Sean Patrick McGraw Joins Dierks Bentley Tour

Sean Patrick McGraw will be one of the opening artists on the East Coast version of the Jagermeister Country Tour featuring Dierks Bentley. McGraw’s seven tour dates extend from March 17-27.
Like many overnight success stories, Sean Patrick McGraw has spent the last few years playing upwards of 150 road dates per year, racking up over 80,000 miles on his SUV just last year. “If you grew up where I did,” McGraw recalls, “you were automatically hyphenated either Irish, Polish, or Italian, and your dad worked in the mill, that was a given.” Hailing from a small steel industry town about 50 miles outside of Buffalo, New York, McGraw was raised on Hee-Haw (“We loved Conway Twitty, or at least his haircut”) and rough games of hockey and football.
McGraw traveled to Los Angeles right after high school, but eventually realized that Nashville was where he belonged. A prolific songwriter, he has had publishing deals with Liz Rose Music, Curb Magnatone and others. He also spent a brief few moments on TV talent search show Nashville Star.
California’s third annual Stagecoach Festival unexpectedly opened a career door for McGraw. His performance got strong reviews from the Los Angeles Times and earned him a spot on the 2009 Toby Keith Tour. Since then he signed with Little Engine Records and has released an album titled My So Called Life. Other members of his support team include Grass Roots Promotion, Crowd Surf and Wortman Works Media. Currently his video for “My So Called Life” is getting airplay on gactv.com and cmt.com.

Lambert Cancels Dates Due To Illness

Miranda Lambert‘s tour kicked off on a high note earlier this month with two sold-out shows, but the outing hit a snag when she was forced to cancel the upcoming Australian leg.
She announced cancellation of her tour dates Down Under this morning (2/28) on her official website. The singer is suffering from a respiratory infection and is under doctor’s orders not to perform.
She was set for a series of shows with Alan Jackson, which were scheduled to start this Friday (3/4) in Melbourne.

 “I was very much looking forward to Australia with Alan Jackson and performing for all the music lovers down under,” Lambert said in her web posting.
The dates—which sold out in minutes—included five arena performances, in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, as well as the CMC Rocks the Hunter festival. Australian artists will fill the spots.
Lambert’s The Revolution Continues tour kicked off with two sold-out shows at the famed Billy Bob’s Texas in Ft. Worth. She is the first artist to ever sell out back-to-back nights at the venue. Tickets for both nights were gone in a record breaking 30 minutes.

Paisley’s Video Paintbox Adds To Concert Production

Brad Paisley brought his H2O Frozen Over tour to Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Saturday night, playing a sold-out show to 13,500 fans. Pictured (l-r): Sony Music Nashville Sales VP Kerri Fox-Metoyer; Arista Nashville Promotion VP Lesly Tyson; Fitzgerald Hartley’s Bill Simmons; Niemann; Paisley; Sony Music Nashville Chairman & CEO Gary Overton, Promotion Sr. VP Skip Bishop, and Marketing Sr. VP Paul Barnabee. Photo: Ben Enos


Brad Paisley H20 Tour
Feb. 26, Bridgestone Arena, Nashville
Brad Paisley is the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year, so if you’re reading this you probably already know he’s a member of an elite club of artists that write great songs, play incredible guitar and sing convincingly. But if you haven’t seen his live show, then you still haven’t sampled his genius for presenting his music in an arena setting. Saturday night’s Nashville performance (2/26) was the last stop on his H20 tour that began shortly after last year’s May floods ravaged Music City.
Each song in the high energy two-hour set gets treated with a full production almost akin to the style of a broadway musical. But instead of dancers, costume changes and canvas backdrops, Paisley creates warm, engaging video “sets” that highlight, frame and sometimes expand the lyrics using animation and more. Often he deftly  blurs the lines between the two dimensional screen and those on the three dimensional stage. He also freely explores/prowls the venue’s extremities to get closer with “the people in the cheap seats.” The show even employs previously unheard musical interludes to bridge moments between songs. Video screens at concerts are hardly new, but Paisley has not only reinvented the process, he’s elevated it.
The effect of Paisley’s magic video paintbox—he creates many of these video segments himself—is mesmerizing but not distracting. Staging for the H20 tour  was sparse. Four circular risers provide a home for the band and directly behind them is a balcony, the rest is a giant video screen. And last but not least on stage  was Paisley himself, dressed in jeans, t-shirt and white hat—the epitome of one of the good guys.
Hit songs flooded the stage such as “Celebrity,” “Waiting On A Woman,” “Water,” “American Saturday Night,” “Welcome To The Future” and more. Alison Krauss came out to duet on “Whiskey Lullaby.” (Oh wait, that was only a video image.) “Letter To Me,” voiced with acoustic guitar was one audience favorite, among many.
The evening closed with a second encore—“Alcohol.” A portable bar was quickly unfolded and a busload of industry revelers poured out on stage to help celebrate the tour’s final performance. Sony Nashville label head Gary Overton and wife Jan were all smiles, and Paisley manager, “lovable” Bill Simmons could be seen sharing a celebratory hug with tour promoter Brian O’Connell.
• • •
Jerrod Niemann and then Darius Rucker warmed the crowd earlier in the evening. Predictably Niemann’s hit “Lover, Lover” was the standout, and closer for his set. Rucker opened smartly with “Alright,” which showed his experience and good vocal chops. Covers of “Family Tradition” and “Purple Rain” were excellent choices during his set and also took the crowd out of its seats.

