Faith Hill Judges “Project Runway”

Five-time Grammy winner Faith Hill recently took a break from recording her upcoming album in Nashville to fly to New York City and participate as a guest judge on the season finale of Lifetime’s hit reality series, Project Runway. Hill flew into New York City on Wednesday, February 10, just in time for the massive snowstorm that had just dumped more than a foot of snow on the city to film the Project Runway finale.

Hill attended the finale fashion show on Friday, February 12, along with Project Runway host Heidi Klum and judges Michael Kors and Nina Garcia. 

After seeing ten Runway designers’ collections, Hill, Klum, Garcia and Kors went to an undisclosed location in the city, where the judges’ deliberations were filmed and a winner for season 7 was chosen.

“What I saw was truly extraordinary and it made judging very difficult,” Hill says. “Designers, by trade, are always capable of sewing their own clothing, but the tailoring that I saw was extremely impressive; a few in particular knocked me out. The passion that these individuals showed, and their eagerness to learn from feedback and criticism, should prove an inspiration for those that follow them.“

“Faith Hill stepped into the toughest Project Runway guest judging seat of the season — the finale, which made her a deciding voice in naming the winner,” said Runway Executive Producer Sara Rea. “She took on the task with flying colors.”

Lady A To Perform On “Oprah”

With Grammys in hand and their sophomore album, Need You Now, already attaining Platinum certification, Capitol Nashville’s Lady Antebellum will make their debut on The Oprah Winfrey Show live this Friday (2/19). The trio will be part of this week’s “Oprah Fridays Live” show, where the popular talk show host discusses the latest news and headlines. Lady Antebellum will perform a medley of their award-winning, record-setting No. 1 hits “I Run To You” and “Need You Now.”

Following their live performance on Oprah, Lady A will head off to Roanoke, Virginia, where they will perform that same night at the Roanoke Civic Center along with headliner Tim McGraw.

Following Lady A’s performance on the Grammy Awards in January,  Need You Now shot straight to No. 1 on the all-genre iTunes chart where it remained for over a week. The album is still in the top 5 on the iTunes chart.

Starbucks, Soundstage Get Willie’s “Country Music”

Willie Nelson’s latest release, a collection of classic country songs aptly titled Country Music, will have a prominent promotional profile thanks in part to Starbucks and PBS‘ Soundstage. Produced by T Bone Burnett and released on Rounder Records, Country Music is set for release on April 20.

Starting on the album’s street date, the CD will be available for sale at all Starbucks stores for four weeks.

As part of the lineup of its eighth season, popular PBS live-music series Soundstage will also celebrate Country Music when it begins airing an episode featuring Nelson and his-eight piece band in an intimate setting with fans gathered around the stage. Soundstage featuring Nelson will begin airing nationally on Feburary 25. Check local listings for air times. Country Music’s deceptively simple concept is reminiscent of Nelson’s 1978 release, Stardust, a critical and commercial triumph which found the singer interpreting classics  from The Great American Songbook.

SESAC Ups Ellen Truley To VP

SESAC has promoted longtime employee Ellen Bligh Truley to Vice President, Corporate Relations. She has worked for the performing rights organization since 1996, starting as a Advertising/Promotion Manager. SESAC Pres./COO Pat Collins announced her promotion from her previous role of Associate Vice President, Corporate Relations.

As VP, Truley will oversee SESAC’s  advertising, promotion, sponsorships, website, online marketing and corporate magazine endeavors. Additionally, she will be instrumental in the formulation of SESAC’s future marketing and creative strategies.

“Ellen Truley is a highly creative marketing executive and consummate professional,” said Collins. “Her expertise in all aspects of the creative fold coupled with her unfailing business acumen has been instrumental in helping SESAC progress and succeed over the past decade. This promotion is richly deserved and we anticipate her efforts will help take SESAC to the next level.”

Truley is a Nashville native who graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in Advertising/Journalism. She is a member of NARAS, CMA and ACM.

AirPlay Direct Offers Orbison To Radio

Digital-to-radio service, Airplay Direct (APD), partnered with Orbison Records several months ago to release the legendary Roy Orbison catalog to radio. The timing was set to coincide with the 21st anniversary of Orbison’s death on Dec. 6, 1988. Nineteen tracks are available via the  In Dreams Greatest Hits collection, including “Pretty Woman”, “Blue Bayou”, “Dream Baby”, and “Only The Lonely.”  Other avilable CDs include Black & White Night, Mystery Girl and King Of Hearts. Of particular interest to radio is the Roy Orbison Interviews CD with Q&A.

“Mr. Orbison’s catalog has had a cumulative 10 thousand download’s by radio stations around the world, states Raleigh Squires APD operations manager, and it appears that this catalog may be on its way to meeting or surpassing APD download records already set by Dolly Parton, Lee Roy Parnell and others.We are very excited by this news.”

APD, founded in 2005, represents music from every virtually every genre of music, including Rock, Country, R&B, Rap, Christian, Hip Hop, Pop, Gospel, Folk, New Age, Native American and Americana. Currently the site has over 25k artist/label members and about 4,400 radio stations from around the world. Last November, APD CEO Robert Weingartz relocated the company from Atlanta to Nashville.

