to its publishing roster. Maher, is the son of Nashville producer/songwriter Brent Maher and perhaps best known for co-writing Justin Moore’s “Small Town USA” with Jeremy Stover. Maher joins recently signed Parallel writer Blake Chaffin on the roster.

“I was just constantly around the creative community as a part of my life,” explained Maher. “Writing and producing was just something I naturally absorbed. I am really excited about the additional opportunities the relationship with Parallel will bring.”

Maher has also had previous cuts with Taylor Swift (“Mary’s Song”), Lonestar, Emerson Drive and Randy Montana for which he received recognitions from ASCAP, NSAI and Billboard.

Parallel Music Publishing is a partnership between Tim Hunze and Parallel Music’s full-service talent management and production services out of Los Angeles founded by CEO J.P. Williams and C.T. Wyatt, who runs the Nashville office.

New UMPG Nashville Signing

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(L-R): Kent Earls, Executive Vice President/General Manager, UMPG Nashville; Nathan Chapman; Ron Stuve, VP of A&R/Special Projects, UMPG Nashville; Freeman Wizer, Creative Manager, UMPG Nashville

Universal Music Publishing Group has signed hit producer Nathan Chapman to a worldwide publishing deal. Chapman is well known for producing Taylor Swift’s three multiplatinum albums, as well as The Band Perry’s current hit “All Your Life.”

“We are incredibly excited to have such a special songwriting talent as Nathan join our Universal Music Publishing family,” said Evan Lamberg, President, Universal Music Publishing Group, North America, “With Kent Earls now leading UMPG Nashville and great creative executives such as Ron Stuve signing Nathan, we look forward to partnering with him in all of his creative and songwriter endeavors.”

“We are honored and excited Nathan has entrusted this UMPG team to further his already illustrious career,” said Kent Earls, Executive Vice President/General Manager, Universal Music Publishing Group, Nashville. “Nathan’s musical knowledge, immense talent and impressive work ethic make him a tremendous asset not only for Nashville but all of Universal Music Publishing.”

Chapman has earned two Grammy Awards, for Album of the Year and Country Album of the Year, along with CMA and ACM Album of the Year awards for his work with Swift. Hits he has produced for her include “White Horse,” “You Belong With Me,” “Mean,” “Back To December,” and more. He also produced The Band Perry’s “All Your Life,” Lauren Alaina’s “Like My Mother Does,” and two songs on the upcoming Lionel Richie album Tuskegee.