Belmont University To Honor Peebles and IEBA

Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business will honor the International Entertainment Buyers Association and one of its founders Harry “Hap” Peebles with the 2011 Robert E. Mulloy Award of Excellence. The presentation will take place at the school’s Best of the Best showcase 7 pm, March 26 at Belmont’s Curb Event Center.
Established in memory of program founder Bob Mulloy, the annual Award of Excellence recognizes an individual or organization that has achieved a level of excellence in the music business and entertainment industries with notable service to Belmont University and the Nashville community. Previous recipients include Donna Hilley and Vince Gill.
Peebles served the country industry over 60 years, working with Barbara Mandrell when she was only 11 years old. He is a founder of IEBA, originally known as the International Country Music Buyers Association, which began in 1970 as a non-profit trade organization for talent buyers, promoters, agents, managers and artists. IEBA has established four endowed scholarships for Belmont students in honor of Peebles, Don Romeo, J.P. Williams, and George Moffett. Collectively the endowments represent over $300,000 in investments.

Lambert's Record-Setting Sell-out

Miranda Lambert kicked off The Revolution Continues tour over the weekend with two sold-out shows at the famed Billy Bob’s Texas in Ft. Worth. She is the first artist to ever sell out back-to-back nights at the venue. Tickets for both nights were gone in a record breaking 30 minutes.
According to Billy Bob’s Entertainment Director Robert Gallagher, “She was the only female artist to sell out our venue in 2010 and nearly 6000 fans per night came out last Friday and Saturday to give us the first back-to-back sellouts in our 30-year history.”
During Friday night’s performance, Lambert emotionally dedicated “The House That Built Me” to her grandmother who had passed away less than a week before.
The star recently won her first Grammy, and is up for seven ACM Awards on April 3. She also took home three CMA Awards late last year. As she continues her tour, Lambert’s newest single “Heart Like Mine” is climbing MusicRow’s Country Breakout chart and is at No. 11 this week.

Swift Leads Country Money Makers

Taylor Swift netted more money than any other country entertainer last year, according to Billboard’s Money Makers 2011 issue (Feb. 19). The recently released list is based on net earnings derived from U.S. touring, music sales, and music and video streams.
21-year-old Swift saw her bank account swell by about $20.7 million, and ranked No. 6 on the all-genre tally. Her income came from 4.4 million in album sales, which translated to about $7.4 million in mechanical royalties for the star, not including publishing. Her tour grossed over $30 million, netting Swift around $10 million.
CMA reigning Entertainer of the Year Brad Paisley netted almost $14 million, sliding into No. 12 on the list. According to Billboard Boxscore, his H20 Tour was the top-grossing country run, with receipts nearing $38 million. He also pocketed a cool million from music sales.
With about $13.5 million each, Carrie Underwood and Tim McGraw came in 13th and 14th on the list, respectively.
Rounding out the country names on the tally are Rascal Flatts (No. 16, $11.9); Toby Keith (No. 21, $9.8); Lady Antebellum (No. 24, $9.1); Brooks & Dunn ($8.6); George Strait (No. 31, $7.3); Reba (No. 32, $7.1); and Sugarland (No. $4.4).
Lady Gaga was the year’s biggest money maker, pocketing about $30.5 million. More from Billboard.

