Merle Haggard's New Album: Working In Tennessee

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Country Music Hall of Famer Merle Haggard will release his new album Working In Tennessee (Vanguard Records) on Oct. 4. The collection is his second for Vanguard and features self-penned tunes as well as two classics made famous by Johnny Cash.
Working In Tennessee was produced by Haggard with Lou Bradley at Hag’s Tally studio in California and features backing by longtime bandmates The Strangers. The title track nods to Haggard’s sometimes confrontational relationship with Nashville, “Sometimes I Dream” was co-written with his daughter Janessa, and “Down On the Houseboat” was co-written with his wife Theresa. Haggard’s son, Ben, and Willie Nelson join him on a remake of “Working Man Blues,” and Theresa is his duet partner on the Johnny Cash/June Carter standard “Jackson.” Full tracklist below.
“I’m swinging back in full throttle right now,” says Haggard. “Music keeps me alive. It makes me breathe better. It’s funny, but I feel better when I come off a tour than when I start out.”
Get a download of “Working In Tennessee” here.
Track listing:
1.    Working in Tennessee (Merle Haggard)
2.    Down on the Houseboat (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard, Doug Colosio)
3.    Cocaine Blues (TJ Arnall)
4.    What I Hate (Merle Haggard)
5.    Sometimes I Dream (Merle Haggard, Jenessa Haggard)
6.    Under the Bridge (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard)
7.    Too Much Boogie Woogie (Merle Haggard)
8.    Truck Driver’s Blues (Merle Haggard, Tim Howard)
9.    Laugh It Off (Merle Haggard, Theresa Haggard, Doug Colosio)
10.  Working Man Blues (Merle Haggard)
11.   Jackson (Billy Edd Wheeler, Gaby Rodgers)

Red River Runs Deep

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Blake Shelton’s Red River Blue braved the Soundscan rapids to debut at the top of the all-genre album chart today (7/20). He moved 116K units, making it the biggest sales week of his career. In fact, the Warner Music Nashville release is the only title that broke the 100K mark on this week’s report.
Shelton scored 29% digital album sales. Meanwhile, his new single “God Gave Me You” debuted with 40K downloads.
Chris Young’s Neon also lit up the charts in a glowing debut week. With 73K units sold, the Sony Music Nashville album came in at No. 4 on the overall rankings, and No. 2 on the Country list.
By comparison, rockers Incubus debuted with 80K, and singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat opened with 66K.
Ashton Shepherd’s sophomore effort Where Country Grows got started with 11K. Young and Shepherd both raked in 20% digital.
Shepherd’s UMG labelmate Scotty McCreery is climbing the Country albums chart with his American Idol project, which has moved 71K copies in just three weeks. He sold 17K units for a 23% week-to-week jump.
Elsewhere, Jason Aldean’s still kicking up dust with “Dirt Road Anthem” selling 115K downloads this week. And after 37 weeks on the charts, his BBR album My Kinda Party is hanging at No. 3 on the Country list, selling 42K this week for a RTD total of 1.5 million-plus.
There’s also a small bright spot for the Country genre as a whole, which saw its first year-to-year growth on the latest report: album sales are up .6%.

Hirings At Quarterback, Gary Musick Productions

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Valerie Summers


Gary Musick Productions announces the addition of Valerie Summers as Vice President of Sales and Customer Relations. Summers, who was previously an agent at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, brings with her 20 years of music industry experience. Valerie and her husband, Kip Summers, are co-owners of Arrington Vineyards where her husband is also the winemaker.
Gary Musick Productions is a creative event and live entertainment production company, based in Nashville since 1980. The company produces more than 200 corporate and association events each year. It also creates and manages stage shows for some of the world’s leading cruise lines.
She can be contacted at valerie@garymusick.com or (615) 324-5549.
• • • •

Kelly Symone


Kelly Symone has joined Quarterback Records as West Coast/Southwest Promotion Director. She has spent more than three years with KNTY/Sacramento, most recently as MD. Her previous stops include KNCI, KREL and WDAF.
“We’re glad to round out our regional staff with Kelly,” says VP of Promotion Tony Benken. “Her energy and passion will complement the rest of the team.”
Symone will remain based in Sacramento. She can be reached at (916) 868-3331 or kellysymone@quarterbackrecords.com.