CMA Posts “Rhythm Of The Radio Charts”

Understanding radio airplay charts is the focus of the latest installment of CMA Industry InSite, an online educational series, posted today.

The tenth episode, “The Rhythm of the Radio Charts,” is available now and features interviews with Wade Jessen, Senior Chart Manager, Nashville/Billboard; Jon Loba, VP Promotion & Artist Development, The Valory Music Group; Lon Helton, Publisher/CEO, Country Aircheck; and David M. Ross, Publisher/CEO, MusicRow.

This latest installment discusses why chart success is crucial to an artist’s career as well as the methodology behind the Billboard, Country Aircheck and MusicRow charts. “Chart position is the primary measurement of success that everyone in the departments outside of promotion look at,” said Loba.

Episodes are posted on the third Monday of the month. With each new episode, CMA members are able to submit questions to the panel of experts. The series began as a member benefit designed to provide information about each segment of the music industry in a clear, informative, and entertaining way. Due to the popularity of the series, the CMA Board of Directors saw the importance of sharing these webisodes with non-members as the organization focuses on becoming an educational resource for the community. Non-members will now be able to view the first two episodes in the series on CMA’s consumer Web site, CMAworld.com. Subsequent episodes will be posted on the third Monday of each month. The series is produced by digital marketing firm Hi-Fi Fusion.

Shelton Promotes Six Pak With Bundle, Web Series

Image of Hillbilly Bone Premiere Pak, www.blakeshelton.com

As the March 2 release date for Blake Shelton’s new Hillbilly Bone Six Pak draws near, Warner Music is offering special bundles for those who pre-order between Feb. 16 and March 1. The packages range in price from $18.99 to $34.99 and include items such as an autographed copy of the album, fan club membership, and T-shirt.

Shelton has also been posting short Take 6 Tuesday videos on his web site as a lead-in to the Six Pak. The latest installment in the series offers his take on the top six worst Valentine’s Day cards. The weekly series began on Dec. 31 and will continue through the March 2 release. See the videos here.

Wal Mart To Sell For Ticketmaster

Mega-retailer Wal-Mart has reached an agreement with Live Nation’s Ticketmaster to sell tickets to concerts and other events at about 500 stores in select U.S. markets, including Chicago and Los Angeles. The service will be introduced in the next few months, according to Live Nation Executive Chairman Irving Azoff, who made the announcement during a panel discussion at the NBA Technology Summit in Dallas today (2/12).

The new agreement will allow Wal-Mart customers to purchase tickets for concerts, sports and other events in the retailer’s entertainment department. Live Nation also sells tickets at Blockbuster stores.

Ticketmaster lost retail outlets for event sales with the closing of big-box music retailers like Tower Records. There are no details regarding what ticket fees will be charged for in-store sales.

Tanya Tucker Joins RuPaul’s “Drag Race”

Fresh off the release of My Turn, her recent release, and a slew of media appearances including Larry King Live, GAC, CMT and NPR’s Weekend Edition, Tanya Tucker will appear as a guest judge on the Monday, February 15 episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

The show will air at 8 PM CT on the Logo network and the following Tuesday at 8 PM CT on VH1. Tucker will sit alongside RuPaul, fashion journalist Merle Ginsberg, designer Santino Rice and actress Kathy Najimy for a special show that finds the contestants discovering their “country” characters.

Hosted by drag icon RuPaul, the competition series is in its second season where drag queens run through fashion and talent challenges in front of a panel of judges in the hopes of becoming “America’s Next Drag Superstar.”

Cherry Heart Starts Marketing Division

Cherry Heart Music & Entertainment has expanded to include an entertainment marketing division focusing on securing sponsorship deals for artist clients. The company reports that it has agreements in the works for some of Nashville’s top Country artists.

“Sponsorship opportunities are becoming increasingly valuable in the music business as more and more artists are turning to alternative revenue streams,” says Jennifer Rose Parker, Cherry Heart Senior VP Entertainment Marketing. “We recognized that there was a market that existed for these type of arrangements, and Cherry Heart had the vision to make a specialized department to fill that niche. The interest and response we’ve gotten in only our first year has been incredible.”

Nashville-based Cherry Heart Music was originally founded in 1996 by 22-year industry veteran Gratton Stephens, but has since grown to include publishing and administration, artist management, a record label, and now marketing. Senior VP/COO Shelby Kennedy and Creative Director Cassandra Tormes anchor the company’s publishing and administration division. General Manager Rondal Richardson heads the Cherry Heart artist management division, working with artists Ashton Shepherd and newcomer Ty Williams.

Contact info: jrparker@cherryheart.com, skennedy@cherryheart.com, ctormes@cherryheart.com, rrichardson@cherryheart.com

Cherry Heart, LLC is located at 1510 16th Ave. S., Nashville, TN, 37212. For more information, visit www.CherryHeart.com, call 615-468-3335 or email management@cherryheart.com.