Artist Ink

>> Luke Bryan, reigning ACM Top New Artist, has just sent his third consecutive single to No. 1. The song “Someone Else Calling You Baby,” comes from his Gold album, Doin’ My Thing which also produced No. 1 hits “Do I” and “Rain Is A Good Thing.” Currently the Georgia native is performing on the Rascal Flatts tour, and this summer will join Tim McGraw. Bryan’s next single will be “Spring Break 3…It’s a Shore Thing.”
>>Gretchen Wilson strikes hard with her new single, “I’d Love To Be Your Last.” Written by Rivers Rutherford, the song is monumental. Wilson was in LA earlier this week for the Grammy Awards, an appearance on The Talk and a performance on Leno’s The Tonight Show. She also performed at a special CMA songwriter show at the Nokia Theatre and earned a standing ovation on the new single.
>>Hazel Smith, host of CMT’s Southern Fried Flicks is jumping onto the radio dial. Smith joins the cast of Nashville’s New Country, a syndicated show that can also be heard online. This week she joins hosts Chuck and Steve as they talk to Josh Thompson and hear new music from Ronnie Dunn and Sarah Darling. Tune in here.

JaneDear girls


>>The JaneDear girls, nominated for ACM Top Vocal Duo and Top New Vocal Duo or Group joined with YouTube sensation Keenan Cahill to create a spin-off of The Lonely Island’s single “I’m On A Boat.” Not surprisingly the new title is “We Need Ya Vote!” Click here to watch. Susie Brown and Danelle Leverett our on the road with Jason Aldean and their hit “Wildflower is already Top 15.

Bonnaroo Line-Up Revealed On Vevo

Alison Krauss and Union Station are among the first acts announced for this year's Bonnaroo Festival.


Bonnaroo revealed its 2011 festival line-up this morning exclusively on music video site Vevo.
Conan O’Brien helped with the big announcement (see video below).
Taking the stage at the 10th annual event in Manchester, Tennessee will be Eminem, Arcade Fire, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Loretta Lynn, Buffalo Springfield, Widespread Panic, Robert Plant & Band of Joy, the Black Keys, The Del McCoury Band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, My Morning Jacket, Karen Elson and many more.
The party runs June 9-12. As usual, that’s the same time as CMA Music Festival.

Morning News From The Web

>>Online radio outfit Pandora has filed a $100 million initial public offering, which could value the company at $1.2 billion. Pandora has 80 million users. More here.
>>A post-Grammy sales bump is expected for Lady A, Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire, and more, according to HitsDailyDouble.
>> Rumors of an Apple streaming music service have been circulating for a while. The latest clues are an expected upgrade of its cloud-based MobileMe media storage service, and the debut of a smaller, less expensive version of the iPhone. Read more from the Wall Street Journal.
>>Bonnaroo promoter AC Entertainment has signed on to present the Louisville Forecastle Festival. Read on.
>>CAA has teamed with Qualcomm to launch Creative Mobile Labs. The company will pair the creative minds CAA represents with mobile app developers. More here.

Willie Nelson's Country Throwdown Tour

New artists, sponsors, dates and features have been added to the 2011 Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown tour. The second-annual, outdoor amphitheater trek will feature two stages and seven headliners, including Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser, Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert, Craig Campbell, and Lukas Nelson & the Promise of the Real. And just added, Jack Ingram will be performing on the final dates of the tour (June 30 – July 4) and will be part of the July 4 extravaganza show. Also recently added are singer-songwriters Adam Hood, Caitlyn Smith, Austin Lucas, Brent Cobb, Dani Flowers, and Erin Enderlin who will perform on the Bluebird Café Stage.
The nationwide tour, which will kick off in Philadelphia, Pa., on May 27 and extend through July 4, now has added stops in cities such as Orange Beach, Ala. (June 5); Morrison, Co. (June 21); Cathey’s Valley, Calif. (June 26) and more. The tour will conclude in Texas with a special July 4 show with Willie Nelson.
New this year, the “Harley-Davidson on the Road Report” will include behind-the-scenes updates and on-the-road reporting, hosted by Beth Brinker and posted on the Country Throwdown website here.
CMT has signed on to be the tour’s media sponsor this year. For more details about the tour, tickets and the special VIP Tailgate Package visit www.countrythrowdown.com. A portion of the ticket price will benefit Unite the United.