Spins.FM Enables Radio Requests

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Country music research, unlike data from some other musical formats continues to return a gaping disconnect between social networking, radio and sales success. Why? Because country format research overwhelmingly shows radio as the dominant exposure medium for engaging and interacting with fans. In fact, conventional wisdom in this musical arena firmly names radio as essential for success. But what about an artist with strong social networking numbers? How can they leverage that digital strength to help them on the airwaves?
Spins.FM has launched a listener request tool that bridges social media and FM radio. The company explains, “The listener request line has always been the primary channel for radio stations to connect with fans. Our social radio request app gives it an update, enabling Twitter and Facebook conversations to take to the airwaves.”
The new software, launched last month, allows artists and radio stations to place the app on their Facebook pages. With a click, followers, friends and likes can send a fast message to their local stations to request  favorite songs.

“Our Social Radio Request App enables radio station program directors and DJs to improve their presence on social media while tracking what their audiences want with more precision than ever,” said Spins.FM founder David Baker.

Examples of artists who are already using the app include Britney Spears, Chris Brown and Cody Simpson.
 

MR's Ross Shares Sales Insight With News 2

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WKRN News 2 tapped MusicRow Publisher David Ross to give industry insider perspective for a story on last night’s evening news. The segment explored the recent bump in digital album sales, which climbed 19% in the first two quarters of 2011.
MusicRow subscribers who regularly follow Ross’s sales analysis will be familiar with the facts he shared with News 2. While digital album sales are on the rise, total album sales which include digital, are still on the decline. “Overall all genre album sales are down 34% over the last six years, and country music is down 44%,” Ross told reporter Jamey Tucker.
See the video below, following commercial. Or read the story here.

Spotify Launches In U.S.

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The wait is over. Popular digital music streaming service Spotify launched in the U.S. today (7/14) after long negotiations and numerous delays.
The service offers users the ability to listen for free to any track on demand, with audio advertising being served every few tracks. Users have access to “millions and millions” of tracks, plus the ability to share tracks and playlists with friends. A premium ad-free version is available for $5 per month, or an unlimited version with offline storage can be had for $10 per month.
The Stockholm, Sweden-based company has been a huge hit in Europe, but its U.S. launch has long been mired in the labyrinth of negotiations and licensing. As of today’s launch, the four major labels and Spotify have reportedly reached an agreement. Performing rights organization ASCAP also announced an agreement with Spotify for performance of over 8.5 million works in its repertory. As part of the exchange, ASCAP and Spotify will use a Digital Data Exchange standard for music use reporting.
Desktop and mobile versions of the service are currently on the market, but no tablet version exists yet. Spotify distinguishes itself from Pandora and similar offerings by adding the element of user control promised by many cloud services. Its entry to the U.S. music market could pose a problem for companies getting in the cloud game, especially Apple’s yet-to-launch iCloud service.
Currently Spotify is only available by invitation, but the website has a handy email sign up for anyone eager to try it out. For those who just can’t wait, purchasing either the $5 or $10 premium options will grant immediate access.

"Carolina" Mines Gold For Eric Church

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Shades of Gold. (L-R): Capitol VP Promotion Shane Allen; EMI VP Promotion Angela Lange; Capitol SVP Promotion Steve Hodges; Capitol COO Tom Becci; Eric Church; Capitol SVP Marketing Cindy Mabe; Capitol President and CEO Mike Dungan; Capitol VP Creative Joanna Carter and Capitol VP A&R Autumn House. Photo: Alan Poizner


EMI Records Nashville celebrated the RIAA Gold certification of Eric Church’s Carolina Tuesday night (7/12). Industry revelers and Church team members gathered at Nashville’s Whiskey Bent Saloon to mark the success of the album that produced hit singles “Love Your Love The Most,” “Hell On The Heart” and “Smoke A Little Smoke.” Producer Jay Joyce, who helmed Church’s sophomore effort, joined Capitol/EMI staffers in sporting Church’s signature shades at the event.
On the heels of winning ACM Top New Solo Vocalist, Church is gearing up for the release of his third studio album Chief on July 26. The lead single “Homeboy” has already reached No. 6 on MusicRow’s CountryBreakout Chart. Fans can pre-order the album through www.EricChurch.com and receive an instant download of “Creepin.’”

Moore's Outlaws and Aldean's Dirt Road Lure Buyers

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With no debuts, and no holiday gifting to lure buyers to the digital and/or physical album bins, country sales slid this week. Overall country sales deflated 8% compared with last week, and Top 75 current country folded 24.6% during the same period.
Jason Aldean continues to set the sales bar for the rest of the country class, pulling another 42k units down that dirt road this week pumping My Kinda Party to almost 1.5 million total units. Yeah, that’s some party and it doesn’t look like it will end soon. Aldean’s “Dirt Road Anthem” was the No. 1 country digital track this week downloading a rockin’ rappin’ 126,000 copies for a RTD (release to date) total of 1.37 million. (Jason has 5 tracks on this week’s county digital tracks 100 chart.)
Justin Moore’s Outlaws Like Me rings registers at No. 2 on the Country album list with close to 22k unit scans down 28% in its third week of sales. Originally from Poyen, Arkansas, Moore’s “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” also appears on the digital tracks chart at No. 19 with 23k downloads.
One step further down the country album list at No. 3 is Mr. Brad Paisley with slightly under 20k scans. Paisley has RTD sales of 345k units spread over 7 weeks. The guitar slammin’, singer/songwriter also has two songs on the tracks list this week, his monster Carrie Underwood duet, “Remind Me,” which logs 68k downloads for a five week RTD of 327k scanned. His other charting track is “Old Alabama,” listing at No. 25.
Wide Angle Lens
Backing the radar image out to 30,000 ft. we see the album biz overall is up 1% YTD. Country music continues to swim upstream, improving its numbers over each of the past few weeks. Presently, Nashville’s most high visibility product lags only slightly behind the business overall with its album sales down .8% YTD.
Stay tuned next week when we reveal numbers on the gallant debuts from Blake Shelton, Chris Young and Ashton Shepherd…
 

Shepherd Cultivates Where Country Grows Release

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Ashton Shepherd’s sophomore album Where Country Grows hit stores yesterday (7/12), and the young MCA singer/songwriter is making the media rounds to support it. The album’s title track and second single is currently going for adds at country radio.
Shepherd’s album launch week kicked off last Friday (7/8) with a high profile performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. (See video here). This week she’s on the road in the South, visiting a different city every day to promote Where Country Grows.
On Monday (7/11) Shepherd traveled to her home state of Alabama, where she gave a live on-air performance at WDXB/Birmingham. She journeyed farther south on Tuesday (7/12) when she visited with WKSJ/Mobile before an in-store event at Wal-Mart. Today (7/13) Shepherd is in Atlanta, where she will visit both WKHX and WUBL, do an in-store signing, and be taped by AOL for an episode of their “On The Road” feature. Thursday (7/14), she’ll head to Knoxville for an in-store signing and a visit with WIVK. Later, she will perform with full band at Cotton Eyed Joe. Shepherd will return to Nashville Friday (7/15) for a WKDF listener luncheon performance at Whiskey Bent and a full band performance later that night at Tin Roof/Lexington, KY.
Early reviews for Where Country Grows have been very positive. Rolling Stone gave the album four stars and declared her an “Artist To Watch.” Entertainment Weekly awarded the album with an A-, and the Washington Post selected Shepherd as one of the five top new artists in all genres to watch in 2011. MusicRow’s Robert Oermann writes that he is “hopelessly in love with this artist” in today’s “DISClaimer” column.

(L to R): UMGN's Tom Lord, WKSJ/Mobile morning co-host Shelby, Shepherd, WKSJ PD Bill Black and MCA's Louie Newman

Likes? Follows? Why Bother?

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Looking for an afternoon info break? Some cranial nourishment? Good. Then let’s re-visit the reasons that influence a customer to follow a brand and how it affects their engagement with that brand..
The attached graphic spells out the story, but here are some of the big picture overview ideas…
One of the key drivers mentioned by both Twitter and Facebook respondents that causes someone to follow or like a brand is “special offers/deals.” The No. 2 reason is because a person is a current customer.
Most people, according to this research culled from reports by Razorfish.com, econsultancy.com and socialmedia.com, “like” 2-5 brands on FB (53.47%). About 21.2% of respondents “like” 5-10 brands on FB.
Is attracting likes and followers worth it? Does it add to a company’s bottom line? The results say definitely. In fact “an overwhelming majority are influenced by their online experience.” Of those who follow or like a brand, 70% have participated in a brand-sponsored contest and 24% have produced content to participate in a contest.
The Top five brands on Facebook and Twitter according to the information are Facebook, YouTube, CocaCola, Disney and Starbucks.
(Find this graphic here.)